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Fans protest Portal 2 on Metacritic

Influx of 0/10 ratings bring user score to its knees, despite year's highest critic score

Angry customers have been using Metacritic's user review system to voice complaints over the PC version of Portal 2, with the critically-acclaimed title's rating dropping as low as 5.1 as a result.

At time of press the PC version's user score is 7.2, with the Xbox 360 version at 6.7 and the PlayStation 3 version on 6.6. The critic score is currently 95 out of 100 - the highest for any title this year.

The complaints appear to come primarily from PC users, upset that the game is a console port - and even includes references to turning off the 'console' when saving. Most anger, though, seems to be directed at the online store - which is already filled with downloadable content.

The volume of day one downloadable content seems to have come as a surprise to many PC users, unused to the console-style arrangement. They have also expressed disappointment at the game's short running time and the controversial ARG promotional campaign - which tempted players into buying unrelated indie titles.

Although Metacritic is an often controversial tool amongst games publishers and developers, usually due to the critic score - which many publishers treat as a key metric for quality. Generally less attention is paid to the user score, although such a volume of negative comments for a highly anticipated game does have the potential to adversely affect sales.

Publisher Electronic Arts and developer Valve are yet to comment publicly on the controversy.

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David Jenkins

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