Personally I never look at symbols. I prefer to read words to see if reviewers are actually writing something productive or just filling up space.

Rolling Stone, for example, has horrible album reviews. They use stars, which to me are meaningless because the reviews suck. Rarely do they convey anything about the music itself. I hate to say it, but Magnet is the same way. These days it seems to be "spend half the word count naming previous albums, mention origin location, mention some quirk about the singer, and then casually, almost disinterestedly, address one or two new songs without actually giving you any indication of what they sound like."

For gaming reviews, I just see if they're actually talking about anything that could influence my perception. If it's just ranting and raving with little substance, no thank you.

I agree. To really find out about a game read the reviews, watch some Youtube vids, etc. Do some research. The stars don't tell you much.

Slight amendment.

Fixed :D.

EDIT: LOL, ninja'd.

Your comment just cracked me up, I am still smirking. Kinda reminds me at the Mogwai-Problem in "Gremlins". Do you remember the rules?

1) Don´t put a Mogwai in direct sunlight - Check!
2) Don´t let it get wet. - Check!
3) Don´t feed it after midnight - Ch... wait... when the hell does "after midnight" end? Technically 23.59 (or 11.59 p.m. for not-germans) is still "after midnight". No wonder those things are so rare, they all starved to death.


Anyway, I see the stars more like this...

1 Star - "Don´t even touch it!"
2 Stars - "well, in case you are THAT bored..."
3 Stars - "Not the holy grail of gaming, but a decent pastime. You will maybe not play it again, though!"
4 Stars - "Now THIS is a fun game. I don´t come across something like this very often. Good replay value."
5 Stars - " This game actually inspires me!"

I don´t see the system as something that works like the awarding for points in sigure skating, where judges never give full points to the first skaters, since the next one might show a better performance. I see it as my personal "How does this game make me feel"-scale. Fallout 1/2 for instance are still the better games to me and will always have a special 5-Star-place in my gaming heart. But even if I appreciate Fallout 1/2 a bit more, Fallout 3 and Fallout NV are still two of the best games ever to me, on which I spend hundrets of hours.

No matter HOW you think the Stars system works, it is always subjective and sentimental. Some people I know consider "Faster Than Light" as one of the best roguelike games ever and would give it 6 ou of 5 Stars. Other people I know would only give 3 to 4 Stars because they don´t like it that much or simply for the reason that it is not roguelike-like enough for them. And I would never even rate it ot, if I were forced to, give it 1 out of 5 Stars, since I hate roguelikes in general and FTL in particular, because for me it is frustration in the pure form. That is why I always watch gameplay videos first or read some reviews.

I really had fun playing FTL, but eventually it's repetitive, has simple graphics, simple sound, simple story and to be honest I think it could be improved right away in many ways. So I gave it 3 stars. Arguments, like it's an indie game, there was a small budget, simple graphics give a certain style (although they're budget driven), aren't my problem, the game could have been better. As said, it's a nice little game and that's totally ok for me, but compared to what's out there it's just "not the holy grail of gaming".

It would be unfair to rate it 1 star because you don't like the genre, but if you consider it boring and frustrating or have further complaints, go and rate. I think this criticism is what the GOG rating system lacks. By now I tend to only read the bad or mediocre reviews to get an idea of flaws to expect. A lot of five star reviews strike me as potential fake advertising.

Well you can lol all you want, but its a very fitting comparison, maybe you ought to think about it before you start insulting people. Just because there is a best game on gog, doesnt mean that all other games should only get 4 stars.

My system is * for 0 to 55%; ** for 56 to 69%; *** for 70 to 79%; **** for 80 to 89% and ***** for 90% and up.

When Chuck Barris introduces the game I know it's gonna suck.

The example I usually give people of how broken the star ratings can be on GoG is one rating for the game F/A-18E Super Hornet:

"the first game I bought that doesn't start ... at all!

Posted on 2011-01-11 13:05:02 by sammyf70:

on win7 (32bit) : no chance to get past the black screen at the start.
in wine : I get a revolving globe and the DI logo, and then it's stuck there.
Probably a good game if it ever start, but considering the forum articles and my own experience, I would say it's a "avoid at all cost" thing until GOG can get a version out that actually works."

Rating given... 4 out of 5 stars!


If you ignore the silly 4 star rating, the review is actually useful information, so I'm glad it's there. It's just ridiculous that someone would rate a game so high that they can't even get to run. Ignore the stars, read the actual comments. You'll be much better off.

1 star = I didn't even play this game, it looks so stupid.

2 stars = I played this game once, I think, for a little while. Or maybe I just tried to get it to run and couldn't. Or something. I don't really remember, so it can't be that good.

3 stars = I definitely played this game over at my friends house, and we had a pretty good time. And that might have been the first time I smoked a cigarette.

4 stars = I love this game. It is awesome. I should really play this again. Oh, yeah!

5 stars = What?! There's another star? What the hell? I thought 4 was the highest! Damn it! Now I don't know what to do. Um, wait. I know. How about this: This game is the game I'm playing right now, and I'm happy, so you should really really play it also. That way you will be happy, too.

Cheers.

You should be careful about any game if you're worried about what you spend $3-15 or so on. Especially for classics. A game that people loved when 10 years ago, you might not like so much now. Use reviews as a reference but it's better to go by gameplay videos and such imo.

The OP of this thread got derepped for asking a fair question and stating a valid opinion. I got derepped in this thread for making a joke about the name of West Virginia. As insanely stupid as derepping me is for that comment I really don't care so have at it, but to whoever low repped the OP for a simple question and observarion I offer you the following: FUCK YOU.

Have a nice day! :D

Sorry tinyE, I'm afraid this post gets my lowest rating ever: seven thumbs up.

NVM