Can Metacritic user scores be trusted (Video games)

Whenever I look at a game on Metacritic I can't believe the user score and have to stick with the critics score alone. Why is this? The users seem to only know of 2 numbers: 10 and 0.

Have any games actually got fair user scores?

i don't take the user score seriously

No. User reviewer are the most untrustworthy reviews.

Scores should probably just go away entirely, because that's all people look at. User scores are a joke and even "professional" reviews don't fare that much better: with the bunch of amateur bloggers who style themselves gaming journalists these days, it's better to actually read the reviews instead of just looking at scores. Kotaku has a "Yes, Maybe, No" system and I think that works and prevents people from getting into fights because game A got a decimal point more than game B like with the GTA V farce that went on on this very site.

this

Still they are some good user reviews.You just have to search.

If you go to sites like this, the ratings are better compared to metacritic. Because that site has just fanboys and haters

@Black_Knight_00: I agree. Scoring is getting less and less accurate by the day as the medium matures. I think the best way to look up a game is just watch video reviews, from pro sites and independent sites alike.

Actually no. I trust steam user reviews more than anything on metacritic because you have to buy and play the game on steam to review it.

No

Also the critic scores are not even fair.

I don't have a clue about metacritic since I never go there.

what I do know is that I read user reviews all the time to better understand a game, since, official website reviewers rarely give me any good information that I need.

therefore, as usual, some are good and some are worthless.

Any games that gains any sort of controversy is going to get flooded with 0's. And then there's the games like Call of Duty that are popular to hate, so the user score for the latest ones are like a 2. Getting back to the controversy subject, Mass Effect 3 is a great example due to the outcry over its ending. The Metacritic user score for that game is maybe 5 at most, probably even less than that since tons of people rated it a 0 and wrote a review along the lines of "Wahh! The ending suks!"

But I still think you'll find a decent amount of games that are fairly rated by users. Some are even within a reasonable margin from the overall critic score. Still, most scores are going to be on the extreme high end or extreme low end, but that's pretty typical for user ratings. In short, I wouldn't worry about them too much. I wouldn't worry too much about critic ratings either, maybe unless an anticipated game completely bombs.

I agree on nearly every point.

As a potential buyer you must either read/watch the reviews from multiple websites to get a general feel of the game and then ask questions yourself before coming to a decision. Scores can be complete crap. I saw a game with a 7 that i ended up putting 100's of hours into than a game with 9 that i play once and i'm done.

Next time, I should check their reviews, I hate MC user scores >.<

of course not ! play station fanboy community attacks xbox exclusives and they all give the game a 0. Xbox fans in return give it a 10 .

so about Exclusive games never ever look at user score :D

but about Multiplat games the user score makes a bit more sense . but still , everyone gave ME3 a 0 because they thought ending sucked so they should rate a 0 . or someone had a connection problem with NBA 2k14 and now he gives it a 0 .

user score is a joke

I misunderstood the question and so let me restate: the actual number an user gives to score a game is relative and is very limited in and of itself.

however, the words actually used to describe the review of a game can be very informative.

NO!

When it comes to reviews, the only ones that i actually care are those that i trust u know....

+

THIS.

I don't look at user reviews myself, I do use professional reviews in my game purchasing decisions though.

@Archangel3371:

lol, that's funny, since, I never let "pro" reviews influence my decisions.

I don't look at the numbers so much as i do the reviews. I read them and try to find common ground on something I like or dislike.

To answer your question. Scores can not be trusted because they are only numbers. a 5 is suppose to be average or middle but most would see 5 as trash really.

Yep, exactly I was really pissed by these Childish ME3 scores, Lol here's a funny/stupid statement ''Don't judge the game till you've played it till the ending (Ending sucks so whole game sucks 0/10)''