Where to find reputable gaming reviews
I was a fan of GameRevolution’s reviews for a long time. They always seemed to have a criteria to reviews that not only sold me on what to pursue, but what to truly avoid even if I loved the franchise. (MGS: Ground Zeros, I’m looking at you.) They have seemingly reduced to one reviewer…
I love the weekly Tildes thread of “what games are you playing” and it has truly opened my eyes to some games I would never have heard of, or even tried (Balatro).
Anywho the point of this is to ask where everyone else looks for reputable/intelligent reviews currently? I enjoy listening to Luke Stephens talk about the industry, but it’s not as concise as an A-F or star or 1-10 rating system. IGN doesn’t have my attention… I just don’t know where to turn, as there are so many options.
I have a couple of places that I like for various purposes and reasons:
Rock, Paper, Shotgun gives me a lot of good (written) game reviews. I've discovered plenty of great games, especially smaller more-obscure ones, in recent years. I just follow them on an RSS feed and click on the games reviews/articles that sound interesting to me.
On YouTube, I like a few places. Skill Up for general game reviews. Insert Reviews and Best Indie Games for smaller games, especially roguelikes that I really love. And lastly Super Bunnyhop for hour+ long deep dives into specific games.
But other than that, one thing that I find helpful when looking at a game review (specifically video reviews, since I prefer seeing actual gameplay rather than just reading about it) is seeing the type of channel that is reviewing it. Like say you find a cool RTS game that you're interested in and you look up 'cool_rts_game review' on YouTube. You might find reviews from IGN and other large places as well as some others from smaller gamers and YouTubers. If you click around on some of their profiles, you might find that one of them exclusively streams many other RTS games, so the level of insight they might provide for a new game in that genre is usually better than a larger channel that covers all sorts of games. Unless you're completely new to that genre, in which case it might be better to get the less-in-depth review from a larger channel.
Also, Steam reviews have become my go-to as a basic barometer of a game. Overwhelmingly positive with thousands of reviews? You can bet your ass it's going to be a good game. And even if the reviews there aren't the most detailed, it might help to see if there are multiple people complaining about the same thing (like crashes, or monetization issues, or whether or not the devs have abandoned the game).
Thank you for Steam review and Rock Paper Shotgun. The industry has become such a behemoth that you’re right in pointing out finding more genre specific reviews. I do tend to become very loyal, so I guess I take this decision too seriously.
I enjoy Skill Up for reviews, news, and their podcast.
As to whether they are 'reputable' or not - well that depends on what you mean. I listen to their reviews because i think they are thoughtful.
+1 for Skill Up as well. Whether or not you like their style, format or analysis (I very much do), you cannot deny they put a ton of effort and research into each of their videos, and they're extremely well made as a result
I suppose I mean reputable in the same meaning that they have experience in the field, and tend to call as it seems without much fluff or review something because of a sponsorship.
Thank you for SkillUp!
I like ACG on YouTube.
Very in-depth. I like to see gameplay and he shows plenty of that without spoiling anything.
Obviously Tildes is a great resource as mentioned.
I'll second ACG. His reviews are detailed and scores in a more logical way.
I really miss GameTrailers. They shut down in 2016 and the staff went on to found Easy Allies. But in 2022, Brandon Jones, the iconic voice that I had heard game reviews in since 2005, retired. I haven’t been able to find a replacement since. But honestly, it’s been many hears since I even needed reviews. The last time I bought a video game console and a game from a major publisher was in 2019. I have slowly shifted to playing mostly indies on Steam, where I just read some user reviews.
If you're open to user reviews, I've been using Backloggd so much that I don't really look at conventional review sites or videos anymore until after I've finished something. I've been following a ton of people who seem to have similar taste as me, and if I'm curious about playing something I'll check the game's Backloggd page. Even if the overall rating is kinda low, I can look at people I'm following wrote about it to see if someone has a neat perspective on it, and then I'll sort by likes to (wade through meme or joke reviews, then) read a couple of longer reviews from other viewpoints to see if anything piques my interest.
Was completely unaware of Backloggd. Time to dive in! Thank you, fellow Telderanian.
It's not exclusively straight-up reviews, but I highly recommend checking out Second Wind. They make exclusively videos afaik, not written reviews, but their review-style content is generally quite short and to the point, as well as quite high-quality in my opinion. They're completely independent, so they don't suffer from SEO slop you tend to get from corporate-owned gaming outlets. They were founded by a bunch of people who left The Escapist, including Yahtzee Croshaw, whose reviews are very good -- I've bought several of my all-time favorites solely based on his reviews. If anything, his reviews have only improved as he's mellowed out with age. They have a number of other creators who discuss current gaming news and design trends as well, so you can get a lot of good perspectives on new stuff through their content.
Subscribed! I really appreciate this. I always hear about how many games some folks have in their queue that they never play, or finish, and having more opinions to judge my choices helps. I just want my money spent to go to stuff that’s meaningful and worthwhile. I’ve avoided AC Shadows because of some of these suggestions above, for example.
I’d like to recommend Mortismal, next to SkillUp, as well. He has a pc focused channel. He’s a very nice guy, in my opinion sometimes not critical enough of the games he plays, but absolutely not dishonest. I think he just really loves gaming, which makes for great vibes in his videos.
He also 100%s every game he reviews, which means his opinion is always really informed and you get to see and hear a lot of what the games are about.
Personally I prefer to follow people who are more heavily involved in whatever genre I'm looking for. Mortismal Gaming (who will do a 100% finished review of most games he reviews)/Titanium legman as examples for things like RPGs, Tactics Games, and the occasional major release.
Also just watching people who play these games like Civiee11 for basically anything boomer shooter or players/commentators like broski/sajam for fighters.
There's obviously a ton of people out there for the different genres when it comes to things like this.
It tends to give a lot more in depth analysis than some review mill that's got 30 games on the pile and sponsorships from half of them. Especially if you're someone who's looking for a little more depth past the surface content, although I get that's not really an issue for everyone.
I'm not here with sone advice, rather my thought about how I do that.
I don't read reviews and thus I don't even search for them. I don't watch invested players of the game(s) on Youtube either.
How do I do about choosing to buy or not buy the game then? This is kinda surprising to me that I didn't think of that earlier.
Well, part of my chain is probably personal experience of someone I know in person. Sometimes I bite on someone mentioning a game online (ie. some of you here on Tildes - I got to play Outer Wilds thanks to this!). Sometimes I just stumble upon the game by chance (Horizon Zero Dawn), sometimes it's continuation of the series (Fallout) or another game from the developer (Zachtronics). Sometimes the game in question keeps popping up again and again in videos I watch (Valheim - I didn't and won't buy it though, doesn't suit me) or simoly is talked about (Cyberpunk).
It is only after I stumble upon some game that I (sometimes) actively pursuit more info. This info is most of the time "How it runs on GTX 1650 or Stea Deck?" and watching just a bit of game footage to know framerate and to have a quick glance whether I like the looks and controls or not. Then I finally decide.
I haven't read proper review in some time. I read Steam reviews here and there, but it is hard to come by really good one, as many are just memes or jokes of some form or another (but useless).
I'm not going to start reading reviews though, not even after writing this comment here. I seldom buy a new game on release, it must be really smething if I do. and by the time I finally buy the game, it is kinda known enough by many people and sometimes even mentioned (again - Cyberpunk, Outer Wilds, ...) a lot so that I kinda know if I like it or not beforehand.