naw
reviews give power to the consumer

Reading reviews is just one way to receive information, how you parse that is entirely subjective. You use it in combination with other information such as screenshots, videos, and secondhand experience to make your own informed opinion.

Relying purely on subjective reviews made by individual customers, or subjective reviews from supposed games journalists is not how you should be make purchasing decisions.

I read reviews not because of a lack of trust in my own ability to judge, but because I value time and money as finite resources more than I value preserving a perfectly neutral first impression. They are one tool of many that help me make informed decisions about whether something is likely to be worth the investment.

I very much appreciate seeing user reviews.
Starfield is an excellent example - after seeing the utterly moronic hate campaign against Bethesda, I decided that was precisely the game I wanted to be playing.
If they are upsetting hateful bigots, and conspiracy theorists who get their information from Joe Rogan and Alex Jones, then they are probably making the games I want to be playing.

I read reviews to see playtimes so I know if it is worth my money

level 3/5 game systems

it's better to watch a gameplay clip on youtube than read reviews

Originally posted by Summary:

This is why I try not to read much reviews of games before trying them. Public opinions changes the way you perceive things. I want to discover what makes certain games bad, It's good to keep an open mind, Seeing the good sides of bad games, and also being able to pin point the flaws of good games is an invaluable skill. Reading reviews before trying things is a disservice to your own judgement abilities.

In my opinion you should check out all you can about a game before purchasing it.

Reviews are nice, but there are normally people who preview the game and how it plays among other things.

I once purchased a game because of a song from it. Just one song ... that's it. The game play screenshots didn't need to even be there.

I do have to say while there are far more ways to get information on games nowadays I prefer what I got before. Fewer voices but I trusted the ones I read.

Now everybody and their brother is a game genius. Yeah, no.

This is why I make it a point not to recommend games. You SHOULD know what you like already, and the fact is there are plenty of Demos of games out there to try it out yourself.

I want to make sure it is my perception that matter most when buying a game. I do happen to be a sucker for RPGs so I tend to give them a pass and just buy them, or I used to. Not so thrilled with a lot of the newer games. Really wish some of these developers and publishers would get off their asses and remake/remaster a lot of the older games.