Giantbomb is great but they haven't done reviews lately, where do you go for reviews now that they are taking a break? - General Discussion - Giant Bomb (2024)

These days I get my review fix by writing my own for old video games most people don't remember. Reviewing old things has the advantage not drawing trolls (or anyone else!) and old contemporary reviews are mostly bad so the bar for quality is really low.

Trick question, all above.

personally ...i usually still just use gi , occassionally i'll glance elsewhere but moreso i just get my impressions from podcasts and the overblood group at this point.

I don't often read reviews anymore. When I do, I'm usually seeking out individual people's opinions rather than purely going by outlet. Like when I wanted to read a review of Persona 3 Reload, I looked up Michael Higham's review since he knows a fair amount about the series (I have different opinions than him on what I like about the series but he understands the mechanics, etc. of the games quite well so I trust his opinion over others).

I also tend to favour the opinions of people into a type of game over just following the opinions of someone because I know them. Like I'll trust Rob Zacny's thoughts on strategy games over most other people because he knows and plays tons of those games so his judgments on strategy games tend to be well informed. I didn't trust Gerstmann's opinion on Outer Wilds because that didn't seem like the kind of game he'd like and sure enough, had I used his thoughts when deciding to play the game I probably wouldn't have played it and I ended up enjoying that game a ton.

Gamespot, generally. I like(d?) RPS's written stuff but it's been a few years since I visited their site.

@borgmaster: That's a nice thing you're doing. Sometimes I play older games and wonder how they were received. Mostly the reviews are kinda baseline. I guess they had to be back in the day. People joke that attention is low today but try to get a person to read a 3-page review on a non AAA game years ago ha. That said, I enjoy the banter (when constructive) so it's nice to hear opinions that don't fit what I found of a game. Sadly that means I have to be told by my friends who played elden ring that it's repetitive and bad, and how we should just play anthem, league of legends, and fall guys. Lol. Everyone has their interest.

@sparky_buzzsaw: I find gamespot kinda harsh on games unless it's something they personally liked before hand in that genre. Not bad, just enjoy a more even handed review. I wanna know by the end if i can add 2 points or minus given the review info and my taste. IGN for all it's hate can have good reviews, it's just that their pretty honest on the fact that even if we hate the next AAA etc game, their usually on a base line decent and playable. People who hate em will give em 1 or 3 out of 10 but most AAA games, ignoring my bias to hate them or like them, are 6-7-8/10 just grading on a curve of what games come out and are like yearly.

Metacritic's the only option that sort of covers the others. Even then, it's terrible for smaller games because there aren't that many opinions pooled for them. The ones they do grab are so low on the pecking order they are more likely to be bullsh*t.

Also, it's not just reviews Giant Bomb is missing. When's the last quick look? It's a Blight Club and news factory now. If you come here for opinions on a game, it's the podcast or bust.

I don't have a lot of trust in video game critics these days, the overall Steam user review rating is good for noting quality at a glance but i don't dive in and actually read the reviews, these days i'm mostly just getting impressions from the games that generate the most opinions, people are very vocal when something is really bad or really good.

I selected OpenCritic since that's what I use to take the temperature of a game. For the actual reading, I tend to dip into Polygon, though using their site is a pain in the ass when you don't care about movies / tv. Honestly I probably read more reviews on this site than any other.

I basically go to Metacritic to see what the overall rating of the game is based from multiple reviews, and if I see a review headline that catches my eye, or a User review that is actually insightful and not full of whining and trolling, I will read it.

yeah i'm more or less the same. i look for the consensus or diversity of opinion, and then sample from there. when it comes to formal written reviews there isn't any single source that i consider my trusted voice- i think that's more a function of the volatility of the form than a sign of obsolescence.

yeah, i've more or less completely exited giant bomb for video game opinions at this point (if i'm being completely honest i'm only really engaging with the forums and the discord). there isn't a ton of common ground between the games i enjoy and what the current crew enjoys, and without quicklooks or reviews to mix it up it feels like you either are here for the news show or to watch specific streamers (which, no shade- just not quite my cup of tea).

for outlets more my speed it's mostly Minnmax, Noclip, Nextlander these days. they don't do reviews per se, but they cover more of what i'm into and i have a better sense of how their predilections match my own.

RockPaperShotgun or Eurogamer.

Honestly though, reviews don't really impact my buying decisions much anymore. The generation of reviewers who's tastes lined up with mine have mostly retired and I've never really found replacements. A trailer will pique my interest and then raw gameplay footage on YouTube will be the decider.