Purchasing Games...

DAIR

DAIR

DAIR

Soldato
Joined
23 Jul 2009
Posts
8,920
Location
Cayman Islands
How do you decide whether or not to purchase a particular game?

What are your deciding factors?

  • Mag/Website Reviews
  • In-game screen shots/gameplay
  • Features
  • Developer's previous work
  • Hype/Marketing strategy

I'd say over the last 5 years I've become somewhat of a cherry picker when it comes to purchasing games. Gone are the days when I'd allow myself to become consumed by a game's hype.

I read reviews from not just the magazines but the average Joe too.
 
Youtubes become the favourite, developers previous work counts for something too.

That being said, despite droping back 24 years of buying codemasters efforts, recently they've droped off a cliff in my eyes. Their developing easy play, dlc more you like yearly substandards, losing that great middleground they've allways held.. aka gameplay first, everything else 2nd base.

Current blunder im faced with is the Mx alive game, youtube doesn't help, reviews don't hold, calling it's shortcomings that are understandable given the dlc roll out model, and player feedback is what you'd expect from a series game.. aka it sucks compared to reflex.. no you suck it rocks, ect ect...

Guess what im saying is, sometimes you just gota leap.... so 80's style:)
 
Reviews (mainly metacritic)
Demos
And sometimes I'll just buy a game purely because of the name. EG Diablo 3, I've never played it, or have the demo and there aren't any reviews out, but I'm more than happy to pay for it now because I enjoyed D2 so much.
 
I don't waste too much thought on it. If a game has got my attention then 5 minutes of YouTube and looking at the score of 2-3 reviews. After that if I'm still interested then I'll find out the rest when I play it. I find I hardly touch demos that I download. Saying that, most of the games I buy are £3-20 and it's usually about 1 a month unless there's a steam sale.
 
Demo and/or gameplay footage.

It's hard to get excited by hype these days as this normally consists of pre rendered videos or cutscenes made by in game engine, trickle fed months before release. Worse, static screenshots from PC or 360 versions, useless in themselves and moreso if you have a PS3!

Also, if you want games on or before release (based on reviews), it's a bit tough as so many reviews are embargoed till the week (or day) of release!!


rp2000
 
If a game doesn't grab my attention, then forgot it. It has to have some sort of hook. I've never bought a game due to its hype or metacritic score.

Hell, I bought lair because I liked the idea of flying a dragon. Game isn't really that bad to be honest, its not great but not the worst game I've ever played. Actually, I might go play it just now.
 
I mainly make my decision by weighing story and how much fun I'm lily to have. I am mostly a SP gamer however I will play MP if it will entertain me, example AC:B.

I will read various reviews and then decide if something is worth my purchase. Obviously, there are some studios/publishers who I consider safe bets such as Rockstar, Sucker Punch and Naughty Dog.
 
Sometimes a nice cover is all it takes me to decide to buy a game, but most of my buying decisions come from preview pictures and articles.

I don't think reading a review score has ever made any impact on my buying choice, as i'm normally interested in the game or not. I've certainly never bothered with metacritic, and I can't remember the last truelly duff game I have bought.
 
i do watch gametrailers.com for reviews i dont really follow many website reviews. its more a case of looking at the game previews and screenshots and whether i'd play the game regardless of complaints from others about the game. for instance i bought need for speed hot pursuit, because i loved the original and i do like need for speed cop chases. I dont tend to follow the crowd buying year after year of games i.e. COD warfare then Warfare 2 then world at war then black ops etc. i know a mate who does and i just dont see the difference between them. maybe its just not that original enough for me.
 
I read into games, decide whether or not it is for me, look further into it. Dev's, game style, engine it's running from. Basically as much research as I can.

Then I will ring my mate to see when he is getting a order in and ask for him to put one aside for me.

Such as Tales of Vesperia, only recently picked this up, had to get my mate to source it for me. But was worth it.

ags
 
Gameplay videos do it for me, and obviously the discussion on here. I'm more of a renter these days though, have spent a lot of money on gaming over the years and don't have as much time these days.
 
agnes said:
I read into games, decide whether or not it is for me, look further into it. Dev's, game style, engine it's running from. Basically as much research as I can.

Then I will ring my mate to see when he is getting a order in and ask for him to put one aside for me.

Such as Tales of Vesperia, only recently picked this up, had to get my mate to source it for me. But was worth it.

ags
Click to expand...


That's a lot of effort:eek:
 
A mixture of reviews, player thoughts, youtube videos, demos, and developer history.

Although sometimes I just take a random chance. Kind of like when I used to just wander into a game shop and look at the back of a case and thought "this looks alright".
 
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