How often do you play a game despite the gamespot rating?

I had always pay attention to it and I'd find myself always passing up certain games. Lately I've tried to ignor it. I bought GTA IV and to me it was really boring. When it came out I saw the 10.0 rating and good reviews I figured I couldn't pass it up and spent $60. It was just kind of boring to me. There were fun part but over all not worth $60 and a perect score. On the other hand I traded in CoD 4 which is rated 9.0 for some credit and got BF: Bad Company rated 8.5 and I enjoy it way more than Call of Duty.

I know this is all a matter of opinion stuff but all in all my question is really how often do you overlook the rating to just see if you might enjoy it anyway?

For most of the time, Gamespot reviews are accurate. I can't believe you didn't enjoy CoD4 and found GTA IV boring. 10 may be a perfect score for GTA, but they deserve it. Just look at all the work they put in this game. It's just amazing. And CoD4 is the best MP experience after GoW.

Army of Two was fun, but it got 6.5 or 7.5 I don't remember. NFS seems good as well, and got 7. IMO Gamespot are looking for some keypoints in games. If they find them, they overrate the game, if they don't, they underrate it.

i loved GTAIV, and think its a great game and probably deserves a 9.5 or 10... even though it diddnt have some features from san andreas... it made up for that stuff for the graphics, the gameplay motions.. and the missions were os much less repetative than the previous GTA games...

COD 4 is also a great game... although its the opposite this way... the single player in COD4 wasnt that great, it was all about multiplayer... i wish GTAIV had a coop mode where u play the single player missions... because multiplayer just gets stupid sometimes.

one game i still play is COD3... even though the rating isnt too bad on gamespot.. everyone seems to hate it... if i want to play single player WWII style i play that game. Although i cant wait for Brothers in Arms, and COD WAW.

Ganespots reviews mean NOTHING to me at all. Since Greg and my other fav reviewers left i find myself not agreeing with almost all the new reviews....

Lost Odyssey, Ninja Gaiden 2 and Vegas 2 are some of my fav games on teh 360 and they got below a 9.

I take user reviews more serious then gamespots ones.

You hit the nail on the head when you said it was all based on personal opinion. That's why I don't look at a game's score alone. I read the reviews and watch gameplay video. I try to determine if the things that the reviewer finds fun is something I would as well.

As a more obvious example, I don't like sports games. No matter what the score is for a sports title (Madden 08 got a 8.5 which is "great") I know I'm not going to enjoy it. Same goes for racing simulations. No matter how well received I'm not going to enjoy the Gran Turismo series.

That doesn't mean those that reviewed these games are stupid or not good at their job, only that I have a differing opinion on the matter. The more honest you are with yourself and what you like (despite any hype) the better you'll become at using reviews properly. Won't stop you from playing a game and being disappointed with it, but it will (hopefully) cut down on that.

As a PS3 owner, quite a bit :D I dont care about no system wars or anything, but R&C at 7.5 was a travesty, and that game was just plain fun. Plus I don't base my decision on one site, especially on this site. And I am definitely not one of those only Play AAA games, 8,9 is no good people.

But as a new 360 owner, I'm taking a top down approach to metacritic and gamerankings scores. Start at the top and work my way down, ignoring of course multiplats since I've played them all already. 2 years later, and Gamefly still has low availability for Gears of War. Grrrrrr!

I use reviews to get an Idea of how good or bad the game will be. Also since reviews are predominately based on opinion i don't normally trust only one review. I check the gamespot score, watch them review the game on X-Play, read EGM and then glance at the user scores just to get an Idea. I'm normally skeptical if a game gets a really high score or if a high profile game is given a low score. Player reviews are normally skewed as well if someone likes the game they give it a 10 and if they hate it they give it a 1. Basically if your wondering about a game should compare the scores from various reviewers and see what some of the players have to say before devoting yourself to that title.