Where do you go for (good) game reviews?

[Carny]

I am going to move into unfamiliar territory and aquire an X-box 360 pretty soon.
I also want some good games to go with it...

To find good games I need good reviews. Sadly its my impression that most of the gaming sites on the internet are rather crap when it comes to reviews.
Mostly they consist of a feature list and praise. I want reviews that actually offers insight and critique.

Does any of you know of any good independent reviewers (sites or blogs)

[whiteshark]

I go first to Gamesradar and sometimes Gametrailers to check the reviews.

Usually they do good reviews.

[Donald M.]

I don't think any game purchase I've ever made has ever been influenced by a review. Good luck in your search though.

[2-4-5_Trioxin]

Honestly, get on yahoo messenger and come find me, Ill tell you what you want to know. Ive been gaming for 30 years (thats 30 of gaming, not Im 30 years old and I game) and own about 30 systems. Im not a fanboy as I like to play games for the games so Ill give you a honest opinion. Im on there as imaginary_fiction

Well for starters dont ever go someplace that says anything like "official xbox blahblah", cant trust the people who make something to review their own product right.

Personally I would hit a gaming forum or something and see what real people have to say, even thats hard because youll run into alot of idiot fanboys who will bash a game just because of the system its on. You can have a game that is released on the xbox and ps3 and its the exact same game and alot of people will rip on one just because of the system its on.

I will never, ever trust another site or magazine though, I just use them for general information. They are all driven by advertisements and sadly in this day and age thats where all their money comes from. Ever since the magazine pc acclerator got shut down from ad's being pulled because they gave honest and frank reviews other mags and sites have started giving even titles from big companies decent reviews and rarely really speak of overglaring problems, they just dance around them a little.

So in short, you can trust anyone to be honest. Most people on the net are fanboys who dont realise that games are what make gaming good and reviewers are getting paid by the very people who make the games they review (ie dont bite the hand that feeds you).

You can check out http://www.metacritic.com/games/ where they like compile all of the reviews from different places into one score. Course this is just taking a bunch of bullshit and putting it in one pile but still.

But whatever you do, dont take to heart anything sites like 1up.com, gamepro.com, ign.com, gamespy.com say because they are all advertisements driven business's and nothing thats official xbox or strictly xbox. Try and stay with sites that review for everything, then atleast you know you have some folks that play games and not play a system.

Can also browse the forums at http://www.gamefaqs.com/ and check out what people there say. Course pay to mind to the ones that sound like kids.

[jesse_custer]

Although I don't use his reviews as advice on buying games, Yahtzee's stuff entertains me:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation

[Len Ikari145]

I don't think any game purchase I've ever made has ever been influenced by a review. Good luck in your search though.

I share in that philosophy. You are your own best judge.

[Donald M.]

I share in that philosophy. You are your own best judge.

Indeed.

Once in a while a review made me aware of the existence of a game I later purchased, but that was back in the days when it was actually possible for a game to get released without me hearing about it months in advance.

[boshobosho]

for the games they do review, www.kotaku.com is good.

[ibwib]

As someone who edits a reviews site I should probably pitch The Leisure Lab and nowhere else for games reviews, but we don't aim for total coverage, and I have to admit turning my eye elsewhere as well.

As mentioned above, I wouldn't really make a buying decision based on Yahtzee's reviews, but I always enjoy watching them. I used to work with some chaps on GamesRadar and CVG and I enjoy their reviews, although that company also publishes some 'Official' titles as well, and in print form I enjoy GamesTM, a little title that's trying to capture some of Edge's cachet, but which Ifind far less overdesigned and less dull and dry than edge.

The best place, however (apart from The Leisure Lab) I think are forums, in particular I like the forums at The Guardian newspapers website.

[cactusmaac]

Gamespot is good. The reviews tend to be accurate and thorough. I always use them before buying\renting.

[Jerry Mya]

Your best bet is forums and talking to people actually playing the games, but like another person said, you run into fanboys who think their particular tastes are the be all, end all so you got to be careful.

If anything, renting isn't a bad idea. Also, XBox Live has tons of free demos for their games which have been helpful to me.

[Jerry Mya]

I think one of the problems with review sites is, IMO, they tend to give certain franchises a free pass. Personally, I feel a little duped about GTA 4 and Fable 2 for instance. Not that they weren't good games, I've enjoyed both, but every review I saw about both of them made it seem like they were the best games ever made. I don't think any game should ever receive a 10/10 review. To me, that means there's no room for improvement but both those games definitely could be improved, and I know for a fact GTA got 10/10 on a lot of sites and I don't think it's warranted.

[jessecuster3]

Gamespot is good. The reviews tend to be accurate and thorough. I always use them before buying\renting.

Really? Do you know the Jeff Gerstmann story?

[cactusmaac]

Yeah, I remember it. I still don't see much evidence of Gamespot inflating review scores on a general basis.

[jessecuster3]

Yeah, I remember it. I still don't see much evidence of Gamespot inflating review scores on a general basis.

But doesn't that color every review they do?

[cactusmaac]

I judge each review individually. Can't think of any that were really out of whack. If anything, IGN is far more generous.

[JCAll]

I still watch X-Play, which is pretty good when they actually @#$%ing bother to review anything, as long as it isn;t a severely hyped game. And it's always good when they get the opportunity to take the piss out of something.

And there's Zero Punctuation, which always takes the piss out of everything.

Other than that, I just cruise the "What are you playing" thread one this board, and just generally don't let other people's opinions color my own.

[robinson76]

Gamespot is good. The reviews tend to be accurate and thorough. I always use them before buying\renting.

It's very good!!

[Serik]

Forums and a few smaller blog sites. Amazon also has helpful reviews.

Gamespot, IGN, etc. are shills for the industry and I don't trust anything they publish.

[ZachSensei]

The best idea is to read a few reviews from different sources. I always check:

Giantbomb
1Up
Gametrailers

I also go to gamerankings and read the highest score review and the lowest score review.

Get a good scope and you will be well informed.

[jesse_custer]

1Up gave Sonic Chronicles a glowing review.

I can't trust that publication.

[Chris S.]

I use the website Metacritic.com. They review everything. They give it an overall score which I ussually ignore. They take a bunch of major publications and add a numerical value rank to their article. This part I don't care for.

What I do like is that they give a quote from each article which works as a summary. I then read these and pick which articles sounds the most like my tastes.

I really don't feel one publication give accurate reviews. I don't mean this for the fact that the publication itself is biased but because the reviewer is biased. I think they should start every review with the reviewer's top ten games of all time. Then I can know if he has similar tastes. Otherwise it is hard to know.

[Astonishing X-Fan]

I find that gamerankings is usually a decent way of finding out the overall quality of a game, but even then in the end it'll be up to you. A highly-rated game just might not be your cup of tea...while a game that most feel is a stinker may have something about it that grabs you.

Really though, the way people are talking here you'd think game reviewers don't know what they're talking about...but honestly, the vast majority of games that get good reviews across the board ARE good games.

[anotherperfectposter]

I go to gamespot for reviews of games, but trust me I never go by the GAMESPOT RATINGS, they just suck!

User ratings and reviews on gamespot are what I look out for...and go by them.

[Knightmare27]

Well I use Gamefaqs because anyone can write a review and when there a lot of reviews listed that gives me a average score thats fairly accurate imo.

[Lester C.]

As a RPG fan I go to the review that provides the most information on story and combat. I don't trust rankings because we always score much lower than other genres because RPG manufacturers don't have the budget to rival the presentation of most other game genres unless you are playing a hybrid rpg like Fable or Fallout 3.

[Darth Joker]

As a RPG fan I go to the review that provides the most information on story and combat. I don't trust rankings because we always score much lower than other genres because RPG manufacturers don't have the budget to rival the presentation of most other game genres unless you are playing a hybrid rpg like Fable or Fallout 3.

I agree with this. I find that the only reliable video game reviews for RPG games are done by RPG-centric reviewers. When a more general video gamer reviews RPG games, he or she tends to not put enough importance into the story and world interface (i.e. how leveling up works, types of weapons and items available, hidden areas/bosses, etc...) elements of the game.

[AbdulAziz]

I don't think any game purchase I've ever made has ever been influenced by a review. Good luck in your search though.
I share in that philosophy. You are your own best judge.You have the right philosophy here. I just watch game reviews to see what people think of certain games, one of my all time favorite games received too many bad reviews to be counted.

You don't need official reviews, you can take fan reviews like on game blogs or on video channels on youtube.com & many other video sharing sites.

I wanted to put this phrase I found for myself a long time ago, but never gave it the time: "An official reviewer's only use is to decrease the number of unemployed by 1"