Gamespot sucks

[Klyern]

Gamespot sucks, its been a few years since either i noticed or they started selling themselves, their reviews and previews are a bunch of lies. Proof? watch this ROFL trailer of this.. keep your ears open for the sound effects, you'll hear real guns firing.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/har...lot;watchlink;3

No mention on this in the entire review. That's just proof, i remember a sh**load of examples where the review was totally wrong, it just makes me feel they are really selling their reviews.

Now I'm desperate since gamespot was the site I always went to for reviews, I never tried any other site.

So I was wondering if you guys could recommend a few game review sites for consoles and pc...

/Hail fansubtv xD

 

[Barbobot]

From my experience, Previews tend to be mostly positive and I tend to treat them all with a grain of salt. Why would a developer send a demo for preview unless it was the absolute best of the best of the game, no matter how small of a portion that is? But i did have a chuckle from the sound of wand bullets. Though you're thought of Gamespot isn't without some merit, as I'm sure people still remember the Kane and Lynch fiasco from a while back.

But I haven't used Gamespot as my defacto review site in a long time. Although I really have no defacto review site. I feel the best thing to do is read reviews from multiple different sources and judge from there. For that you could just go to gamerankings.com and check the reviews they have listed. They will have links to many different review sources, though I usually keep away from the more unknown ones.

My go to places are usually Gamespot, IGN, 1up, and G4. You could also go to Giantbomb.com, which is actually run by some former gamespot employees. Most notably Jeff Gertsmann, who was fired from gamespot for, as rumors say, giving Kane and Lynch a negative review.

 

[wedora]

QUOTE (Barbobot @ Jun 03 2010, 04:25 PM) Although I really have no defacto review site. I feel the best thing to do is read reviews from multiple different sources and judge from there.
There are very few successful review sites out there that have remained mostly unbaised, and that includes all industries. Part of the problem is that they have a vested interest in their target industry, and the other part is that a full-time critic loses touch with the audience he's supposed to represent. I beta test games all the time, so I see a reviewer talking completely out of their ass and even get basic mechanics wrong in a lot of cases.

Take each review with a grain of salt, combine the opinions, then form your own. You should also do this with mainstream media news sites if you don't want to be partisan-ised.

Keep in mind that the best source of info is usually the one that disagrees with you, because its going to have a different viewpoint and give you a different perspective.

 

[julez]

I don't understand, whats wrong with the trailer? I would totally play that

LOL

Actually not that big of a fan of Harry Potter, is this game based on the latest film? I can't even remember what happened in the last movie. (haven't read the books)

As for game reviews, I usually read a few on a variety of sites, all mentioned already by Barbo. If I'm unsure about a game I'll just rent it first before buying it, so I have some idea if I would like it or not. There are some games I just buy from the get go like any from the Final Fantasy series. I'll probably buy XIII despite the bad reviews I have heard.

 

[monsta666]

The problem I find with gaming reviews, and this is a general comment, is that the scoring system is very lop-sided. For example if a game scores less than 70% (or equivalent) it generally regarded as a bad game. 80% is about average, 85% good, 90% great and 95% is one of the all-time greats. I just think they should make the scores more representative of the full range of scores; I mean if you score something 5 out of 10 surely that means it is average. Yet a 5/10 score in a game means it is very poor.

As others have already said in this thread, it is best to look at multiple sources for reviews as each individual site my have its own bias depending on their connections to the gaming industry and are therefore not completely impartial. I generally don't trust trailers and just watch them to see how good the graphics are. They can't be used as way of measuring gameplay.

 

[mosque]

That game looks incredibly bad.

I've found that anyone who stands to make money from a positive review has a completely invalid opinion.
So this means stay away from adverts and businesses for advice on what to buy. Gamespot is selling snake oil.

There are actually an astounding number of blogs, irc channels, feeds, and forums run by nerds who try to show off by being more excited over new games.
They also happen to know about the latest and greatest.
Try searching "blog + videogame" you should get about a million results.

 

[JCDRANZER]

I tend to use IGN, 1UP, Amazon reviews and the WIKI articles that contain the scores of several magazines and sites compiled.

The game magazine that I usually buy in the UK is gamemaster, I haven't bought an issue of it in years but am going to after my exams to see if there are any new games I wanna buy.

Previews tend to be positive but reviews tend to be on the good side of things. I tend to wait for reviews and wait a bit more when a particular game I want to get becomes cheaper but I haven't done it like that all the time though because there's always a good game I want to get when it comes out, I remember buying Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory on my XBOX when it came out. I've seen reviews that have been negatively written for games that were genuinely good.....I remember this writer saying how bad Mirror's Edge was, I didn't avoid the game because I had played a demo on the 360 and I really wanted to get the game. I got it and I have to say its one of my fav games on the 360....I wonder how much better it is on the PS3 graphically.....it doesn't really matter considering the cut-scenes are mostly done in the cartoon fashion.

EDIT:

Didn't really pay attention to the HP 7 Part 1 game trailer, it looked okay but I doubt I'll buy it when its like £40-50. The game is based on the last book but since the last book is going to be adapted into 2 movies. The first movie (part 1) is coming out this summer I think. The only Harry Potter game I ever owned was the Philosopher's Stone one on the Gameboy Advance, which was actually a decent game but I finished it too quickly to do any justice to the price I paid for it but that was like many many many years ago.

 

[khael]

QUOTE selling their reviews.

Tried gamefaqs? Or any other site for that matter. As for game reviews, I tend to just ask around and then test the game myself. I'm not telling you to just pirate. Just rent it or borrow from a friend etc. [Or, yeah, torrent it]. This actually saved me a lot of money when I tried out a few games a while back and found that they weren't up to par with my preferences.

You know what, this reminds me of several instances where journalists who give poor reviews to games allegedly get sacked due to pressure from the company that owns the game. [I think something like this happened in Aus regarding Red Dead Redemption and Rockstar].

Which is why, I don't trust the industry and ads and just ask around.

You can also try going to "that" wretched place. Even though it's quite a cesspool there are a few golden nuggets to be found.

You can also try asking around here. There's a few "gaming buffs" around here IIRC.

 

[Prideless]

I tend to agree with gamespot most of the time, I check GT and IGN as well.

I always look at metacritic and Gamespots Critic and User Scores as well.

What reviews with Gamespot are you not satisfied with?

 

[Klyern]

^ all

about 99% RPG and action reviews

and 30% fps reviews

the only place they always nail it and never lie is w the strategy reviews

 

[dchaosblade]

QUOTE (Klyern @ Jun 04 2010, 10:38 PM) ^ all

about 99% RPG and action reviews

and 30% fps reviews

the only place they always nail it and never lie is w the strategy reviews
Lets try this again.
Which reviews (provide a link to specific review(s)) from Gamespot are you not satisified with and why?

The only thing you've said so far is that they lie, but haven't given an example of when they do. The only problem you've given is that apparently in a review for a Harry Potter game, they didn't mention that firing spells sounds kinda like guns(?) - to which, I'll point out, you once again did not give a link to said review. All you ever linked to was a trailer video.

As far as I'm concerned, this thread was made for no reason other than to start up arguments and to make sensationalist claims. No support was ever given, nor any reasoning. I've been tempted this entire time to close the thread, or at least rename it since it seems to be tending more towards a "where do you get reviews from" than a "such and such sucks" thread like it was created for.