Critics and gamers have a history of disagreeing on review scores.
Critics and gamers have a history of disagreeing on review scores.
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FIFA 20, Final Fantasy XV, and big games that divided critics and players

  • Posted byby Dean Takahashi
  • Updated
  • 4 min

The Last of Us Part II is likely the most contentious game of 2020, with gamers battling critics over what kind of review score to give Sony’s blockbuster. But in terms of the all-time most divisive games, it isn’t even in the top 10, according to a study by TheToyZone.

With Naughty Dog’s game, a group of players started a “review bomb” campaign on the internet to criticize its cultural and political stances. It depicted queer relationships and non-conforming gender characters. But critics ranked it among the best games of all time (I rated it 95 out of 100), according to review aggregator Metacritic.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.