Do review scores determine which games are good, and which are not?

As an avid gamer, I'm also an avid reader of gaming media. I regularly check N4G for material to satisfy my insatiable hunger for gaming media. I also regularly visit sites like IGN, Gamespot, Kotaku and more.

This lends itself to being a game review junkie. I love reading game reviews and finding out which games are worth my money, and which games aren't. I regularly base purchasing decisions on reading reviews. Some people might say 'how retarded- game reviews don't mean squat'. Believe me, I know. I often purchase games only to find out this point. I've been slowly learning this lesson too. For example, some major gripes a reviewer has won't annoy me too much or some elements they consider a weakness I consider a strength, and so on.

So naturally with the release of GT5 recently, I was a little perturbed at the scores it was getting. This was one of the most hyped games of the decade, with one of the longest production schedules and it got mostly 8's. In context, that seems like a let down. I have to admit here, that I have what I consider to be a fair sized PS3 library at 23 games (most of my friends don't have close to 10 games), and most of them I've purchased based on reading reviews.

Gran Turismo 5 I purchased without reading its review, as I pre-oredered it- not something I do often. A pre-order locks in your decision to purchase a game, and once it arrives at your door there's no turning back. So a game I figured I'd hold out on, I ended up getting. Reviews I read the night previous had me believing I'd be more than a little disappointed with GT5. But how wrong I've been.

I personally am loving GT5 right now. I'm really into just about every aspect of the game. The standard/premium car divide isn't bothering me that much at all (one of my favourite cars to drive right now is a 'standard' Mugen/Motul Honda Civic), I think the graphics are stunning and the driving experience is just unrivalled. I personally like the course editor and the way it creates tracks, I really dig photo mode and I think the way online is set out is actually a good thing. I can see where a lot of the criticisms lie, but the point is- I really don't care about them. I'm not bothered by loading screens, jagged shadows. In a day and age where every big release game seems centered around killing or maiming people, aliens or monsters in some way or another, GT5 has been a breath of fresh air for me.

Then it got me thinking. Those review scores. Did they matter? Not in the slightest. What matters is how much I like the game. Not how much some guy does, who is paid to play games and write good and bad things about it.

Then how about all the other games I own? Well many that have had great review scores didn't turn out so good. Heavy Rain for example. The reviews I read labeled it as revolutionary and a great game. I played it and found it was just poorly executed and I never finished it. I just didn't like it. One day I might try at it again- but that's just my opinion of it.

Another game I previously owned, NBA2K10, was reviewed very highly at the time. But I found it to be horrible, and wished I had not traded NBA2K9 for it (sports games are the only ones I trade). It was full of glitches and issues and really pissed me off. Luckily 2K11 saved the franchise.

Black Ops is another classic example. Gamespot's review in particular is that it's a tremendous game worth every accolade, and many sites gave this game a glowing endorsement. Yet to me its the most disappointing release of the year. It's buggy, it has worse graphics than its predecessors and its campaign is confusing and at times very boring. This isn't to mention its near unplayable (on PS3 at least) multiplayer, which is plagued with issues, glitches and bugs. I loved Modern Warfare 2 (online at least, I didn't touch the campaign), and in comparison Black Ops is just a let down to me.

The point is, reviews in many cases don't matter. For someone who bases a lot of decisions on reviews, I often come to a different conclusion to the reviewers. It's not to say I don't agree with all reviews either. Many encapsulate exactly how I feel about a game too. Yet what needs to be remembered is they're just opinions, and opinions will always differ.

Why the division?

Its pretty late in California right now. 1:30A.M., I'm doing my late night web runs (Since I've been jobless for the last 2 weeks what else is there to do?) and one question pops into my head.
Why is it that we are divide as a nation? Looking back through the glass of time, I can remember NES vs. Master system, SNES vs Genesis, Saturn Vs Playstation VS N64, Dreamcast vs........ so on and so on.

But going through my 25+ years of gaming I can't remember ever arguing about system A is way better than that system B because....of games?.....Graphics?, nope! today's points are based solely on sales and the money generated by said system and said games on system. WHAAAAAAAAAT! I know at this point its like digging up a dead horse just to add a few more bullets to the poor animals skull but why are we as a nation so divided by something that is so separate from us to begin with.

If this game sells a billion and this game only sells a few hundred thousand, why does it matter so much? I mean we aren't seeing any of this money and its quite the opposite, we actually make these games the successes that they are buy giving up our money and yet we will argue to the point of being racist, ignorant jerks to prove why we bothered to make this game a billion dollar success and call those who did not put in things that will make our forefathers spin in their grave. Why has this happen to us? I remember growing up with Nintendo a good friend of mine was all about Sega, we still interacted like normal, played together and when it came down to our videogames we asked, what are we playing that day? Are we going to my house or your house? That trend pretty much continued up until X360 released. All of a sudden if you weren't online with a 360 we couldn't be friends in real life?!?!? WHAAAAAATTTTT! Then the PS3 released and if you owned one you just threw away $600 because as far as "Gamers" were considered it was D.O.A.. What happen to us? we used to share our experiences as a people, used to talk about games that we could play that our friends couldn't and vice-versa. But now it seems that system ownership is a lot stricter than religion. "Buy what I have so we can talk about it or F*** YOU!!" Why and How?

I'll admit early on I was just as rabid as the next person but I've been able to let that go, but it seems the problem has only gotten worst and not better, despite there being many ways to enjoy our freetime, it seems that you can only have one way to enjoy it or else you're an outcast. Sad really but I guess thats the way the world is going.

P.S. This was just a random thought but feel free to comment if you like.