if a games premise interests me i'll generally check out as many gameplay vids as i can to get a taste for what to expect, that's what sold me on fire emblem radiant dawn (which didn't get the best reviews) and it's now one of my fave games of all time.

I use reviews, seriously, if a game is good, it's going to get good reviews.
If it sucks it will get generally bad reviews, and that's good enough for me.

anything rated 7 or above i will give a go.

Anything below 5 from a wide range of reviews is going to be a bad game isn't it.

Funny thing is I stop using the game score thingy a long time ago. I try to read reviews to find faults in the game. For example the same type of gameplay over and over again. 

What I look for in a review is if the reviewer states the following:

1) graphics are horrible
2) gameplay gets rather repetitive
3) controls are horrible to work with

If the reviewer says those in the review then I will certainly not want to play the game.

Thats why I read reviews and base my buying decision on.

Also I have to like the genre, the following generals that I have absolutely no interest in is:

1) RTS
2) Strategy/RPG (Final Fantasy Tactics, Jeanne D'Arc
3) Board Games

Thats what gets me with reviews. I hate when they say "oh this game is awesome and you should play it". But they fail to realize what if that gamer is not into that franchise and they buy it and they are screwed.

What I did, was read through reviews, on various sites, of games that I had already played. That way I could tell which reviews I was more likely to agree with, and which sites didn't do it for me. I found Gamespy to be good, for me. They don't do a whole lot of reviews these days, but I still like the site.

I only use gamerankings, etc., to find reviews for games, not overall scores. They have links to all the reviews listed there so I can read each one and see what the reviewers actually thought about the game.

Scores don't really mean much; what is a 'con' to reviewer may be a 'pro' to me. (things like complexity, extreme length, sailing in Wind Waker (yes, I loved sailing in that game. Every single time.), old school presentation (like in Fire Emblem), stuff like that)

I use reviews for the most part. I use Gamerankings for a general score and I usually like to read the Kotaku review if there is one and IGN if there isn't.

For big games I know I'm going to get (like Wii Fit) I don't give a crap abotu reviews because I already know I'm going to get it. If the game consistently starts getting low reviews (like Haze) I will more than likely start to pay attention to the reviews but otherwise, big games I'm already all hyped about I don't care too much about reviews.

I don't get this...

If every review were written with the people who don't like the genre in mind, every review 0/10, right?

I mean, games have to be judged based on their genre. You can't say, "this game is bad because I prefer strategy/FPS/RPG." That just wouldn't make sense in a review. Good games have to be called good games. It's up to the reader to know whether or not they will like the game genre. (the information is easily found on the site, usually in the review) You can't write a review for each individual person who visits the site, so a game must be compared to other games in the genre, or similar genres if it's an unusual game like Spore or Smash Bros.

Your right, I reworded my comment wrong...but your absolutely right :D

Ah, yeah, I say things in funny ways all the time.

I do see what you're saying though. Every site tells me that GTA4 is the best thing since...ever...but games like that aren't really my thing. But part of me want to try it to see what they're all raving about. But (when I eventually get a PS3 or X360) I will be very hesitant to buy it...maybe I'll rent it and see.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!

So I was right or was I wrong...or your wrong and I'm right or you just misunderstood my post?!?!?!

CONFUSED!!!!!!!!!!!

Not as confused as I am after reading this:

"So I was right or was I wrong...or your wrong and I'm right or you just misunderstood my post?!?!?!"

Lol. :P

Though, I no longer know what I was trying to say with that...

Great. I've confused myself again.