Who do you trust for reviews?

[Phube]

Just looking at he Watch Dogs thread and noticing people's thoughts on certain review sites/articles. So just curious as to who you use/trust if anyone before you buy an unknown game. Do you really care about their write ups/video review, trust them or use them as a vindication of what you think you already know about a game? Would a bad review from certain site put you off buying a game you were really looking forward to, or vice versa? An dwhy the hell did so many people buy that shitty Aliens game last year despite being universally panned?

 

Apart from word of mouth forum posts I tend to agree with EuroGamer and the Guardian (seem to be good at games reviews somehow!) on reflection and GamesRadar quite a bit. GameSpot I wouldn't touch with a bargepole, especially after the travesty of their ZombiU 'review'.

 

[SMX11]

Totalbiscuit gives a good first impressions video on youtube for pc games.

[DennisNedry]

I always just look at Metacritic.

 

I sometimes watch the IGN video reviews as well.

[Legend_in_blue]

It's a tricky one. Particularly in the current climate where I'm not sure the "people in the know " are sure of what they think constitutes "next gen gaming". Recent scores have suffered as a result. Even Ground Zeroes, which is impressive, scored mid 75s overall.

I'd go with CVG, or Edge - they're particularly harsh, sometimes IGN. But with IGN you kind of know what generic crap they will churn out with on the AAA releases.

Best judge of what makes something great, is to play it yourself. Some people bum Red Dead Redemption, I think it's terribly boring. I think Thief is decent, Mass Effect 2 is stellar class, well it is, but people will berate Thief and it's game mechanics and still manage to find fault with gaming perfection that is ME2.

Your call...

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

IGN (depending on the reviewer), EuroGamer and Giant Bomb are usually pretty fair with their reviews, Guardian are good for in-depth stuff too. Pocket Gamer is also good.

Never ever in a million years would I read another Gamecritics review, they employ 2 or 3 moronic dickheads who far underrate the biggest games and overrate (ironically) awful games just to throw out the Metacritic rating and generate site traffic. I'm amazed Metacritic still list them because they have so many anomaly ratings it's clear they aren't motivated to be impartial. IGN's Nintendo reviewers need a smack round the mouth, they are far too often guilty of handing out 8's and 9's to distinctly average games. EDGE used to be harsh but fair, but these days seem to just do harsh and fail to highlight the good aspects of games.

I don't often read reviews to sway my decision to buy a game, usually I'll check Metacritic to see the general consensus and read a few reviews if it's a game I don't know much about.

For entertainment's sake I ocasionally peek at the Metacritic User Ratings... Is everyone on the internet a total bellend? It's just 0's and 10's almost entirely by people who haven't even played the game they're reviewing.

[MC Prussian]

I tend to form my opinion based on reading reviews on gaming sites such as Gamespot or IGN, then combine it with gaming reviews on online shopping places such as Amazon.

And I cross-check these findings with the gaming section on FT and the ratings on Metacritic occasionally.

[Beliall]

If I feel I need a second opinion ( to my own) when consodering buying a game cheap off steam or psn store, ill always go ign. The video reviews are handy and you can compare what they're saying to the footage.

[Julian Joachim Jr Shabadoo]

GameSpot I wouldn't touch with a bargepole, especially after the travesty of their ZombiU 'review'.

I stopped visiting them after they fired Jeff Gerstmann for publishing the honest Kane and Lynch review. How they treated him was disgusting and it's obvious there was(/is) corruption there - I'll have a lookout for their ZombiU one.

[foxes_rule1978]

IGN but it is important to read the whole review and watch videos rather than just look at the scores.

I have played games which get a 7 and feel they are better than ones with a 9 or above... I agree with gamespot, they use to be good but have got far worse...

[Mike the Metal Ed]

Giant Bomb usually, and if Zero Punctuation's Yahtzee doesn't totally crucify a game I'll look into it

[Stadt]

I don't.

I just look at YouTube videos of randomers playing it

[Manwell Pablo]

None of them implicitly. It's normally from a wide selection, there are certain rules with certain sites though, Gamespot seem to under rank a few games just to look good but normally if it hands out a 9/10 to a game then it, in most cases, is a very good game. Conversely if IGN slate something than it's more than probably awful. Edge gives a balanced view, Eurogamer may as well be called Nintendogamer.

 

It's only recently I've really needed reviews tbh. As more and more big name games are just not delivering. the Developer and it's track record is the first thing I'd normally go off. 

[Finnegan]

Any company that makes money off reviewing games is susceptible to pressure from publishers to rate their A releases. I don't trust any of them per se. I'll read reviews and comb through them for features I'm interested in but I tend to take scores with a pinch of salt.

Your best bet are independent blogs, fan forums, etc. Just word of mouth, your friends and so on.

Oh and - as noted - I'm a big fan of Yahtzee aka Zero Punctuation. Very funny reviews that often sum up my feelings but that should also be taken with a pinch of salt, especially given his gimmick is trashing most titles.

I'm very much hoping he'll do Watch Dogs, actually. I'm predicting right now that he'll describe it as another GTA clone that promises to be vastly different but ultimately sticks to the same drive here, watch this cut scene, drive here format. I'm also predicting he'll be right.

[Anorak]

I only buy the odd game and don't keep up to date at all with the video game world so i'd say friends, most of them are keener gamers than me and know their stuff. I never really trusted magazine reviews back in the day and having a quick look at Fifa 14's score on metacritic i'm thinking those of the online era wouldn't have convinced me either . 

[SomalianFox15]

Usually watch videos of it on youtube and decide for myself.

[Guest Sharpe's Fox]

I usually use GameFAQs boards. I know they're owned by CBS, CNET, Gamespot etc. but the community there is pretty useful.

[Steve_Guppy_Left_Foot]

Yahtzee, Angry Joe and Adam Sessler. Don't bother with IGN, Gamespot etc, don't trust them at all.

[orangecity23]

I tend to use videogamer.com , there stuff is pretty good, they have some good writers and their youtube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR1wCXM9e7NshYfonwa5BAg) is flipping fantastic, combines good in depth coverage on some games whilst also covering a lot of indie stuff, and devoting large portions of time to comedy silliness.

[LeicesterBran]

I don't trust IGN at all as they are very biased towards COD and hate Nintendo, Sega well against most Japanese games and developers . I get  my reviews from judging gameplay from myself on Youtube, looking at costumer reviews at sites like GAME and Amazon etc and also from reviews on Steam.