How do you decide to buy a game?

So how do you decide to buy a game ie by looking at the gamespot review,/ratings metacritic score, player review/ratings or just by looking at the gameplay on youtube. I consider only 2 things while buying a game either gamespot ratings or player/user ratings, if either of them are high i buy it, i dont bother with the youtube or visuals just gamespot or user ratings. How about you?

I think player/user ratings is what I tend to use to buy games. Other factors may be how influenced I am by a franchise. If I like it, I buy the sequel. Or maybe it's a genre I like.

I keep a wish list of games that catch my interest or are sequels to games I've enjoyed. I rarely buy games on a whim, but I'll come across games from time to time that are already out that'll interest me for one reason or another. I do refer to critic scores when the game is already out, not that I'll automatically get any game that has a high rating.

I look at it, see if it looks fun. That's usually enough; I don't do too much in the way of research. I come on these forums often enough that I can generally "hear" if there is anything off about the game, or get a bad feeling about it.

If something looks interesting but not fun, then I might do some research. Totally interested in the new Ghost Recon game but the combat looks terrible and from what I've seen and heard it looks like a marriage of Just Cause and military shooter, but without the over-the-top cheese of Just Cause, and without the cool gunplay and semi-realism of a military shooter.

We shall see...

Oh and Steam community reviews are surprisingly accurate. I generally skim them, look for some concise but thorough reviews that explain how the game is. There are so many people out there it's not difficult to find like-minded people who have the same views as you, have played the same games and say "if you liked ____, you'll enjoy _____, but keep in mind it has a slower pace than _____". Professional reviews are also great, but you have to read them. When people come on all pissed off because a game got an 8/10 I can't help but laugh; it's not an 80%, it's not a B-...its an eight out of ten...there's a bit more to it.

Only game I really regret buying in recent history (last few years) is SW: Battlefront. Such a disappointment, so boring. Talk about phoning it in...

Mostly by watching the gameplay, there's no better way to get impression, one picture equals to a thousand words.

I use most everything at my disposal when deciding to purchase a game like videos, twitch, professional reviews and ratings. The only thing that I don't use are user reviews and ratings.

Its a combination of principle and taste, which means liking the game alone is not gonna make me buy it.

I tend to just analyze the pictures or screenshots of a game and then maybe peek at the game play a bit~ i usually can tell if i going to enjoy a game just by looking at a little bit from time to time but not too much of the game cuz i dont like to spoil it :D:D

I watch vids and features on the game. If it looks cool, and the dev has a record of optimizing games well, I get it.

Other than liking particular genres. Tend to be intrigued if they're known for good level design and/or polished gameplay. Then conduct alittle research before going on media-blackout (I dislike spoilers)

If a game is solely praised for "story" and "graphics"? I tend to tune out and ignore it. That's not a selling point imo.

Scores are ignore worthy as well unless it's below a 6. Though will say, reading non-spoiler reviews help, and enjoy the summary they give. I always pick at reviews regardless, and see if they're listing what 'I'd' consider positives. Rather read about what the game is, than the reviwer listing his/ her personal taste.

Pretty much this. Also, price and timing is a factor.

I look at the developer first. Then I watch some gameplay videos and read some Steam user reviews, but I don't care if they are positive or negative. I care more about what they are describing because a lot of things that people complain are negatives are things I view as either not worth mentioning or positives.

I don't pay attention to metacritic. I don't trust the user reviews there and I certainly don't trust the game journalists. Metacritic seems to have a deeply unintelligent userbase.

I decide by my preference and buy whatever is appealing.

The time of the professional review is long gone and some random joe gamer knows as much about a good game as the local butcher.

First, it's trailer (and other marketing) has to get me interested enough to keep track of it's development. If it does, I wait around for one of my favorite Youtubers to make a vid about it, and if I'm still unsure I'll wait for them to review the game (I don't use mainsteam sites like Gamespot, and I definately avoid user ratings). As for other games that have already made a name for themselves, I typically pre-order without input from anybody. I did so for MGSV, Fallout 4, Dark Souls 3, FFXV, Doom... etc

I look at trailer and some gameplay on Youtube if there is no gameplay trailer. Than I look at metacritics and the steam user rating.

Sometimes it's hard to make up my mind but most of the time I buy a good product.

Im a sheep

I usually listen to my son the "hardcore gamer"...lol he hasn't led me astray yet.

Also I use the communities, on PS4 They know there games.

Youtube helps a lot! Also find a guy or girl on YouTube that does walkthroughs on youtube. Then you can see exactly what you are buying into.

Stephen

Sometimes it's reviews, sometimes it's general intuition. For example, when I saw Galak-Z I immediately knew it was going to be a game for me. Didn't know how, but I knew, and it's turned out to be a game I've put nearly 700 hours into since its release and has been the most enjoyable game purchase I've ever bought. Sometimes I can tell from simple videos. Mostly though it's reviews and general consensus.

There's no real process. If it looks interesting I'll check out some videos, a few opinions on performance, and then decide if the price is right. Usually I wait until I can get games cheap. I buy a lot of things on a whim though.

I try to read a lot of user reviews, both good and bad. I find bad to be the most helpful since they highlight the negative aspects and if it seems like I can enjoy the game despite them, I usually get it.

It depends on which console you will be playing. In my case i play on PC so first of all i check for the specs. Then yeah, you need to look at a lot of reviews, from companies like IGN or Gamestop, but mainly from users. Also you can look at the price, some games are on sale and you can get really good deals.

For me personally, Gamespot’ review are just for starter and get a picture from that game. Sometime their review were helpful and sometime they didn’t, but they did a pretty good job. But Steam community review are my most reason to buy it or not, since they can write that review after they played it or at least tried it before they refunded it.

I took longer to find out new games rather than games/franchises that I already knew. I took me 1-2 week to learn about Spelunky, but only 3 days on Doom for me to decide to buy it or not.

Youtube reviewers are not really accurate since they only come from one person’s opinion per video and it wasn’t enough to buy my attention. But somehow, when I saw the game’ gameplay, it could help to decide whether it’s worth it or not.

@ps3hdalltime: If he twitches i know!

Gameplay. Cause in the end if I think the gameplay is awful then the game isn't fun.

Watch a few vids on the gameplay and maybe read a few reviews. For the most part though i just trust myself and my taste in games and just go with it.

@ps3hdalltime: I've stopped looking at reviews explicitly. I make sure that the reviews aren't in the toilet but other than that I don't care.

I tend to look through online stores these days. Look for the older games and games on sale. Save yourself a crap tonne of money and find some of the cool gems that a lot of people didn't play.

I tend to take games on face value. I tend to know which games I will and will not like. If a game interests me enough that I actually go into the stores page and look at the trailers and screenshots it has already done a lot to win me over.

I also try not to have a back catalogue as well because that kind of motivates impulse buying which has wasted a lot of my money in the past. Right now I have a back catalogue and it is annoying. Also very likely that I will get sick of some games a lot faster than I otherwise would because I know I have a massive list to get through.

Usually I look on psn and around the web and see what people are saying are the best games. Also just go with my tastes. Watch youtube vids etc. Read reviews.. I usually am left feeling disapointed in the junk that is out there. There really isn't much to buy. I just play the witcher 3 now. I've bought most of the big games and a lot of them are overhyped/overrated etc the same games being released over and over and a bunch of uninspired media hype.

You really can't go with what the media says at all. The people on youtube are just as pathetic and followers. They hype up this stuff really bad.

If it just stands out to me for some reason and the reviews for it are generally positive, then I'll probably get it.