I don't know if it was the same reviewer or not. It is GameInformer in question and I think that their awards are determined by the entire staff as a whole. Even if it was just one person though in each circumstance, giving either of those games shooter of the year was silly to me. Bioshock because the mechanics were not as good and Destiny because the mechanics were the only thing that was good.
I can't say what my own criteria for a perfect 10/10 would be. It's....a difficult thin to say. I love the crap out of TW3, it might very well be my new favorite game of all time. But I can't give it a 10/10 in my mind. Obviously I don't agree with giving DA:I a 9 or a 10, it's more like a 6 or 7 for me. Clearly no game is ever going to be truly perfect, they are always going to have some flaws, so I honestly don't know what would constitute that high a score. In the end I agree with you actually that giving scores is pretty much a useless way to review a game. I think reviewers need to start sticking with the facts of the game, speaking on what works and what doesn't work and leave it at that.
Yes, I was referring to the ethics movement, but again I have to agree that the whole thing was the absolute height of stupidity and toxicity, on both sides of the argument. At the core of it though I do believe in the idea that people who do reviews about video games should disclose something of their relationships with games developer if said relationship exists. One of the reasons I like the Youtubers that I do is because they do make those disclosures. As well I certainly don't agree with traditional games media getting together to try and force an issue in the direction that they want it to go. I can't say much more about that without talking about the thing that sparked that whole nonsense and I really don't wanna do that here. Probably already said to much about it.
As to those Youtubers, I trust Totalbiscuit, though he focuses more on Indie games than he does Triple A's. He is one of those who eschews giving games an arbitrary score. He is the one that got me to play Terraria and Path of Exile, two games I enjoyed a great deal. I tend to trust Jim Sterling as well, who both does Youtube and he as well still does written reviews because he just likes to do them. I want to say I trust AngryJoe, but as entertaining as his reviews are, I sometimes think he is to generous in his scores. I think he actually rated DA2 higher than DA:O.
Jessie Cox doesn't do reviews, but he tends to be pretty cynical, and I will usually trust it more when a cynical person raves about a game. Other than that, I will watch game play footage and make any further observations on my own, which, ultimately is the best way of doing it.
I think that players should realize that when a games that receive 10/10 review score, it simply does not mean that it is flawless or perfect; such a game does not exist. Which means no game would ever receive a 10/10 or a 9/10 for that matter and 8 would be extremely rare. I am no professional reviewer but I am sure anyone can pick holes in any game.
I think lately reviewers have more less say that when a 10/10 or 9/10 is rewarded to any game, it simply means that in their opinion, that game is a must own or must buy: I believe gamespot and Angryjoe both stated something along those lines.
Game scores should be like this imo:
0/10: Technically broken and unplayable.
1/10: This game is so bad that it is actually good for laughs. Would recommend to close friends for laughs.
2/10: Would recommend to enemies.
3/10: Would advise friends to stay away.
4/10: Dont think it is worth getting.
5/10: Neutral. Tis not good but tis not bad.
6/10: Game meets all the basic expectation. If you have nothing else to play and if the game is on sale, give it a spin.
7/10: Game is pretty good. Should try it but maybe tis a bit too expensive for what it is offering. Wait for sale.
8/10: Recommended. Well worth the price tag. (ex. DAI will fit into this category - not the DLCs though)
9/10: Highly recommended. Game is so good that you are willing to overlook all its flaws. (ex. Bethesda games mostly fall into this category)
10/10: A must own. Will recommend it to friends but will caution them of the dangers of this game (skipping work/school and lose girlfriend/boyfriend). Will buy it for enemies to get them in trouble. 