Do you listen to reviews for purchasing decisions ?

I was just wondering how many people use game reviews for if they should buy a game or not. I personally have never used game reviews (that I can remember) as I like to find out for myself. I've always found that my opinion of a game is almost always higher than that of a game reviewer because I have to actually pay my own hard earned monies for the game (which is why I believe all game reviewers, or critics in general, should have to buy their own shit, but that's a discussion for another day). I always root for my favorite games to get high review scores because I know that stuff is important to a lot of people, but I personally like to be my own judge.
 
So how 'bout it ? Do you purchase games based on if they got a good review score or not ?

I do some times.  It just depends on the game for me.

If i'm on the fence about a game, reviews will definately matter. That said, most of the games I buy these days I know months in advance that I'll be buying, so this scenario doesn't come up much

At the very least they're a good guide to decide where to start looking.  I generally am not very inclined to look into a game that averages in the 50s or even 60s on gamerankings for instance. 

I'll take them into some consideration.  I don't give a shit if sites are giving some game I know will be good 7/10s or anything like that.  If a game is coming down with 4/10's and such though I will take that into consideration seriously.

I do sometimes, depending on what the game is....but most of the other time I listen to my friends.

I always look at multiple reviews before making a decision.

I used to live & die by Metacritic scores.  Then I played Lost Odyssey... which had a mediocre meta score of 78.  Love it or loathe it, I had a blast playing it & found myself enjoying it more than some of the 90+ meta score games.  I've learned to not put so much faith in reviews as we & the reviewers all have different palettes although here & there I still find myself influenced by reviews.. i.e. I've never given Call of Duty : World at War a fighting chance.

Reviews are essential for informing my purchasing decisions. Usually it comes down to a combination of one or two outlets I really trust (Giant Bomb and Edge - I got me a subscription) and the aggregator site GameRankings. 
 
Rule of thumb is that anything less than 85 average is a rental.

I do some reading before I actually decide to buy a game and I have a few sites that have yet to steer me in the wrong direction of what games are good and bad (Giant Bomb being one).  However I do not purchase a game solely on what one person has to say about it. 

No. Why let other peoples opinions on something sway me to like or dislike something. I will play it for myself before coming to that decision.

I never take only one review into consideration. But sometimes when a game I'm on the fence about gets multiple favorable or negative reviews, I'll definitely  be influenced. Take Batman AA for instance. I initially considered it a rental until I saw all the positive reviews (along with the deal at Toys 'R Us).

" I used to live & die by Metacritic scores.  Then I played Lost Odyssey... which had a mediocre meta score of 78.  Love it or loathe it, I had a blast playing it & found myself enjoying it more than some of the 90+ meta score games.  I've learned to not put so much faith in reviews as we & the reviewers all have different palettes although here & there I still find myself influenced by reviews.. i.e. I've never given Call of Duty : World at War a chance. "

Depends, for example, I will buy Uncharted 2 regardless of what anyone says but I will wait for reviews on Brutal Legend simply because I am less sure whether I will enjoy the game.

Only if I'm on the fence about the purchase.

If I want a game, I will play it and most likely buy it. But if I am on the fence for some game, I will check out a various potpourri (haven't used that word in awhile, damn) of reviews before buying it.

It varies.
 
Review scores were the sole reason I tried out Batman, for example.

I don't listen to review scores, necessarily, but I like to read the reviews themselves.

There's sort of a weird standardized expectation in the industry for games to "bring something new" to the fore, and a lot of times if a game simply works on refining a certain formula without adding a lot of superfluous bric-a-brac, its review "scores"--the things aggregator sites, well, aggregate--will tend to dip a bit. Quality is quality, but looking at an 85 and shying away from the game only because it's an 85 is an ignorant thing.  
 
I read the reviews, try to gauge whether or not the claim is valid in correlation to the weight the reviewer is giving it. If I don't buy some of the negative criticisms, then I'll still venture out and play the game. But if things are sound then I'll listen and decide against playing.

" No. Why let other peoples opinions on something sway me to like or dislike something. I will play it for myself before coming to that decision. "

"
Sometimes.  Not on the big titles I have really been looking forward to and reviews would not change my mind, i.e. Halo 3: ODST which I am going to pick up in 4 hours. "

"
Sometimes.  Not on the big titles I have really been looking forward to and reviews would not change my mind, i.e. Halo 3: ODST which I am going to pick up in 4 hours. "

"

I don't listen to review scores, necessarily, but I like to read the reviews themselves.

There's sort of a weird standardized expectation in the industry for games to "bring something new" to the fore, and a lot of times if a game simply works on refining a certain formula without adding a lot of superfluous bric-a-brac, its review "scores"--the things aggregator sites, well, aggregate--will tend to dip a bit. Quality is quality, but looking at an 85 and shying away from the game only because it's an 85 is an ignorant thing.  
 
I read the reviews, try to gauge whether or not the claim is valid in correlation to the weight the reviewer is giving it. If I don't buy some of the negative criticisms, then I'll still venture out and play the game. But if things are sound then I'll listen and decide against playing.

"

Usually I only believe the reviews that are really good or really bad. If a game gets a 10 on a couple of sites I acknowledge it as a good game and eventually get it. Analogical solution for really bad reviews. But when the score is around 7... that's where it gets tricky because very often the games rated around 7 are underappreciated or rated to hastily. Somehow the games rated 7 are always better than 7 to me. More like 8.5. The Force Unleashed got fair reviews but I enjoyed the hell out of it. That's exactly why I got Wet, even though it's rated as average, I don't pay attention to details that made the reviewer give it a lower score.

Reviews don't influence me to buy games I have interest in, but may have a slight influence in playing games I might have been on the fence about.

No

There like 50% of the decision i would say, the rest depends on ME, and gameplay footage and other things. 

Yes. Why waste $60 on a game that I don't know if I'll like?

I'll take it into consideration, but usually when I decide to buy a title it does not matter if reviewers like it or not, I've heard about it enough to make my own decision.

yes, sometimes. the most recent one is need for speed: shift.  i haven't liked the past couple of need for speed games because they have been pretty sucky. i'm working on finding somewhere i can buy the game cheaper.

" I always look at multiple reviews before making a decision. "

Yes. Considering up here it's 70 dollars for a game, I need to know if it's fully worth the price.

Demos, Reviews (and Quick Looks) all influence if I'm interested in playing a game or not.
 
Most of the time it's not.

Sometimes, particularly if I don't know much about a game in advance, but other times I've ignored reviews and ended up enjoying games that received critical drubbings.

" @Kouerson: 
Except for Trash Panic; we bought it because it looked bad =B "

Yes.

Not too often. I know my own interests and tastes, and I purchase games that appeal to me. Generally, bad reviews won't be able to dissuade me from a game unless they're really bad and I wasn't too interested to begin with. Some times good reviews might push me over the fence, but generally I make my own decisions and don't really take reviews into account too much.

For games I'm unsure of, I check Giant Bomb, 1up, and occasionally IGN to see whether the game is worth it.  I also usually see who reviewed the game, as I know which editors I tend to agree with.

I listen to reviews to see what those people thought of the game, and thats it. I never let reviews influence my purchasing decision(even tho I buy absolutely no games anymore and just gamefly everything). I already know good and well whether I have interest in a game or not, and if I do I will play it myself and give my own opinion of it. Using reviews for that..its just a mistake in every way.

I use to a lot more when I was younger. But now that I'm 16, I use the internet a lot more frequently and for different purposes than I use to, so it's easy to get updates and read previous before games are released. Reviews definitely help me make a decision, but if I'm interested and it gets semi-decent reviews, I'll purchase it eventually.
 
My job and the tiny amount of disposable income I now get also helps (still, most of it goes towards insurance and gas money).

Depends on the reviewer and the game.

I watch a review, but don't care about the score.
 
I just look at the gameplay and see what the reviewer liked and didn't like about the game.
I'm a big-time 'day 1' buyer because for the most part, I feel that's how publishers get the best idea if they should support a developer or not. So yeah, Metacritic helps a lot to keep me from wasting money, but a lot of the time I read up tons of previews, and demos are a huge selling point to me, hell, Brutal Legend, had no interest in that one, played the demo, definitely looking forward to it now.

If it's a game I had no intent on buying in the first place, most definitely. If it's something I know interests me, I still sometimes wait for the reviews to roll out, but I'll most likely buy it if things don't appear to have gone horribly wrong.