Is this a bug? My critical meter has been full for a while now, but my VATS still only shows the option for the normal attack. From screenshots, I know there should be an "execute critical" option. But I haven't seen it.

What happens when you attempt to execute a critical anyway?

You have to trigger the critical once you selected some normal attacks, once the attack animations play ya hit a button to turn a attack into a critical attack.

Queue up the shot and press execute as normal, then immediately tap the spacebar to activate the critical. This has confused you, me and a ton of other players as well. I think we were supposed to deduce it by telepathy or something.