Looking for good (honest) game reviews

[Sigma_Primaris]

Looking for good (honest) game reviews

Hello guys, Cdpr forums are one of the few places (What's left of the Baldur's Gate community is quite cool too) where I'm sure I can find interesting people who got interesting answers to my questions so I've got a question here for you :

Do fair and honest game reviews still exist on this great pile of old moisted rags which is internet ? And if the answer is yes, could you please lead me to the place where they live ?

I tend to be a compulsive game buyer sometimes, and there's a lot of games coming out this year. I absolutely don't trust the "9/10 best game ever" for awfull games like Assassin's Creed, Fallout and all those AAA titles. I'm always confident with games like Europa Universalis or Pillars of Eternity, but I lost a ton of money on big franchises just because I trusted some cursed reviews,
I don't want to waste any more euros on bad games. :hurt:

 

[Phinnway]

Total Biscuit does good reviews on PC performance. So check him out for that.

There aren't many reviewers who I feel give fair scores. But one of them is the Escapist. They used to only review games on a 1 - 5 scale and I prefer that (honestly - WTF does a 7.6 mean as opposed to a 8.2?)

If you're looking for an in-depth critical analysis of a game Super Bunny Hop and his sphere of peers are pretty good. But their reviews aren't always up when the embargo lifts (takes a long time to give a comprehensive critical analysis).

I don't recommend AngryJoe. He's entertaining, but IMO his reviews aren't much better than IGN. He panders to his audience a lot.

---------- Updated at 02:43 PM ----------

One other I forgot to mention. Steam reviews. They won't tell you when a game is good. But they will tell you when a game is shit. Generally, anything above a 90 on Steam is a 9 - 10/10. Anything below an 80 is a 1 - 6/10. Never buy ANYTHING below a 70.

 

[volsung]

These forums are a pretty good source for video game opinions. Some of us are very vocal about the games we like, and we have some dedicated threads. You'll find threads for classic adventure games, traditional cRPG's, among others. Many of the best games I've played in recent years were recommendations from people in this community (although sadly many of them have left).

Most opinions you'll find in here (for instance in the adventure and the cRPG threads) refer to genre specific aspects of games, not the generic "gameplay" and "graphics". You can't punish a good cRPG for not having the latest 3D graphics if it excels in interaction, for instance.

Other than that, simply ditch "professional" reviews and form your own opinions. If you're into Baldur's Gate you're old enough to recognize the traits of a good game in each of your preferred genres. Read people's opinions, form your own. Watch gameplay videos. Trust game designers and not reviewers. For instance, I'd much rather give my money to another inXile Kickstarter than buy a cheap game because Gamespot says so.

 

[227]

Never buy ANYTHING below a 70.

Terrible advice. You'd miss out on love-it-or-hate-it titles like Velvet Assassin, Blood Knights, Rise of the Argonauts, as well as anything that came with a backlash despite being enjoyable (like Sacred 3, judged for what it isn't rather than what it is). You'd also end up ignoring games like eXperience 112 that try something weird and unique and don't pull it off flawlessly, but that are still worth playing for their novelty. And "dumb fun" games like Rock Zombie, which are entertaining despite being a less-than-intellectual way of spending your time.

And to answer OP's question, it's best to err on the side of caution and assume no one is trustworthy (including user reviews, which are every bit as prone to jumping on a bandwagon as the so-called professionals). Finding someone whose views align with yours on a few games you love and hate is a good start that can lead you to some games you might not have considered otherwise, though, and watching some gameplay of the first 15 minutes or so on Youtube often helps to avoid anything too terrible.

 

[dragonbird]

I'd also recommend looking for consistency in reviews. I tend to have more faith in the credibility of someone who consistently likes THIS about a game and equally consistently doesn't like THAT. Even if I don't necessarily agree with him, at least it makes me confident he's expressing his own opinion and not that of a PR team.

 

[Riven-Twain]

Fair? Hmmm. Honest? Perhaps. . . .

Spoiler

Rather amusing, though.

 

[Krull32]

Rather amusing, though.

That is exactly the purpose. i like their videos

Btw, i dont give much about Reviews anymore. Wasted also enough Money...Because Tester A likes it and gives 90%...Tester B and C give +- 70% .
Or Tester A likes this feature in the game and Tester B hates exactly this .
Also a few Writers are not really neutral and give always 90%+ no matter what...or do not say everything that's negative
And Last but not least : Tastes are different....

I read a few Articles, if i'm interested i watch one or two lets plays.
If i'm still interested i'll buy it. For me the best and cheapest Solution ^^.

 

[volsung]

That is exactly the purpose. i like their videos

Btw, i dont give much about Reviews anymore. Wasted also enough Money...Because Tester A likes it and gives 90%...Tester B and C give +- 70% .
Or Tester A likes this feature in the game and Tester B hates exactly this .
Also a few Writers are not really neutral and give always 90%+ no matter what...or do not say everything that's negative
And Last but not least : Tastes are different....

I read a few Articles, if i'm interested i watch one or two lets plays.
If i'm still interested i'll buy it. For me the best and cheapest Solution ^^.

If that's really how it is, then game journalism is more rotten than I thought. You'd need a standard, unified frame of reference in order to rate games. If reviewer A personally likes feature a and gives it more weight in his review, then this is more of a personal opinion. However if feature a really contributes to the game and the genre, then yes maybe it should have more weight. Ultimately reviews are somewhat subjective, but professionals should try to be more informative than anything else. Imagine if you asked an FPS kid (one of those COD 12 year olds for instance) to review a game like Planescape Torment...

In the really old days when Gamespot wasn't totally useless I kind of liked Greg Kasavin's reviews. After that, I thought Kevin van Ord was OK but obviously too compelled to give good scores to major franchises. Nowadays I think all of those major magazines are complete garbage.

If you really must read reviews, adventure gamers is OK for, well, adventure games. And I think some of Game Banshee's reviews are also OK for RPG's.

 

[Krull32]

If that's really how it is, then game journalism is more rotten than I thought

No, it's even worse....But that's only how i see it.
Others probably see that not so strictly.

 

[Sigma_Primaris]

Thanks for the tips,
silly me, I never gave a damn about the "Community" section here, although there's a lot of interesting topics talking about other games...

 

[dragonbird]

If that's really how it is, then game journalism is more rotten than I thought. You'd need a standard, unified frame of reference in order to rate games. If reviewer A personally likes feature a and gives it more weight in his review, then this is more of a personal opinion. However if feature a really contributes to the game and the genre, then yes maybe it should have more weight. Ultimately reviews are somewhat subjective, but professionals should try to be more informative than anything else.

I don't have a problem with reviews being subjective. We expect it for book, movie, TV reviews, why not games?
But the technical problems should be there too, at least the clearcut factual ones. "I don't like the combat" is subjective. "It crashes every ten minutes" isn't.

 

[Pug.]

Polygon is the worst, I'd avoid them like the plague if I were you. Their articles mainly consist of click bait trash. I've also noticed some bizarre inconsistencies in their reporting, e.g. awarding MGV a 9.5 and then coming down hard on the Witcher III because of its depiction of women. Quiet, anyone?

TotalBiscuit is great, but most of his reviews focus on niche PC games and rarely touch on the AAA market. He's very good at pointing you in the direction of titles that you'd never have heard about otherwise, though.

Yahtzee's reviews have some truth to them, but I think most of the time his goal is to be entertaining rather than to give the games a fair run down. He certainly doesn't pull his punches.

I actually like Noah Gervais. He has a relatively small YouTube channel where he engages in detailed critiques of well-known franchises, e.g. Elder Scrolls, Dragon Age, Grand Theft Auto. Not the best place to find up-to-date reviews, but his thoughts are more insightful and fair than most of the stuff you'll find on the internet:
https://www.youtube.com/user/broadcaststsatic

 

[Phinnway]

You'd miss out on love-it-or-hate-it titles

Exactly my point. Personally, I wouldn't spend money on any of the games you mentioned. Money isn't unlimited, you know? And as someone who missed out on a lot of games in the 90's and early 2000's, there's a lot of classics I'd rather spend my money on instead.

 

[dragonbird]

My favourites are the Forbes ones, especially Erik Kain. I don't always agree with him, I don't necessarily like what he likes/dislike what he dislikes, but he always explains why so you can understand his reasoning.

 

[web-head91]

Hello guys, Cdpr forums are one of the few places (What's left of the Baldur's Gate community is quite cool too) where I'm sure I can find interesting people who got interesting answers to my questions so I've got a question here for you :

Do fair and honest game reviews still exist on this great pile of old moisted rags which is internet ? And if the answer is yes, could you please lead me to the place where they live ?

I tend to be a compulsive game buyer sometimes, and there's a lot of games coming out this year. I absolutely don't trust the "9/10 best game ever" for awfull games like Assassin's Creed, Fallout and all those AAA titles. I'm always confident with games like Europa Universalis or Pillars of Eternity, but I lost a ton of money on big franchises just because I trusted some cursed reviews,
I don't want to waste any more euros on bad games. :hurt:

greetings !
i'll tell you the one i use:
www.gamekult.fr: i'd say probably the best french gaming review website and tends to be fair most of the time, so it's worth checking

angry joe is worth checking too, and i know what you're gonna say, like @Phinnway , he's an entertainer true, but i found myself agreeing with him many times but not everything (example: he gave DA:I 8/10, but i gave it a 6/10).

Total biscuit: the one and only, need i say more ?

Yahtzee Croshaw (escapist, zero punctation): i know he may sound like a comedian, but if you pay attention, he gets lots of stuff spot-on, plus you get to laugh
he's a good critic, and quite the harsh one i may add, but makes excellent content whether on Zero punctuation and articles.

Forbes: there's a guy there who's pretty good (i forgot his name) when it comes to game reviews and doesn't seem into main stream video games either (i remember seeing an article of him bashing assassin's creed latest installments lately in a very elegant and critical manner

user reviews are very useful aswell, no matter what website you're on.


there you go
hope i was of some help to you.

 

[ShinGnosis]

Some of my favorites:

https://www.youtube.com/user/Archengeia
(Hardcore RPG)

https://www.youtube.com/user/AngryCentaurGaming
(Very objective and well laid out)

https://www.youtube.com/user/AngryJoeShow
(Fun to watch and mostly good reviews, little bit more casual than the others. Gave DA:I a 9... don't agree with that. But Witcher 3 got a 10 so that's alright)

 

[Phinnway]

Forgot to mention. When the co-optional podcast actually has a game release to discuss, their summary is usually pretty good. They aren't reviewers, just gamers having a good time, and I typically learn more from them then I do from reading an actual review. Watching/listening to them will put also you in touch with a lot other great youtube channels.

 

[vivaxardas2015]

After that, I thought Kevin van Ord was OK but obviously too compelled to give good scores to major franchises. Nowadays I think all of those major magazines are complete garbage.

Yeah, I would trust Van Ord, and Gamespot in general, concerning not-so-mainstream games, but not major franchises.

About major titles - I wouldn't trust any professional reviewer at all. There are other ways to form an opinion, YouTube videos is one of them.

But, you know, unless the game has some super-major problems, it is rather subjective. It is like to criticize the modern art - some people swear by Mark Rothko, while I wouldn't use his paintings as door mats.

 

[KingHochmeister]

My list is pretty small, I only watch Eldergeek and AngryGamingCentaur for reviews to see if a game is good or not and TotalBiscuit's WTF videos to see if the game ran well on PC or not, all other reviewers like yahtzee, pissed pedro (or whatever his name is) I watch only for entertainment, not saying that their opinions don't matter at all, but they don't to me when I aim to buy a game.

Kevin Vanord was the last mainstream reviewer that I kind of trusted and with him gone, it's the youtubers that have my trust for now.

 

[dmcaldw]

I like using Metacritic not always the best choice but has the break down of user and critics reviews .