superfro

Do you find reviews influence the decisions you make regarding gaming? Even on the most basic level, do you make purchase/rental decisions based on reviews?

I would imagine that most of the folks on here are pretty independent thinkers, and probably reserve their final judgement from their own experiences. However, with that being said, I'd be lying if I said there haven't been times that I've both completely written off games as well as had an increased interest in others based off of a review or two I caught.

What impact do game reviews have on your gaming purchase/rental/playing life?

Groucho

If a game is universally panned via reviews and word-of-mouth, chances are that I'm not going to give it a look.

Michael Corvin

Yeah it has to be universally panned for me to pass up on something I have interest in. If anything it just changes the timing window of my purchase from release day to price drop day.

Then again, there are exceptions. No amount of negative reviews could sway me from Lost: Via Domus, which was clearly a $10 game dressed up as a $60 title. Got burned on that one. I think lwig has a similar story for Rock Revolution. Nobody is immune.

Raul3

I'm more influenced by videos and stuff like that. Sometimes I see a teaser for a game and I know that I'll enjoy it.

For games that have been already released I checked sites like metacritic or gamerankings just to get a general feel of the game. But even then I've bought games with a ranking a little bit below 80%...

fumanstan

For those that buy dozens of games a year, I'm sure reviews are less of a concern. I only buy a few games a year, typically only the big releases, so reviews mean a lot to me, especially since I don't have a whole lot of time to dedicate to games these days. So games that get mixed reviews and are only in the 70% range usually will fall off my radar, where as only games that get solid reviews all around get my attention.

PixyJunket

NEVER.

PopcornTreeCt

Pretty much always.

This is a $59.99 game we're talking about. I can't be buying it based on screenshots or cover art.

Decker

Me too. I need some guidance with these purchases. Sometimes I might ignore a negative review or two, but if the trend is pretty negative, I won't buy it. Sometimes I pull up Metacritic on my cell phone while in Target to see if a clearanced game is worth getting.

Groucho

I'm sure that we can all name universally well-reviewed games that we didn't like (GTA IV comes up a lot). But how about the opposite? Is there an example of a game that was universally panned that actually turned out to be good?

orangecrush

With the sheer number of games released for various systems and my cheapness, I do use reviews to get an idea if I might like a game. I am generally less concerned with the score than I am with the description of the game play though. I will use gamerankings as a way to expose myself to games I might not have known about.

DVDChris

Yeah, reviews definitely influence my purchases. I was interested in Shaun White snowboarding (cause I'm having SSX withdrawals) but the reviews were just terrible. So I passed.

However, Tecmo Bowl DS got pretty poor reviews, but nothing was going to stop me from getting it.

orangecrush

I think that sequel fatigue can skew scores lower on otherwise good games. The Mario Party series comes to mind. 4 got very good reviews, 8 got mediocre reviews. However, I don't think someone who had never played the series before would think 8 is worse than 4.

Decker

I don't know about universally panned, but I think a lot of folks here liked both Saints Row 2 and Crackdown despite less-than-stellar reviews.

Raul3

The Simpson game. Got 70% in GameRankings and I loved it.

fujishig

I actually will read reviews to find out why they rate them a certain way, instead of just looking at scores. I also try to monitor message boards, which often have at least some die-hard fans of a game that can explain what they like about it. And then there are those games that reviews don't matter to me, since I know I'll like the game because of the license or premise. And then there are those games that I only noticed after someone raved about it on a message board.

Even if you're an independent thinker, there's no way to try out every game to see if you like it, even if you take out the cost factor. At some point, you have to take other people's opinions into account, whether it's reviews or Pixy ranting about the latest rogue-like game.

Groucho

Metacritic numbers:

Saint's Row 2: 81%
Crackdown: 83%

I would consider these be positively reviewed.

Raul3

I would also say that sometimes I'm more influenced by what I read in this forum than by any external review.

PixyJunket

Almost any 2D game on the PS1 that wasn't SotN.

superfro

This is the big point for me. I get so irritated when people get wrapped up in scores. I think for me, I'm much more open to discussions of games (the 1UP podcasts of old for instance) where people have a dialogue about the game, over the interpretation of a single dude. I still like to read reviews, but usually I make sure to take them with a grain of salt, and always get a second or third opinion.

My biggest factor when looking at reviews is seeing the estimated play time for the reviewer. I already buy way too many games, and prefer to rent most games that I want to play, but know are quick enough to do in a limited time, or won't have a replay factor. That's the biggest thing I look for anymore, as I feel I'll play almost anything regardless of what is said about it.

sracer

No. Never. No influence whatsoever.

I'm am such a unique gamer that I've never found a review that connected with how I view games.

Decker

I'm surprised SR2 got overall numbers that good. I read some pretty negative ones and some big magazine listed it as one of the year's worst games.

RichC2

Same, I can't wait for Big Rigs collectors edition.

PC Edition maybe?

edstein

I always look at reviews. There are just too many games out there and I can't afford to try them all only to find out 80% are crap. I try to stick with the cream of the crop. I usually go be user reviews before I go with mainstream reviews. Seems to me you get a better hands on review. I find the reviews on VGTalk to be pretty down to earth. I don't think those guys have any hidden agends and don't seem to sway to one console over the other.

maxfisher

Earth Defense Force 2017 - 69% on Metacritic

I logged more hours on that game than I've put into anything else on my 360. While it had some issues, I found it to be ridiculously fun and addictive.

As for the original question, incredibly positive reviews can cause me to check out a game I wasn't interested in, but that's about it. I should probably let reviews play a bigger role in my decisions, as I've got quite a few games that had mediocre reviews because I thought I'd like them, only to find out they did actually suck. Most recently, this happened when I dropped $60 on Lord of the Rings: Conquest and $40 on Time Crisis 4 and wish I hadn't bought either of them.

superfro

You know...I've been racking my brain to think of a bad-mediocre reviewed game that I actually enjoyed quite a bit and couldn't think of anything, but EDF 2017 is a great mention!

I found myself also playing that game for way long than I should've. I just kept thinking to myself that I should hate so many things about that game, but I couldn't stop playing it. The cheese factor totally worked in a good way for that game.