Review scores… what do you think of them?

Blah on “pro” game reviews. I’ll stick to user comments and blogs like Siliconera and Kotaku.

Reviews have their value,BUT theyre just opinions,same as if youre just sticking to comments on blogs, you just have to find some that agree with your taste.

For me its IGN and PSM magazine.

Assigning numbers or scores to games don’t make sense to me and I don’t do it unless I’m forced to. It’s too hard to rate games on an absolute scale. It’s like trying to score a dulce de leche cheesecake and a juicy plate of fried chicken and waffles. They’re two completely different things.

Well its never just a number,theres a written opinion that precedes these things.For me if theres anything I cant stand its a long winded 2-3 page reviews that either A) Just praise the game incessantly or B) Leave me annoyed at having read somethingand not coming away with a clear idea of what the reviewer thought of the game.

I think the short summary + # score is a good combination.If it was just the number you might not know if theres an aspect of the game youd be interested in,and if it was just a longer summary you might not have a clear idea of what the author thought of the game despite certain aspects they might of praised.

I hate numbers/letter system. People only seem to skip the text and go straight for the number.

For me, I like the words in a review. Reading their opinions let’s me see their stance on the game and everything. And makes me upset when I have the game and they say lies in their reviews.

Reading it whole also tells me how long they played the game. You can really catch them if they don’t mention a feature you can get later in the game. Tells me they only played a few hours or less…

Biased is also a problem I’m finding in the review or ones like X-Play that are tired of reviewing this type of game genre. Well then find someone else to review it. Or someone more knowledgable in the area. Izuna, my goodness, many people didn’t get the roguelike at all…

Eh, you should go easy on reviewers. They’re playing the game for only a little while before it comes out and have to score it. They have no idea how the game will look in a few weeks much less a few years. You can’t expect their opinion to represent the absolute view of history.

And you can never go with just one review source anyway. Any one review source is pretty useless. But if you go to a site that averages reviews like metacritic, reviews become useful.

If you have a friend whose tastes are just like yours and who knows like every game, great, you don’t need reviews. But if you really have no idea which games are good, why not look at a general list of the best reviewed games to help make your decision?

A few games I’ve picked up because they’ve gotten great reviews? Okami, Metal Gear Solid 2, God of War, Ninja Gaiden Black. Obviously, I’ve benefited from reading reviews and using them to help my purchasing decisions.

A majority of professional (re: paid) reviewers in both video game magazines and online video gaming sites are guilty of not really placing emphasis on their review but instead writing out a short, if not somewhat lengthy, defense narrative to justify their score of a given game. I’m the kind of person who doesn’t read a review at all until after I’ve finished a game or played about 75% of it to see where the critic and I agree or disagree; and if you do just that, odds are you’ll see that the critic either didn’t spend a lot of time with the game or didn’t find a way to get around a gameplay problem you easily overcame with ease. In truth, your opinion, whether it be in a blog of your own, a fansite, or word of mouth, has more validity than a 7.0 score of [insert game here] from most professional game reviewers.

Pass, Rent It, or Buy It.

That’s all there needs to be said.