We've been making Best Of lists like most sites since the beginning of time, but I've been thinking it's time we looked at how valuable these are to you and what we could do to make them more so.
Obviously, many of you are engaged players who are on the pulse of most games, but it'd be interesting to hear your thoughts about how we could make these better — not just for you, but anyone who reads them.
A few years back we took the decision to make these user rated, which allowed our community to determine what's good and what's not. But is that useful to you? Do you think a more curated list would better serve the needs of users?
Do you ever refer to Best Of lists like this, and what kind of information do you appreciate? What's a good number of games for us to display?
Any thoughts or suggestions you have here would be really helpful, as I'd love to know how your thoughts on how we can make these more useful in 2026.
I personally would rather curated lists rather than the user scored ones. There are more qualities to games than their overall score so you could have a list of the most fun physics systems or the most underrated games of the generation that wouldn’t fit into the current list format.
I personally would rather curated lists rather than the user scored ones. There are more qualities to games than their overall score so you could have a list of the most fun physics systems or the most underrated games of the generation that wouldn’t fit into the current list format.
I’m in favor of this too.
If you wanna publish content curated by users, I’d prefer something along the lines of the 2024 GOTY piece you guys did that mimicked NL’s monthly mailbox or Pure Xbox’s monthly game club user recaps.
But yeah “best of” lists is, i feel, better written by writers im actually familiar with. Even if I disagreed with the old GTA/Yakuza tierlists posted by push square staff, it was a fun read nonetheless.
I love “best of…” lists. They’re fun to make and to read. I’ve enjoyed reading the various Push Square lists and yet was actually unaware of some of the lists that are available and how up-to-date they’ve been kept until I have just now browsed through them to respond to this. So one bit of feedback may be to somehow advertise of improve the visibility and ease of access to these. Once I get into one of the lists the drop down is great to see a menu of all of them, but I’m not sure how else to access the lists in there wasn’t a direct link to one. It appears they live under the “Guides” section but are still not immediately visible unless one finds their way into a specific list. I’m on mobile so perhaps it’s more apparent on the desktop version though.
As for how the lists should be constructed, I’m actually torn on that— I agree that they should have some editor and writer input because of the tendency for users to be less objective and inflate or critically overreact when ranking things sometimes. This is a smaller scale than Metacritic user scoring, but we all know how that can be manipulated by a passionate fanbase. Also, the number of rankings is probably low enough that there’s a lot of skewing going on, especially for the smaller games and game categories. I noticed some categories just require a minimum of 10 rankings for a game to be included, which tells me that the denominator is probably fairly small which inherently makes the ranking outcome less valid.
Nevertheless, in looking through the lists now, I do like that there are games in there that show up because of high user scores when I know the critical reception was not as strong. The user rating adds a unique element apart from what would probably end up being a “Push Square Review Greatest Hits” list, which is a much more predictable venture.
If user ratings were to be included then I wonder if there’s a way to increase the number of people rating the games and yet still keep it accurate to people that actually played the game and have a valid opinion. The current system seems good in that it comes from a person’s game list, so we would presume if they put it on their profile then they actually played it, but honestly I’ll admit that as much as I’m on Push Square, I’m not good about updating my list and submitting scores. The more scores submitted, the more accurately it would reflect public opinion. So I’d consider if there’s a way to make the user rating easier or at least more visible. The current system seems well organized, but it’s relatively hidden away; despite me having written thorough impressions in forum threads of several games over the last year I only now realize I haven’t even ranked them in the database (which I did a few just now since this topic has come up 😄).
So with all this in mind, perhaps a hybrid approach where both staff and users opinions are taken into account? Some ideas— Maybe the PS Review score is weighted 50% and the user score is 50%? Or maybe the list is shown with two rankings, user score and writer score aggregates? Maybe the list is a curated one and then you include the aggregate user rating as supplemental information? Another idea might be a PS staff curated list, and then at the end an “honorable mention” type of inclusion for any highly rated user games that were omitted.
One thing I do like is the mini summary of the game and why it’s included in the list. No matter the approach, I think having a snippet about the game is useful for when a game shows up and a reader is curious about it and is considering playing it.
As for how many games to show per list, ease of scrolling and such, I think for some larger categories it makes sense to have more games rather than other niche categories that just have a top 10, but honestly if you’re into a list of top 40 games it gets a smidge cumbersome. I think if we curate the lists somewhat, then there won’t be the need to go that deep into the list. Top 25-ish feels about right for most categories. Especially if you were to add an honorable mention section or something similar. Except maybe “Overall best games on PS5” or other broader large categories may need more like a top 50.
I’m spitballing several views and feedback, so take it for what it’s worth (which is not much but just some random thoughts). Maybe these ideas will prompt something more meaningful from someone else. As a whole, I like the “Best of…” lists and do think that they are probably undervalued. Perhaps on slower news days and weekends you could highlight the lists on the front page. I know you all have done that often but I don’t remember them popping up lately.
Thanks for all you do to keep Push Square the best place on the internet for PlayStation!
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
While I agree with the idea of a hybrid system, and do have very fond memories of seeing one such list change in real-time once I updated my user scores... yeah, it pains me to say this, but audience and user-generated metrics are already gathered and presented by other sites, and from much larger sample sizes. Push Square is a great site with a GREAT community, but those who would value and go looking for "what gamers think" about any given game are either A: asking their friends, or B: already clicking on Metacritic. I'd wager folks are mostly visiting Push Square for news, previews, guides, opinion polls, and professional reviews, which is a different kind of engagement. Heck, the only reason I maintain my profile's game collection so religiously is to satiate my OCD. It's not because I wanna be "seen" or anything!
Thinking of what might benefit the site better, putting forward an editorial opinion or reinforcing review scores in a best-of ranking might generate more discussion and be of more interest than relying on profile holders to build their own collections and assign their own scores. I obviously can't see the stats, but I'd imagine it's only a small percentage of folks who do that already.
One thing I remember the Official UK PlayStation Magazine doing alongside its table of review scores was a kinda "re-review" side column in which they'd revisit games and question whether their scores should be changed. Sometimes the number would go down, other times up. It's not exactly what you're asking about here, but it's sort of related, and might have an impact on the idea of generating a best-of list. After all, what's best today might be worst tomorrow. Opinion can turn on a sixpence nowadays!
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@Werehog very beautifully worded. Push square, despite how much it’s grown, still insists on retaining the “fan-site” vibe which is why I continue to come back. I came in to push square because back in the 2010s, it was literally the only gaming website making news articles about dynasty warriors (written by Ramsey) and Yakuza (written by Sammy and Ramsey), sammy is literally the only gaming jorno I saw in my life until now that even bothered to give non-GTA rockstar games (from before RDR2) a glance. The bully articles for example were always a delight to read.
In other words, it’s safe to say I’m more invested in the opinions of the staff.
This isn’t to undermine users of course as I have a ton of friends here. But, in my humble opinion, the forums already cover for the “user-curated” content. Cuz the threads are made by us, and anyone can make a thread.
We can also write our own reviews in the User-Impressions thread.
So we have our own lane, as such the staff should have their lane two.
My cents anyways. (Or pennies considering this is a British website)
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Best of lists should be made based on the preferences of Push Square staff while also showing the user score instead of making relay fully on user score.
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I think the curated ones are the way to go too, particularly as it's probably more likely to throw up something I haven't come across.
Would it work to throw in a top 5 of just names at the bottom of an article based on users' scores or something? Or briefly mention ones that got high user score but didn't exist in the main article (e.g. Those are our opinions but users of the site also rank x, y, and z as games not to be missed).
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Topic: Best Of Lists - What Would You Find Useful?
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