Reviews these days. Am I the only one?

Seems like more often these days , I am enjoying the games that get pretty mediocre to average reviews.
Lately all the games that got 6/10, 7/10, are the ones I actually enjoy the most.

• Recently Alien isolation for example. I had so much fun playing this game. I could not put it down. The atmosphere, hiding from the alien and overall immersion is great. But it only got a 6/10.
• AC unity (7/10) got a lot of criticism recently yet Im having more fun playing that game then the highly rated Black flag.
• I also Enjoy Killzone Shadowfall (6/10). I bought it day one and still play the mp till this day.
• I bought Call of duty advanced warfare 9/10 and I mean its an ok game but It doesn't grab my attention for long.

Is there something wrong with me or are review standards getting higher these days. Especially the current gen games. Or is what I look for in a game totally different then most people look for.

AC rogue just got a 6/10. Looks like im going to have to pick it up. At the end of the day I know it's just someone's opinion I guess.

I honestly wouldn't know what the games I play score in reviews I do not check them.

if I like the look of a game I'll read comments of other people's experience of the game, or if I'm lucky a you tuber I like has done a video on it, like total biscuit.

Do an experiment. Play games for about six months WITHOUT looking at reviews. Then, look at the reviews of the games you played after you've already evaluated them and see if they match up. You my be subconsciously going against the grain.

Actually CoD: Advanced Warfare got an 8/10 which feels about right to me.

Anyway there's nothing wrong with liking what you like. I've enjoyed some heavily criticised games as well such as Too Human, Bionic Commando, and Resident Evil 6.

Whoops I got confused with Ign's Score. Yeah Resident evil 6 was great and what did it get like 4.5/10.

Reviews are merely opinion pieces of one person's opinion. I use them as a reference point for purchases, but not as a judge of a game's quality.

@marcheegsr: Yeah something like that, I just know that it got ripped pretty bad.

If you didn´t like Black Flag you are not going to like Rogue, its just Black flag reskinned and with a new story.

But why do you care this much about what some reviews say? if you like a game then it doesn't really matter what Joe Critic thinks. Unless you are to insecure to trust your own judgement and think that Joe Critic who has about as much right in what they say as any other gamer

nope... You're not the only one.

nope... You're not the only one.

I couldn't care less what score a game gets. I only read the reviews to get an idea of the gameplay. Everyone has opinions. I thought Thief was pretty darn good and would give it a higher score than most, don't care what anyone else's score is.

You do know that you've mentioned only ONE score ? , Alien isolation got 8s and 9s too , u can't just make your criteria just one website or magazine ...

Reviews are different tastes and one should make decision based on what he likes and the stuff mentioned in different reviews , for instance i watch 5 reviews and based on what those reviews say i make my decision , AC Black Flag is great in naval combats and i like naval combats so i get it , simple as that ! The Evil Within is rich in atmosphere and i love immersive worlds , so i get it....i mean u shouldn't complicate things , some stuff matter to u most so u make your decision based on them ...

You know what I was thinking about that. Im going to do that for Far cry 4 on Tuesday. Nothing much else coming out for a while, other then Dragon age but I already know the score on that one.

Well, for starters you're just looking at one score instead of the overall score and all of the other scores that make up the overall score. I'm sure you'll find other reviewers for each of those games you mentioned with opinions/scores more in line with your own. But none of that really matters anyway because it's not bizarre or anything to feel differently about a game one way or the other in comparison with most reviews. I don't think reviews are just more harsh "these days" or anything like that.

You have to read the title of the review for what the score actually means, Also it's partly a personal opinion as much as a "professional view" of the game. A 6/10 for Alien Isolation means that it's a decent game, which it is imo. We have seen those types of games over and over. The only real innovative thing about it was the AI of the Xenonmorph.

7/10 means that it's a good game. Unity was good, but not great. You can still have fun with only good games. Unity is for christ sake the seventh installent of the Assasins Creed franchise. The first Assasins Creed, (the only one i've played) probably got it's Superb score back in 2007 because it was new and innovative. We hadn't seen anything like this. The later AC games post 2 are just same thing over and over, and they introduce more bugs and shit when compared to the older games.

Killzone I have no say about really. But I guess it's same thing over and over.

Call of Duty review is just bullshit for me. If I were to review this game i'd give it probably a 6-7/10.

Angry Joe is the only guy I trust for reviews in this day and age.

Nope, you are just living proof that some people can still think for themselves.

When was 7/10 considered a bad score? Hell, anything above a 5 you'd think would be good right? I mean if a 5 is mediocre, it's possible to LOVE a mediocre game. No it's not only you, and everything doesn't need to be 8/9/10 to be good.

some of my most favourite games i've played in my life have gotten very low scores at times. Some of the worst i've played have been overrated.

Worst thing to go by is a review on a gaming site, i like to read user reviews and pick the good and bad and see where to go from there. These reviewing sites usually play it safe and give a score to please its readers instead of what a game really is

And scores are just that... you can't really put a number on something and expect everyone to like it to that degree. Whenever i've done a personal review on a game, i'll rank it 10/10 if i had a lot of fun in the game even if everyone else hated it, i don't get pressured into ranking anything just to go with the flow.

Exactly. Some of the games that I've had most fun in and spend many hours with are not top scoring games. Right now i'm playing a indie game called Unturned on Steam. It's a mediocre survival game with a zombie twist. It's very fun though. I enjoy this much more than Evil Within to be honest. And it's a free game too.

Hell I rembered playing this game at school when I was a kid. We had a fucking blast lol. It's a piece of garbage 1/10

@cdragon_88 said:

you can do better

seriously fu** ALL reviews...

especially those garbage reviews on gamespot

i enjoy a shitload of games with mediocre to bad review scores

So from what I'm reading... no love for Yahtzee?

Scores really don't mean much these days. If you're enjoying games with "lower" scores more then hey, good for you, you have tons more games to play!

Well said. They should take away the reviews on the main page so its not the first thing you see when you come to gamespot

Well reviews are just one person's experience with a game. I've never understood why people throw fits over reviews. Apparently that reviewer didn't like or liked a game more than you do, if you've played it.

I myself don't read reviews to gauge whether or not I should get it. I just find them interesting. I go into games with an open mind, and usually I end up liking them a lot. I honestly can't remember the last game I've just downright not liked at all.

Well i am enjoying Destiny, so you're not alone. Yet COD, Madden and FIFA get good ratings.

I've said this a lot of times, reviews do not equal fact.

ok

@marcheegsr: Who needs reviews. Ask people you know who play the games you think of getting.

I dont trust review scores at all I never have, its totally subjective. It can be a valuable research tool but for nothing more than gathering an overview of a potential purchase.

Then there's just the blatant shameless click bait. I often review games that were rated surprisingly low and find they are fairly decent titles. Sometimes reviewers just hate certain games.

Although GTA V scored well if you read Carolyns review you could be swayed into not picking up the games due to misogynistic themes. In reality I couldnt care less about misogyny in video games, would I have marked the game down due to those themes? No.

So already you have two totally different people with two totally different opinions giving GTA V a totally different score.

@cdragon_88: if this website had proper iPad support I'd post a gif :p

i dont care about reviews not a big deal for me i love AC UNITY alien isolation killzone SF

I do look at reviews if I buy a game a month or so after release, but usually I pre order games.

Yeah I love Unity too I'd still buy it even if it got a 4/10 at the end of the day it's just one guys opinion I don't really bother about scores it's just a number.

I never go by reviews although it's nice to read a review that makes you interested in a game that wasn't on your radar to start with.

And yes I agree, Allen isolation is an awesome game. I've been playing it almost every night for the last week, plus rewatched the movies. I do get frustrated with the deaths, especially when the alien doesn't leave the room you are hiding in, but man that game is so addictive.

Most reviewers of today are young gamers who started to game from 2005 . They don't know shit about quality of the game . Give then a 5 hour long interactive movie with zero gameplay but moments and characters "that make them cry" and the game will get 10/10 . Give them best fps is ages , like Shadow Warrior or best point and click adventure in ages like Broken Sword 5 and it'll be bashed to hell.

Exactly. Reviews should only be seen as that - whether the game is good or bad in the eyes of one person and to read how it plays so that you can figure out if it's worth your time. But really...the only way to know that is by playing it yourself. That's the best way to find out if you really love the game or hate it. Never trust anyone else's opinion but your own when you have invested enough time with the game, IMO.

Yeah this happens with me all the time... a game gets an average review & I end up really enjoying it.

As was said earlier, reviews are just opinions.

I always Metacritic research games beforehand, just in case. But I'm glad Gamespot is giving games lower scores. Im tired of Video Games having a 7-10 rating scale. Anything rated 5-6 in the gaming world is considered horrendous. Which should not be the case. Anyway, Alien Isolation sucked, and no, you're not the only one who liked it.

I prefer to play a game and then read reviews about it because they often have spoilers. When playing any particular game for my first time, I really like observing the visuals, listening to the audio, and testing the controls. After some time with it, I then might decide to read reviews. Reading a review of a game as a buyer's guide is like watching someone else play a game.

Yes, they are guides for buyers, but I prefer relating to them or disagreeing with them via personal experience. After all, the discussion is about something played, but not watched. You see many comments about game reviews before they are available for the public with agreements and rebuttals that are at best educated guesses because there are hardly any counterparts with user experience. It is not very stimulating debate at that point.

Sometimes, I do read reviews and simply look at scores, but that does not make my experience with games researched, purchased, and played better. In fact, there is a peer pressure sensed while playing with others' reviews in mind while playing almost at a subconscious level. I disagree with that sort of setting so much because I play games primarily to seek mastery of the systems well-developed games feature and I play games with rewarding game design more than those without it. Furthermore, I understand and categorize games through personal experience because I study the nuances of gameplay that can only be understood as a player by firsthand experience.

Video game reviews are useful, but when I am interested in any particular game, I prefer more to actually discuss them with reviewers and my favorite way to is by comparing and contrasting my experience with it.

A number on a review is subjective 6...7...what? it doesn't mean a thing it's just a matter of taste for example I enjoyed more Sleeping Dogs and Saints Row 2 than almighty GTA V, I can recon quality on a game, but that doesn't equal fun.