Were do you look for game reviews?

[yaydod]

So i was wondering where do you get info on a game or gaming info in general, except of course the Escapist

 

[CoS_Dorian]

Gamespot and OnRPG are two of my usual haunts.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

IGN, Gamespot, Yahtzee, Robbaz, Classic Game Room, etc.

 

[Tallim]

Eurogamer and RockPaperShotgun. Those two tend to have similar tastes to me when it comes to games and don't often overate things.

 

[Vault101]

metacritic..IGN...around

I dont really need the reviw...all I need is a score and to be interested in the game in the first place

the rest Ill find out for myself

 

[Bostur]

Rock Paper Shotgun, Destructoid, Totalbiscuit, Strategy Informer and dare I say Metacritic.

Metacritic is good for spotting original opinions. Often professional game reviews are very similar and feels like marketing material. On Metacritic reviews that stand out from the crowd are easy to spot, those are generally the most telling.

RPS is generally the best overall. SI reviews games that few others will touch, but they tend to lack analysis in depth. TB is good at showing concrete gameplay. Destructoid useful for general overview and background information.

 

[Vault101]

I think attitudes like this is why reviewing is in the state it is today.

I'm not so sure

so the problem is both the fact that people are obsessed with score and (I think the bigger issue) said scores are often overrated..and thats not even touching on the whole Metacritic/publisher mess

my reasoning is...I use the score to simply check if the game "isnt awful", I do keep in mind scores are inflated

if the game isnt awful or "considered good/great" then I don't feel I need to know anymore..I don't want to know anyway, I mean sure I might check what kind of gameplay it is....but I like to know as little as possible in terms of what to expect

I think that comes from my favorite games being ones I knew nothing about..I had no Idea what kind of game/story/theme Infamous was when I first played it..when I playes Assasins creed the Animus and present day events came as a compelte surprise....for some bizare reason I thought Bioshock was sci fi set on a space ship when I first heart of it...so maybe its trying to recapture that feeling

granted somtimes in-depth reveiws have got me interested in games I otherwise wouldn't have been..I mean I watched good game last week (Aussie show about games) where they looked into that new Transformers game which got me interested

BUT at the same time it kind of ruined it for me....how they talked about the story, the edning "first you'll do this..then you'll so that" all I needed to know was the story was god, it was 3rd person shooty action and how long it was

so yeah...I don't know if I'm part of the problem....I'm not going to flip out of a games score isn't perfect...sleeping dogs didn't get a meta score as high as 90 and still think its an awsome game

 

[Vault101]

The 2 problems compound each other. Scores are inflated because people put too much weight into scores. This leads to magazines putting the scores way too high just to say "this game is good" or publishers bribing magazines to give them a high score to get more sales (for "proof" look at the Kane and Lynch debacle).

There are many games that I like that have scores in the 70's but the majority would pass them over due to this "low" score.

There is also the issue of big names getting a high score simply for being a big name. Even if a AAA game has tons of flaws and bugs (skyrim for example) it will still rack up a score in the high 80s or higher.

Conversely many indie or smaller budget games get lower scores seemingly just because they are lower profile seemingly for no reason. I mean, PC gamer gave Binary Domain 54 while pretty much 80% of the comments disagreed with them and I've seen it happen on many other low profile games.

I still don't see it in my case...partically when reading a full in depth review is just going to tell me things [b/]I don't want to know[/b]


to be fair though I dont really what else to do...its clear that there is something seriously wrong with the reveiw systm...but I cant exactly go buying any game regardless of score..I've got time/money to consider

also mabye my standards are lower compared to alot of other people, hence why "just need to know its not awful" is generally enough

 

[Smooth Operator]

Anywhere they don't give scores, I haven't really got a solid source because noone can be truly trusted, but if the gameplay is inconclusive I look around for some solid worded reviews.
I also appreciate what Totalbuiscuit does, where he just talks in depth about the technical standard it came in, prices, availability, how the controls feel and how the game feels to play, he is also one of the very few who actually talks about the PC version that now usually come in a horrible state.

 

[Legion]

to be fair though I dont really what else to do...its clear that there is something seriously wrong with the reveiw systm...but I cant exactly go buying any game regardless of score..I've got time/money to consider

I mean this politely, but perhaps just use your own opinion?

Watch videos on youtube, look at screenshots, visit the official website, try the demo, ask friends if they know anything about it etc.

Obviously if you are happy to use reviews as a guide and find it steers you towards games that you like then that's great, but personally I don't trust them seeing as a 5/10 should indicate an average game, but most people see a 7/10 as indicating that, and anything less as a bad game.

 

[Vault101]

I mean this politely, but perhaps just use your own opinion?

Watch videos on youtube, look at screenshots, visit the official website, try the demo, ask friends if they know anything about it etc.

Obviously if you are happy to use reviews as a guide and find it steers you towards games that you like then that's great, but personally I don't trust them seeing as a 5/10 should indicate an average game, but most people see a 7/10 as indicating that, and anything less as a bad game.

but I kind of already do that...as I said, if I'm interested than I'm interested..I just have to check that its not awful

and I dont think you can be sure without playing it yourself...I guess asking around is another way but people arent exactly reliable in that regard

as I said..YES the game scores are over infalted..but if a game gets a 5 or 4 then its pretty clear its probably not worth it (keep in mind I'm talking about looking at more than one scource) 7+ is where it all opens up....THATS where my opinion comes in

 

[Brotha Desmond]

Just Yahtzee pretty mch,

 

[evenest]

I don't buy many games anymore. Money is getting tight. When I did buy them more frequently, I would listen to what Yahtzee would say, read some on IGN and gamespot, glance through metacritic and also pay attention to the forums, trying to see what are people praising/damning about the game in question.

To cite two examples:

On the one hand, Yahtzee's praise of Driver: San Francisco peaked my curiosity about the game, and I almost purchased it during a steam sale; however, in reading some comments at screwattack and here on the forums of the escapist, some folks talked about a particularly frustrating level and some unforgiving aspects of the game. As I am not that good a gamer and do not find frustrating to be a selling point on a game, I decided to give it a pass.

On the other hand, Shamus Young's blog on Spec Ops: The Line, errant signal's video "essay" and some comments by the guys at RunButton podcast excited me enough about the game's story, design and commentary on shooters in general that I, who does not play any of the military shooters, took the plunge and bought the game.

It is rarely the numbers or the reviews themselves that will sway me. I look to an aggregate of comments and try to draw my conclusions from that.

 

[Woodsey]

Rock, Paper, Shotgun and PCG - leaning towards RPS more and more as I've noticed my tastes changing slightly and they seem to largely reflect them.

But if there's a game coming up that I'm planning to review myself then I won't read any reviews for it: if I find myself agreeing with the review I read then I feel I'm stealing from it in some way, and if I disagree I'm wary that I might just be being reactive to someone else's opinion instead of just laying down my own. I think I'm pretty good at cutting through PR shit these days, though.

 

[Catfood220]

Just Yahtzee pretty mch,

You must have the worlds smallest games collection

I use both IGN and Gamespot but I take their reviews with a pinch of salt. The only site that I trust though is Gamecentral on the Metro site, they seem to be fair and unbiased with their reviews. And Yahtzee for the giggles.

 

[kanyewhite]

Metacritic. I pick one from the top, one from the bottom, and two from the middle. Then I see what the real pros and cons are.

 

[hermes]

Mostly giantbomb. But I don't really use their reviews as much as the conversation during their podcast... I use other sites (including Yatzhee) as second opinions.

 

[Brotha Desmond]

Just Yahtzee pretty mch,

You must have the worlds smallest games collection

I use both IGN and Gamespot but I take their reviews with a pinch of salt. The only site that I trust though is Gamecentral on the Metro site, they seem to be fair and unbiased with their reviews. And Yahtzee for the giggles.

Not really. I agree with most things that he says but that doesn't stop me from buying games, but I return many of them because I agreed with the assessment like GTA IV, DMC 4, DA:O. But games like InFamous 1+2, Mass Effect 2+3, God of war collection, DMC HD Collection, Crysis 2, Portal 2, Assassin's creed Brotherhood + Revelations, Way of the Samurai 3, etc. are all games I own and enjoy.

 

[Ishigami]

Nowhere.

I mean it. Video game reviews are pointless to me nowadays. I know months before release if a game is to my liking or not based on gameplay videos, trailers etc.
If I can'T make up my mind based on these then any review is petty much a lost case.

I have some games that reviewers said would be good and I hated them (e.g. DeusEx) and I got some games reviewer said would be horrible and I still enjoyed them anyway (e.g. Tenchu Z).
So aside from wasting bites on the net and ink and paper reviews recently (12 years?) never prevented a bad purchase nor encourage a good one for me.

Yea back in the day without the net and big marketing campaigns they were useful... now? Not so much.

 

[Mr.Pandah]

I wish the Escapist did more reviews to be honest (from the staff) but since they don't, I go to gamespot occasionally to get a better feel about a possible purchase. Most of the time though, I pick up games on instinct and I use reviews to find games I might not have otherwise heard about.