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[Derek]

Kind of a dumb poll, but hey, why not?  I'm curious.

Warning: generality ahead... American mags seem to me to pale a bit in comparison to the overseas ones.  I'm not sure why it is.  EGM feels more and more like it wants to be Maxim.  And the PC magazines are always proclaiming "PC Gaming Isn't Dead!"  I wouldn't even have realized that it was an issue if they weren't so defensive about it (definitely a pet peeve of mine).

I dunno, I pick up a foreign magazine, and it feels more like they're interested in being happy playing and analyzing games rather than fighting stereotypes and "game journalism" inferiority complexes!

But hey, obviously I still like and read them all.  And I'm not as familiar with all the foreign games magazines so...











God, I miss Gamefan.

[Radnom]

I chose the first four options  That pretty much sums it up for me.

[Guert]

I still read game reviews because I'm always curious to see if one of them is going to talk about new subjects regarding the game.

I used to read reviews and play the game afterwards to see what the writer meant. Now, I just want to know if they are still talking about graphics or how cool the game is or if they have switched to other subjects such as player involvment, immersion, intuitivity and such. A few of them do aproach subjects like that but most of the time, I feel like they use terms like "immersion" as if it's some buzz word that'll sale the game.

I don't read alot of foreign mags (I'm canadian) but I tend to agree with Derek on this one. It seems that the North American mags are still trying to tell everyone that you are not some sort of reject if you play video games (but for some reason they usualy picture on their covers games where WW2 or any gun-oriented play rules, when not showing an rpg chick with a metal bikini) while the rest of the world has moved on and are enjoying video games in general.

Well, that's my opinion  

[fish]

i dont read reviews.

[Guert]

Kinda related question but not exactly on topic... How do you decide the games you try Fish? Word to mouth? Gut feeling (as in wanting to play it, not bowel movement induced from looking at the box :D)?

[Shoot-em-upper]

I voted Other.  I just like reading stuff.

[pkt-zer0]

I read reviews for info about a game. Though that's mostly past tense nowadays, as my favourite paperback magazine's gone and died on me. Available replacements use copy-pasted PR material and some filler only to slap a ninety-something percent rating at the end of every review, too low on actual content. So, currently I resort to using various reviews on the internet and try to average out the bullshit.

[fish]

Kinda related question but not exactly on topic... How do you decide the games you try Fish? Word to mouth? Gut feeling (as in wanting to play it, not bowel movement induced from looking at the box :D)?

this is gonna be kinda boring but mostly i just read previews.

[Eden]

I read New Games Journalism (Tim Rogers and co basically) reviews sometimes, because they're entertaining and sometimes though provoking.

I don't read normal reviews for games though, because most I don't like the way most reviewers write (and their opinions).

[Zaphos]

For a game I'm probably going to play, I don't like to see too much of the review beforehand because it affects how I experience the game.  For mainstream reviews I mainly just read the numbers and blurbs on Metacritic to see if something was well-received or not, and then sometimes after I've played the game I actually read a review to see more about what people felt about the game. 

Sometimes I'll also read a review just to vicariously experience something I'm excited about, but which I probably won't get to play.
I'll also read "reviews" on a site like ACTION BUTTON just because they say interesting things.  And I watch Zero Punctuation because it's entertaining.

I still read game reviews because I'm always curious to see if one of them is going to talk about new subjects regarding the game.

Kind of unrelated, but are you still planning to start a reviews column / blog / something?

[ithamore]

I only read online reviews now, and I usually just skim those of commercial games. I stopped reading magazines back in the 90's.

[Arne]

Other (I'm surprised this wasn't a poll option, or was it?):

I read game reviews to find out what the mechanics of the game are. Typically I go to GameFaqs or some place where I can find people writing low score reviews. I don't really care about if people think a feature is good or bad, as long as they describe the feature, because that's the information I'm looking for. I generally find low score reviews more insightful from a game designer perspective too.

If the game is described as an exploration game, but then there are complaints about backtracking, well, then it's probably just a linear game disguised as an exploration game (by folding the path). If someone complains about "not knowing where to go or what to do", I know I'd probably like the game!

[Tr00jg]

I chose the first four options  That pretty much sums it up for me.

Same here.

[moshboy]

I rarely read game reviews so I voted other. Sometimes I go by word of mouth or just how a game concept sounds in general. Some games I just 'know' are going to be pretty awesome, like Portal for example (there was just no way it couldn't have been).

[Pacian]

Generally, I don't read reviews.  Nobody knows what I like except me.  I don't care about gameplay or graphics, frankly.

I did used to love reading the reviews on Digitiser - the UK games magazine (of sorts) most widely read by gamers and most widely ignored by the games-industry. Their reviews were always irreverent and honest, with no love for hype or brand.

And what fun to read the responding letters from fanboys of every stripe, all convinced that Digitiser was biased towards the other cliques.

[Guert]

Kind of unrelated, but are you still planning to start a reviews column / blog / something?

Yeah, I'm seriously looking into that these days. I'm not sure what I should do exactly yet, or what approach I should take, so any suggestions would be appreciated

Moshboy raises an interesting point. The most interesting games aren't usualy reviewed. Titles like Façade or Portal don't get the same coverage as other mainstream titles but they remain games players should at least try. I usualy find these titles from comments from message boards or websites like GameSetWatch or TIGS.

[skaldicpoet9]

Well, generally I read a review to get the basic gist of the game. I don't usually agree with the scores that say, Gamespot or IGN or whoever give a game but I can basically tell whether a game is somewhat good or not. There are some exceptions though, like when I read the review for Spider-Man: Friend or Foe, I think Gamespot gave it like a 5/10 and Game Informer gave it like a 4 or something but I actually had a lot of fun with the game and wouldn't necessarily call it a bad game. I think this has somewhat to do with the rating system itself, I think I would rather rank a game as "shit" "bad" "average" "good" and "excellent", which SMFoF would be about average. I think the 10/10 system really nitpicks the game to a very excessive degree, I mean I guess it is fine if we are trying to scrutinize every aspect of a game but for me I read a review to find out if a game would be fun or not. I think that this is why I usually prefer to read user reviews then "professional" reviews.

[waruwaru]

I don't like spoilers, so I normally don't read reviews of games I want.  I read some to see if they can convince me to change my mind about buying a game.  Most of the times, I just oggle at the pretty pictures. 

[PHeMoX]

I don't like spoilers either, but good reviews shouldn't really have spoilers in them, right?

Still, nowadays reviews are often total crap, especially online reviews. There might be a few reviewers around that look at games the way I do, but they often do not rate games accordingly. (For example a game that's not looking great totally lacking the latest next-gen graphics but is still a lot of fun to play usually scores way lower than a game that looks awesome but isn't fun to play at all.) After the Gamespot fiasco of two of their top reviewers leaving I can understand why too. 

I already thought that a bunch of recent reviews on Gamespot were a bit strange.

Anyways, I usually read reviews to get a good sense of whether or not the game is worth my money ór worth trying the demo if it has one. Sometimes it turns out it's better to wait until the games are re-released as budget-titles or after the first price-cut (often within a couple of months), but paying full-price can be fine too. Off course games are becoming more and more expensive, so I tend to be even more careful about what I buy.

Reviews are pretty crucial, but at the same time I totally ignore scores and the final conclusion parts of reviews. Especially lately I don't quite trust the bigger magazines anymore when it comes to their 'independence', a shame really but nothing I can do about that.

[waruwaru]

I don't like spoilers either, but good reviews shouldn't really have spoilers in them, right?

Sorry, I didn't mean "spoilers" for the story/plots.  I meant, I didn't want to find out too much about the gameplay, side quests, and the opinions to taint my experience.   I am one of those people who read the manual and sit through the entire intro movie when I get a new game.