Update OpenCritic has revealed how the reviews that appear in the Epic Games store are selected. This is done by Epic's algorithm, which determines which reviews to display based on several factors, including "publication visibility," the disparity between the outlet's score and the average score, and bad reviews (which are "generally excluded"), whether the review mentions platforms other than PC

This last factor is the most important.

This last part is important, because one of the criticisms of such a review system is that the PC port may not be of the same quality as the console version; a great game on PS4 may not run well on PC, but just browsing the top reviews, it It's not always obvious; only referring to the PC reviews should nip that in the bud.

One thing I did notice is that Epic doesn't show the actual aggregated scores. For example, in the case of "Darksiders 3," only 36% of reviewers recommended it, while the average for top-tier critics is actually 69.

Original Article When the Epic Games Store launched last year, reviews were one of the most notable omissions; Steam has both user and critic reviews, the latter provided by Metacritic, but Epic's customers had to do their own research had to do their own research. This has finally changed, with many games now having OpenCritic reviews

, and the OpenCritic review system is now available on the Epic website

.

However, it is still not quite the same as Steam's review system. For one thing, there are no user reviews, which also means no review bombing or other problems Valve has had over the years. But what is stranger is that developers and publishers can choose not to display aggregated scores, as the critical reviews are opt-in.

Thankfully, most of them opt-in, at least on the top page. Of the top and trending games, only Surviving the Aftermath and Paranoia: Happiness is Mandatory are still in early access, which makes sense since Surviving the Aftermath has no reviews yet. I can, but "Paranoia" has reviews, and most of them are negative. Not a very good impression.

I looked at some of the other less well-reviewed games, and thankfully, many of them still seem to be on their way, as does "World War Z" with a score of 51, and "Darksiders 3" is still showing on the page, despite having a score of 31.

Unlike Steam, however, Epic shows not only scores, but also a selection of reviews to read. The low average score is still shown, but below it are 5-star reviews, 7/10 and 3.5-star reviews. Strange.

In case you're wondering, I also looked at the OpenCritic page itself, and it seems that it's just pulling the top reviews, which it's not. 4 reviews are shown, including a 4/10. Only one of them appears in the store, and shockingly, it is the most positive review. I have contacted OpenCritic to see if it was just pulled from the site without any interference from the developer or publisher, or if they can choose which reviews are displayed, and will update this article when I hear back.

This is absolutely a step in the right direction, and while I was critical of the choice of reviews on the "Darksiders 3" page, I am all for having actual reviews on the page, not just scores.