What is it with people? Do you honestly depend/listen to reviews that much?

maybe I'm from a different era of gaming, but I swear.... I've played quite a few games that have received low scores and throughly enjoyed them. Obviously it's an opinion vs. an opinion, but I seriously think that most people on this site (or others) blow games off completely just because of someone else's opinion.

Why is this?

No mind of their own? With the internet, you no longer have to have an opinion yourself, it can form one for you.

Actually, it might have to do with the fact that most "hardcore" gamers are too young to buy multiple titles a year (AKA going to school so no job to pay for them), so they only buy the 4 or 5 that get 9.0+ reviews. And those happen to all be on "other" consoles.

Maybe that's why Nintendo's shifting away from that crowd...

maybe I'm from a different era of gaming, but I swear.... I've played quite a few games that have received low scores and throughly enjoyed them. Obviously it's an opinion vs. an opinion, but I seriously think that most people on this site (or others) blow games off completely just because of someone else's opinion.

Why is this?

danger_ranger95

[QUOTE="danger_ranger95"]

maybe I'm from a different era of gaming, but I swear.... I've played quite a few games that have received low scores and throughly enjoyed them. Obviously it's an opinion vs. an opinion, but I seriously think that most people on this site (or others) blow games off completely just because of someone else's opinion.

Why is this?

so_hai

I'm in the same boat, I don't have the $$$ to buy anything I want... but I look for other things in games that to me... show quality.

I'm not saying reviews are a horrible thing, they are informing to say the least. But they can also be mis-informing as well. I'm just surprised that people read so deeply into them sometimes.

I'd love to see people's reactions and footage before buying a game because it may look cool but it may be horrible.

I don't want to waste money.

Yeah, Reviewers aren't evil monsters sent back from the future to make you spend money on games you won't likeMegaman5364

are you sure about that?

well, the reviewers are supposed to be professional critics BrunoBRS

But that's the problem. They aren't professionals. Anybody can do their job, as long as you know the English language (and if not, there's always IGN).

So why put so much emphasis on what other people think? Shouldn't it be completely up to you which games to play? Like, if there's a game that got 45/100 on Metacritic, does that mean that you should never play it? What if it's a game based on your favorite tv show, and it expands the show's universe?

I think people need to take a chance more often. Completely ignore reviews and just pick up something that looks interesting to you. If that happened, many of these great 3rd party games would actually sell.

[QUOTE="BrunoBRS"]well, the reviewers are supposed to be professional critics bob_newman

But that's the problem. They aren't professionals. Anybody can do their job, as long as you know the English language (and if not, there's always IGN).

So why put so much emphasis on what other people think? Shouldn't it be completely up to you which games to play? Like, if there's a game that got 45/100 on Metacritic, does that mean that you should never play it? What if it's a game based on your favorite tv show, and it expands the show's universe?

I think people need to take a chance more often. Completely ignore reviews and just pick up something that looks interesting to you. If that happened, many of these great 3rd party games would actually sell.

I'm all for people taking a chance and everything, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters to the consumer is the worth of the investment that individual makes. In this day and age, I don't think it's fair to be critical of people for being uneasy with putting $50+ dollars on a video game, and I can understand why some people would lean towards reviews more now than perhaps they did in the past. It is the reviewer's job to be as objective as possible and give his/her readers insight on what they should be expecting, and if people aren't taking those reviews to heart, there's hardly a point in reviews at all, am I right?

You're right when it comes to the fact that it's up to the individual investing time or money into a game in the long run, but I also believe that there is an importance of reviews that shouldn't be dismissed. Now, in regards to how "professional" these "professional reviewers" are being these days, I think that's another story, but even that should be left to the person interested in a game when it comes to whether or not he/she should trust it.

well, the reviewers are supposed to be professional critics that will deliver an accurate, impartial evaluation of the game's content. besides, they play the game before you and tell you how it is. i say they're pretty important. but obviously, you don't have to agree with what he says...BrunoBRS

Objective information in reviews is very useful, subjective information isn't.

[QUOTE="BrunoBRS"]well, the reviewers are supposed to be professional critics bob_newman

But that's the problem. They aren't professionals. Anybody can do their job, as long as you know the English language (and if not, there's always IGN).

So why put so much emphasis on what other people think? Shouldn't it be completely up to you which games to play? Like, if there's a game that got 45/100 on Metacritic, does that mean that you should never play it? What if it's a game based on your favorite tv show, and it expands the show's universe?

I think people need to take a chance more often. Completely ignore reviews and just pick up something that looks interesting to you. If that happened, many of these great 3rd party games would actually sell.

I'm all for people taking a chance and everything, but at the end of the day, the only thing that matters to the consumer is the worth of the investment that individual makes. In this day and age, I don't think it's fair to be critical of people for being uneasy with putting $50+ dollars on a video game, and I can understand why some people would lean towards reviews more now than perhaps they did in the past. It is the reviewer's job to be as objective as possible and give his/her readers insight on what they should be expecting, and if people aren't taking those reviews to heart, there's hardly a point in reviews at all, am I right?

Madmangamer364

Well I'm not saying that you should just blindly buy a game knowing nothing about it, but you don't need reviewers to tell you "buy this game" to buy a game.

YouTube has gameplay videos of just about every game out there. If you see a game that does something cool or looks interesting, why not take a chance? Some of my favorite games this gen scored below 75/100 (75 being "Generally favorable reviews" according to Metacritic). Does that make them bad games? Better question, does that make them not worth playing?

As to the whole dropping of $50, yes it's hard if you're broke, but this hobby is expensive. If you want to see all that it has to offer you need to find ways to be able to buy games.

Maybe some people are content with only buying 4 or 5 games a year...but I don't know about that. I see a lot of complaining about "not enough good games" around here.

Sepewrath and Bob are my new best friends...

They've said it better than I could ever have.

The biggest thing that cracks me up is back in the old days..... you had basically 2 choices when it came to thinking about puchasing a game or not. The game's boxart, and Nintendo Power. Man...... those days were so awesome!

BTW what i meant for "a professional critic" is someone who studied journalism and can deliver an accurate impartial review of the product. he needs to be able to say "i don't like this, but it's good". and yes, those people exist.BrunoBRS

You know that game reviewers are not journalists, right?

I've played many, many games that have gotten 9.0's+ that I've hated, and I loved games that got 5.0's.

If I want a game, I will get it reguardless of reviews. If I am not interested in a game, and it gets good reviews, I give it a shot at a friends house or something.

Was gonna do a long post but Sepewrath beat me to it.

Baiscally, lots of people simply follow what people who get paid tell them to because they think they know much better than you.

I'm going to make a website, and become a millionaire! It's going to be my review/opinion on everything that i can think of and why people should buy, sell, believe in, support, etc.

It's going to be awesome!!!!

I'll start by putting video game reviews down

I'm going to make a website, and become a millionaire! It's going to be my review/opinion on everything that i can think of and why people should buy, sell, believe in, support, etc.

It's going to be awesome!!!!

I'll start by putting video game reviews down

Because listening to multiple review helps you decide to actullay purchase the game or not. Becasue you wouldnt want to buy a game notknowing it might bad or good would you?

[QUOTE="danger_ranger95"]

I'm going to make a website, and become a millionaire! It's going to be my review/opinion on everything that i can think of and why people should buy, sell, believe in, support, etc.

It's going to be awesome!!!!

I'll start by putting video game reviews down

Sepewrath

NP was god's gift to gamers back then.....

I still remember the first one, such a good era!

Because I have many more important things to spend money on (tuition, food, alcohol, metro-Atlanta housing costs), so I can't afford to buy a huge amount of games on each console. Reviews (and I usually use3 or 4 reviews to make my decision) give me a good idea about which games I should ultimately select.

Because listening to multiple review helps you decide to actullay purchase the game or not. Becasue you wouldnt want to buy a game notknowing it might bad or good would you?

masterman280

Because I have many more important things to spend money on (tuition, food, alcohol, metro-Atlanta housing costs), so I can't afford to buy a huge amount of games on each console. Reviews (and I usually use3 or 4 reviews to make my decision) give me a good idea about which games I should ultimately select.

GamerForca

Game reviews are worthless. I don'tbuy a game without playing it first. This isn't a very hard task. Rental is easy and now, with online rental sites, even more affordable than they used to be.

A lot of the times, I end up buying a game after playing it with a friend who owns it. I do agree, though that most people know if they will enjoy it by just looking at screen shots and gameplay footage.

Well I'm not saying that you should just blindly buy a game knowing nothing about it, but you don't need reviewers to tell you "buy this game" to buy a game.

YouTube has gameplay videos of just about every game out there. If you see a game that does something cool or looks interesting, why not take a chance? Some of my favorite games this gen scored below 75/100 (75 being "Generally favorable reviews" according to Metacritic). Does that make them bad games? Better question, does that make them not worth playing?

As to the whole dropping of $50, yes it's hard if you're broke, but this hobby is expensive. If you want to see all that it has to offer you need to find ways to be able to buy games.

Maybe some people are content with only buying 4 or 5 games a year...but I don't know about that. I see a lot of complaining about "not enough good games" around here.

bob_newman

Well, I agree with the first part of your statement. The way I see it, no review is suppose to force anyone into buying a game, as that is something that is ultimately decided by the person reading it. What reviews are supposed to do is inform the reader in regards to what he/she should be expecting from the game and recommending it accordingly.

There are many ways to see if a game is right for you, but I suppose it's all a matter of what best fits a person. A video's nice, but even that is not the perfect example of how well a game plays; for starters, you typically don't know how well a game controls or how it will totally engage you into the experience once you're actually PLAYING it. Of course, a score, or even series of scores, aren't the ultimate factor when it comes to enjoying a game. For example, since I've purchased Naruto Shippuden: Clash of Ninja Revolution 3 (a game that got a 7 here) last month, that's pretty much where the majority of my gaming time has gone (I've already put more than 150 hours into it). Reviews can't change my personal opinion of the game, but I have read some of the flaws that have been brought up about it from various sources, and I agree with some and disagree with others. Still, it was worthwhile to take all of those things into account (even though I had the game before most reviews of it came up), and I think that's where reviews can have a positive impact, especially with those who don't game as much as I do.

I can't say I agree with the tone of your message in regards to the cost of gaming. Yes, gaming can be expensive and all, but the way you put almost comes off in a way in which a person should have a dedicated budget for video games in order to enjoy it. Let's be real here; not everyone CAN buy 4-5 games a year these days, but I don't think that should mean that they shouldn't try to enjoy playing video games. For those who are part of that group, it's more important that they get the most out of each and every investment made, since they won't be making them as often as other people. Once again, this is why I think [fair] reviews should be used and considered in order to make the best possible choices. That's not to say one should go by numbers, but at least read what a game's strengths and weakness are and see how they apply to your personal tastes. I believe that is the key to all of this.

As for complaining about "not enough good games" and such, I feel as though this approaches the subject of effort behind the games as much as what scores the games are getting. As far as the Wii is concerned, it certainly hasn't seen its share of bonafide "must-have" games lately, and I think it's the drought of a AAA-quality title that has created such a perception. Guess what? The Wii isn't the only system recently to have this aura around it, and I suspect that it will eventually leave the Wii in due time, provided that the system starts to see some major releases again that are more than just marketing experiments for publishers.

maybe I'm from a different era of gaming, but I swear.... I've played quite a few games that have received low scores and throughly enjoyed them. Obviously it's an opinion vs. an opinion, but I seriously think that most people on this site (or others) blow games off completely just because of someone else's opinion.

Why is this?

danger_ranger95

And after reading some of the comments in this thread, it really seems like the "I don't even bother with reviews crowd" really likes to look down upon those who actually do read reviews. What's up with the snootiness, guys?

I mean, I could just base my desire to purchase a game on other things, but what would that really do? Lets go through a little list, shall we?

1. My Friends/random people on the Wii boards who have played the game already. Oh, but those are just some other people with opinions. Forget that!

2. Written previews of the game. Dang. The same people who wrote those are also the guys who write the reviews. Guess I'll have to skip out on those, too.

3. Official gameplay videos. This seems like a winner for a lot of you people. Ah, crap. I forgot. These videos are released by the guys who make/publish the game and have a vested interest in the game selling well. Of course they are only going to show me the parts of the game that look fun, are graphically wonderful, absent of bugs and glitches, etc, etc. You know, all that stuff that might push me toward buying the game. Can't trust that.

4. Box art/description on back of the box/official website. Same conundrum as above.

5. Unofficial videos of the game. Let's just forget all those ones that have people talking about the game as they play through it or whatever right off the bat. What we are left with is probably something that is completely out of context. And nothing says informed decision like things taken out of context. Not to mention you still have no idea about the controls or who the person is that is playing it. Is this their first play through, or their 8th so that they know exactly what to do, what to avoid, etc. Sure this section that you are watching is nice, but is it the 45th time that they have done a mission exactly like this one making the game really stale and boring after awhile? Guess you'll never know!

6. Intuition. Do I like the concept? If I answered yes, I should just go out and buy it, right? Why, exactly? How many times have you like the concept of something, but found its execution to be a complete disaster (Brawl's online anyone?)?

I think people need to take a chance more often. Completely ignore reviews and just pick up something that looks interesting to you. If that happened, many of these great 3rd party games would actually sell.bob_newman

Come on, now. Do you really believe that the games would sell that much better? I mean, I'm pretty sure that all of the people who were interested in a lot of the niche 3rd party titles have already picked them up.

Edit: Wow, thanks for taking out all of my line spaces GameSpot. I love having to go put those back in.

The important part of a review is not the score. The score could be considered as the reviewer's opinion. The review (the text) should be used to explain how the game plays, how the story is and other important sutff, so yeah, reviews are a good guide. The score, not so much since it's only the reviewer's opinion.

There are games out there that got low review scores but are good to play. But there are more games out there that got low review scores and they dont deserve a higher score, but are good to the fans of the series.

Quick example: I played Pokemon battle revolution which got a score of 5.5/10 on GS but I enjoyed it because Im a fan of pokemon handheld RPG's and the Pokemon stadium series.

In the 8 bit era we had to stand in shops reading through all the magazines before buying our favourite if we had the pocket money. The best mags always had a 2nd opinion too.

In the 16 bit era those of us with computers had demo disks to help out with this.

In the 32 bit era PC gaming meant lots of shareware games that were free demos to download or get off CD cover disks.

For Wii gaming there are no demos. It really saddens me, as most pC games I have bought or not bought are based on demo experience.

So I have to read reviews. Lot's of them. The best Wii games frequently get mixed reviews. Sometimes because reviewers hate the system because of controls / minimal graphics / limited online, or more frankly the whole niche / casual direction Ninty has taken.

Muramasa is my game of the year. It scored 9-10's, but also 3-6's. When I see mixed reviews on Metacritic I tend to guess it is a game I might like.

i read a lot of reviews from users or various game sites to get an idea of if i would like the game. i also look on youtube. if the reviews are terrible, but i still have interest in the game i'll rent it. it's better to spend less than $10 to see if you would like the game, rather than spending $50 on a game and being disappointed. i remember getting nes games that i wanted when i was younger and being angry when the game was terrible. bayou billy comes to mind.

The biggest thing that cracks me up is back in the old days..... you had basically 2 choices when it came to thinking about puchasing a game or not. The game's boxart, and Nintendo Power. Man...... those days were so awesome!

danger_ranger95

LOL! Those were the good old days! Boy, I bought a lot of crappy games doing that...

"Let's get Deadly Towers! Take a look at the back, it looks a lot like Zelda!"

Good thing you can still return opened games back then. :)

[QUOTE="danger_ranger95"]

The biggest thing that cracks me up is back in the old days..... you had basically 2 choices when it came to thinking about puchasing a game or not. The game's boxart, and Nintendo Power. Man...... those days were so awesome!

canadianloonie

LOL! Those were the good old days! Boy, I bought a lot of crappy games doing that...

"Let's get Deadly Towers! Take a look at the back, it looks a lot like Zelda!"

Good thing you can still return opened games back then. :)

[QUOTE="canadianloonie"]

[QUOTE="danger_ranger95"]

The biggest thing that cracks me up is back in the old days..... you had basically 2 choices when it came to thinking about puchasing a game or not. The game's boxart, and Nintendo Power. Man...... those days were so awesome!

BrunoBRS

LOL! Those were the good old days! Boy, I bought a lot of crappy games doing that...

"Let's get Deadly Towers! Take a look at the back, it looks a lot like Zelda!"

Good thing you can still return opened games back then. :)

I do believe it was sarcasm on his/her part

I dunno...we were kids back then.

But like I said, you can still return games back then. So even though we picked a really bad game, we can still laugh at it, run back to Toys R Us, return it, and arbitrarily pick our next game. I swear...we are the reason why you cannot return opened games anymore. :oops:

Now, we have to read reviews just so we don't waste our money. It's no fun.

well, the reviewers are supposed to be professional critics that will deliver an accurate, impartial evaluation of the game's content. BrunoBRS

But they aren't.

[QUOTE="BrunoBRS"]well, the reviewers are supposed to be professional critics that will deliver an accurate, impartial evaluation of the game's content. LordQuorthon

But they aren't.