What do critics think of the latest U2 album? Can Xbox game Resident Evil 5 surpass part four? Is the second season of Lost a must-see?

I have been reading the opinion of the (international) press on Metacritic.com on a weekly basis for the better part of the last two years. Metacritic collects and refers to reviews of all major international news sites.

The metascore of the product is determined based on a variation of factors. For example, the music reviews from New York Times and Allmusicguide.com have a larger impact on the metascore than those from a magazine like Slant Magazine. Add all scores, gat the weighted average and you have your metascore. Easy, clear and efficient.

The user interface of Metacritic.com needs a lot of work. Despite that, Metacritic is a great site to browse through. The site displays short review teasers for each product. It can also be hilarious to read a seriously negative and a raving positive review about the same product.

The simplicity of Metacritic clearly shows the current development towards reusing content. In this case, a review from the New York Times is not just used to supply readers with reading material. It is reused to allocate metascores. The reviews are not exclusive for the New York Times website, which emphasises the importance unshielded content.

The use of user generated content social media is another nice feature of Metacritic. Next to the professional journalists, users are also allowed to share their opinion on CD’s, TV series, movies, books and games. The user generated opinion on Scream from Chris Cornell is even more devastating than that of the international critics.

Metacritic.com is a simple site without too many bells and whistles. Of course it could be much improved, but in essence it is pure genius.

The album No Line On The Horizon scores a 7.2, Resident Evil 5 scores a little lower than the fourth edition and it is worth watching the next season of Lost.