Jeff Gerstmann from Giantbomb always uses his honest opinion and I find his reviews very helpful. He was fired from gamespot for refusing to give a good review for Kane and Lynch and this helped to create Giantbomb.
What game reviewers can we trust anymore?
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One of my friends writes for All Age Gaming. They seem pretty decent.
I'll be honest, I don't "trust" reviews. But I trust word of mouth from people I know, and I don't really worry too much if I buy a dodgey game due to 7 day return policies.
If I don't like something, I'll know in a couple of hours, let alone 7 days.
I do read reviews, don't get me wrong, but everyone has an opinion and usually I won't agree with it. If someone says, "It has a shitty combat interface where you only need to use one move to win." that doesn't mean they're right.
It may just mean that they didn't find any reason to try other moves. I heard that exact line about Arkham Asylum. Not kidding.
I think reviews are great, but I also think you need to read them for enjoyment, not to find out what your opinion on a game should be.
I'll be honest, I don't "trust" reviews. But I trust word of mouth from people I know, and I don't really worry too much if I buy a dodgey game due to 7 day return policies.
If I don't like something, I'll know in a couple of hours, let alone 7 days.
I do read reviews, don't get me wrong, but everyone has an opinion and usually I won't agree with it. If someone says, "It has a shitty combat interface where you only need to use one move to win." that doesn't mean they're right.
It may just mean that they didn't find any reason to try other moves. I heard that exact line about Arkham Asylum. Not kidding.
I think reviews are great, but I also think you need to read them for enjoyment, not to find out what your opinion on a game should be.
I still trust X-play... Why the hell is everyone I know turning on it? As long as Adam Sessler is editor-in-chief I'll trust them. Other than that, I just go looking for independent reviews.RatRace123 said:
I don't really trust many reviewers, but I do generally trust Gametrailers.com, the reviewers at Official Australian Playstation Mag, Bajo and Hex from Good Game and of course, Yahtzee!
He does say what is good and what is bad, the Stalker one even included small details, the problem is that most of the time you still dont know much about the game, you can only truly understand the review AFTER playing the game.Vrach said:
Oh god when X Play was great, with the basic five star system, now I just go with gamefaq reviews, minor youtubers, and the crew of that guy with the glasses, mostly spoony.
I do the sameVrach said:
It's probably one of the reasons that he doesn't give numerical scores; a recognition that the overall feeling on the game is largely subjective.
I've likes a lot of games that it looks like he's hated, but the information he gives on the features are for the most part correct, and I find myself liking them despite the features he complains about as opposed to because of them.
To be honest, I've long since given up on reviewers anyway. A lot of my knowledge of new games comes from word of mouth and since I'm always strapped for cash, usually my friends will get most games before I intend to. This means I can just ask around my close circle of friends and get an idea for how the game is. Unfortunately, my friends are part of the "modern generation" of gamers, meaning this doesn't work for RPGs. If I want a new RPG, though, a quick glance over message boards/user submitted reviews/gameplay videos is usually good enough for me.
User submitted reviews give a better insight, because most of them don't thrive to be eloquent and use "words from the gamespot review generator". They forsake words like "fantastic" and instead discuss the actual mechanics of the game and WHY it's good. They usually take things to a much more informal level, the type that you might get as advice from a friend.
The only thing that this console generation has taught me is to be wary of the length of a game when buying on release. Army of Two (both games) were beaten in co-op within one evening with a friend (the first game was beaten twice) and although they were really fun, they were both a rental game. The same, unfortunately, goes for Heavy Rain (which I'll be borrowing from my friend or renting, since I doubt I'll play through it more than once (haters gonna hate)) and most generic mainstream shooters with no online component. Aside from that, I tend to like a lot of the games that I play and I rarely feel cheated out of my money if the game has decent length. There are maybe a handful of games that I bought and couldn't find the motivation to play through most of the game, which is a good sign.
User submitted reviews give a better insight, because most of them don't thrive to be eloquent and use "words from the gamespot review generator". They forsake words like "fantastic" and instead discuss the actual mechanics of the game and WHY it's good. They usually take things to a much more informal level, the type that you might get as advice from a friend.
The only thing that this console generation has taught me is to be wary of the length of a game when buying on release. Army of Two (both games) were beaten in co-op within one evening with a friend (the first game was beaten twice) and although they were really fun, they were both a rental game. The same, unfortunately, goes for Heavy Rain (which I'll be borrowing from my friend or renting, since I doubt I'll play through it more than once (haters gonna hate)) and most generic mainstream shooters with no online component. Aside from that, I tend to like a lot of the games that I play and I rarely feel cheated out of my money if the game has decent length. There are maybe a handful of games that I bought and couldn't find the motivation to play through most of the game, which is a good sign.
I like their 1 through 5 rating system. Then there is the fact they actually USE all 5 numbers. (X-Play Review System [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Play#Reviews])Goremocker said:
Also this "Innovation vs. Numeration [http://g4tv.com/videos/35298/sesslers-soapbox-innovation-vs-numeration/]"
My point exactly. So everyone who lost faith in X-Play is either insane or just hates G4.Silver Patriot said:
I review games myself for myself and I don't write or publish them because it is basically "Do I actually like this game? could it be fun?" things like that, which ends up in me liking games that others have said are absolutely terrible like SNIPER - Art of Victory