I don’t think we disagree. Ultimately I think you should speak to the experience you had, not speculate about what others might like about it. So if you anticipated something being great but it wasn’t, talk about that. If there’s one aspect of the game that’s really cool but it’s overshadowed by the flaws, tell me.

What I’m talking about is forcing yourself to shoe-horn in positives you don’t actually see in the game for the sake of positivity. That’s refusing to take an honest position.

I think most people who review games regularly already have a bit of self-selection going when you play a game. Most of us are not even going to play a game if we’re not at least somewhat interested in it. So something attracted you to that game, and I think it’s fair and valid to share those points, even if the end result was a game you didn’t enjoy. And you should absolutely share those reasons as well.