ehh, disagree... I disagree with a fair amount of review scores being too high and some review scores being too low.
But them and gamesrankings compile links to a bunch of reviews... Also it gives a general perception by reviewers. So going to a singular review... doesn't help more than that... and my favorite review site is gamesradar... which is in-house metacritic reviewer anyways. Now it's not a perfect gauge by anymeans... but it's useful.
The most negative thing, imo it does, though obviously it's an idea
is it causes sites to be too neutral... and scared to give a game a too high or low score... or places like destructoid, which imo likes to put too high/low scores so it sticks out like a sore thumb on metacritic to get hits... it works both ways.
Now if I'm interested in a game, I'll Buy it no matter what the reviews are. (See Resonance of Fate Dreamfall) But if I'm on the edge... I'll check with reviews to see if my concerns were mentioned as problems in the game.
And if a game gets high reviews I won't necessarily buy it if I don't find those games interesting. See halo, and WoW.
