What is your review score threshold?

What criteria for you is the deciding factor whether a game is buy-worthy or not?

For me, I usually go to metacritic first. If the game has at least a 70 meta rating and a user rating above 80, then my interest is piqued. I then go to GB, IGN and Gametrailers to read/watch indepth reviews, after which I make my decision. You?

I try not to discriminate games by using review scores alone. Many times I love games that average in the 60's.

I keep an eye on games I want. I read every GiantBomb review, and if a game gets a high score I'll check around for more information.

I look at reviews to get a general idea of how the game is.
But I have a tendency of liking stuff that most critics don't.

I have to have interest in a game first so I'll pay attention to previews and such when it finally comes out I'll decide based more on the text of several reviews. I rarely bother with scores in any capacity.

I won't buy anything full-price unless it's 85ish+. But for games $10, $20, or $30+ off, who knows. There is usually plenty to buy 75+.

While I generally agree with alot of reviews, a bad score isn't going to change how much I like a game or keep me from at least renting a game that I'm interested in.

"What criteria for you is the deciding factor whether a game is buy-worthy or not? For me, I usually go to metacritic first. If the game has at least a 70 meta rating and a user rating above 80, then my interest is piqued. I then go to GB, IGN and Gametrailers to read/watch indepth reviews, after which I make my decision. You? "

Around 4.0 or higher apparently.

Nothing below an average of say 65.

It depends on what's said in the review, for the most part.

If I want a game, I'm not going to let people's opinions get in the way of me playing it.

I never look at reviews of games I'm even slightly interested in. At least, not until after I've purchased the game. So, my threshold seems to be 0!

I'll honestly buy any game that interests me. I bought both Onechanbaras [sic] and I find them to be great games (same with Tenchu Z). Reviews don't help me very much, especially since people always tell me how unorthodox my taste in games is (not in such kind words, usually).

If a game is getting really great reviews (90%+) from a variety of sources then I find it is usually hard to go wrong with it. I think this is where reviews are most useful.

Any spread of scores under that is much more trouble to understand I find. In practice I really find little practical difference in quality between games that balance out at 60-85% on the aggregate sites. Certain sorts of games seem to suffer from systematic underscoring than others. Wii games. Any art-game that divides opinion. Anything original or different from the crowd - genre-bending games. Games aimed at a younger audience. Non-violent games.

Anything under 60 is generally there for a reason, and has very significant flaws.

User ratings I largely ignore - they are too idiosyncratic.

Usually around 65 is my limit. I don't have much money to toss around on games so spending my occasional game money on a critically mediocore game is a no-go. If I'm extremely interested in a game, I won't actually read the review but just look at the score. It's not because I'm lazy but because I don't want games I'm highly anticipating ruined for me.

I've been known to enjoy games that garnered in the 50% range on Metacritic. That's pretty much my barrier.

"Geno said:

"What criteria for you is the deciding factor whether a game is buy-worthy or not? For me, I usually go to metacritic first. If the game has at least a 70 meta rating and a user rating above 80, then my interest is piqued. I then go to GB, IGN and Gametrailers to read/watch indepth reviews, after which I make my decision. You? "

I'm glad you continued your process past "I go to metacritic," because at that point I was ready to flip out. Metacritic is so fucked, not even funny. At least you read reviews, unlike much of the pop culture-feeding majority. Most look at the arbitrary number Metacritic puts up and decide right there whether it's worth their time. Bologna. "

"I try not to discriminate games by using review scores alone. Many times I love games that average in the 60's."

Once i'm interested in a game i'll read a review or two, generally gamespot and GB, to find out the the general good bits and the flaws.

Then i'll have a quick look at GS's 'critic score' list which i think is from game rankings, to get a view of the general opinion and overall quality of the game. I'd say 80% and over is a solid, good quality game.

After that i'll factor in my own personal interest if i'm actually going to buy the game. I usually want something unique, so i'm prepared to overlook some flaws if it's something i want to experience, though it might not be as high a priority as it once was (madworld and mirror's edge are still on my 'to buy' list).

Because i have limited money there's usually a large number of games that i still need to buy, and it may take a good while before i get around to actually purchasing it, or sometimes i'll pick a few of them up on the cheap if there's a sale or something. There are the occasional games that i feel compelled to buy around the release date though.

It depends on the game. Game's I'm more interested in to begin with I give more leeway in terms of review score.

if the game looks interesting and looks like it has a decent story i'll probably buy it. doesn't always workout, i bought the getaway for its story because i love london gangsters stories and it sucked.

Let's say a new SSX game was released, I'd probably buy it whatever review scores it recieved. But if I don't have a strong personal interest in the game, it would need to recieve average scores of at least 80%.

I like to read the reviews from reviewers I trust.  After that, I tend to look at the scores.  I almost never use metacritic to help me decide to buy a game.

Nothing below a 70% even pops up on my radar, so then I have to consider how much the title costs or if it is a sequel to a game I really enjoyed before I'll plop down the cash for any game under 90%.  These days I'm very picky on where my cash goes, so I'm unlikely to buy a game that is even just "good".  However, when it comes to renting games from Gamefly I don't care what they're critical score is.  Onechanbara is a perfect example of a game that received very poor ratings, but I'm renting it anyway 'cause it looks silly and fun.

I don't like to set  a certain score for what games I get.  I can still enjoy a game that gets a 6/10 if the review describes it as a game I might  like.  I think anyone who says they won't buy a game that gets below a 7/10 or 3/5 is really limiting themselves and won't ever be exposed to lots of games they might enjoy.

Unfortunately I don't earn much money so I am very picky about which games I buy. They usually have to be great games.

I'd go for anything above a 6. However, I'm old school, so that doesn't work out so well.

I go by the text of the review, not the score.

This is going to sound unbelievable, but in all forms of media, my enjoyment of something lines up with critic averages 99 percent of the time.

I have never enjoyed a bad movie. I have never enjoyed a bad game. I have never enjoyed a bad song. It's not because I want to like what is important and critically acclaimed. It because I just enjoy them more.

I don't buy games as often as most gamers do, so I end up buying AAA titles that have scores in the mid to late 80s and the nineties. I have tried buying games with low scores before. I did not like them.

Edit: There are games that score 95 that I enjoy less than games scored 85. I won't buy a game without knowing what it is. I read the written material too. In other words, I'm not going to end up with a game that's 4 hours long and say "But it had a good score! How could this happen?"

"I go by the text of the review, not the score."

If a game is a new IP entirely, and I have no connection to it whatsoever, I'll consider getting it if it's got a 70 or above on MetaCritic. 69-50 is rental worthy, and anything below a 50 is a skip. 

I don't rely on other people's reviews for what games I pick up, it'd be idiotic to do so.

I make up my own mind based on videos and just watch Video Reviews to get a sense of the game.

Here's an example: Mercs 2.

I loved Mercs 2. Most game reviewers took a shit on that game, from Gamespot to Giantbomb, but I thought it was great. 4 stars.

I buy games that interest me. Most of my favorite games are probably sub-70 games. But they interest me and thats all the matters. If I where to make a 10 top favorite games I'd be very surprised if any AAA games even made the list, not because they are not good, but because they don't interest me. Gears of War is the perfect example, that game gets rave reviews but I played it and walked away with the most "meh" feeling I have ever had,

"If I know I want a game, I'm just going to get it no matter what the review score turns out to be. However, if I'm unsure I may wait for a demo or then perhaps read reviews and make my decision from there. For example, I will be doing the latter for FUEL, but the former for The Sims 3."

It depends. After the colossal disappointment of Mario Galaxy, I now rent all games before buying them. Generally I find that if a game is below 75%, it's probably not worth buying. Of course, there are exceptions, and sometimes I disagree with reviewers. If it's scoring in the 60% range, odds are I'll pass unless it's a game I was really looking forward to and want to try out for myself.

Reviews dont dictate whether or not you like the game. I like plenty of low scored games. It is just public appeal, thats all. It just gives me an idea of what to expect, I dont listen to people who say DONT BUY THIS GAME. I played Two Worlds and loved it, good reviews? No, fun game? Yes. I just want to have fun, I will play just about everything.

When it comes to sequels I'll usually know if I want it right away but if it's a new game I'll usually listen to what you guys have to say on the forums.

I only pay attention to reviews when the game in question is one that didn't convince me it was worth a purchase or ignorable. Unfortunately, that's also usually when reviews are also on the fence. So in other words, I usually know long before the reviews come out whether or not I want a game.

I look up info on it to see if it's a game i'd like.

Judging whether or not I buy a game based on reviews is so hard... In fact, paying attention to reviews in general is a tricky business. No matter how unbiased the reviewer is or how much respect I have for them, I'm aware that no one reviewer can stop a little personal bias from leaking into their review (nor should they be expected to). Because of that, I usually make my own judgments from in-game footage and trailers; I will then rent the game which will turn into a buy or a drop depending on my experience with it.

i usually read forums on what people think of the game, i also go to metacritic and places like that, i read game informer, OXM, and used to read EGM..(ahh i miss it soo much)..then usually if after all of that i am still interested, ill go buy it

If I'm excited about a game before the reviews come out nothing will realy change my mind about buying it.  I mean I bought two worlds and loved every crappy minute of it, even though the highest review score i saw was like a 4/10.  I guess I'm lucky though, because even if i realize a game sucks I can usually still have fun playing it. (except for secret service, got it from gamefly and it is the worst thing i have ever played.  I still have nightmares about how bad it was)

Having a score threshold is missing the point of what a review is supposed to be.  Unless it's a game that I've convinced myself that I will by day one, come hell and high water, I'll read the reviews from the places I respect (1UP, Giant Bomb, sometimes X-Play, and GamesTM and Edge if I can find an issue of either) to see what people think of the game.  I'll also just read reviews for any game I'm curious about or that sounds like it could be interesting.  The only time I ever use an aggregate site is for impulse buys; if i'm in a store and I see a game for cheapish that I don't know anything about, I'll sometimes hit up GameRankings on my iPhone so I can get a quick glance at what the general consensus is, despite the fact that I think that aggregate sites are god awful in general.

"I really don't go to metacritic. I don't like the fact that they change everything to a number score. Usually, when a site has a different type of scale, they have it for a reason. Plus, I really hate the way they mess up 1up's reviews."

"Having a score threshold is missing the point of what a review is supposed to be.  Unless it's a game that I've convinced myself that I will by day one, come hell and high water, I'll read the reviews from the places I respect (1UP, Giant Bomb, sometimes X-Play, and GamesTM and Edge if I can find an issue of either) to see what people think of the game.  I'll also just read reviews for any game I'm curious about or that sounds like it could be interesting.  The only time I ever use an aggregate site is for impulse buys; if i'm in a store and I see a game for cheapish that I don't know anything about, I'll sometimes hit up GameRankings on my iPhone so I can get a quick glance at what the general consensus is, despite the fact that I think that aggregate sites are god awful in general."