Should You Listen To Reviews?
(ETA – I found my long post from yesterday! Hooray! I love you after all, WordPress!)
It’s just another ho-hum week here at Casa Myles, and I’m ashamed (well, not really) to say that I spent the weekend immersed in video gaming. When I wasn’t trying to get the characters in Mass Effect to orgy with each other (don’t ask), I was unlocking little weirdo cousins in Beautiful Katamari or playing Left 4 Dead.
Which brings me to something interesting.
A few of the games we’ve recently gotten for the X-box have teeeeeeeeeerrrible reviews. Awful. Just awful. We initially held off on getting Left 4 Dead (a first person zombie shooter) because the reviews on Gamefaqs were less than flattering. “The AI sucks!” or “Your NPCs steal all the equipment!” and things like that were enough that we marked it off of the buying list.
When I went to the store to reserve the new Street Fighter game, we mentioned a few of the games we liked on the Xbox 360, and the saleswoman gushed over Left 4 Dead. I told her my concerns, and she assured me that the reviews were nuts and it was a great game to play. And she was totally right – this is easily one of our favorite games for the Xbox, period. It’s amazing and scary and so much fun.
Another game – my husband got a game called “Onechanbara: Bikini Samurai Squad”. It’s basically what it sounds like – Japanese hot girls with realistically bouncing boobs run around and slay zombies. My husband loves it – there’s some laughably bad stuff in it, but it’s a fun, mindless game with a lot of clothes to unlock (which is my favorite part of any game – Barbie dress up).
This game has an absolutely horrendous rating on Gamefaqs. Husband and I were discussing this, and we came to the same conclusion – bad reviews are just as useless as gushing ones. There is always going to be some moron that is all “OMG I LOVE THIS AND EVERYTHING ABOUT IT” and there is always going to be some douchebag that is all “I HATE THIS GAME AND EVERYTHING IT STANDS FOR”.
This is so true for books, too. Just look at Amazon. Every book that has some amazing ratings also has some really foul ones. Let’s look at Kresley Cole’s newest, Kiss Of The Demon King. Lots and lots of 5 star, gushing reviews. And lots of “This author jumped the shark!” etc.
I personally really enjoyed the book and have recommended it to lots of people. But if I would have checked Amazon before buying the book (and having never read Cole), I might be afraid of what I was buying.
So what’s a person to do?
In my opinion, go for the handsell. A friend of mine suggested I get Beautiful Katamari for my Xbox. She said basically, “It is the weirdest sh&t you will ever see, but it is totally addictive.” And when I first played the game, I thought she’d been smoking a little something-something, because the game was NUTS. But then you play a little more, and play a little more, and the next thing you know, you’re obsessed. Her review was bang on. She knew I’d like it because we’d discussed other games and had similar opinions.
The same thing with books, really. Find a friend that shares similar reading interests and ask if they’ve read a series that you’re thinking about. Or ask someone that is recommending a book another series that they enjoy. If I say that I love Kresley Cole AND I love Nalini Singh and Erin McCarthy, and you happen to hate both of those, maybe you don’t buy what I suggest. You know?
Where am I going with this? Basically that there are always going to be good reviews of stuff, and bad reviews of stuff. It’s the law of the internet. For every slobbering fanboy that loves it, someone’s going to set up a hate group for it.
And maybe give the Bikini Samurai girls a try anyhow, because their breasts jiggle when they swing the sword. No kidding.
Good share, great article, very usefull for us…thanks!
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