It seems to me like video game journalism (for lack of a better term) has really started to go down hill lately. I used to be a big fan of places like Gamespot, Joystiq, IGN, Kotaku, etc., but lately I am more disgusted with the news outlets and most articles on the major sites seem to be just click-bait. Kotaku posted a "glitch-fest" video of Assassin's Creed Unity two weeks ago and they just posted another one today. I get that some people are having issues with the game but to have two videos dedicated to how bad the game is? Is that really necessary? I have played through the entire Unity story and did not have more than two or three very minor glitches. Also, any time a news story about Unity is posted on Kotaku, they attach that famous image of the no-face NPCs glitch which, as it turns out, was an extremely rare issue on PC only and it came up when people did not apply the day-one patch. But if you follow Kotaku you would think it is a wide-spread issue that everyone is having.

I was also listening to a Joystiq podcast about 2 months ago (shortly after Destiny was released) and for 30+ minutes they bashed Destiny and spewed out complaint after complaint after complaint and had absolutely nothing positive to say about it. I'm not saying that everyone should talk glowingly about all the games that come out (especially if they genuinely do not like them), but it feels like negativity will get the most buzz and clicks so instead of offering honest opinions they just throw out whatever will get the most people to their respective sites. I still enjoy IGN videos for news and what not (I like the personalities at IGN, like Greg Miller, Colin Moriarty, and Naomi Kyle) but I generally don't trust their reviews.

With all of that ranting out of the way, what places or people do you all turn to for honest reviews? How do you make a decision on what games to buy and what games to pass on? Is there a site anywhere on this crazy internet that will just offer news without any bias?

Also, don't even get me started on YouTube comments, those are full of such vitriol I am surprised the internet hasn't melted into a pool of hate.

TotalBiscuit is just about the only person worth listening to anymore, in my opinion. I do not always agree with the man, but I respect his opinions, and he respects his viewers enough to let them make up their own minds.

Oh, and I still get a kick out of Zero Punctuation.

Honestly? No-one. If I'm interested in a game, I read dev blogs beforehand, then after it's released I read reviews from customers and posters on the various forums I'm a regular member of. I don't trust big name or indie journalism as far as I can throw them.

I mean, I do read reviews from places like Game Informer and what not, but I place zero trust in them, to many games I"ve played that I absolutely love that they gave scathing reviews, and to many games I absolutely cannot stand that they gave rave reviews to. The only way to get an accurate picture of a game is through thorough research.

There's a guy on YouTube called Knightwing who does a lot of Nintendo games and other stuff, he's a pretty reliable journalist. Another one is a guy called ProJared is another favorite of mine.

I have virtually no respect for mainstream games 'journalists' anymore. The recent Gamergate 'controversy' displayed the utter contempt that some of these outlets and journalists have for their audience, and the amount of corruption, backroom deals and outright bribery that goes on clearly shows that they cannot in any way be trusted to provide genuine balanced journalism. Even outlets such as Rock Paper Shotgun and PC Gamer, outlets that I once fully supported, have shown their true natures with increasingly suspicious deals and an increased reliance on clickbait articles to draw readers.

These days if I seek discussion on gaming, reviews or news I gravitate towards individuals who actively do not describe themselves as games journalists or reviewers. Individuals like John Bain (Totalbiscuit) are far more trustworthy than mainstream outlets. While Totalbiscuit is at times a controversial figure, and by no means do I agree with him on every issue or topic, he makes an active effort to disclose any biases, outright refuses bribery or suspicious brand deals (and will disclose them to his audience) and actively works to ensure some respectability in his work. It's unfortunate that mainstream gaming journalists have openly expressed such contempt and condescension for individuals on Youtube like TB, since people like him are the ones doing the proper games journalism now.

Angey joe he yells a lot.

I lost all respect for video game writing (I won't call it "journalism") in 2006 when the media fawned sycophantically over Oblivion. I have never taken a word they've written or said seriously since then.

These days I mainly just visit NicheGamer, since they cover the kinds of games that I'm interested in, and they don't write articles insulting their core audience. I don't visit any of the anti-gamer sites like Kotaku or Polygon, and I don't really trust game reviews in general anyway.

I might start paying attention to TotalBiscuit more, I have casually watched his stuff on YouTube but never payed too much attention to him. Plus, he has a British accent which makes him about 32.7 times more trustworthy.

I trust the user review part of Metacritic.

Interesting. I've always found user scores there are inversely proportional to the amount of hype or popularity a game has.

I don't think I've ever bought games based on what gaming journalists write.
If I see something I might like, I take a chance on it, or talk to other gamers.

I honestly have no idea what video game journalism is. I really only listen to my friends and my brothers who, despite my eternal hatred of them, know fun games when they play them.

I can't stand TotalBiscuit. Yuck. Or any YouTube "personality".

I don't like PewDiePie or Angry Joe (his interview skills are atrocious) but I don't mind TotalBiscuit. At least, not what I have heard/watched so far. MoreConsole is pretty funny as well mostly because of how excited he gets about everything.

Any particular reason why?

My personal (strong) dislike of him aside, PewDiePie has never, nor should ever be considered a 'serious' personality or 'journalist' by any stretch.

Good point. He just does a bunch of Let's Plays and talks through the whole thing. It baffles me that he has so many subscribers.

I haven't viewed any of his recent material, but his older stuff at least simply seemed to appeal to the demographic of the teenage boy in all honesty. His older videos were filled with puerile humour (e.g. jokes about sixual assault in both the videos themselves and his titles) and deliberate overreactions (e.g. over-the-top screaming in horror games) designed to amuse that demographic. All he did was jump on that immature part of the internet at the right time and came out on top, and he's been so successful that now we have games known as 'PewDieBait' (e.g. Goat Simulator) which are specifically designed for 'personalities' like PewDiePie to play them, evoke over-the-top reactions at the explosions and silliness and encourage his large fanbase to go out and buy the game as well.

And while I understand that he's supposedly apologized for the use of jokes about sixual assault in his past videos, I frankly still cannot stand the guy. Of course, that doesn't mean others can't find him entertaining.

Adam Sessler always seemed like an honest and intelligent guy.

Other than that, I tend to ignore video game journalism and just listen to the opinions of other average gamers sharing their ideas.

Although, that being said....

User reviews on MetaCritic are often a complete joke.
People troll games they don't like, or spam votes for games they do like. It's almost as bad as YouTube comments.



And I don't think Pewdiepie has ever claimed to be a journalist or game reviewer. He just plays games. He kinda has nothing to do with the thread.

Totalbiscuit frequently makes it clear he doesn't consider himself to be a games journalist or a reviewer. Should he therefore also be disregarded in this thread? As these are the people that many gamers now get their consumer advice from and watch to gain impressions of games, I would argue that all 'personalities' are relevant to discussions of gaming journalism. These people are the new games media. While I personally dislike PewDiePie, there are no doubt thousands of people out there that use his content to decide what games to buy rather than the traditional gaming press, so he's certainly relevant to this discussion.

That one Mario rip-off game took off because PewDiePie played it on his channel, iirc.

NicheGamer is cool. TechRaptor is a site I am watching with interest. While their reviews have failed to impress me so far, their editorials are interesting.

Have you seen his rants and his tantrums? He's annoying. I just find a lot of these "personalities" ramble on and on and are ridiculous.

I go to IGN daily and scan the headlines because I know that if anything big happens (like a Fallout 4 announcement) it will be up on the site immediately, but I take the content of most gaming sites with more than a few grains of salt. After it's silly review of Wasteland 2, I won't even visit Joystiq anymore.

I don't trust any of them and will not give them the page clicks for which they troll. I agree 100% with Robbio's comments above about how Gamergate has completely exposed the utter contempt games "journalists" have for their readers, as well as the rampant corruption, cronyism and nepotism between the "journalists" and the industry they're supposed to be covering in a somewhat objective manner.

These days I read comments on this forum and a couple of others, and talk to friends who are also gamers to get news and reviews about games I'm thinking about buying.

Superbunnyhop and Mrbtongue are the best thing to happen to "video game journalism" in the past couple years, no doubt. Other than that I don't always agree with what he's saying but Rageholic can always be trusted to speak his mind. MatthewMatosis and Totalbiscuit can be pretty pretty good too.