Good games review websites

corblimey

I used to read gamesdomain.co.uk all the time, but it seems to be just a mirror of gamespot.com these days, with half the games not even released over here yet. So I'm looking for a good site with decent reviews of just released or coming-soon games. I took a quick look at eurogamer based on some threads below and it looks ok. Is it any good? Are there others?

steviec

Eurogamer are far and away the best in my opinion.

Gamespot can be ok, as can gamespy.com, on the other hand IGN aren't very trustworthy at all.

I find it's best to go to www.metacritic.com which averages out the scores of many sites and lists quotes from various reviews along with links to all the full reviews, so you really get everything in one place.

Malice

I use GameFAQs a lot myself. The quality of writing in many of the reviews leaves a lot to be desired but you can usually get a good idea of what a game is like.

I would also recomment Meta Critic as mentioned by StevieC.

Balfa

I've never used metacritic, but gamerankings.com is a similar thing which averages the scores. You might want to try that one out. It's pretty nifty.

Dont be at yourself

Eurogamer is pretty good. Consolevania is brutally honest, but it's a videocast (or whatever the current buzzword is!).

BLITZ_Molloy

Most game reviews on the net are horrifically bad. Sites like GameRankings and Meta Critic might be useful if they were aggregating were from quality sites.. but you only have to look at the highest ranking titles to see what a mess the system really is.

The only man I implicitly trust is Stuart Campbell. But he only reviews a handful of games.

the-lad

ntsc-uk.com are good for reviews (imports mostly) as is their first play forum tread

Retr0gamer

Wouldn't use Gamefaqs tbh. Most reviews are 1/10 or 9-10/10 and badly written.

Eurogamer would be the best imo.

Actually I've been looking for a site that has comprehensive, professionally written reviews of 8-bit and 16-bit console games. Want a good list with practically every game so I don't miss out on any classics. Import games would be nice as well. Can anyone help?

TheAlmightyArse

I don't know about retro review sites, but the [url=http://invisionfree.com/forums/worldofstuart/index.php?showforum=1
]forum[/url] at Stuart Campbell's site that BLITZ Molloy mentioned has several excellent reccomendation threads. There's a reference forum for the old threads, and if you find nothing there ask on the main forum. They're a lovely bunch of people with good, solid taste. 73%.

EDIT(S): blatant inaccuracy fixed (some)

Retr0gamer

Haven't found anything retro but then again I'm having too much fun reading Stuarts rants. That man is a legend. Used to buy every magazine he wrote in.

DingChavez

I use GameRankings.com

ObeyGiant

Although I tend to agree with most of Eurogamer's scores, I don't think I've ever managed to actually sit through an entire review or article on their site. Those boys are in dire need of a good editing. It was bad enough when they limited themselves to one page, but now we've got two pages of badly-written, self-indulgent reviews? Ugh.

So yeah, I go to Eurogamer to check scores, but not what the reviewers have to say about a particular game.

I find 1up.com useful, since it "properly" aggregates scores across both the editors and the community. Shame they can't produce a "lite" version of their site. It feels like my browser is wading through treacle.

Have you tried gamespot.co.uk? They're a little more euro-centric than .com.

zAbbo

I use metacritic, but normally read reviews on eurogamer or 1up.

gamerankings is similar but I don't like the layout.

Retr0gamer

ObeyGiant wrote:

Have you tried gamespot.co.uk? They're a little more euro-centric than .com.

Unfortunately Gamespot.co.uk have been done away with. They were supposedly melded with gamespot.com but gamespot.com is still more american than apple pie. Unfortunate since it was a decent site and had good release schedules.

ObeyGiant

Retr0gamer wrote:

Unfortunately Gamespot.co.uk have been done away with. They were supposedly melded with gamespot.com but gamespot.com is still more american than apple pie. Unfortunate since it was a decent site and had good release schedules.

Are you sure you're thinking of the right site? Gamespot.co.uk only launched in April and it's still working for me. E.g. going to the forums brings me to a european forum, the release dates are right for the UK etc.

Big Nelly

Brother setting up site as we speak, will go live on 16th of July. Used to run a site years ago and his reviews where been published throughout Europe in gaming magazines.

Website is http://www.irishgamer.ie/

corblimey

ObeyGiant wrote:

Are you sure you're thinking of the right site? Gamespot.co.uk only launched in April and it's still working for me. E.g. going to the forums brings me to a european forum, the release dates are right for the UK etc.

While the release lists are accurate enough, they don't have appear to have reviews of the games until they hit the States.

Thanks for all the others, everyone. No work for me today!

garrethg

ObeyGiant wrote:

Those boys are in dire need of a good editing. It was bad enough when they limited themselves to one page, but now we've got two pages of badly-written, self-indulgent reviews?

Sadly those attributes aren't limited to Eurogamer, the gaming media's self-satisfaction dwarfs its ability to present succient and objective information.

Retr0gamer

ObeyGiant wrote:

Are you sure you're thinking of the right site? Gamespot.co.uk only launched in April and it's still working for me. E.g. going to the forums brings me to a european forum, the release dates are right for the UK etc.

Possibly. Can't seem to get on to .co.uk from this computer in college.

Retr0gamer

ObeyGiant wrote:

Although I tend to agree with most of Eurogamer's scores, I don't think I've ever managed to actually sit through an entire review or article on their site. Those boys are in dire need of a good editing. It was bad enough when they limited themselves to one page, but now we've got two pages of badly-written, self-indulgent reviews? Ugh.

So yeah, I go to Eurogamer to check scores, but not what the reviewers have to say about a particular game.

Quoted for truth. Just wasted 10 minutes of my life reading Tom Bramwells new games journalism (tm) laden New Super Mario Bros. review. Awful stuff altogether.

BLITZ_Molloy

The guy who runs ntsc-uk (Concept) wrote the most pretentious, up his arse, complete horse**** review of Outrun 2 you've ever read. And Stuart wrote this big review of the review in the Feedback forum. It was priceless.

Pretty much all the good videogame journalists are gone now. Lots of them had to take Future Publishing to the small claims court to get paid for their work. Suits Future fine, why hire proper journalists when you can just get in a load of kids who don't mind getting paid 3 months late, if at all? Magazines sell on their cover disks not the editorial content anyway.

Lemlin

Big Nelly wrote:

Brother setting up site as we speak, will go live on 16th of July. Used to run a site years ago and his reviews where been published throughout Europe in gaming magazines.

Website is http://www.irishgamer.ie/

Thanks for the mention Nelly. Irishgamer.ie launches in two weeks lads. All I can say is that I hope yas will like the reviews there. Most of them are already up on the games section at Campus which I write for or the reviews forum here.

We'll have Irish news too and are a partner site to Gamestoaster. We've a few special features up our sleeve for launch too. One that should get games stores thinking especially.... sadly, that's all I can say for now.

I used to write for mags like Dreamcast Monthly and the Irish magazine The Player (which later turned into the dreadful Official Irish PlayStation mag). I even managed to get one of my articles printed in Netwerk magazine in Belgium/Holland. I have a copy of it at home if anyone can speak Flemish!

Retr0gamer

Lemlin wrote:

I used to write for mags like Dreamcast Monthly and the Irish magazine The Player (which later turned into the dreadful Official Irish PlayStation mag).

My god OIPM was disgraceful. The reviews were awful but nothing could beat the letters section. It was just full of kids boasting about how they are better than everyone else because they finished MGS/FFVII in a fast time. I only bought 1 copy because of the FFIX review (which was disgraceful). I think I'll have a few pints tonight and wipe my arse with it in the morning.

Lemlin

Retr0gamer wrote:

My god OIPM was disgraceful. The reviews were awful but nothing could beat the letters section. It was just full of kids boasting about how they are better than everyone else because they finished MGS/FFVII in a fast time. I only bought 1 copy because of the FFIX review (which was disgraceful). I think I'll have a few pints tonight and wipe my arse with it in the morning.

I know. Thankfully I didn't write for it. No Irish journalists did except about two or three. Sure it only had about three pages of Irish news and then the rest was just the UK magazine.

Kevin McDermott was the editor and I remember Neil McGreevy wrote a guest slot at the back but those are about the only two I remember writing for it.

TheAlmightyArse

Neil McGreevy! Is Game Zone still going? Man, the letters pages were so much fun. "Final Fantasy VII sucks. The fights are so unrealistic!" etc.

Lemlin

TheAlmightyArse wrote:

Neil McGreevy! Is Game Zone still going? Man, the letters pages were so much fun. "Final Fantasy VII sucks. The fights are so unrealistic!" etc.

Gamezone is still going. I used to write reviews for it too. Steve Curran runs it now.

I didn't have the time with school and then college to help Neil and then he suddenly disappeared.

You can read Gamezone online now at http://www.rte.ie/arts/newsgamingindex.html

OctavarIan

Meh, I stick to Gamespot and very occasionally eurogamer.