I get the feeling that they don't play the whole game in a lot of cases. They write their review based on only a couple hours of playing. Like a review of their preview.
At any rate, I never read just ONE review for any game, I read many. I like to read the lowest ratings first, it helps temper me against the glowing "gamegasm" reviews. You start to see through the holes in the reviews as you go from low to high ratings. Some of the things mentioned in low reviews aren't mentioned in high reviews, and vice versa. By using the low to high review method, I am rarely disappointed with a game I actually buy. The diversity of the reviews gave me a much better idea of what I'm buying into than going from high to low.
But that's commercial reviews. If I really want to know if a game is my type of game or not is to read GAMER reviews, go to forums dedicated to that game and read-around the site, and don't forget to carefully read the "support" section.
At any rate, I never read just ONE review for any game, I read many. I like to read the lowest ratings first, it helps temper me against the glowing "gamegasm" reviews. You start to see through the holes in the reviews as you go from low to high ratings. Some of the things mentioned in low reviews aren't mentioned in high reviews, and vice versa. By using the low to high review method, I am rarely disappointed with a game I actually buy. The diversity of the reviews gave me a much better idea of what I'm buying into than going from high to low.
But that's commercial reviews. If I really want to know if a game is my type of game or not is to read GAMER reviews, go to forums dedicated to that game and read-around the site, and don't forget to carefully read the "support" section.