Oh man! NintenRant 🔥
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Interesting discussion. I can understand in some way the time pressure people are under to try and make their revenue, but I can reflect your worry that we don’t always get a detailed assessment of the game. This is one good reason to follow smaller channels / people not in it for the money – they tend to follow their own timeline and review things they feel passionate about.

Recently my feelings towards reviews have changed a bit though. I actually no longer want a long, in depth review or some kind of score, because what does that score really mean at the end for the day? I believe you can – and indeed I often do – decide if you want a game from seeing about 5 mins of gameplay. I’m not convinced you need to have a long description of mechanics, a detailed look at all the features and a number whacked on. Someone talking about it and showing what it looks like is enough for me!

I think reviews these days are better than in the past. My main reason for thinking this is that you can find someone on YouTube that you can relate with and get a better feeling for if you’d like a game or not. And that is the point isn’t it? I prefer reviewers that do more of a first impressions review than one that reviews and reveals if their are twists or turns. Also, in the past with small publications reviewing games you would more regularly have a person interested in another genre like platformer reviewing a game like final fantasy tactics. It gives a biased review. This happens today as well, but if you’ve watched videos from a youtuber then you kind of have an idea where their likes lie. Ro2R like Star Wars, Metroid, Horror. OJ like Jrpgs, Smash, retro styles. Wood likes beatemups, indies. Terminator Juice likes all things Zelda. I watch several others but you get the picture. I can find someone that I trust to lead me in the right direction now, unlike having just 1 or two guys deciding for the entire industry.

I rarely look at any review scores any longer, not since the heyday of the gaming magazine honestly. I much prefer the opinions of my peers who I trust much more than any score. So much is subjective these days, the best process for me has been to find those people who I feel have similar tastes of my own and use them as my echo chamber or sounding board.

Really great video! I 100% agree with you with the state of reviews. Reviewers should act like journalism and try to stay objective, or subjective in their opinions, without the need to please the developer because they received a free code/to continue getting them or to please people to get high engagement/traffic. It's like some people/companies aim for quantity over quality. With a game like Octopath, I don't understand how the reviewers did not finish the game. A first impression at this point is bad because there has been a demo out for a long time already. But I think readers and viewers of reviews have become smarter. I don't think there is one person who only reads one review, we all go to different sources. Even if a source is good, we still look around to get a more balanced opinion on games.

First and also great vid