Honestly, I Can’t Trust Video Game Reviews Anymore

Jamie writes: "I might be late to the party on how most of the gaming community feels towards game reviews and how the hierarchy of the video game media goes about presenting their opinions on blockbuster games. Maybe I've shielded myself from the inevitable truth, publishers like their games to do well and will shove money down every avenue to see it happen."

[TheSuperior]

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

[FlipSwitch]

Also lets not forget how Microsoft were shamelessly paying Youtubers for positive feedback.

Not sure how anyone can support them with the torrent of dodgy things they have done and tried to do.

[DJustinUNCHAIND]

I'm sure Sony has never done anything similar.

I guess their checks probably bounced.

[Bansai]

Oh boy, here we go again... we can't have even one news without console wars.

Anyway, as for the article itself, I agree wholeheartedly with the author, reviews these days aren't really too trustworthy.

[D-riders]

I had to respond why do people think a mulitnational billion dollar company is broke. maybe its because ms is smart and know that alot of their follower like that they have money in various parts of their company. So they through number like we spent a billion dollars on exclusives. well if they spent a billion how much did sony spend with have way more exclusive third party contracts and playsstaiton VR Ijs. im tired of people thinking MS invest all this money into their system when they dont. hell nintendo and sony invest more into their systems than MS. jsut look at the amount of games from first party studios compared to MS. this gen you have already gotten mutliple first party games of the same game from MS(cough Forza) . Ijs

[rdgneoz3]

@Duck MS and Machinima had marketing partnership to promote xbone at the time. Machinima (which they paid for the promotion) taking the fall and MS claiming they didn't know about the confidentiality crap after they broke FTC rules (”When there exists a connection between the endorser
and the seller of the advertised product that might materially affect the weight or credibility of the endorsement
(i.e., the connection is not reasonably expected by the audience), such connection must be fully disclosed"), doesn't mean they're not guilty.

OT: Take reviews with a grain of salt. Watch some gameplay videos of the game to see if it works for you.

[solar]

never, EVER, listen to what a publication tells you what to think. you listen to the people who play the games. never understood the "i have to buy it the day it comes out!!" craze. the game will still be available a week later.

[Bimkoblerutso]

This is really what I struggle with. Actual scores and subjectivity aside, it has gotten to the point now that these publications are fleecing over more objective issues - like game breaking bugs, glitches, frame rate issues, lack of content, etc. - just to keep the hype high for the day one release.

I understand I'm going to disagree with a review score from time to time (and it seems to happen more and more these days), but a review should STILL mention, regardless of anything else, issues that are going objectively affect the consumers that are going to be playing a game.

[jwillj2k4]

Whats funny to me is that they the reviews are mostly checklists of 'does it meet the criteria for what a game is supposed to be in terms of longevity, content, online, multiplayer' and nothing about the pure fun factor.

I fired up SSF (sega saturn emulator) and played a few old school rpgs and arcade type games (skiing, snowboarding, track and field, etc). You can see they focused on the fun factor of the game which makes it easy to overlook the glitches and what not. Something I feel has been forgotten for years.

[solar]

totally agree mates. Money, has ruined gaming. every time big money gets into anything, the quality of the product goes down. i hate it.

[3-4-5]

* I trust my own taste & instincts over anything anybody else says.

I like what I like and I don't really care if other people don't like the game I'm playing.

I don't play games to please other people's ego's.

* Bad news & negativity is selling better than sex right now, so that is what is being pushed even when there isn't anything factually bad.

They just make half the crap up.

Most reviews don't even review 30% of the game.

They never mentioned the specifics of anything, yet criticize everything as if they know all there is to know.

* "Journalists" have become to arrogant and self obsessed acting like their opinion is actually of any value compared to any other person.

Most of them are pathetic whiners & arrogant narcissists anyways.

[garrettbobbyferguson]

"yet criticize everything as if they know all there is to know"

I would argue that reviewers don't actually criticize enough, and what they do criticize is pointless. Like Adam Sessler and that bros before hoes garbage. Meanwhile reviewers are throwing out 10s for games like Fallout which crash multiple times in the first hour, look terrible, have mediocre story, etc.

[Hereiamhereibe2]

@garretbobbyferguson
Fallout 4 has never crashed on me or anyone I know, this is the kind of thing we are talking about dude! Journalists and majority of Commenters are one in the same person. Some guy like you 'thinks' he knows something about a game, gets really agitated that other people are excited for something and literally CANNOT stop themselves from jumping on the internet and throwing there opinions around like its cold hard fact.

[SourtreeDing]

i never trusted them.. i just buy the game by what i see from previews and if it looks interesting and i like what i see i buy it.

[jocomat9]

Then your risking buying games like evolve (no content) and supporting that idea whether you know it or not.You gotta have some knowledge of what you buy so we can vote with our wallets and possibly shape the gaming industry for the better.

[SourtreeDing]

@Jocomat9

youre Wrong..

i bought destiny Vanilla Day one everyone say it sucked not enough content.. i loved the game i thought its had enough content in it.. played 400 hrs of that game.. ppl on the internet are just cry babies and think they are entitle to an opinion on every product..

going by reviewers opinions from a game mean nothing.. to me its just one person..

and i do vote with my WALLET BUT IF I THINK I WILL HAVE FUN WITH A GAME THEN I WILL BUY IT

[jocomat9]

I am not wrong. i said your "risking" that is what your doing by not being knowledgeable about your purchases. destiny didnt have real story so it wasn't not enough for a 60 dollar purchase. But it was worth it to you in the long run. you still supported that practice by buying it whether u liked it or not. Then selling you the rest of story(or the real story) through dlc. But evolve was worse so i used that as an example.

Garden warfare is only online and had no story and was 40 bucks. I put close to 1000 hours into it. And DLC was all free. That was the proper way to do it and that what we should support. Your wrong 8).

[OB1Biker]

I don't get why gamers would trust people they don't know and specially why everyone is obsessed with the scores. Last year got even more ridiculous with for example, some of those unable to pass the first level in BloodBorne and calling out the game for it or the now famous 'uncharted veteran' preview of 'uncharted 4'. Some of them try to do a good job informing gamers but a lot are making complete jokes of reviews and they got to start ditching their random 'scores' and focus on the games instead of writing sort of essays pushing their opinions they try to present as facts.

[Bigpappy]

I don't buy games by review score. Had no idea what any reviewer gave fallout. But it's one of the best games I have played this Gen. I really like Bethesda RPG's. I can 5ake my time and immerse myself into the world, divert from my mission and get distracted. Yet focus on building whatever skills or accomplishments tickle my fancy.

This article is on a good subject, but defending an out wire like 3/5 as for and excellent Fallout game doesn't sell. Because they are biased towards F4, does mean their assessment of the 3/5 is wrong. As far as RPG'so go, F4 is amount the best.

[uth11]

I've seen too many 9+ games that bored me, and 5's and 6's that I really enjoy to take reviews too seriously

[SCW1982]

Love how this guy refers to him self as a journalist. Ha ha oh the irony.

[the_mack_attack3]

Irony? I'm not speaking for everyone. Very easy to distinguish between well known established reviewers and the rest of us who feed on scraps. Same way you can distinguish between someone who is making a point or trolling hint hint.

[ReesesPuffs]

Personally I enjoyed the article you wrote. Definitely raises points a lot of us as gamers tend to overlook, especially towards how reviewers may have potentially viewed Fallout 4 with bias and may have overlooked a lot of problems the game suffers from. I mean did I play a different game from everyone else? The game is poorly optimized on consoles and PC, low textures, frame rate drops, glitches that prevent missions from being finished, overall small map size, and load times everywhere. Don't get me wrong I like the game but it doesn't deserve anywhere near the praise it's been receiving. The point I'm makining is It's important that everyone finds an opportunity to form their own opinion instead of letting reviewers do it for them or in the end they may overlook a game they would have otherwise loved.

[SCW1982]

And here is where he gets butt hurt folks. Fix the grammar in your the last sentence of your opinion piece. No trolling involved just think it's funny that you view yourself as a journalist when clearly the article is referring to rumors and there are no faqs save for Gerstmans story which we all new anyway. This article is an opinion and there was no journalism involved. Don't call yourself a journalist just cause you have a keyboard and opinion.

[antz1104]

Anyone who has to jump into a thread on the internet to defend their own article is trying too hard.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Welcome to the club. We've been established for quite some years now.

[ZaWarudo]

I stopped doing that after IGN gave God Hand a 3/10

Man, i probably missed out on so many potentially great PS2 games because they didn't get a score higher than a 7/10 from IGN, GameInformer and above a 3/5 from X-Play.

God, I'm ashamed to admit that i even listened to X-play. They were the worst of the bunch, that Adam Sessler guy was always bias against jrpgs.

[DragonKnight]

Remember when Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction had points taken off for having too much weapon variety? XD

**EDIT** I only ever trusted Reviews on the Run (Judgement Day in the U.S.) With Victor Lucas and Tommy Tallarico. You won't find more unbiased reviewing anywhere else. Tommy doesn't do reviews anymore, but he was the best. He hated JRPGs but I'll never forget how he, despite hating the genre itself, gave Final Fantasy X a perfect score. He made it clear that even though the game wasn't for him, he could see the high quality in the game and that fans would love it. That's a reviewer.

Look up his review of High Heat Baseball on youtube. Frickin' hilarious how pissed he gets at such a broken game and how he yells at Victor for giving it a "way too high" score of 4/10.

[Kreisen]

It doesnt take a genius to see how fishy it is when every game with a big publisher behind it gets a 9/10 now.

Ive been through 3 console generations and usually whenever a new transition happens scores basically ''reset'' so to speak. This gen, eventhough we had practically nothing but HD remakes for the first year all you heard from critics was ''groundbreaking this'' and ''sets a new standard that''.

[TransientDreamer]

"Take journalist Jeff Gerstmann’s termination from Gamespot some years back, one that received plenty of coverage from other gaming outlets due to the supposed reason of dismissal, his reluctance to give an Eidos Interactive game a better score; at this time, the publisher had plenty of advertising money in Gamestop."

Jesus, this is the only example these conspiracy theorists cling to.

There's no conspiracy. Publishers aren't paying journalists. Journalists are gamers like the rest of us, and they have varying opinions, just like the rest of us. Why is this concept so hard to grasp for people?

[johndoe11211]

You are either massively delusional or defending a practice you are involved in.

[TransientDreamer]

I'm delusional to not believe gaming journalism is corrupt because of an incident that occurred 9 years ago? Or because I don't accuse the industry of corruption because a reviewer has an opinion of a game that differs from my own?

That's all it boils down to.

[DragonKnight]

@Transient: Look up the Halo 3 swag bags, specifically what Dean Takahashi had to say about it. Or there was that guy who was fired from Eurogamer for exposing how Sony tried getting positive press for the PS3 by getting journos to tweet how much they wanted one for a chance to win one, or the entirety of the indie games scene. There's plenty of proof for you online, just look.

[Pozzle]

Its hardly a "conspiracy". Just business. Hell, it happens everywhere. Not only in gaming. For example, I used to work at a pet store where the big-name dog food brands would pay the stores millions to advertise their brand. And employees had to promote them to customers...even though the dog food they sold was generally average-to-terrible quality. An employee could even be fired if they were caught saying another smaller brand was better/healthier.

[SlightlyRetarted]

They may not pay them directly but game adds on gaming sites are borderline. If gaming site get's 20000 for an add for a game. If you slam publishers flag ship game, you can be sure they are not coming back with any add money next time.

[Duke19]

But who will tell us what to like then?

[Rimeskeem]

Youtubers that aren't payed o review products

[Wingsfan24]

LOL, the Youtubers take part in ad deals a whole hell of a lot more than websites do. The only websites that even get offered these deals are sites like IGN, Gamespot, Polygon etc. If you're going to advertise your game, Youtube is the way to go now if you're not going to a major news outlet.

If you don't think those kind of deals are going down behind the scenes with Youtubers with audiences of 50,000+ subs, you better do some research.

[Duke19]

I was being sarcastic haha. People take ANY reviews too seriously imo

[SlightlyRetarted]

Well, i would believe a person who judges a game based on a twitch stream. They are like so professional that they can SEE how tight controls are in a game. Just wow!

[sullynathan]

Look at the score for every Beth game and look at the score for other games that do things just as badly. This should tell you not to trust video game reviewers.

[Nivekki]

I trust game reviewers a lot more than I trust you. You don't even play the games you say you like, how do I know you've even played the games you don't?

[stalepie]

It seems like some customer reviews out there are paid off too or at least doing the positive reviews for the freebies. I see it more in the tech reviews of various gadgets on Amazon than games and entertainment, but it might still be there.

For instance, this guy when he reviews headphones...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pd...

he uses the same template for various songs on many of them, copying and pasting the same words to describe each phone's characteristics on that one particular track. Is it deceptive? Is he doing it to get free stuff? that's what I wondered.

Many unboxing videos are that way on YouTube. Probably obvious to everyone. but it's hard to tell the difference between someone who's genuinely excited by their new Atlus Collector's Edition or if it's an ad. Or both, at once.

It's like those recent episodes on South Park where the ads are getting smarter ( S19e08 - 010). I recently volunteered for a junk mail filtering program in Outlook.com called Microsoft Spam Fighters where I help determine which spam is really spam or not. I feel like the character in those episodes getting tested.

You also have to keep in mind that some stories might be written by algorithm, either now or in the future (eventually):

http://www.wired.com/2012/0...

[BattleTorn]

I did a video myself of my DIY PS4 cooler (a laptop cooling pad) ... I liked it, it made things quieter.

After a long while, I got an e-mail from Nyko asking if I'd review theirs. (no offer for it to be provided, mind you)

I'm sure it's a similar case, if you do it enough they'll eventually provide the product for publicity

[stalepie]

I think a lot of those reviews are legitimate, or mostly so... the people may not be overtly, consciously giving a good review to receive more products to review. But it probably at least slips a little bias in without a person's realizing or wanting to own up to... And sometimes people do give negative reviews too of stuff they receive for free, of course. Like this guy did not like the Walkman Sony sent him, which he makes clear Sony sent him: https://www.youtube.com/wat...
Perhaps he hasn't received much else or anything else from Sony to review now though.

A corporation like Sony might say they like the honesty (whether good or bad) because it helps them improve their products.

[assdan]

I'm gonna be honest, when I see a review below a 6, I usually assume it's for attention. That's just how the scales works for games. I'm not saying it's smart, but you have to take it for what it is. Maybe review scores are a little stupid, but if you know how the system works, it's not hard to follow.

[stalepie]

There used to be more variety in the scales (less groupthink), as each publication had different standards. Stuff like Metacritic and the internet in general have sewn it all together so if someone gives something a 5 and truly think it's average (middle of the road) it makes it look like he's doing it for attention.

But he *should* stick his neck out even if everyone does assume he's doing it for attention. He should be honest..

[franwex]

A six sometimes is spot on though. Destiny received a lot 6 or below, so are all sites craving attention? Also Halo 5 got a lot of 6, and I think those scores are fair.

[assdan]

Once again, if 5 out of 10 was considered average by review standards, I would agree, but a 7 is average. I can't personally speak for those games because I haven't played them.

[corroios]

Gamers shouldnt. Because some «forget» stuff while doing the review or downplay other stuff.

For me, a review shouldnt have any type of score. Is just a opinion of some dude that didnt even finish the game...

That cant say the truth because of the name of the game...

[Antifan]

Depends on who you look at for reviews. AngryJoe is good, and on point 90% of the time, even though he's kinda selective on what games to review. Total biscuit is one of my favorite reviewers.
Don't trust anyone from IGN because it's all about corporate interest and what score brings in the most clicks.

[Kreisen]

The thing about TB is the more a game has to offer the more there is for him to shit on. He himself says he doesnt spend any real time with triple A games anymore outside of making videos.

[Skankinruby]

I still crack up at igns phantom pain review. Criticizing it multiple times then proceeding to give it a 10 anyway

[DivineAssault]

I do, just not from one source.. I check multiple reviews

[TripC50]

Angry Joes reviews are the only reviews I trust.

[WellyUK]

You can't really go off his reviews either when he gives games like MGSV a 9/10.

[DivineAssault]

Everyone is different.. I loved MGSV and think it was 8.5-9.. If multiple sources and fan feedback are positive, it should be a solid buy

[Ferrethat22]

I stopped trusting reviewers a few years ago.

[SlightlyRetarted]

I usually make my decision to buy a game based on trailers, gameplays and dev interviews before launch. And if i even bother to read full reviews i never read reviews until i've played the game myself. If a game that no one expects to be a good game get's great scores and hype post launch, i read few reviews just to see what the fuzz is about.

[Artemidorus]

The best reviewer is you, go on a broadcast and watch it, gives you an idea if you may want to play or not.

[quenomamen]

Easy, trust no website that has xbox, x1, ps4, psn, 360, play, MS, Sony, Nintendo, EA in its name.

[badz149]

LOL like IGN? Or Gamespot?

[PaleMoonDeath]

Reviews are done by people, and they are all opinions on said game, always take with a grain of salt and always choose wisely on what you'll spend money on.

Reviews are helpful, that's all they need to be.

[Cartman55125]

I like Dynasty Warriors and EDF, so reviews clearly don't really mean shit to me

[Zarock]

*cough* a hideo kojima production *cough* mgsv *cough*....

[FN4GM]

You cant trust them, all they are is one persons opinion and they are rarely if ever free of biased and completely subjective, if an xbox fanboy reviews a game well you're gonna get games like The Order getting the scores it got, its as simple as that. Rent the game or buy it cheap and make up your own mind and stop listen to these children who think they are game journalists.

[Disagree]

way better reviews on youtube. much more concise and thorough thoughts from people who actually care about the game and not from some airhead on payroll

[SegaGamer]

Why trust game reviews in the first place. Make your own mind up on what is and isn't good, don't let someone do it for you.

[discordman]

It isn't game journos fault that you do not understand that reviews are opinions spoken in front of an audience. Ironic that the blog does a clickbait title (anytime you have half a convo like "I didn't like..." or "I thought" it is personalized clickbait. A blog entry that goes into detail of why one man can't fathom that people have opinions other than his own, with a string of theories to feed his need for answers. Sigh.

[the_mack_attack3]

Oh , Discordman, welcome to the internet, where everything is made of sparkles and your opinions are always right.

[Tzuno]

i quit listening to reviews since game-spot changed the site interface, now i only look at direct game-play on you tube and decide for myself.

[PrimeGrime]

Were reviews ever there to necessarily be trust worthy? I just thought they were another persons perspective on a said game, and nothing more.

I've never read into reviews that much, even before all this nonsense. At the end of the day, I'm the deciding factor in whether I play a game or not.

[coolbeans]

"Were reviews ever there to necessarily be trust worthy? I just thought they were another persons perspective on a said game, and nothing more."

In an ideal world, how game reviews are treated would be closer to something like this. But considering how many USERS (fanboys or otherwise) bleat on about industry awards, metacritic averages, etc., it's not surprising to see it plays a considerable role in marketing a game and the current game community dynamic. And so many of these sites gain capital on that "trust" gained by the viewership.

[lastking95]

When a review gave forza h2 2/10 I was officially done.

[gedden7]

Exactly... Its all about money and lobbying games to sale... Can't ever trust anything when money is involved. Can't trust reviews and you cant trust Youtube personalities either. Youtube commentators had a chance to be real, but the publishers got hold of them too.

[mayberry]

After the horrible and nit-picking, negative reviews of Killzone 2/3, and how epic in every way they are as first person shooters, I stopped even remotely trusting reviews. For instance, try and find a single review that mentioned that Killzone is the only console fps that has true 7.1 all digital fiber-optic sound.

[MaxCompiler]

Same happen to me with Resident Evil 6, I really enjoy and i still play it, but "reviewers" didn't like it and the rest is history.

A solid 40hrs campaign with no DLCs, and great visuals and a new control. But hey its capcom so its sucks.

[coolbeans]

"After the horrible and nit-picking, negative reviews of Killzone 2/3, and how epic in every way they are as first person shooters..."

? The majority of reviewers enjoyed KZ2. That has something like a 90 on metacritic. And as much as I enjoy KZ2, let's not go overboard about it. The campaign isn't exactly something to go down as legendary (even if still a fine one).

[MaxCompiler]

This is a pretty obvious statement... the sad part is that this type of "journalist" can affect the sales of a game.

[Subaruwrx]

Unlike some, I'm not paranoid about gaming journalists and find reviews to be a useful research tool. I don't pre-order games and I don't buy games before I've done my research. That research includes reading multiple reviews and getting feed back on a game from friends. If the feed back more or less matches most of the reviews, I feel pretty confident that the $30 - $60 I spend on a game will be worth it. Imo, people usually get stuck with a game they don't like because they lack patience and must purchase the game as soon as it releases.

[scark92]

The consumers are the best reviewers that I listen to.