I saw an interesting topic on a rival game news sites earlier this week:

"Should reviewers take off points from the final score for online passes (and other anti-consumer practices)?"

What's your view?

Mine is "Yes, yes they should."

Game reviews should take in account everything that is included in the package. Whether it be accessories, like games like Guitar Hero, Tony Hawk, or FlingSmash, or DLC added to packages at the last minute (IE stuff they added to a game included with it not on disk by pressing time) or online passes, bad DRM requirements (Looking at you Ubisoft) or cut content, it should all be taken in account. The only thing that shouldn't be taken into account, is DLC added at a later time beyond the game's original release date.

Every game review I've done, I've followed that guideline. Every review and rating. a game review is incomplete in my eyes if it doesn't take that into account.

What would the original guitar hero be, if the guitar controller was cruddy? That's right, it would have be a cruddy game. With the controller being great, the game was considered great In reviews.

The same goes for online passes in my eyes. Readers of my blog already know my firm anti-online pass stance on the game. If you don't please read this blog post. In short, online passes are bad for everyone, from the game industry to the consumer.

So with those online passes, yes they should deduct points from the review score for the game, the whole package. The affect the game negatively, often lead to cut content and restricted parts of the game. Just look at Assassins Creed 2 for the PC. The DRM required that the game be ALWAYS connected to the Internet. That meant if you aren't connected, or the Ubisoft servers are down, the game was UNPLAYABLE. This lead to a lot of reviewers and consumers to say no to the game as the DRM severally affected the game in a negative way.

That's my stance on it, what do you say?