GameRankings Obsession

Post Reply New Topic

I have this weird habit of not allowing myself to play video games that are of a score lower than 89/100.
I don't know when or why I developed this habit, but it prevents me from finding new games as of lately.

I have played almost every game there is (except for sports games, and strategy games) that is listed above 89/100.
I have just about run out of new games to play, and am starting to think I should resort to pure nostalgia gaming soon, playing old games from the 90's that I liked.

Sometimes I think of lowering my standards to below 89/100, maybe down to 79/100, but for some odd reason, I cannot bring myself to do it at all.
There were several games that I did like that were rated below 89/100, even below 79/100, but it was years ago that I played those games, and I doubt I'd play them again.

Am I the only one that does this with video game review scores?
I don't know why I think the review scores are so important, I didn't always do this, it's kinda strange.

Which game sites do you use to base your reviews?

I use gamespot, which give different scores to say, IGN...

It's certainly a good idea to read/watch game reviews because it gives you an idea on how good the game is. You shouldn't ultimately base your thoughts about a game on a review you've seen, you should try to buy a game and then return it if you don't like it. In my experience I buy games from EB Games which have a 7 day return policy if you don't like the game. Oh, and a side note like "MrCaff" stated, different sites will give different review scores. IGN is the worst... They'll absolutely tear-down a game for one little thing and then praise another for doing the exact same thing.

Yeah, I dont know why you think review scores are important either, lol.

As Scrollin said, some reviewers are just.... incredibly negative. Others? Ignorant. And so on, and so on.

By limiting yourself to specific "scores", which may or may not have been formulated by complete morons, all you're doing is probably missing out on some stuff that you might really love.

For instance, I play alot of shmups. Quite alot of them. But almost that ENTIRE GENRE is hated by most professional reviewers. Why? Because they're used to games that hold your hand all the way through, and give you a million checkpoints, and have 80 hour long stories... and the shmup genre doesnt do any of that. They're short-ish, *very* difficult, require hours and hours and hours of practice, and they dont have useless cinema scenes. So reviewers tend to HATE them. If I actually LISTENED to those fools, I'd miss out on pretty much the whole genre.

Me being the way I am, I'm usually wary of any game that DOES get a high score, since often, it's for the wrong reasons. Having super badass cutscenes and pretty graphics does not make a good game, but it can make a good REVIEW from many of those people.



Think for yourself, is all I'm sayin.

OFFTOPIC: I've been interested in trying out some shmups. Mainly Ikaruga or some type of danmaku like Touhou. Any recommendations?

ONTOPIC: Ikaruga got some pretty good scores, but I would have to agree that some niche genres (shmups, visual novels, and some adventure games) don't get the respect they deserve because the reviewer falls out of the target audience. Sometimes games really do deserve their scores though, and fans are just more willing to forgive the bad and enjoy the good rather than letting a couple major flaws (difficulty, length, acting) impede their enjoyment. To each their own, I suppose.