Do reviews affect your opinions?

[WhyBotherToTry]

Recently I've noticed something about the way I think about games. Ever since I started watching Zero Punctuation I've begun picking holes in games I would have previously have liked without question and I think the this new found criticism is something I may have picked up from Yahtzee.

That's not to say I agree with everything he says but I find I agree with more of his points now than I would have before I started watching his videos. Have any of the rest of you who watch ZP or those of you who watch reviews regularly found something similar with yourselves?

 

[DustyDrB]

They do. I need a filter of some kind, as there are lots of games and I can't try them all. I've followed a handful of reviewers for a while and have built a rapport of sort. And it's pretty damn successful. There aren't many games I've played over the last 3-4 years that I didn't like. And most of the ones I didn't like were cheap games that I risked despite knowing there was a good chance I wouldn't enjoy them.

The ones I follow mainly:
-Most of the ones here, aside from Susan. That's not hate on her. I like her, we just have different tastes. A few of the newer reviewers I don't quite have a feel for yet too, so I can't say I jive with them well either (yet).

-A few Destructoid reviewers, especially Conrad Zimmerman. John Holmes, Dale North, and Chad Concelmo are all helpful. I love the Jimquisition and Jim's articles, but I don't really tend to agree or disagree with his reviews very much.

-Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb. I probably wouldn't have known about him if not for that whole fiasco. He's a bit mo

 

[Rawne1980]

Nope.

I rarely pay attention to anything reviewers say and only read/watch ones that make me giggle.

I watch/read them for the humour more than the review.

Plus most of the time I don't agree with them at all.

PCGamer did a review on DA2 giving it 94% .... I barely gave it 14%.

As has been said before, reviews are only a persons opinion and no one else's opinion matters to me but my own. What some people like I do not and what some people hate I love.

I prefer to watch gameplay clips and go from there.

The only downside being if i'm unsure about a game I either don't buy it at all or wait until the price drops reallllllllly low. And I never pre-order.

 

[Windcaler]

Generally I dont read reviews at all. The reason being two fold. First because of scores. I do not believe any complex opinion can be represeted numerically without an extremely complex mathmatical formula and no reviewer on this earth uses that (that I know of). Second, because the majority of reviewers dont know what they're talking about. I recall the review that made me realize this was one done by a freelance reviwer (whos name escapes me) who did a review for alpha protocol. During the video it clearly showed that he was out of range when using a pistol (which makes your accuracy really bad) and then he blasted the game for being able to miss head shots when the reticle is right over the head. I sat there thinking "Well if you werent across the map trying to shoot them with a pistol you wouldnt be having that problem. Maybe you should learn the mechanics of a game before reviewing it"

Assuming I cant play a game that a friend has bought my filter is lets plays. I go on youtube, I watch a couple episodes of someone playing the game and listen to their commentary and usually I can decide if a game is for me or not. Its worked pretty well so far

 

[Vault101]

not really..since most of the time they are terribly inflated

unless its low then I'll stay away

the crazy rantings on the forums somtimes sway my opinion

 

[ResonanceSD]

Not anymore, given how review sites are paid for by ads from game companies -_-

 

[TheOneBearded]

Depends how badly I want the game. Say the next Fallout is being reviewed. I won't care what they give it - I will still buy it. I'll read the review to see what it has, but I won't care.

If I don't really know if I want a game or not, I read the reviews from multiple sites to make my opinion. Simply getting the opinion of one reviewer isn't enough for me to risk the 60 dollar investment.

 

[daveman247]

snip

Course not, im no zombie

I'll look at 3-4 reviews usually unless i know the game is a dead cert i'll like. Mostly ones with video reviews so i can see some gameplay. I'll then way up the pro's/ con's the reviews bring up and decide if i can put up with the flaws/ i'll get my monies worth.

Reviewers don't know what i like, i can't let them decide for me. I'd've missed out on hundreds of games if i did. Especially with their broken review system where anything below a 7 is bad.

TLDR: I used them to inform, rather than decide for me

 

[GasparNolasco]

When it comes to movie reviews I tend to respect the IMDb user rating -- users are usually sincere if they like a movie or not and professional movie reviewers are stupid and egocentrical trying too often to raise a point with their texts. So, if it's over 70 in IMDb, the movie is usually good enough for me (unless it's a genre I don't like).

Can't do the same with games though. User reviews are, too frequently, contaminated by fanboyism and nerdrage by the latest scandal (you can't take a sincere rating from any EA, Activision or Capcom game, for example).

Also three great games this year (Binary Domain, Warlock and Silent Hill Downpour) got weak Metacritic scores.
Profissional game reviews are more about popularity and advertising budged than actual quality nowadays. You can guess the rating of a game long before it is actually released... I mean, wanna bet Halo 4 will get a review score of 90+?

 

[Rose and Thorn]

I can tell if I will like a game before I play it or not. For the ones I am unsure of I go to youtube and see what some of my favorite people say about them.

I think it is best to hear opinions from people you respect and have a lot in common with, unless a reviewer tells me a game is very buggy, most of what a common reviewer has to say is just stupid opinionated bullshit.

Yes a review needs to be opinionated, but I am not going to a superficial website that gives games a rating out of 10, because lets be honest that is fucked up. I don't care about a general score that someone gathered from the reviews of ten other websites.

No, I am going to listen to a regular person on youtube who's job doesn't involve actually reviewing games and get there opinion. Some internet game reviewers are good i'll admit, but it's usually the ones from Indie sites. Not big names like Gamespot or IGN.

I used to really respect Gamespots team, but after the Jeff Gerstmann incident, I lost most respect I had for the videogame reviewing scene.

Don't even get me started on film reviews.

 

[lord.jeff]

I do but not so much from the score, reviews that give a good/bad break down are very helpful when deciding to get a game I'm on the fence about.

 

[Kestrel-6]

My view? play what you truly think is good. A week ago, I found a review for Iron Sky a few days i was going to see it, and he gave two stars, AKA a 4. I went there, and saw it, and I loved it. It is hilarious to me. So i went with what I thought was good, and I was rewarded with a brilliant experience.

So my advice? you think it's good, go for it.

 

[Ryuo]

I watch/read several reviews, but they seldom impact my decision to play the game in question.

However, there are cases in which several reviewers will make a remark on an aspect of the game and it may change my opinion even if I was dead set yes/no beforehand.

Then we come down to it being opinion, there have been games reviewed rather objectively with positive reviews, that I cannot stand, and vice-versa. I'm sure the same is true of everyone, though. 'Tis the nature of opinion.

 

[malestrithe]

Not really. It is nice to be exposed to different opinions about a game I've played, but knowing what Yahtzee, Jim Sterling, or anyone else thinks of a game has never stopped me from buying or even discouraged me to do so.

I've written reviews on and off line for a lot of places and what I'm doing is giving my opinion of certain games. Those opinions are filled with my personal biases, which you cannot escape no matter what. This whole objectively list positive and negative argument that exists online is bullshit. Positive and negatives are another way of saying what I like and what I don't like.

Whether you like my opinion or not does not really matter. All I am paid to do is tell you how I feel about a certain item and that is it.

 

[ClanCrusher]

Do reviews affect my opinions? All the time.

As much as I'd like to claim that I can perfectly shape and state my own opinions and be free from outside influences, the simple truth of the matter is that I can't possibly see everything about a certain game, movie, book, song, or other form of entertainment. Different reviewers with different styles and backgrounds offer different viewpoints that I might never have been able to discover on my own.

Case in point, just take a look at the Star Wars reviews done by Mr. Plinkett over on RedLetterMedia. His careful analysis of the prequel movies drastically changed the way I looked at them and gave me a greater respect for the original trilogy and what it accomplished.

 

[Yopaz]

To a small degree, sure. If a review point out an issue that I didn't pay attention to then that changes my mind about the game. Sometimes someone reviews a game and complains about features that don't bother me or that I find necessary, but sometimes reviews might change my mind a little.

 

[Nazulu]

I don't think it ever has. I usually find out information like if there is DRM and other shit they may turn me off it. Then I look at some game play vids to gain interest, or lose.