Do review scores matter to you?

The scores don't really mean all that much to me, I usually just check them to get a general feel on how they are trending for a particular game then I'll read a review/watch a quick look to decide on it.

I'm horrifically poor right now, so I need every excuse I can get to justify a non-purchase. Bring on the bad reviews.

I have no self control otherwise, so I need to form a negative opinion of a game or it gets added to the backlog.

I don't care for review scores. However, I'm always interested to hear someone elses opinion about something (as long as it's well written).

I kind of appreciate how Kotaku is like "YES!" or "NO!" I lean on the side of scores being somewhat meaningless, it's the words I find important.

Positive/negative reviews matter to me when compared with my own experience. It's always nice when I enjoy a game and it reviewed well and a bummer when I enjoy a game and it reviewed poorly. Reviews are also helpful when I'm on the fence about buying a game - Shadows of Mordor looked potentially good but I held out to see reviews before picking it up.

I make a lot of my purchases based on what I've seen of a game in previews and such and how interested I am in that game, a lot of the time I simply don't care about seeing if a game is received well or not if I'm interested in it - I want to see for myself and so I'll pre-order for release day delivery. So in that sense they often don't matter to me.

Scores specifically kind of matter/don't matter in the same ways.

This exactly

I know what I think will be fun. I watch a few minutes of a game on Twitch, or a Quick Look/Let's Play and base my buying decision on that. A bad review won't stop me from playing a game that I think I'll enjoy. A good review won't make me want to play a game that doesn't look interesting to me. I like to discuss games, but nobody's opinion affects my views on a specific game. Listening to people that disagree with me is part of what makes this (discussing games, these forums, etc) fun. Understanding why someone likes or dislikes something is good for people.

I'm interested in reviews, but never because I'm trying to decide what to buy.

A good score might make me look a bit closer at a game I otherwise wouldn't have and a bad score might me keep away from games I wasn't looking into anyways. It's not a big effect on what games I buy since I know my taste very well by now, but I've probably missed some gems or picked up something neat over the years because of reviews.

I read some reviews for the information, and the score is a reflection of what the reviewer suggests for the game. 5/5= everybody play; 4/5=worth checking out; 3/5=it's a game & it is what it is; 2/5=wouldn't recommend you playing it; 1/5=I'm telling you for your own good, don't even THINK about this game!!!

When I'm buying a game I'm not sure on, or just curious of the general publics opinion on it, I go and read multiple user reviews, good or bad. If I'm curious of the game but not sure if it's my type (Bloodbourne is a day 1 buy, for example, as I know I'll enjoy it), depending on the reviews depends on if I'll look out for a deal or not. Note: I normally buy games when they're on sales/cheap, reviews just dictate when I grab them.

EDIT: I use the actual number score/stars/whatever to dictate which reviews I read/look at, I generally read a few high, and a few low, and maybe a few middling ones.

The actual score itself? No

I only use them as a proxy to figure out which reviews to read. E.g. If I see a game is getting a lot of 9's and 10's I'll seek out lower scores to read a different perspective.

I'm not going to read every review, so it helps me pick out which ones I'm going to.

In a post quick look world things are a little different but as a broad statement: buying games blindly is as much a decision of taste as it is one controlled by marketing.

Dismissing reviews isn't strength of opinion, it's adherence to corporate goals.

Again, in a post quick look world this is a little less true than it used to be but I've found reviews useful for a long time. Do they SOLELY dictate what I'm interested in? God no, but they absolutely help with avoiding disappointments and discovering things I would otherwise have not considered.

I'd like to see the industry, or at least just GB (it's basically the only site I go to anyways), move towards a scoreless system. Not only because it would subvert a lot of the bullshit around how games get scored (the 7-9 problem, publishers asking certain things not to be talked about in reviews, rereleasing updated games with a slightly different title to subvert services like metacritic, etc) but also because I personally encounter a problem where I take a glance at the score and who reviewed it, and from that plus maybe some podcast comments intuit basically what the review will be, without actually reading the review. I think taking away the score may encourage me to actually read more deeply into why some particular reviewer did or didn't like some particular game rather than just glancing at a number and a name and leaving it at that.

To some extent absolutely. I usually like to read scores from both extreme ends of the spectrum to get an all around idea of the game's strengths and weaknesses from different perspectives. The scores help me find those easily, but they don't hinge on whether I buy a game or not.

@2headedninja: Same. A comprehensive layout and critique of every aspect of the game in written form honestly does very little to convince me compared to 2 minutes of video of the combat/movement mechanics.

Nope, not even a little bit. Honestly, if Im undecided about a game I'll watch a Quick Look before I decide.

I'm definitely not sick of seeing this thread every month.

It will definitely never get old.

Definitely.

If I'm REALLY on the fence about a game I'll check out the reviews but most of the time I just get it. The rate at which I buy and play games is frightening and probably akin to someone who actually reviews games as a job.

Scores and reviews are sometimes just marketing message - they are something money can buy (on some sites.) I used to play some award winning games and found they're very disappointing. I rather grab what I like from its graphic, concept and content. I trust my own judgement more than scores and reviews!

I would say only 1:10 of the games I buy are purchased post-launch. In that rare case, I do look to reviews. Otherwise I typically have a decent track record with getting games that I either put a ton of time into or that I really like. There are those rare instances that I feel I either made a purchase too early (Disney Infinity 2.0) or that I think was just a bad game (Watch Dogs) but overall games are typically decent. Giant Bomb's quick looks are 100% more interesting/useful in this way more than anything else, not to mention I would prefer to also see Boogie and TotalBiscuit talk about a game too.

Reviews don't mean very much to me anymore. Like a lot of people I prefer just watching a Quick Look and hearing some informed impressions. When I'm on the fence for a game though, and the footage isn't helping me out one way or another, then I just want a qualitative judgement, and reviews are super useful for that. When they don't have a score, I don't find them as useful for that purpose. Scores also act as a meaningful way to catch my attention when I haven't been paying attention to a game. When something I was ignoring gets 9s and 10s, suddenly that makes me want to look into it, and otherwise it would have passed me by.

Perhaps not the score, but what critics say about a game absolutely affects how I buy them. I don't get to buy many games (hell, I've not even been able to afford a new console yet) and not too much free time any more so what critics say has a massive impact on what I buy.

OP's question is kind of misleading. I base my purchases on reviews, not necessarily on review scores. If the content of the review is positive and sounds like I would enjoy the game, the score doesn't really matter. Same goes for bad games.

Gameplay videos are the main determining factor. If I see something I'm interested in, it looks cool in gameplay videos, and it's getting a lot of praise from people I trust (including the people who run this site) I'm more likely to pay full price (EX: The Last of Us) . If it looks cool in a gameplay video, but opinions are mixed I'll wait for a price drop (EX: The Evil Within). If the game play doesn't look interesting at all to me, but it's getting praise I might buy it when it's really cheap (EX: Alien Isolation, Shadow of Mordor)

Yes and No, i like to be able to glance at review scores on my mobile if im making an instant buying decision and dont know much about the game, but i generally know if i want a game before i see any reviews. I hold the narrative in the reviews in much higher regard than the actual score, particularly GB's because its easy to tell from the good/bad points if its for me. No one should only look at a score, understanding how they reached the score is more important, afterall, a game one reviewer hates for reason x could be the exact same reason i would love it.

All I want is the number.

I watch videos/listen to podcasts, look at the metacritic then weigh it against expectations.

I like to say that reviews never influence my opinion, that I know what I would like purely from a gameplay video or that I just know what I like. But I'm realizing more recently that review scores are actually slightly changing my perspective of certain games a little bit more.

I think review scores are important in order to understand the reviewer, less so about the game. It shows their ability to call what is or is not a quality game, and the way they let their biases influence their call on the matter.

For example, when Jeff gave Halo Reach 4 stars, I knew it was a great game that did little to actually deviate from the other Halos out there. And that's how he typically has been scaling his FPS experiences, only using 5 stars for something inventive or something supremely well-made. It's a pretty damn useful way to see which aspects are important to him when he plays games.

I have maybe five hours a week I get to play a game now. Reviews and the scores are actually a very good tool for me. Had I waited on Destiny I might have seen that it maybe wasn't the best use of my five hours a week.

I think you need to add another option to the poll. I love reading reviews but the scores themselves dont matter to me. Depending on the person writing it, a review could say the exact same thing but have drastically different scores based on what is and isn't important to that person.

Yes, they absolutely matter to me. You come to learn how the reviewers tastes mesh with your own and what implications that has when reading a review by an individual.

For example, if Bran gives a game 5 stars, you can bet when I play it my opinion lines up almost directly with his own. Jeff on the other hand, a 5 star review doesn't mean the same. I'm sure I'd enjoy it or at the very least respect it, but it's not guaranteed that I'll love it,

During the last gen, I depended on review score TRENDS and hype ONLY to help decide on those games that I was on the fence about, while others were day 1 purchases for me based on developer history, etc. For example, something like AC3 was an instant purchase for me because I like the AC games/story, whereas a better game like Bayonetta was not on my radar until I heard the constant praise and saw the universally high scores.

I have two kids now so my gaming time is extremely limited (if at all). So, I rely on reviews more, even for games that would have been instant purchases for me in the past. A great recent example is Destiny. With Bungie's history, that would have been a day 1 purchase / pre-order. As the reviews and commentary on the game came out, it became clear to me that I was going to have a better time running through Diablo 3 again and seeing the new content there instead.

With all that said, old habits die hard and I can't see myself skipping AC Unity or Far Cry 4 this year. (not to mention so many others that got pushed to next year, e.g. Batman).

Not much anymore, I know what I want and can expect from a game these days. Probably from all those years of experience.

For instance, Shadow Of Mordor got much much higher scores than Alien, but I know for sure I would enjoy the latter much more. It's all a matter of taste.

I'm more likely to purchase these days based on a Quick Look or a discussion on the Bombcast rather than a review these days.

When the prices of retail PS4 games start off at 90 dollars where I live, one would definitely consider reading a review before shelling out such money on a game that can be beaten in 10 hours or is not of a particularly good quality.

I'll look at a review to see what other people are thinking, but I've almost always made my decision already or a quick look will be way more influential to me so I can see gameplay.