Do Game Reviews Matter Much To You When Deciding Which Title To Buy?

[Blanka]

Hi Everyone. I hope this thread finds you all well.:)

Do the television shows, websites, or magazine reviews have much impact on your decision of the titles that you plan to buy? Myself, not really. Quite often games they review and dislike turn out to be games I love. What's your stand on the subject?


God Bless.
Blanka

[mrz84]

Reviews generally are ignored by me because I like to decide for myself based on my experience if I'll like a game, not on somebody else's opinion (no matter how good/bad it may be)

[Anarchy_Balsac]

Hi Everyone. I hope this thread finds you all well.:)

Do the television shows, websites, or magazine reviews have much impact on your decision of the titles that you plan to buy? Myself, not really. Quite often games they review and dislike turn out to be games I love. What's your stand on the subject?


God Bless.
Blanka


They used to, but as the years have gone by I've found greater dissonance between how they grade games, and how I enjoy them. 3D Dot Game Heroes was blasted by these non-gamer hacks for allegedly ripping off Zelda. To me, it's an obvious homage, but even if it WAS a rip off, so what? I grew up playing Battle Toads, an obvious TMNT rip off. Andthat's just ONE example.

[erm2003]

They don't typically but I still read them. Often it's just to get another perspective on the game even if I know I am going to buy it no matter what. Though I will admit if the rating is really low there is probably a good reason and that may persuade me not to buy it or at least wait for a price drop or to eventually find a used copy.

[SUCCESSOR]

When I plan to get a game I read reviews. Not just review articles but reviews from people who bought the game on amazon and the like. Usually the worst first. Flaws in a game are fine but you can tell from a review if something is outright unworthy of the time or money. There is nothing wrong with borrowing the opinions of others when you haven't had a chance to create your own especially if it involves money. I do miss the old days when I used to go down to the pawn shop and just pick games that looked or sounded cool and found a great many treasures(Zoop, ActRaiser, etc) but I also found a lot of duds.

[Blanka]

When I plan to get a game I read reviews. Not just review articles but reviews from people who bought the game on amazon and the like. Usually the worst first. Flaws in a game are fine but you can tell from a review if something is outright unworthy of the time or money. There is nothing wrong with borrowing the opinions of others when you haven't had a chance to create your own especially if it involves money. I do miss the old days when I used to go down to the pawn shop and just pick games that looked or sounded cool and found a great many treasures(Zoop, ActRaiser, etc) but I also found a lot of duds.Hi SUCCESSOR.:) We have kind of a quasi pawn shop where I live. They deal in new and used instruments, used video games, movies, etc. They have a healthy selection of titles from the snes right up to the ps3. I am so grateful for used titles and the "Greatest Hits" thing. I couldn't afford laying down $50-60 for each and every title I wanted if buying and selling them used for some stupid reason was prohibited by law.

[rock_nog]

Oddly enough, it depends on whether or not the reviews are good or bad. I tend to pay more attention to bad reviews - even if a game looks interesting, if the reviews describe it as a broken mess, I tend to avoid it. On the other hand, if a game gets good reviews, I tend not to pay attention - there are plenty of games with great reviews that I just never really got into. Not necessarily because they were bad, mind you, they just weren't my cup of tea for whatever reason. I just find that tastes are so varied and personal that you really can't tell if you're going to enjoy a game from reviews, and so I use them more to determine if the games actually function as intended. After that, it's up to you to decide whether or not that kind of game appeals to you.

[Ventus]

If its a game that I'm interested in I'll try to read some reviews before I think about sinking money into said game.
Most of the time though if the game is cheap enough I'll just buy and added it to my collection of random games.

[Jirin]

The less I know about a game, the more it affects my decision.

Like, a Tales game gets bad reviews that all say "Oh it's so cliche and Japanese!" Who cares they're all like that and I liked the previous ones. But if there's a game I've never heard of and a lot of people are saying it's really great, that's going to get my attention.

[Aliem]

The less I know about a game, the more it affects my decision.

Like, a Tales game gets bad reviews that all say "Oh it's so cliche and Japanese!" Who cares they're all like that and I liked the previous ones. But if there's a game I've never heard of and a lot of people are saying it's really great, that's going to get my attention.
Jirin sums up my feelings nicely. If it's a franchise I know and enjoy, I'll probably get it regardless (For example, despite shitty reviews, both professionally and fan-written, I liked Final Fantasy XIII; I think it had a pretty damn awesome story, and while the linearity was stupid, I could look past it). Likewise, a game I probably never would have bought, Ni No Kunai, only got my attention after reviewers called it the return to grace for the jRPG. They were right, by the way :p


Though, of course, there are the odd games that had both low review scores and I had not had prior experience with that I would up just loving. The first seven Dot Hack games are brilliant, and Radiata Stories is still one of my favorite games of all time.


So, I guess, to answer the question: I consider reviews on new IPs or development studios I'm not familiar with... Otherwise, I ignore them. I don't need some guy at IGN to tell me the next Naughty Dog game is awesome, or that Just Dance 58 is garbage. Reviews are only good for finding otherwise hard-to-find gems.