this post was submitted on 17 Jun 2026
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The Sad Unusability of Video Game Reviews (bottomfeeder.substack.com)
submitted 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) by inlandempire@jlai.lu to c/games@sh.itjust.works
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"So I was trying to write reviews of a bunch of hit indie games I played recently. Then I got overwhelmed by the pointlessness of video game reviews these days and had to take a long nap.

And, I mean, pro reviews are pointless, right? If a game has a big enough budget or following and isn’t actively on fire, it gets a 9. If it is a competently made but low-budget indie, like mine, it gets a 7. If you read the actual review (nobody does), it’s a collection of facts about the game you could easily get from watching the trailer. Throw in a couple of comments from the reviewer about whether they like this genre or not, mix in 3 or 4 ham-handed political comments, and you got a review! Hit send!"

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[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 29 points 2 days ago (2 children)

Or You Can Just Read Steam Reviews

Every indie dev at some point gets supermad about Steam reviews. However, 99 times out of 100, skimming the reviews on the game’s front page will tell you everything you need to know

And mostly read the negative one to see if there's any issue with the feature or lack thereof, or whether there's any performance issue or bug, anything you won't tolerate. Dev will tell you the stuff is good anyway. I rarely read from review site these day, and i find Yahtzee being very helpful in that he will be very enthusiastically tell you how some part of the game don't work, which is exactly what i'm looking for.

[–] ieGod@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I used to think yahtzee was amazing then I realized he's stuck in some late teen angst phase and can't stand his content. Watching someone just play the game has always been the best way for me to assess. Streams and non famous YouTube videos are so good for this.

[–] psx_crab@lemmy.zip 2 points 1 day ago

That's understandable! He got the reputation of "hating all game and being cynical" for a reason, but if you can vibe with that and make it work for you it's very reliably consistent. After all, he's been this way for decade, so in one way or another i expected a jaded brits.

[–] Holytimes@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 day ago

That's because that's the character he plays.

Your basically falling for the trap of assuming the act is real.

Its like thinking the angry video game nerd is actually just a man child with no emotion control.

Its literally just acting.

Yahtzee does an amazing job of calling himself out when he fucks up, his side work is very level headed and he has a really solid foundation of understanding of the development and writing side of gaming. Which is a lot more then many game reviewers.

If you don't like his material that's fine, he's basically a comedian. Not everyone is going to like his routine. But that's all it is.

[–] alphabethunter@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah, I usually just read 2 or 3 positive and 2 or 3 negative reviews and look at the % score of the game. It's all you need to know if a game is for you or not. Also, follow people who have similar taste to you, in my case, that's Force Gaming and Iron Pineapple, whatever they play and really like, there's a good chance I'll like it as well. On top of that, I now have the habit of playing Steam Next Fest demos as much as I can to discover new games.