I trust other people playing the game way more than the people who make the game, sell the game, or get paid to review the game.
If everyone I know with similar tastes to mine says something sucks, there's a 99.9999999% chance I will independently think it sucks anyway; so I might as well listen to others who have played it and save myself some time and money.
I've actually been surprised but how many gems I've found in games with a 70% rating or a 82% rating. Sometimes ratings can be impacted by feelings about a company or a media incident when the actual game is rock solid.
I wouldn't say those numbers are for games that suck, anyway. That's a decent, just not mind-blowing game. Anything that's 40% or lower is what I would say almost universally sucks. But I would also take into account review bombing for things beyond the scope of the game itself, as it is very often reported on when it happens.
Open critic has a handy chart available for scored titles that compares it with the rest of their database. This offers some insight into the score distribution:
So a score of 70 is already pretty mid, and 60 or lower is going to be dire.
My favourite is when you have a friend, or known reviewer, going on about how something sucks, and you realise that it sounds right up your alley.
I specifically rented The One, because of Roger Ebert's 1 and 1/2 star review in the newspaper, trashing Jet Li's The One (just to totally date myself).
That's why I went and saw Dude, Where's My Car in the theatre. Because Siskel and Ebert had given it their worst score ever and I thought if those chucklenuts hated it, it must be good.
Yeah there are some absolute gems like Astral Chain which got positive reviews like 8/10 but in reality are close to 10/10 for me personally. One of the best games on the system.
Then there are a few infamous examples like Godhand and Deadly Premonition which were completely slated by many reviewers but I found to be very strong titles. 8/10 personally.
I trust other people playing the game way more than the people who make the game, sell the game, or get paid to review the game.
If everyone I know with similar tastes to mine says something sucks, there's a 99.9999999% chance I will independently think it sucks anyway; so I might as well listen to others who have played it and save myself some time and money.
I've actually been surprised but how many gems I've found in games with a 70% rating or a 82% rating. Sometimes ratings can be impacted by feelings about a company or a media incident when the actual game is rock solid.
I wouldn't say those numbers are for games that suck, anyway. That's a decent, just not mind-blowing game. Anything that's 40% or lower is what I would say almost universally sucks. But I would also take into account review bombing for things beyond the scope of the game itself, as it is very often reported on when it happens.
Open critic has a handy chart available for scored titles that compares it with the rest of their database. This offers some insight into the score distribution:
So a score of 70 is already pretty mid, and 60 or lower is going to be dire.
My favourite is when you have a friend, or known reviewer, going on about how something sucks, and you realise that it sounds right up your alley.
I specifically rented The One, because of Roger Ebert's 1 and 1/2 star review in the newspaper, trashing Jet Li's The One (just to totally date myself).
That's why I went and saw Dude, Where's My Car in the theatre. Because Siskel and Ebert had given it their worst score ever and I thought if those chucklenuts hated it, it must be good.
Yeah there are some absolute gems like Astral Chain which got positive reviews like 8/10 but in reality are close to 10/10 for me personally. One of the best games on the system.
Then there are a few infamous examples like Godhand and Deadly Premonition which were completely slated by many reviewers but I found to be very strong titles. 8/10 personally.