Thinking about it i agree with quite alot (reeealy should have put a neither option lol). Expeshaly many jrpg's such as Disgaea 3 i enjoyed the game hugely despite its mediocre reviews and sales (well actually its sales where incredibly for such a game and Nippon ichi must have been happy but compared to such as final fantasy they where far from impressive :/)

Reviews first for me.  Still it's hard to get what I want to know.  Wish there was a site that always gave details on what I'd like to avoid.  Like qtes, fixed-cam, auto-save only,  strict linearity or obvious turn-based battle systems.  I make exceptions to every rule but a game with all of the above is not something I'd buy.  No offense intended to more traditional gamers or those with more varied tastes.  You can generally find the info you're after with a series of specific searches but an opinion on quality and a number doesn't tell me much.  I've had good luck with some recommendations from vgc users.

Judging by sales would be even more hit or miss.  We all have a pretty good idea how to sniff out the best values and the styles, genres or devs closest to our ideal but you still pay your money and take your chances.

I usually go by reviews. My taste is often different of majority so I usually don't like the very top sellers.

If I were purchasing the top sellers, I would be really unhappy: Call of Duty games (I don't enjoy shooters), Wii console (which most games I don't have interest on), and so on... I'm happy with my "3rd place console" (PS3) and "non-million seller games" like Disgaea 3. :)

INSTANT AWESOMENESS FROM THIS GUY! lololol i love Disgaea 3 :3

lol thanks. :P Join the hypewagon for Disgaea 4. ;)

I killed the driver...SO IM DRIVIN THE HYPE TRAIN MWA HA HA HA! :P i get all hyper about Disgaea xD

Well, the GT5 and FFXIII made that clear : sales! Journalists are blinded by expectations and western gaming, so that they can't judge a Japanese game properly and objectively. Sales doesn't apply to Wii though, as consumers are not game-literate and barely know anything save the games Nintendo advertises.

I would like to vote this the quote of the day please. lololol

sales != quality