Are Game Reviews and User Opinions useful/harmful to someone who is interested in buying a game?
Are Game Reviews and User opinions useful or harmful to somebody who is interested in buying a game?
Personally I think that there are pros and cons to Game Reviews. Like for example one pro is that it may talk about new features and provide an insight on what the player is capable of doing in a game (I hope that makes sense) A con is that the reviewer may possibly include a feature that they don't like which may affect someone who wants to buy the games judgment. I think that people should decide themselves and try to avoid game bashing reviews that may cloud their judgment on whether or not to buy the game.
But there is also a possibility that someone may give the game a bad review over a minor issue they had and it may put off potential buyers from buying the game.
So I want to know.... What are your thoughts on Game Reviewers and User Opinions?
By the way I am sorry if I didn't explain this in a clear manner.
I look forward to seeing what you think 
Have a wonderful day
Comments
Depends on how much money you have to spend on games.
If you have lots of money to spend and see for yourself if you like a game, then game reviewers and user opinions are harmful to you because you will end up missing on titles that you might have loved because the internet hated them, and the money that you end up wasting on titles you dislike won't make that much of a difference for you.
If you have a limited budget, game reviewers and user opinions are useful to you because, although you will end up missing on titles you might have loved, you will also not waste money on titles that are overall considered weak.
The way I see it, they're only harmful if a person lets them fully dictate their decision. User reviews/opinions should help inform a person's decision to buy a game, they shouldn't be the sole deciding factor. At the end of the day, it should be your choice whether or not you buy something. Other people's opinions should only help you consider whether or not you'll be satisfied with the purchase.
very good point. thanks for commenting
have a wonderful day
you have a point
thanks for sharing your thoughts hope you have a nice day 
I think more often than not that people should judge games themselves. Far too often have I heard that a game is garbage and when I play it I actually love it. Dragon Age 2 is a perfect example. People give this game so much shit but it's one of my favorite games. Reviewers these days seem to hate everything. For example I used to love Angry Joe but after a while it just felt like he doesn't like anything anymore. Jeremy Jahns is cool though.
Most critics, or at least the ones I know and respect, don't necessarily try to dissuade you from the product, but rather offer a point of view that you may not have considered before. They're really only harmful if you base your judgement of the game off of their opinions alone without actually playing the game. But even then, that's more the fault of the reader than it is the critic.
I find them harmful it completely makes someone think a game is bad. Someone can come across a review and be like “oh (insert game title here) got a 4/10 that means it’s bad and I must hate on it even though I’ve never played it”. I never let this happen to me telltales guardians of the galaxy and ANF were considered as disappointments (at least within the telltale community) but I still bought both games and live them both so I have to see the game to determine if I want it so yeah they can be harmful especially without showing pictures or gameplay.
The less biased the reviewer, the more helpful it is to the consumer. It's not gonna help anybody to write a game off for there being "too much water" or for it being, like, a Sonic game instead of the next Call of Duty. It's probably of best use when talking about how consistent the frame rate is and whatnot.
As someone whom grew up on "the back of the box".
Reviews are an amazingly positive tool.
I think they are useful if they are in depth and provide context and information about the main aspects of a game, even if it's positive "X has a really in depth customization system that allows you to modify the appearance of your character, their ship and even allow modification to change the stats of your weapons" or negative "X has a terrible combat system, your shots hit largely based on luck rather than precision, the accuracy status level is shown but doesn't tell you the percentage chance of hitting an enemy".
However, they are very harmful if they focus on the most minor points of the game - "X is amazing because it has a cool side quest" or "X sucks because the tutorial takes longer than 30 minutes" or if they focus their reviews and opinions based on past iterations and content that is not within the game itself - I read reviews and look for opinions to learn more about the game, I'm not searching for rants about it sucking because the prequels were more enjoyable or because it doesn't have a minor game-play feature, I want more context about the game itself as a whole. Sadly, I have fallen into the trap of taking the advice of rants as reviews and ended up regretting it every time.
I dunno. Sometimes, I don't trust both game reviews and fan opinions. I bought The Witcher 3 because of its positive reviews but I got bored playing through it after 2 hours and sold it.
But I'm used to listen to the critics whether to see if a game is good or not with the exception of Call of Duty which is definitely a franchise that deserves no praise, not anymore. Fan opinions can be so annoying and retarded.
I pretty much ignore reviews and play games without knowing next to nothing what they are like sometimes.
I know it's advised against pre-ordering games but I mainly buy from Steam so if the game is seriously that bad, I just refund it after playing it a bit.
For me doing too much research of the game before actually playing it just makes me not to want buy them (with exceptions.) Since my method of seeing if game is any good includes watching people to play them. Although, this was weirdly inverted with Batman Telltale Series that I got during a sale due I already watched first four episodes.
Depending on the integrity of the reviewer, yes, they're definitely useful. When you're a consumer spending money you've earned, there's no reason not to be cautious with what you spend it on. Reviews aren't as important as they once were, whereas we waited for impressions and information from monthly magazines once upon a time we can now actively watch as much or little as we want and be able to use that to get a better impression of the product. The internet provides many more sources to compare and consider before a purchase, if there's any hesitation or question of it. You don't need to, and shouldn't, trust the most positive or negative of the reviews without leaving yourself open to the impressions of others who have already tried it.
It's easier now then ever to read around and take the most glaring and glowing aspects found in a game from various sources to help construct a better idea of what you're investing in. With any game I'm hesitant about, I'd never leave it up to single persons views when deciding whether or not that money would be better spent elsewhere.
Both Useful and Harmful are the wrong words, I think the correct way to put it is that it could cause somebody to rethink their excitement or further confirm it. When you see something getting horrible reviews, your instinct is to stray away, meanwhile when something gets good reviews you gravitate towards it. It's a brain thing. So if a game you're interested in starts failing, your excitement fades. If a game you're interested in is getting a lot of praise, you become more excited.
They are as useful as you allow them to be. It also depends how informed you are on the industry. I try to keep some distance, by this I mean not reading too many reviews, just trying to get a few different perspectives, never too much of the same. Only looking at big sources/articles for example seems useless to me.
There are certain points that reviews can make, like if optimization or bugs are abundant at launch and a lot of people are reporting this, that is really useful information to the consumer. I've stopped reading reviews for the most part, or just noting in my mind that it doesn't really matter. Steam's refund system is a really nice safety net, it allows my interest of a game to be at the forefront. It also makes the decision to pre-order easier if I really want to.
If I'm genuinely unsure about a game, I'll just wait for the price to drop/wait for a demo to become available. I haven't done it that many times, but I'm so glad I did it recently. I was really excited for 'Prey', I thought it looked great, but the PC version didn't get a demo until a few weeks ago. After playing the demo, liking it and then finishing the full game, I thought it was pretty great in some aspects, but I was also let down by some of its flaws, but by paying less and waiting I think I've avoided feeling more disappointed than I could have.
I'm going to go ahead and say it might be rough for new people. It's definitely taken me some time to be at a point where I know what to trust and what not to. I think the prominent/note-worthy thing to take away as others have already mentioned is to trust your own judgement.
You have a point. Maybe my choice in wording was wrong. Thanks for commenting your opinion
have a nice day
was... was that a... kind hearted response?! on the internet?! you sir have my respect.
haha thanks
much respect to you also 
You must be a really big fan if you actually live them!
When you talk to people, do you take, like 5 seconds to respond?
And after saying something impactful to someone, do you tend to briefly look above them to the top left for a moment? XD
........Sorry.
Don't trust game reviews as can be paid reviews or go easy on a game in fears of pissing off the game company or a lot of reviewers are SJW for example for Uncharted lost legacy instead of solid review of game play we get I SEEN A WOMEN 20/10 GOY
I love users reviews as they have not as much bias and not as corrupt so get solid review from average Joe who just loves great story like myself and was never let down
God damn it I always make these spelling mistakes so easily XD .