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Any well-deserved critics' reviews you relied on?


henrymidfields
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To elabourate the title, were there games which you relied on the professional critics' reviews and recommendations? This is as opposed to, say, brand name, or word-of-mouth from friends or fellow gamers. Out of these, I want to hear which of the games turned out have well-deserved or spot-on reviews.

For me, it was Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Persona 4: Golden, both receiving praise from critics (particularly the latter).

The former was generally well-received by critics (in contrast to the scorn of fans here), and got me curious about the game. Good thing I played the game, because it got me hooked when I borrowed it from my friend. The seemingly different elements from the two franchises being juxtaposed (particularly the medieval FE with modern Persona), the hilarity of the story, and the very fact that Atlus had balls to make such a crazy move (with Catherine being another example of a crazily-designed game) were just too good to pass up.

The good experience I had with the former prompted me to check the latter. To be sure, I also checked the professional reviews and other articles related to the game, as it was my first time to play a main games of the Persona series. My opinion? This game in general, and the story, the narrative, and the moral lesson in particular deserves all the acclaim and praise it gets.

Edited by henrymidfields
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No, I don't ever rely on critics for any decisions. They're always riddled with bias like any Musou game or paid off like SwSh. If I'm on the fence about a game I just look up some gameplay videos and actually judge it by myself rather than take someone else's words for it.

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I guess I tend to trust Easy Allies, if anybody. Among the 8 people currently working there, six I think have written reviews at all since the company's inception, and each review copy is typically handed to whomever has the most experience with the genre or franchise. On each review you'll know immediately who wrote the review, which I think a lot more outlets should do. Their reviews are completely up front about a game's potential flaws beyond just mentioning a frame drop here or there, and they don't hide the existence of microtransactions or how they impact the experience. 

If I want reviews on an older (mid 2000s to early 2010s) game, usually I'll click on the classic game room, or gametrailers videos. For indie games there usually isn't one outlet to look out for. A lot of the vidoes you find are smaller channels on one of their first projects, high off the experience of receiving a review copy of a game.

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1 hour ago, NegativeExponents- said:

No, I don't ever rely on critics for any decisions. They're always riddled with bias like any Musou game or paid off like SwSh. If I'm on the fence about a game I just look up some gameplay videos and actually judge it by myself rather than take someone else's words for it.

It really is impossible to find a good review for a Musuo game. I can't think of any other genre that is so consistently reviewed by people who do not like that genre.

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i generally don't care about videogame critics, but last time i actually made use of a review, was for bayonetta 1 many years ago, and didn't regret it; i like reading reviews of games i already know so that i can have an idea of what reviewers think about them

i'm pretty good at quickly judging if i'd like a videogame or not, i don't like to buy games randomly and then judge them

Edited by Yexin
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None. I don't hold game criticism in contempt like some people do but I've rarely been influenced about it. I watch reviews because I'm curious what people have to say, but I've always had a crystal clear view of what I wanted or what wasn't for me. Actually most reviewers I follow tend to be hard on games I like. 

I guess Superbunnyhop gushing so much about Snake Eater made me curious enough to try and get my hands on it, something circumstances seem very keen on preventing. 

Edited by Etrurian emperor
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I don't rely on critics that much, I just buy the games that I want to. I do usually watch GameXplain just for the announcements, fun, livestreams, and analysis and I do watch some of Cinemassacre videos sometimes to see what was those games about when they play it. I did see some things that James or Mike point some flaws on some games that they play.

Edited by King Marth 64
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SomecallmeJohhny, Retropolis Zone (an underrated reviewer, even if the length of their videos is a double-edged sword), and the game costing 10 bucks on the E-shop convinced me to get the MegaMan X collection. Don't regret my purchase, even if I quickly realized that it has been a long time since I have last played a platformer.

SomecallmeJohhny's reviews of Metal Gear got me into the series, although Awkward Zombine and the "Let's Destroy Metal Gear!" comics by Hiiamdaisy also had a hand in that. Despite only playing two games in the franchise thus far, I quickly fell in love with its unique blend of silliness and seriousness, thought-provoking plots, and extremely well done stealth gameplay.

The Completionist and the Resident Evil marathon by SomecallmeJohnny (noticing a pattern?), as well as being $20 on the E-shop led to me getting Resident Evil 4 on the Nintendo Switch. Needless to say, I have no difficulty seeing why this is considered one of the most influential videogames of all time and why it is a favorite of many. I had fun from beginning to end, my complaints were few, and it didn't take long before I started a new game to experience it all over again.

These are the only cases I can think of where a reviewer convinced me to buy a game. Generally, I tend to watch reviews for fun and to either learn about a game I didn't have much knowledge of before or to get a different perspective on one I had already played. When actually buying a product, I tend already have some knowledge of the game beforehand, or it was cheap and the marketing blurbs and screenshots looked interesting at stores where you can buy older games.

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Tokyo Mirage Sessions Encore was that game for me too. I missed out on the original because I wasn't interested in FE back then, so when it came around on the Switch I was curious, considering all the hate it got from fans. I was on the fence, because I kinda wanted a game I could just not take seriously and have fun with, but I wasn't sure if it would be that.kind of game. Seeing a lot of positive reviews swayed me to give it a chance, and I ended up really enjoying it.

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22 minutes ago, Anathaco said:

Tokyo Mirage Sessions Encore was that game for me too. I missed out on the original because I wasn't interested in FE back then, so when it came around on the Switch I was curious, considering all the hate it got from fans. I was on the fence, because I kinda wanted a game I could just not take seriously and have fun with, but I wasn't sure if it would be that.kind of game. Seeing a lot of positive reviews swayed me to give it a chance, and I ended up really enjoying it.

Holy shit! High five!! 😎 Let this be a lesson to both of us to check the pro's opinions!

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Arlo (despite his rather childish appearance) and Gamexplain are my main channels for game reviews and discussions with Spawn Wave for the occasional news and rumors. Although Matthewmatosis does some quality work when he puts his occasional video out. Arlo's "A Big Fat Review of Breath of the Wild" in particular is one of the best game reviews I've ever watched though.

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Matthewmatosis is a reviewer I watch. I don't really "depend" on his reviews, as I mainly watch the reviews after I've already played the game, but the insight he gives into each game he reviews is really deep and he does a really good job. 

Another game reviewer I watch is MauLer, though he hasn't done a video game review in a very long time. He also does a good job as he's very thorough, but he's less concise. As a result of both of these things, his reviews are very long (though they're usually broken into multiple parts, which helps).

Again, I don't "depend" on the reviews; I mainly watch them to find things about the game that I missed or went over my head, or to put into words why I liked or disliked something about a game, as communication is not a strong point of mine. 

Edited by vanguard333
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