Plunder
Smash Ace
For me I've come to the conclusion that the only real foolproof way to ensure I don't waste my money is to find an individual reviewer or reviewers who have extremely similar taste to me (agrees on at least 9/10 reviews) and then buy the media based on their recommendation or review. Gamefaqs and Flickchart are excellent sources for such shadowing.
My backup method is to know who the executive director or producer was, these are people that have the most influence over the final product, all the QC and polish. Basically the people that have a track record of always ensuring games/media up to a certain standard that I've always enjoyed (Bethesda, Valve, Marvel, Pixar, Disney, Brad Bird, Nolan, Joss Whedon, etc)
Buying something based off genre and similarity to other games you like can be very hit and miss. Not only that but it can pigeonhole you and prevent you from enjoying a game outside your "usual genre taste" that you might end up really liking (instead of wasting time on a game you end up hating from a genre you usually enjoy)
Metacritic and other average score methods are misleading since there are games that can get an average of 9 - 10 and I find them to be a complete waste of time, money, over-hyped and underwhelming.
Reading whatever random reviewer just happens to get tasked with grading the game is also a bad way since it's all so subjective, a website or group doesn't mean a cohesive opinion that aligns with mine..
I generally like to go completely blind into a game or piece of media, so the full effect of it hits me as it should. No trailers, I don't read the 100s of previews and spoiler articles or new details they shill out for page views, no interviews, no images.
My backup method is to know who the executive director or producer was, these are people that have the most influence over the final product, all the QC and polish. Basically the people that have a track record of always ensuring games/media up to a certain standard that I've always enjoyed (Bethesda, Valve, Marvel, Pixar, Disney, Brad Bird, Nolan, Joss Whedon, etc)
Buying something based off genre and similarity to other games you like can be very hit and miss. Not only that but it can pigeonhole you and prevent you from enjoying a game outside your "usual genre taste" that you might end up really liking (instead of wasting time on a game you end up hating from a genre you usually enjoy)
Metacritic and other average score methods are misleading since there are games that can get an average of 9 - 10 and I find them to be a complete waste of time, money, over-hyped and underwhelming.
Reading whatever random reviewer just happens to get tasked with grading the game is also a bad way since it's all so subjective, a website or group doesn't mean a cohesive opinion that aligns with mine..
I generally like to go completely blind into a game or piece of media, so the full effect of it hits me as it should. No trailers, I don't read the 100s of previews and spoiler articles or new details they shill out for page views, no interviews, no images.
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