15th February 2022, 12:33 PM
Video game journalists are ALSO "random people on the internet", and their reliability is hardly vetted. There's no "AP" of reviewers, of any stripe gaming or movies or otherwise.
There have NEVER been enough paid journalists to cover in depth every single video game on the market, and there never will be. Further, their output is going to vary. I highly recommend finding a number of more insightful reviewers even if their tastes don't line up with your own.
Here's the thing though. Who cares if they're part of an "official" game reviewing company and web site? Find your reviewers wherever you can get them and use some good sense in figuring out if their analysis is worth your time reading it. My critical point is now, in the current era of the internet, is the FIRST time I've ever been able to find game reviews online that enter the level of depth I'm actually looking for.
https://www.youtube.com/c/MarkBrownGMT
https://www.youtube.com/c/ManyATrueNerd
https://www.youtube.com/user/JimSterling
Here's just a handful of insightful reviewers. They each focus on things web sites like IGN won't even bother mentioning, and they actually KNOW about proper game design and what a good story really is (here's a hint, themes are critical, plot is actually the least important). Sterling tends to criticize the industry as a whole more often than not.
There have NEVER been enough paid journalists to cover in depth every single video game on the market, and there never will be. Further, their output is going to vary. I highly recommend finding a number of more insightful reviewers even if their tastes don't line up with your own.
Here's the thing though. Who cares if they're part of an "official" game reviewing company and web site? Find your reviewers wherever you can get them and use some good sense in figuring out if their analysis is worth your time reading it. My critical point is now, in the current era of the internet, is the FIRST time I've ever been able to find game reviews online that enter the level of depth I'm actually looking for.
https://www.youtube.com/c/MarkBrownGMT
https://www.youtube.com/c/ManyATrueNerd
https://www.youtube.com/user/JimSterling
Here's just a handful of insightful reviewers. They each focus on things web sites like IGN won't even bother mentioning, and they actually KNOW about proper game design and what a good story really is (here's a hint, themes are critical, plot is actually the least important). Sterling tends to criticize the industry as a whole more often than not.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)