Lunchtime Discussion: Metacritic & Buying Decisions
Do you use Metacritic's ratings? How do you decide which games to buy?Published 15/12/2009 at 12:00 by Watchful
While writing the post about Metacritic’s Best of 2009 on yesterday I found myself wondering how widely used it is by gamers to help them decide whether to buy a particular game or not. Do gamers value Metacritic’s weighted average more than they do reviews from trusted sources? How large a factor in their game purchase decisions is Metacritic?
Personally I have never looked up a game’s Metascore as part of my game buying decision making process. For me some games will be a must-buy, like Uncharted 2 and Forza III for example. For games I am not so sure about I will read reviews from sources I trust (e.g., TSA and Edge) and if it is a game that has already been released I will seek out the opinions of gaming friends who have played it.
Other times I might pick up a game just because it is from a favourite developer. Free Radical Design’s much-maligned Haze was one of those. There was a good game in there buried beneath some over-hyped aspects, David Doak could be almost as bad as Peter Molyneux in that respect sometimes, and despite the delays it had been subject to it really could have done with another few months of work. Maybe Raen and Gastos will use their microwave to visit a timeline where it was a deserving beneficiary of its TimeSplitters heritage and FRD was not one of the first developers to succumb to the recession?
The final type of game purchase decision I make is the impulse buy. The most recent of those was when I was driving past Sainsbury’s on Modern Warfare 2’s launch day morning. £26 was too good a price to not pick it up. Over the past year I have been making fewer impulse buys, whether of full retail games or PSN titles, as spare cash has become harder to find, while that has not affected my less impulsive game buying decisions.
That’s how I decide to buy games, now it’s over to you. How do you decide which games are deserving of your cash? Is Metacritic a factor, large or small, in those decisions? Why or why not? Has your game buying been affected by the recession or have you sacrificed elsewhere so you can continue to buy the games you want? If you mainly rent games, what will make you buy a game and how often, if ever, do you buy games you have previously rented?
Comments
Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.
cc_star | 15/12/2009 12:04
Team TSA: Writer
7815 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
It has never assisted me in buying a game or watching a movie.
I don’t understand why the publishers practically openly masturbate over it so much.
3shirts | 15/12/2009 12:08
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2479 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
It must get a lot of use though, perhaps by the indecisive sort who don’t know what they like and feel they need guidance from what other people thought
bajere | 15/12/2009 13:42
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1058 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
I think they do it to slap a score on the box art…and some of the reviews come from places like nuts magazine. a ONE colum reivew, with 4 out of 5 stars and the publishers slap it on the case… what a joke.
I didn’t even know what a metacritic score was until a few days ago…
To say yay or nay on a game, i just watch videos, and look up on the story length (game play time). If its short, like MW2 i just rent it. If its a game that i will get lots of gaming out off i’ll buy. If im really unsure, and the demo didnt sell it to me then ill rent and buy after.
I pay no attention to reviews what so ever! Its one persons opinion. My opinion is always different from the reviews, so i just take each game as they come. Good examples: MW2 and Batman…everyone seems to love and rave over them…i played both and just thought ‘meh’, its ok, not great…everyone’s opinion is different.
TctclMvPhase | 16/12/2009 00:13
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818 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I use it, but not for the numerical scores. I like that when you pull up a game, it gives that brief summarization of each of the reviews.
It also is quite helpful when looking for reviews for less popular games around their release time. This happens frequently with PSP games, where a game will only have 3 or 4 reviews from lesser known sites until the major sites get around to posting their impressions. Older games, like PSOne or Dreamcast titles, can be very difficult to find even on the reviewer’s site. Metacritic makes it easy because they provide the direct links.
I think it is silly to rely solely on the scores, particularly the aggregations, but it is a good hub for finding actual substance.
3shirts | 15/12/2009 12:06
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2479 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
The only time I would look at metacritic is when I am undecided for myself and a review on TSA is either inconclusive in helping my decision or simply non existent.
I think it’s scores, being averages of many reviews, is the closest you can get to an unbiased score but as we have said time and time again, a score doesn’t tell you anything like enough about the intricacies of the game.
cc_star | 15/12/2009 12:18
Team TSA: Writer
7815 TSA Points | Member since: Forever
Something else is that they award an arbitrary score out of 100, this is more widespread on movies where many newspapers don’t award scores, for instance if you look at Friday’s big movie Avatar it has so far got 89/100 but the 7 crtitics they’ve included haven’t awarded a score between them
Also for gaming site who generally use a 1-10 scale it doesn’t translate very well to 1-100
Not all 9/10’s are equal, but on metacritic they just get a bog standard 90/10
To me Metacritic is manipulated too much by it’s owners, as some some sites carry far more weight than others, for example Eurogamer/IGN/C&VG awarding a game 7/10 carries more far more weight than a multitude of other sites awarding it a 9/10.
They also only selectively include sites ratings which in turn manipulates the final outcome, basically Metacritic is an unfair, non-transparent con as the final Metacritic score is actually nothing more or less than Metacritic want it to be, so it’s not really any different from reading a review from one source only
jimmy-google | 15/12/2009 12:33
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1708 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
I tend to read a few reviews from those that score a game the lowest just to see what issues there might be with the game but nothing will replace actually playing the game before buying it.
TctclMvPhase | 16/12/2009 00:16
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818 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Its even worse for a show like X-Play which use a five star rating scale. This means games either get a 100, 80, 60, 40, 20 or 0. I believe X-Play has tried to fix this by providing half scores, but the aggregation methods used on Metacritic are quite rough.
shields_t | 15/12/2009 12:11
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1634 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I am far too prone to impulse buying for my own good, but I generally read a few reviews on the web before buying a game, just so I know it’s something I like and metacritic can be useful for bundling a number of review links in one place. It’s highlyu likely I’ll base a buying decision on a meta scorethough, if I did, I’d own far fewer games.
Dunks | 15/12/2009 12:12
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251 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I never go to Metacritic when deciding on buying a game. What it does boil down to mostly is hopefully getting to try a demo, reading a decent hands on with a game I had my eye on or waiting just a bit to let the hype die down a little and then hear true the feeling of the game. Of course with Uncharted 2, I loved the first so wanted to get the second… Got to admit though, there used to be a time where I would take a chance with a game and hope to be surprised but I just can’t afford to do that right now and be disappointed!
jimmy-google | 15/12/2009 12:12
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1708 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
I’ve never bought a game off the back of metacritic (and was one of those that also bought Haze) but I have added games to my rental list if a game is high on metacritic but I don’t know much about it. Though if its in a genre I don’t like it could score full marks everywhere and I still wouldn’t play it.
I still find price has the biggest impact on which games I buy. I was the same with MW2 – couldn’t resist at £26
Radboud | 15/12/2009 12:14
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973 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Just like you I never use any score to influence my buying-habits.
Well, I say habits, but actually it is rather one habit: impulse buying all the way!!!
Nah, seriously though, I buy a lot on impulse alone. It might be the price-tag, the cover-art, the gamestyle, the game-setting or any other thinkable parameter can sway me to buy a game.
Apart from that there are a few must-have games like Uncharted2, Final Fantasy, Gran Turismo, Heavy Rain, etc.
Not coz a review score, but one of the above parameters stated, I can also look forward to something new and refreshing.
I don’t care about scores, I can be hyped by a good written review though (especially here on TSA)
shields_t | 15/12/2009 12:16
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1634 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I must say though, apart from the gow collectio, which I simply don’t have enough time for. Right now and he baseball game, I have bought every top ten game, both multiformat and ps3.
Manorhowze | 15/12/2009 12:19
Driving God
2028 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2008
I do sometimes use metacritic if I am unsure about a game (Usually PSN games as opposed to Blu-Ray) but I dont go on the average score. I look at some of the different reviews, good and bad (actually read the whole thing not just the synopsis) then I will see if there is any gameplay footage on the net before I make a decision.
For most games though I generally know if its something I want to buy or not from the articles or forum threads on TSA.
double-o-dave | 15/12/2009 12:24
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995 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
If a game gets marked below 7/10 I’ll avoid it but as for anything above that score I tend to read a few reviews and make up my own mind.
In fact (no offense intended) I find I get mislead by a lot of reviews as games like Modern Warfare 2, Call of Jaurez and Infamous all score pretty highly but I don’t rate them at all. I think they’re pants but that is my opinion!
jimmy-google | 15/12/2009 12:36
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1708 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
I’d add GTA4, MGS4 and Street Fighter IV to that list too (but I did enjoyed Infamous)
double-o-dave | 15/12/2009 13:10
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995 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
Yep, especially MGS4 & Street Fighter 4. GTA4 was alright for a while but then got pretty boring pretty fast. If I was scoring Rainbow 6 Vegas 2 would’ve been higher than them although the graphics were a bit of a let down but I must of spent months and months doing terrorist hunts! If I wasn’t at the pub or trying my luck with some lucky young lady I’d be killing terrorists constantly!
bajere | 15/12/2009 13:54
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1058 TSA Points | Member since: Aug 2008
see that’s the thing with opinion, i loved MGS4 and GTA. SF:IV was good, but its a fighter so dosen’t get much play by me anymore…MGS4- Reviews can say the graphics are nice, the story is confusing and gameplay solid…But i would say; The graphics had little more to give, the story was great and the gameplay was solid… 2 opinions, but both would get different scores.
Play the games for your self i would say
then pick what you like the most
masoke | 15/12/2009 12:24
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320 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I use it, but mainly as a compiler of reviews. If I’m undecided about a game I usually head for metacritic and skim straight to the lowest scoring review. If that describes problems with the game that I think would bother me then I tend to steer clear, if it describes things that I don’t think would ruin the game for me then I press on.
Watchful | 15/12/2009 12:47
Team TSA: Writer
2084 TSA Points | Member since: Oct 2008
I’ve never thought of using it like that but that is a very good use of a review aggregator. I think I might try that next time I’m on the fence about a game.
flatspikes | 15/12/2009 14:51
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585 TSA Points | Member since: May 2009
Snap! Exactly the way I’ve been using it for a wee while now… even helped me buy Assassin Creed PSP which generally got panned but I’m loving it as knew I could live with the criticisms.
alex_mackay | 15/12/2009 12:25
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60 TSA Points | Member since: Dec 2009
ive never used metacritic before in buying games,i buy opm magazine,but i dont solely go buy what they say either,ill play the demo and if thats good enough i might buy it,other ways is word of mouth from other gamers.i recently bought batman arkham asylum,resident evil 5 fear and fear 2 far cry 2 all of which i didnt like so i sold on,luckily enough for me for the money i paid for them give or take a pound or two.i also check for the game on you tube to see in game play from users experiance thats a better way i think,although i bought resident evil 5,i got it on the back of resident 4 being such a great game,but 5 stank so as i said it got sold on.you tube is probably the first place ill go to see what a games like,but meta critic never use it or ign or any other critic site.
deadairspace | 15/12/2009 12:29
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260 TSA Points | Member since: Mar 2009
I’m still confused why GTAIV is still top of the PS3 chart on Metacritic – and from that alone I decide that metacritic isn’t a place to decide purchases upon.
jimmy-google | 15/12/2009 12:50
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1708 TSA Points | Member since: Feb 2009
The people who metacritic could be helping (those that don’t use websites like TSA or buy magazines like OPM – probably parents who know little to nothing about gaming) doesn’t tend have many reviews for the type of games they’d be looking for or their kids asking for (hannah montana game, disney singit pop hits etc…).
Of the 560 odd PS3 games on metacritic over 100 don’t have enough reviews to even show an average score. Of the wii’s 900 games 300 don’t have enough reviews. It means when they do their end of year review it’s worthless as hundreds of games are left out.
hairfreax | 15/12/2009 12:56
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846 TSA Points | Member since: Jun 2009
Metacritic is good to see a over view of several reviews but i never base it on my buying decision. You know in your heart and head when you want to buy a new game on the day of release and any other game for me is all down to pricing if its around the £20 mark then i will consider
Roynaldo | 15/12/2009 13:05
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2976 TSA Points | Member since: Nov 2008
I have never even once looked at Metacritic, apart from whatever is posted on here.
When I was young I used to look at a certain magazine which had scores out of 100 for all games that were on the Mega Drive and I did use that as a base for purchase, but not now.
Now, with a vast amount of games being sequels I usually base the last installment as a deciding factor. For example Uncharted 1 was lent to me by a friend, I absolutly loved it and then pre ordered Uncharted 2, and the same goes for Dead Space, you can bet your life savings the sequel is going to be in my collection!
Other ways, I can decide is pricing, If I see what looks to be a good price Il ask around to see if it might be worth it.
Reviews help a bit, they point out the clear good and bad points in a game (most of the time), which can then edge me one way or the other.