Can legitimate game reviews be found anywhere?

Does anyone know a site that provides legitimate game reviews? These mainstream sites are corporate PR machines these days. Really just looking for short reviews that rate games fairly.

Eh? legitimate?

I hope you know that all reviews are just subjective opinions from a gamer like most out there, so if you feel that the more general media is too bias, make your own site/blog/YT/twitch channel and provide real reviews.

No. They're all opinions that have been bought/paid for.

Just do what I do- go to Metacritic, look up all the reviews, read a couple each of the highest, the lowest and the middle-of-the-road reviews and determine for yourself whether the shared high points and the common complaints are things you can deal with.

Or just do like any sane normal person does :) try the game and see if you like it, after all its you who have to play it not some critic.

@Jacanuk: who buys a game if they aren't sure they're going to like it? After all, isn't saving that $60 on a bad investment why reviews exist in the first place?

@FoxDragoon:

What do you consider legitimate? Someone that agree's with you all the time? If so that doesn't exist.

I don't know about any sites, but you can always ask me. I'm very legitimate. If I say so myself.

Yes, Angry Joe.

With almost every game being a sequel these days, who needs reviews? If you liked the previous games in the franchise get the new one, if you didn't, don't.

just read peoples negative and positive reviews and you can usually fill in the blanks from there. but sometimes you can really get lead down the wrong path.

i've played all the bioshock games and still can't understand why they are rated above 6/10 anywhere. same goes with GTA 4, the game chugged and played like ass, i haven't played 5 but i expect the console version probably suffers similar problems.

I would say Angry Joe, Total Halibut, and even Jim Sterling would give you reviews that are completely no bullshit. They're more than happy to blast holes into devs work, which is always a treat!

Theres No Such Thing, not unless you remove the rating/score. Nobody's gona read the review if you add a number that basicly simplifies the process for them.

Famitsu has for scores for each review right ? Seems like a good alternitive.

Youtube,not a specific user, I hop around looking, but I've found some helpful reviews. gameplay commentaries that have helped me in the past.

It's getting harder and harder to find a review that does its job IMHO. Reviews should outline what a game offers and what crowds it's right and wrong for. Essentially it should be a kind of buyer's guide.

Nowadays, reviews are more about the reviewer showcasing their opinions and feelings rather than caring about the people they're writing a review for.

Why should we care what one person thinks? We want to learn more about the game to know if WE might like it.

@Pikminmaniac: agreed none of the reviews are being paid for all the time, its the fact the reviews are becoming personal rather than subjective and how the game is.

Game reviews are what we deserve. The community has spent years beating down on poor reviewers who offer an honest opinion. A reviewer dared to take a look at a serious societal issue? Well let's send them death threats and demand they be fired!

So now we have a scale that goes from 7-9 with only an occasional variance of a token 6. We have product reviews like you'd get for a toaster rather than an artistic critique like one would write for a film or a book. So to answer your question, no. There are no legitimate reviews. That's why most of the tried and true review sites have started trying to build content outside of their old review/preview/showcase model of the 90s and early 00s. Reviews are becoming an anachronism.

Better to watch a Twitch stream or a Quick Look video if you're on the fence about a purchase anyway. See the gameplay. If it looks fun, give it a whirl. If not, move on.

I go to sites that specialize in that particular genre. For instance... for RPGs, Game Banshee and RPG Codex.

I take more stock in a review from someone that I know that has similar tastes in games to me.

I don't really think any reviews are paid for. The only instance that really happend was on this site. It resulted in Gerstman getting fired for not giving an opinion that the staff or the game publishers liked

They might not be 'paid for' in the literal sense of them exchanging cash for good reviews, but when you see ads of that game staring you in the face on that same site, it's not crazy to assume that they wouldn't trash the game that just paid for ad space on their site.

Just ask a forum. You'll usually find people who will give you an opinion. If you are a conspiracy theorist, look at their post count and posting history to see if they were bought off.

Agreed, I've never really understood that advice.

Same. Isn't that what renting and demos are for?

This is true, although I have seen a couple instances where a game got ads plastered all over a site, but they still trashed it in the review. The Escapist does this every once in a while.

Adam Sessler usually does a good job. Rev3 games. He was one of the old G4TV guys.

As I recall, that one Vita Call of Duty game from last year had ads all over the place, yet those didn't stop the game from being savagely destroyed in reviews across the board. So, no -- it is crazy to assume that reviewers wouldn't be honest just because the publisher bought ad space.

@c_rakestraw: I love payola. Bring it on.

So ppl can recall a game or 2 where this might not have been the case. Does that mean we should ignore all the other instances ??

No, but it does mean it's not enough evidence on its own to prove that corruption is taking place.

I find lots of legitimate review places around, Gamespot being one of them.

@FoxDragoon: I think you're putting too much stock in the number of a review score rather than the content of the review. Also, I tend to like reviews that are done by people that think like I do. For instance on Gamespot, I tend to like reviews by Tom Mcshea(?), but Carolyn Petite's(?) reviews drive me insane. When I read a review, I look for features I would really like, whereas I won't buy games that have deal breakers I can't stand. Hope that helps.