do reviews rule you?

We all know that video game reviews are a really good way to figure out if a game is worth playing or not, but it's really crazy how some people take them so seriously. I can understand how they can save people money, but why would you let someone else tell you if the game is bad. Personally I have to play it myself to see if the review matches up, I've been call crazy for wasting my money, but like I've said it's my money so piss off. I just want to know how trustworthy game reviews are and if they should be determiners on deciding if a game is bad or not.

I don't ever pay much attention to reviews, because they have to review tons of games per week, and can only devote so much time to a game. They can't get a good grip of a game in that amount of time, in my opinion, and they just base their reviews on a small amount of the game.

Plus, most games these days look and play too similar. So, one review can work for a lot of games!

I read game reviews, but I never take their word for the game's worth.
If a game looks interesting, even in the least, I'll play it for myself.

Humans have opinions, not all opinions are the same.

Exactly, but I don't understand how some people can take them so seriously. I can understand if you're deciding to buy the game or not but thinking the game is bad because of two or three people think is unreasonable at least rent it. I know that this topic has been doing countless of time.

I read/watch reviews to confirm my fears in a certain game. If I was never told that Duke Nukem Forever had regnerating health and linear gameplay all while implementing a two weapon system, I probably would have bought it and then get seriously pissed off afterwards. I still might check it out, but I'm not going to put very much money in it.

Lol matter of fact one of my friends was talking about how bad that game is and that all the fans were letdown by it. Its not like I'm against reviews, but when you tell somebody else that something is bad because of the reviews(and that's your only argument) and you didn't play it yourself then it's a bad thing.

Getting into the reasons would be on the subject of sociology, human behavior and human history.
But to be blunt and short: Humans are stupid and don't like to think for themselves anymore.

I read more critic reviews to see if the good half gave a good or a bad rating. After that I check other people's experience with the game. I think a little and make my decision afterwards

e.g.
I bought Duke Nukem Forever and a shit ton of people say it was a terrible FPS game. I'm enjoying the fuck out of it right now because, shit son, it's Duke Nukem, not a modern-day-hurrdurr-realistic-and/or-futuristic shooter.

IMO, most reviews are a joke. they are just another form of marketing paid for by the game makers. there are a few independant and player reviews, but any publication that relies on selling ad space for revinue is unlikely to do anything to piss off their source of income.

i mostly only watch zero-punctuation. yahtzee focuses on the negative parts of games rather than about how pretty it looks.

I do video game reviews and play every game I review inside and out and give it a fair judgement. The review depends on the reviewer. If he/she knows what the hell they are talking about their review will sway my purchase. If it's just some guy in gamepro talking about how great every game is then no.

Most reviewers let a certain mainstream conjecture influence their own opinions. If everyone says a game is good then the reviewer will approach the review more optimistically then if he never heard anything about the game.

But the best reviews you could get on a game is the one you give it yourself. Unsure if a game is good? Play it.

I base a game on peoples take on it, my take on it, and magazines take on it. Ive passed up on some "good" games because of what I thought of games.

For example
People were saying "Brink" was going to be good, yet some people were saying it was terrible. So I decided to buy it and it turned out to be really good.
Moral, Check your research, if all else fails. Rent or buy the game for yourself.
Youtube is good too.

Only if im completely unsure about the game but most reviews are based on what the reviewer likes and dislikes. A pool of opinions isnt worth jumping into unless they are well known for giving good reviews.

Yahtzee isn't a reviewer, he's a critic. It's his job to find something bad in a game and drag it's ugly hide into the sunlight so all may witness it's horridness. What I like about Yahtzee is that he knows what many game designers seem to forget. "Games are meant to be fun", a point he clearly makes in his Saints Row 2 video.

Since I have a tight budget and there's no such thing as "rentals" in my country.

I usually do:
-Check reviews on gamesfaqs, Read the highest rated, the lowest rated, and one random middle rated.
-try to find video reviews.

and then make a decision based on that.

if I really want a game I wont care what the Reviews say, alot of websites I used to visit for the scores lost my trust for their inconsistencies in the reviews.
But I am a college student living on my own so I try to make my buys count.


Then again steam always has awesome sales soooo

Yea I do depend on renting games more than anything, but it's mostly for the fact that I don't see the point in buying a big game like infamous when I know that I'm only going to play it once or twice and never play it again. I usually end up buying rpgs or something that I constantly rent.

I stick to the "big ones"

That are normally the games I know will have replay value RPG/GTA types & or my favorite series

I mostly just read watch reviews out of curiosity to see what they thought

I don't give a shit about single reviewers. I go to gamespot and I've learned to pay attention to, but not take seriously, the review given by that site. What I care about is the collective view of the people. Sample size should be above 100 for me to take the people's view into consideration. For example, the 360 version of Duke Nukem Forever received a score of 3/10 from gamespot. In addition to that, 642 users gave the game an average of 5.3/10. Apparently, the people are more lenient, but the stance is the same: the game fucking sucks. I read about it on other sites like Blistered Thumbs and the view is consistent. Hence, I won't be wasting money on this game. In essence, I only care about the collective opinion of the masses.

Out of all of my games, I only have 3 regrets:
Demon's Souls - I agree with the positive reviews, but the stat system pissed me off.
FF13 - People liked it, I got it. I fucking hate it; too god damn boring.
Alpha Protocol - I should've listened to the reviews.

I look at them if I'm unsure sometimes but mostly I don't pay much attention to them.

I don't read reviews. People like different things. What they find crap, I find enjoyable. When it comes to video games, the only opinion that matters is mine.