Game Critics: It Is Probably A Little Unhealthy....

That was some impressive wordsmithing. I don't "trust" many internet reviewers (dedicated variety, not gamers discussion). When reading a review, I try real hard not to look at the score and just concentrate on some key points - controls, storyline, aggravating design choices, technical issues of the freezing, slideshow or stuck variety. I subscribe to OXM, but it's laughable. The previews are horrible. They actually intimated that Hour of Victory would be a CoD competitor, if not killer. The reviews often suck, as it seems they try to hard to skew young and bring up too many memes. They also score things very predictably. Any new IP that hasn't been hyped, and is not a product of a major developer will score low to middle. Kotaku's reviews are generally decent - they break it down into what they liked and what they hated, and don't give a score. All that aside, I may casually peruse metacritic, but that's more to read about the conditions described above. Kind of funny, but I like Cheapassgamer's reviews. Though they're not particularly high in quantity, I like how they sort out the good and bad, and then provide a recommended buy price. As I buy a lot of games, and will give ANYTHING (trust me, I've played some crap, and you should see some of the stuff that's still in the shrink wrap) if the price is compelling. Case in point, Alpha Protocol. I was stoked for this one, had it preordered, then early reviews turned me off. I've always been interested in it though. I read some user impressions, and some gamers had a good time with it, once they got a hang of the mechanics. I'm intrigued, but am not $60 worth of intrigued. Finally, Gamefly had it on sale (used) for $13.49 the other day. If I buy it at $13.49, play it for 4 hours, what have I lost? If I bought it at $60, and it didn't grab me, it would hurt a lot more (Aliens vs. Predator, I'm looking at you). So, at $60, I may say, "this game sucks, waste of money, 2/10!!!!", but at $13.49, I may say "yeah, it has it's problems, but I can see what it was trying to do, and respect that, 6/10". What I really hate is the hype machine. I believe this unfairly sets review score expectations for existing franchises to be higher. In short, I think new IP's are often given the cold shoulder for more of the same. It seems that Bungie could literally press a pile of grass clippings into a DVD form, release it as Halo Green, and it would still get a 9. Anything with a GTA label will automatically score high. On the flip side, I feel that during the height of the anti-EA movement, review scores for EA games were artificially depressed in the attempt of making some editorial comment. I'm not sure, but I think this is starting with Activision now. I also think reviewers have to teeter a line with their readership. If everyone is expecting Generic First Person Shooter #435 to get high scores, and it's a very generic game, with no lasting appeal, a reviewer will still score it higher than their experience warrants (possibly at the direction of his management for a commercial site, possibly due to his own ego to say "7,876 people read my reviews!"). As for Zero Punctuation, I look at it more as entertainment. The reviews are generally lagging several weeks behind a game's release. When I'm considering a purchase, I have a terrible habit of being impatient and want the information sooner, rather than later. Yahtzee's stuff is very good, and very funny, but it's kind of day late, dollar short. On our site? Since I'm still new here, I'd say I trust (or at least entertain) everyone's input. That's the great thing about opinions. Sure, someone may like a game I don't, and vice versa but getting people's views can't hurt. I typically get turned off by rampant fanboyism, and while I'm sure it exists here, we're not inundated by 14 year olds, so it's not as prevalent as some of the other social sites.

I watch all the trailers and read/Listen to everyone, but not the Thumbs up or Thumbs down part. The reasons taken out of text of WHY they like or dislike a game usually gives an accurate discretion of it. Then I make my own choice to try it or not.