Reviews, reviews, reviews

mods: I thought about putting this in the subforum since it's review-related, but as it's more of a general discussion and doesn't quite fit the guidelines of the subforum, I decided to put it here instead. Please move if I'm wrong though. :)


I notice that before buying a game, I almost always look up some reviews first ("professional" ones and otherwise) before deciding to spend my money or not, so I was wondering if you guys are like that too. There are a few exceptions - like if I have been waiting for a game to come out forever and its reviews are meh, I might still get it anyway. But sometimes, even if a game looked really good from the screenshots and trailers, and the reviews for it are not great, I tend to be more hesistant to buy it and may pass on it just because of that.

How often do you read reviews, and how much would you say you rely on the opinions of others when you're deciding on getting a game or not? Can a review change your opinion of a game you've already tried? Do you have a specific site or source that you go to for reviews, or are you more of a review writer than reader?

Or anything else related to video game reviews. :P

Juno said:

. But sometimes, even if a game looked really good from the screenshots and trailers, and the reviews for it are not great, I tend to be more hesistant to buy it and may pass on it just because of that.

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Usually when that happens to me I would also go check out YouTube walkthroughs to see the game's story and mechanics in action.

How often do you read reviews, and how much would you say you rely on the opinions of others when you're deciding on getting a game or not?

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I read reviews from various sites for games I'm interested in here and there, then decide if I'll want it or not. I also have friends that would post their thoughts on a game through their Tumblr/Wordpress/Livejournal/any other blogging sites, so I check those out often too. As I mentioned though, sometimes when I'm unsure I would check YouTube walkthoughs to get an idea how the game looks.

Can a review change your opinion of a game you've already tried?

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Usually after playing a game and I read the review my opinion doesn't change too much. I might agree a few points here and there once I digest the reviewer's criticism, but often times I'll be like, "I don't think it's as bad as this reviewer suggested."

Do you have a specific site or source that you go to for reviews, or are you more of a review writer than reader?

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I pretty much hop to various sites like as if I'm in TV Tropes, haha. I admit to skim-reading reviews from Kotaku and IGN the most, though.

I actually find myself looking at how well a game was reviewed before I buy it. In particular, I find myself going to Metacritic a lot since they take how well a game was scored from several critics and average it. Though, I don't think that rely on reviews too much. It's a good way of getting a general Idea of how good a game is, but lets face it, sometimes reviewers get it wrong.

But reviews have almost never changed the way I look at a game.

There are few places I'll read if I'm on the fence on a game because their thinking is usually inline with my own.

Otherwise, I'll just look at an aggregate score to see if something is rated horrendously (like 30%)

I usually use gameplay videos and such to determine whether a game is for me. When I read reviews, I tend to trust the smaller independent outlets over the Gamespots and IGNs of the world. But YouTube vids and Giant Bomb Quick Looks are usually my go-to.

I am subscribed to a lot of reviewers on YouTube, so I generally trust them, especially since nearly all of them will end up reviewing the same game when it comes to newer titles and that way, I can compare opinions. So yeah, I tend to trust that since there's usually good explanation of gameplay and such in them. I think all I even watch on YouTube are game reviews...hahaha.

I'll check out reviews to get an idea of how long the game is and any faults it might have (such as Sonic Color's difficulty spikes). I like video reviews because I can see the game in action. Although this only really happens if I'm thinking about getting a game that I'm new to. If it's a Pokemon game, Mario game, or a Kirby game that interests me, there's no need for a review.

I never really relied on reviews, and in fact when i got Game Informer it was more about learning what games were coming out since I had no internet. Any reviews I read were more entertainment and i always took them with a grain of salt, because I actually liked some games that were rated badly. Now I do pretty much the same thing with Let's Players.

I look at the game being played and decide for myself. Someone else's opinion isn't mine, I don't see how I could ever rely on it. I do watch Zero Punctuation semi-regularly, though, and I tend to agree with Yahtzee, but I also know I like games he doesn't. I loathe those 'funny' reviews like in the OP's image, they're all over Steam and make sifting through any user review section a chore not worth bothering with.

I decide purchases largely on lasting hype. If I'm still as excited for its release as I was at its announcement, I'll get it. I still check out gameplay videos when I can, but I usually only drop them if they look mediocre or worse.

I don't really care about review scores under most circumstances, unless a popular game (like Destiny) gets comparatively awful reviews to other AAA games, or if a smaller studio game gets beaming reviews. I try reading through them whenever it seems like there's actual content to read, rather than ambiguous rhetoric from a person that clearly doesn't know what they're talking about.

Cassino said:

I look at the game being played and decide for myself. Someone else's opinion isn't mine, I don't see how I could ever rely on it. I do watch Zero Punctuation semi-regularly, though, and I tend to agree with Yahtzee, but I also know I like games he doesn't. I loathe those 'funny' reviews like in the OP's image, they're all over Steam and make sifting through any user review section a chore not worth bothering with.

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Didn't they implement a "funny button" recently? I'd imagine it's much less of a hassle now that you can filter those trash reviews.

IGN gave a 7.5/10 in their review of my favourite game and a 6.8/10 to my second favourite, suffice to say I don't ever take them seriously and never will.

I'm not much one to really worry about review sites when it comes to deciding purchases of mine. I used to be subscribed to GameInformer for several years, but I ended my subscription just because I didn't find myself caring.

Yoshimi said:

Didn't they implement a "funny button" recently? I'd imagine it's much less of a hassle now that you can filter those trash reviews.

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They did. A step in the right direction, but it isn't retroactive (it can't be, of course) so there will always remain many inane single-line reviews with 70–90% of readers rating it as helpful. And I fully expect many people to rate funny reviews as helpful regardless (especially since it seems one can rate yes/no to the review's helpfulness in addition to flagging it as funny), to the extent of making the additional filter less useful than one would hope. A better solution would be to filter reviews based on their length... huh, I may as well drop these comments in the Steam suggestions forum now.

I tend not to read reviews before getting a game as I find them to subjective. I would normally check out the games entry on Wikipedia, the games website or sometimes peoples opinions on forums.
I like to read reviews of a game I have completed to see if if agree with the review though.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-02-10-eurogamer-has-dropped-review-scores

Eurogamer has now dropped their unnecessary review scores. This is only good news and another step to stop Metacritic from being such a negative influence in game sales.

I'll usually make a decision on whether to buy a game or not based on how much I think I'd enjoy playing it. Just before release I'll have a look at the majority of the main reviewers and check out sites such as Metacritic, but it doesn't really have an impact on my decision.

I used to buy games based on reviews, but I've stopped due to how badly some get bashed for single, irrelevant or trivial things.

ESO gets bad reviews for its subscription fees, Primal Carnage: Extinction gets crap for having to be a separate game from Primal Carnage, Evolve for having DLC, and ORAS for having a team named after water that dares to use water types.Things like that kill the reviews of fantastic games.

Unless I've not heard of the game before looking into buying it, I ignore reviews.

I put a decent amount of stock in reviews if it's a questionable buy for me. I avoided buying a good chunk of games thanks to following my favorite reviewers and I've avoided a lot of wasted money because of it.

I find reviews interesting but I don't let them influence my decision, unless I'm completely in the dark about a game...and then I usually just don't buy it. I read reviews quite often before I've bought the game and sometimes after as a point of interest, but anything in them that isn't objective I ignore. I use reviews in much the same way I do previews: for written information about gameplay and story etc, and not for an opinion as to whether or not I should buy it.

Although I'm more inclined to trust reviews from smaller or specialized websites than I am places like IGN, or magazines like Edge. I put zero stock in "official" reviewers online or in magazines, because their bias is so transparent it isn't even funny any more.