It's strange to think how much has changed.

Back in the NES and SNES days, life was so much simpler.  I picked out the game I wanted based on its cover, the color of the box, and what it said/showed on the back.  I'd walk around the store reading the back getting more and more exciting.  The games weren't that sophisticated back in those days, but they were fun.

By the end of the SNES era and the beginning of the N64 era, life wasn't quite so simple.  No longer could you touch the game and look at it.  Games were locked away behind giant glass/plastic cases.  If you wanted a game, you had to ask for it or take a little slip of paper that told the cashier what game to go get.  There was no more browsing, no more "looking." 

Something happened between those two eras.  Back when I could pick up a game, look at the box, and read it... I never regretted a purchase.  I knew just by holding the game if I was going to like it.  Once they became locked away behind closed doors, that magic disappeared.  Hesitation appeared with purchases.  Was I going to like this new game I was about to get?  I think would like it.  Maybe. 

When I was younger, reviews were meaningless to me.  My eyes, my hands, and my instincts were by far and away better indicators of quality than any review.  Today, in a world where I can no longer feel the game I'm about to get, I can only rely on my instincts and while they are quite good... they're not perfect.  Sometimes reviews can help that a little bit.  Sometimes numbers can reinforce the beliefs I already have.  Now, I will never rely on reviews especially in knowing that my taste is quite different than that of some.

Ignorance is indeed bliss.

For new IP's I am really reading the reviews and follow their advice but for many games like DW6 I don't follow the reviews I just love DW so I don't care how much it scores (and I wish there was a new Kessen).

The_vagabond7 said: I bought my gamecube late in the game, about 5 months before the 360 was released. The transition between teenager living at home and adult had taken up much time and money, and I had gotten out of the videogame world for a few years. Finally things started to settle down, and I saw an ad for used gamecubes at EBgames for 60 bucks, and a big bin of used games for 10 bucks a pop. I obviously jumped on it. By this time I knew nothing about what was going on in the videogame world, I had been living under a rock as far as the realm went. I didn't know what was good and what was bad. I didn't have the review scores of every release in the past year memorized from continual debates about what's worth playing and what sucks, and why this system is blah blah ect. So my game choices were completely random, or that is to say based on the same things that appealed to me when I was a kid. I looked at the box art, the screenshots on the back and decided what looked cool. I picked up a game called "lost kingdoms", a Lord Of the Rings hack and slash generic liscensed action game, and "the sims". The kind of choices that I would probably consider choices for a very ill informed casual gamer. I enjoyed all three immensely. I have no idea what kind of scores those games got, but I'm guessing pretty mediocre ones. Actually looking it up lost kingdoms got a 71% average score on gamerankings. I didn't know or care, it was fun. An average RPG, a liscensed hack and slash, and a poor PC port of an old game. And I loved them, played my gamecube every day after work. Never even thought about whether or not they were good games.   Now I'm back in the saddle, got my current gen system and I'm checking the sites everyday, keeping up with reviews, and the gamerankings. These days I don't even rent a game that gets less than an 80% average ranking. I know ballpark figure what kind of scores a game is going to get months before it's ever released. And I really think I'm missing out. Since I've had my wii I haven't even thought about playing alot of games because they didn't perform up to par with the reviewers. I thoroughly research all of my gamecube games that I think about purchasing, and forget about it if it didn't get good scores when it came out. 7.5? That's not worth my 12 bucks! No sir! Forget that. When I was younger I didn't need research and reviewers to inform me what I should and should not play. That's what box art and screenshots were for! I didn't need a number to know whether or not a game was fun or not. I didn't need a website to tell me all the reasons a game was flawed and probably alot less fun than this other game with a higher metascore. I'm going back to that. I'm playing soul calibur legends, reviews be damned! Where's my red steel, and ninjabread man? COD4 bored me, give me some generic FPS from 2 years ago I never played! There's a good chance I'll enjoy it more. Reviews are just ammo for console wars. And I will use them as such :) but I'm playing whatever the hell I want.

You've seen the light. I always cautioned myself never to get too caught up with press & critics when it comes to gaming. They've sapped all the fun out of it with the negativity. I always strive to maintain that innocence I had when I first got my NES & when I was a little kid & teenager in the arcades.

Take a chance & play what you like. Step out of your comfort zone & don't get caught up in all that "if a game's AAA" or not. None of that matters. 'AAA' is whatever game makes you laugh & helps you have fun whether it's simple and low budget or expensive and high budget. All games don't need a story & all games don't have to follow certain conventions.

I think my view on gaming is helped by the fact that for a number of years I totally lost track of gaming news and happenings right before the "Revolution" came out. I was just busy buying up retro stuff at used game stores (I miss my Rhino's).

If you like Bratz or High School Musical then so be it. Those games are fun for YOU. It doesn't matter what everybody else likes. YOU'RE the one who's gonna be playing them.

I never have forgotten the feeling when I bought SNES Shadowrun blind purely based off the box cover art. Didn't know it was a manual RPG before, didn't know the history, didn't see any reviews or ratings. Just said that box cover looks cool & I like the concept (when looking on the back of the box). One of my favorite games to this day. Boy WordsOfWisdom hit this DEAD on the head about being able to touch the box.

When I had the NES it didn't matter if Mega Man's sequels came one after the other 'cause I loved Mega Man. It didn't matter that Bad Street Brawler made no damn sense. It was fun to play. It didn't matter that River City Ransom had cover art of two 35 year old men looking like they were in a prison yard rather than high school kids fighting in the neighborhood. I loved River City Ransom. Friday the 13th on NES was one of my faves! Game is more scary than Resident Evil if you ask me. Jason comes out of NOWHERE! Demon Sword was one of the coolest games ever produced!

You just have to keep that innocence alive and don't let others' opinions overwhelm you on what to like or not. Sometimes the press is beneficial (Zack & Wiki) but other times they're just full of themselves. The only review & rating that matters is my own.

For that matter I make it a point not to read or view reviews/previews. I like to be kept in the dark for as much as possible until the game comes out. All I need to know is the release date. I'm taking this approach to Brawl barely going over to see the latest developments. I hardly don't know WHAT they have in store quite frankly & that's what makes it more fun. I get to DISCOVER all the good stuff when I PLAY the game. Not when I read about it beforehand.

Very wise, the_vagabond7. Very wise. You will enjoy gaming much more with your attitude.

John Lucas

I can actually say I agree with this totally and this is possibly why I'm still happily gaming. I look at the media and check them out and buy whatever I think I'll like, I don't read any reviews and purposefully ignore them in magazines I ignore them . Sometimes I'll peek but I'll never read -why- they got the scores they did. Honestly if games like Halo 3 and CoD4 can score high the reviewers don't blend perfectly with my taste, so how can I trust someone who doesn't completely share my taste for any firm choices.

100% agree with this thread, we're all going down a road were videogames are not games anymore but trendy things to do and make sure people now about it.

Years ago we played games because we like them, now if you're playing any game that it's not one of the hot ones (halo3, heavenly sword, Assasins Creed type of hype) and you share your experience with the rest of the community your degraded to loser, idiot, moron and casual.

When did it all go wrong?

We used to play games for fun, now we play the games that we're supposed to play because it is meant to be cool.

And about casual gaming...

to my understanding, a hardcore gamer is the one that takes a game, and plays it for hours and hours during months, so he'll be able to improve or get a higher score (Fighting Games, Driving Games, good platformers... even Tetris)

Casual is the type of player that plays games because its cool, not because he enjoys improving his skills or get a higher score, playing a game with a simple game mechanic, story driven, where the only thing that you have to do is going from A to B and watch the next cut-scene (I really consider The Darkness a very casual game for that)

But for some reason, now Tetris is casual, and The Darkness is a very hardcore game.

I don't understand it.

I bought at least 12 PSP games before reading any reviews and all of them turned out to be utter trash, absolute crap, PSP has the suckiest games out of all of the current gens.

I've always used demos to decide if I like a game or not, thats my one major complaint about the Wii, Why don't they have demo's on a DVD on Nintendo game magazines.
I would happily spend £5 on 20 game demos (and a few interesting articles) as it would help me choose a game I would actually like.

Yeah, for some reason Nintendo hates demos. :P

I used to rent a lot of games, but with more money and less free time these days, I do tend to use the reviews to decide what to buy. That said, I'll totally pick up an armful of used games without worrying much about the reviews.

There was this time when reviews were really reviews and they even had pictured walkthroughs from first stage of the game and you really could say whether you liked the game or not. But now (atleast in Finland) reviews consist from a screenshot or two, one or two PR pictures and the reviewer joking about the game, basically describing the game by saying the game is similar with it's precessor/game X. What if i haven't played the game mentioned? Or the TV shows, all they do is base their review on how hyped the is.

@johnlucas: Shadowrun was great, my experience was shadowed by the SCN version being only in swedish, which i can't speak. Although, that game has tought me basically everything i know in swedish, despite of reading it 3 years at school. You can imagine, that the games skill level was definately hardcore for me.
I bouht Eternal Darkness based on what the box looked like and what reads on the back of it. Definately a pleasent surprise.

But yes, rating doesn't tell you much, if i recall, Wawe Race 64 had pretty bad average rating, but the game is great and definately a nice change in the racing games genre to the car games. Btw, if someone haven't yet dowloaded this from Virtual Console, i suggest doing it right away, the game is just great (it's a lot better than Blue Storm).