Question Of The Week For August 31st
August 25th, 2009 by Dana
How important are critics ratings to you? Do you care about the scores they give a game or do you play the game first to make your own option? Maybe a little bit of both?
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August 25th, 2009 at 10:37 am
I do pay attention to the ratings for games. but it is not the most important factor in buying a game. If it is a game my friends think it good or a game I know I want to play. I will get it even if it scores low. On the other hand there are games I would normal pass on but the fact it is getting 90+ ratings makes me go get it.
August 25th, 2009 at 10:53 am
Since critics usually post inflated scores, I use ratings as a way to pick out *bad* games. If I see anything under 40/100, that’s usually a very good indication that the game isn’t worth anyone’s time.
Other than that, if I really want a game I’ll still get it.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I dont find critics opinions very useful. Typically I just take the factual information they give and use that to form my own opinions.
August 25th, 2009 at 11:45 am
I think I select games too carefully for reviews to be any use. I peg games I want at least a year before they even come out and watch them in development. Or in the case of games like CoD4, I’ll wait until enough people are telling me I should get it.
Sometimes I’ll catch myself reading a review after I’ve already bought a game just to see if the author noticed the same things I did. I will say they’re almost always spot on.
Burning Crusade for WoW as an example, IGN gives an 8.5… which is about what I would have given it. All the same gripes they list I would have, although all of them have been or are being addressed.
Yeah. WoW. I said it. That’s right. Now you said it too!
August 25th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
I use them when looking through bargain bins. By the time games end up on the used market there should be enough reviews for the average game score to be a decent metric. I even carry a cheat sheet in my wallet.
If I give in and hop aboard the hype train I usually end up in shitzville.
August 25th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
little bit of both. but lately, instead of reading reviews i hear about the games i want to play on podcasts. like you guys, your opinions and experiences with a game definitely either hype me up or diminish my wanting of a game. if it’s something i really want to like, and the reviews are bad, i’ll still try it anyway. because many times an editors review is way-off in my opinion.
August 26th, 2009 at 12:56 am
I will try to keep this answer short and sweet for Rob
The reviewer’s scores along with peer talk about a game, help me form a gauge if the title is worth buying or renting. The reality is that it is just all opinions.
August 26th, 2009 at 1:28 am
I dont read reviews, or visit sites like metacritic, so I really dont care what a critic has to say about a game. Whats more important to me is what my friends say about games. For the most part I know what games I am interested in from preview coverage, then I count on my friends to recommend things I may not have otherwise played.
August 26th, 2009 at 10:36 pm
Definitely a combination of review score and simple common sense play a part for me. For instance, Modern Warfare got high 9s but I’d never buy it cause I dislike the genre. Whereas Mirror’s Edge got 7s and I love it because it’s a platformer.
In the end, though, personal recommendation or informal podcaster reviews influence me the most. There’s just less jadedness and more relevant impressions.
And if I win the faceplate, I bequeath it to Gunhaver if he hasn’t won one yet, cause he has a 360 and I don’t. But I still want the entry to win the game. Cause that’s how I roll.
August 26th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
If there is a game that I absolutely want and need and feel I would die without.. and it go scores across the board the average of something lower than a 6.5, then I’ll definately be waiting and doing a bit more research. Because in the end I’m spending money on it and if it weren’t for ratings and reviews, there would be a crap load of crappy games that people would feel crappy about buying because it turns out to be crap. And that’s bulls*$!. And it’s not just reviews and official ratings but word of mouth from friends (this site in particular for me), and general people on the internet, to me is more factual. Because in the end, big websites and magazines can be bias and lean towards something that you can really give 2 drops of monkey piss about, but if you got 9 or 10 friends that say a game is stupid, because you know them and know the common interests, odds are you’ll have a better chance at knowing if you’ll think it’s stupid.
And if I win the faceplate, maybe I’ll forget about this pain in my thumb for a couple of hours.
August 27th, 2009 at 2:39 am
Many times it depends on the people doing the reviewing. I believe there is a lot of corruption in the video game media, where a developer will pay off reviewers for a higher score. 1UP notoriously gave out inflated scores back when it was owned by Ziff Davis.
Another problem I have with game reviews is the propensity for people to rate them with a decimal.. as if you can be that exact when rating something. What is the qualatative difference between a game that scores 82.1 and a game that scores 82.2? Can anyone make that precise a determination about something as subjective as entertainment?
I also won’t trust any group who doesn’t contain any bad reviews. There are some really bad games out there. If a reviewer is afraid to say that something sucks, then how can I trust them when they say something is awesome?
If i’m looking for a new game, I’ll solicit the opinions of my friends and family first, because I know them personally and I know how their opinion of a game will skew in relation to my opinion.
As far as the media, X-Play is often the most accurate to my tastes, and metacritic gives a pretty well balanced opinion on most games. All that reviews can really do is make your selection more informed. In the end, the only way to know if something is good or not is to play it.
August 27th, 2009 at 10:53 am
I find review scores to be either arbitrary or unduly influenced by advertisers, publishers, and developers. The reviews themselves are often poorly balanced and lack critical insight into the story and gameplay, and, therefore, are unhelpful.
So, when I wish to make a purchase I take into account what I already like. If I’m a fan of a particular series (e.g., Halo, FEAR, Call Of Duty, PGR) I have already made up my mind to purchse the latest installment of that series. If I am not a fan of a particular genre, I will avoid games within that genre(e.g., RPGs, Platformers, Sports). To a lesser extent, I consider word-of-mouth, gameplay videos, and friend recommendations.
There’s a great article on this topic at Insult Swordfighting called “Game Informer works for Gamestop, not for you”. And Level Up has “A Symposium on Game Reviews”. It features comments by writers such as Leigh Alexander, N’Gai Croal, Jeff Gerstmann, and Robert Ashley. You should check it out.
August 27th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
I personally find reviews to be of little interest to me when i am considering a purchase. I try to play the demo first (like i did for batman and infamous) and watch some trailers to see if it grabs my attention (like mass effect). I find critics to be blowhards anyway. They tend to get games for FREE and rate them based on some scale they find reasonable. I like the guys at GIANTBOMB the best cause they dont pull punches and give me both the quicklooks and the info i want to know. Metacritic can bite me!
August 29th, 2009 at 7:14 pm
The scores I really only use to judge if reading the review is worth it. Low score means I read the review to find out why. Then from the description I can usually decide if I’ll like the game or not.
August 30th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I don’t care about critics reviews. Most reviewers play through the game as quickly as possible, once, so they can be the first to post a review of it. This type of review is flawed and offers little for me. These guys also play many games in any given month. This further corupts the review because their play habits are not like mine. There is also potential of ‘corporate sway’ as others have mentioned. I have too many games that I have loved receive horrible reviews for me to give any credence to critics reviews. Too much merit is placed on graphics, innovation, and technical details. I just want a game that’s fun.
Podcasts do affect my purchases. For starters people seem to be more honest about their feelings on a game when they are just freely talking. You also get to hear what games they are still talking about and enjoying months after it’s release. Finally, there are ‘independent’ podcasts out there (like your own) that hold no bias and have earned my trust.
August 30th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I never know what games I’m going to get, so looking up reviews is pointless. I usually just go for what’s cheapest. If I have a choice between Arkham Asylum for $60 or KickMaster for $5, I’ll go with KickMaster. And I did.
August 30th, 2009 at 8:02 pm
Well I might be a little late, 8pm Sunday night, you guys might already be recording. There are a shitload of posts on this question already as well, so it could take hours and be pretty boring if you actually got to my post, but anyways…
Of course I look at reviews. I’m sure we all do, we’re game nerds.