[Cobra]

I found myself reading a recently-released game review and it made me realize I that I hadn't read a "professional" game review in quite some time.

In the past several years I've come to notice that almost every single game reviewer I used to read has become increasingly *****y about whatever game they're reviewing. Most don't seem to compare good and bad of a decent game; they zero in on whatever problems that most people don't notice and complain about it in the entire review. And they're so biased. If a game doesn't look absolutely perfect, they complain about how the graphics are shoddy. If there's a quirk in the AI that can be exploited (because heaven forbid nobody do the thing they've done since 3D action and stealth games were conceived), the AI has a huge problem.

I dunno. I'm pretty sure game reviewers are losing the ability to look at things objectively and instead whine and ***** about something because it wasn't exactly to their expectations. I've thoroughly enjoyed games that reviewers at places like Gamespot and IGN gave mediocre reviews.

Am I the only one thinking this?

[Scourge of Ages]

You may need to just find a different source of reviews.
I still subscribe to PC Gamer, and really enjoy the entire magazine, including the reviews. They really do seem unbiased, point out good and bad things, and recommend games if you like something specific about them.
Also TotalBiscuit.

[deathspeed]

I hadn't thought about it until you mentioned it, but I no longer regularly read reviews from the likes of Gamespot and IGN.  I tend to gravitate more toward real user experiences, such as Steam reviews or things I read at HLP and elsewhere.  I have never had top-end hardware, so I never cared what Crysis looked like maxed out, and like you said, I can enjoy a game that the "pros" don't care for. 

[Klaustrophobia]

I have never read professional reviews.  In video games, or anything else.  They almost never agree with the majority of actual gamers.  Go to metacritic and see how many you can find with the critic and player scores close to each other. 

[Ghostavo]

Ever since the "gamers are dead" debacle, I've only read Steam reviews.

[Flipside]

To be honest with you, the problem is what I call the 'Catholic Church' problem.

What I mean by this is that, back in the 1970s, Irish Comedians were making jokes about certain Priests and other public figures doing very unpleasant things. Now they are saying sarcastically 'Oh look, that thing we were making jokes about for over 30 years because we knew it was happening, was happening'.

Now, I'm not trying to compare the behaviour of the Computer Gaming industry with those acts, not in the slightest, but we've got a market that advertises in the magazines that review its games, that have almost monopolized a 'buyer beware' attitude on refunds that completely removes almost any quality requirement from the manufacturer, run systems that give you no choice but to share information with their servers, which circumnavigate the data protection laws, and even are attempting to normalize an attitude towards resale that means that your property is never truly your own.

To summarize, the Gaming Industry has been allowed to run rings around conventional consumer rights for years, and they quite firmly have their claws in the 'professional' gaming sites and magazines, this is why I get annoyed when people make a fuss about things like Gamergate, it's pretty irrelevant on the grand scale of things.

When I want to find out what a game is like the best way, I have found, is to watch someone else play it on youTube or the like. It works for someone like me, who doesn't mind waiting till a price drops before buying a game (....but GTA 5 is coming out this month... and it tests me...). This has led to some good buys for me, such as Minecraft and Banished, and to be fair it's also led to some really bad choices, such as Towns, but that was more the matter of the developer pulling the rug out mid development than the game being 'bad' per-se.

[Shivan Hunter]

When I want to find out what a game is like the best way, I have found, is to watch someone else play it on youTube or the like. It works for someone like me, who doesn't mind waiting till a price drops before buying a game (....but GTA 5 is coming out this month... and it tests me...). This has led to some good buys for me, such as Minecraft and Banished, and to be fair it's also led to some really bad choices, such as Towns, but that was more the matter of the developer pulling the rug out mid development than the game being 'bad' per-se.

I also tend to use Let's Plays as surrogate reviews, since that way you actually see the game being played. I have a few LPers I generally trust, but LPs in general are not immune to shady marketing deals (e.g. Microsoft's xbone promotion). Just something to keep in mind.

There's also the question of whether a Let's Play is available for a specific game - some developers/publishers are actively hostile towards uploading footage of their games, and anyone can exploit youtube's hilariously broken copyright takedown system.

[Mr. Vega]

Ever since the "gamers are dead" debacle, I've only read Steam reviews.

Which is hilarious, because neither Gamasutra nor Leigh have ever actually done straight up reviews of recently released games (though I would surely read them if they did).

I stopped reading mainstream game review sites a while ago. They seemed too cookie cutter and unwilling to state a real opinion on anything for a while now (though there still are a few particular writers like Kevin VanOrd who I respect). Or maybe they were always like that but I expected more as I got older. Nowadays I rely on a few trusted indie critics like Steerpike who have tendencies I know. His site Tap Repeatedly has a nice small group of critics, if you're mainly into story-centric and indie games.

[Flipside]

It is an advantage if you are into the non-AAA titles, since you are far more likely to get an honest opinion of those.

I also occasionally use Zero Punctuation as a good source of reviews, for one he approaches almost everything from an initial position of contempt, which helps level the playing field, and for two, whilst his tastes in gaming are actually pretty removed from mine I can't actually deny the issues that make him hate a game I like. He is NSFW and sometimes the reviews are a little too comic over content, but in his own way he is pretty reliable.

[MP-Ryan]

I haven't read a formal game review in ages. I tend to trust word of mouth from people I know far more, coupled with user reviews, Steam reviews, aggregators, and the occaisional trip to PC Gamer who I still mostly trust. Mostly. And I watch some ZP for both amusement and I for action, though I've disagreed with Ben on several titles.

This is one of the reasons I delay most game purchases until there are crazy sales - ample time for general impressions to form and bugs to be fixed.

[Scotty]

I used to disagree a lot with Zero Punctuation until I realized that he doesn't tend to point out anything good about a game unless it's actually really good.  He's much more of focused on the negative aspects, because those are the funny parts.

I still disagree sometimes.

[AdmiralRalwood]

I'm not sure how to answer the question posed in the topic when I never started.

I mean, I'll occasionally search for the name of the game to gauge the general tenor of people's opinions, but mostly I don't care what random people on the internet thought about a game; it won't tell me if I'll enjoy it. Gameplay footage on youtube is good; finding somebody who already owns it so I can try it myself is better. Of course, nowadays I have such a backlog of unplayed games that if I want to try something new I have dozens (...okay, hundreds) of games that I already own and have never played, so I can't even recall the last time I looked up a youtube video of someone playing a game. I think the last gameplay footage I went looking for was... well, FSO, but not counting that, then the last time I can remember doing it was... Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Technically only looked at the gameplay footage in the trailer that was on Steam, but if it hadn't been there I would've gone looking anyway, so I suppose it counts.

[666maslo666]

Me neither. Aggregate ranking like Steam reviews or Metacritic (a lot of people ranking eliminates personal bias) and Youtube playthroughs (you see how the game actually looks in action - the next best thing to actually playing it) are the way to go.

[Luis Dias]

I agree with the consensus here, which seems to be rightfully unanimous.

[karajorma]

I used to disagree a lot with Zero Punctuation until I realized that he doesn't tend to point out anything good about a game unless it's actually really good.  He's much more of focused on the negative aspects, because those are the funny parts.

I still disagree sometimes.

I'll disagree with Yahtzee about a fair few games but I do agree that he always comes at a game with a unbiased starting opinion. Admittedly that opinion is "This game is probably going to be ****, now impress me" but at least it's fair.

[Bobboau]

I never used gamereviews. thoguh I have found zero punctuation to be quite entertaining in a 'parody of games' sense.

[Lorric]

I will occasionally read so called professional reviews, and sometimes do it simply to see what other people think of a game I already own rather than to determine if I should own a certain game. But my go-to source of information these days is definitely actual gamers, and while I'll read their reviews too, let's play footage is easily my favourite source of information on games I want to learn about.

[Luis Dias]

Damn I don't know ZP, now all of these comments about him got me interested.

[karajorma]

If you're going to start watching Zero Punctuation, I'd advise picking the oldest game on his list you didn't particularly like.

[castor]

I never thought game reviews good for finding the best games, but they do help in avoiding the absolute disasters.
Reviewers tend to get impressed by things that are irrelevant to me, then ignore the actual interesting aspects. Yeah, don't read them much these days.