rating systems

[Ultimate X]

just wondering if anyone alse uses ratings from sites and such

i use
gamerankings.com for games
imdb.com for movies
anidb.net for anime
and i dont know any sites for music cds

some people might find this a waste but these sites are the best for saving your money from being wasted

anyone else

[polobunny]

Sometimes imdb for movies, gamespot user comments for games, that's it.

[Kymil]

I always browse jeuxvideo.com before to buy a game. But I don't really stick to their conclusion and I have been really disappointed sometimes.

[Nightfall Z]

i use www.ign.com for game ratings and yes most of my choices are based off those ratings from websites and magazines.

[Mistral]

The most I've ever done is read forums and did a quick Metacrawler search for reviews. I just prefer reading articles debating specific points to a quick n-star rating.

[SegNin]

I use reviews and info from GameFAQS and GameSpot, and the Internet in general to help me decide if a game is worth getting.

[polobunny]

I've been deceived by jeuxvideo.com hundreds of times so i stopped going there. Their critics sucks, i like user critics however as they reflect more how a normal "not paid to do their job" human thinks.
The reviews sometimes are sucky, putting too much emphasis on the game defaults when there's a new and revolutionnary concept included. (Example: Bashing on the so-so music)
It seems sometime like the guy that made the review wasn't someone which liked the type of the game. Obviously giving an RPG to someone that loves fast paced action isn't the thing to do.

And since they've been bloating the website with ads and asking money for the ETAJV, you clearly see they want to do a business out of this. I liked this website more when it was smaller to be honest.

My opinion on jeuxvideo.

[Elmdor]

www.ratemymullet.com has always been there for me.

[Uncle Evil]

I have come to realize i cant trust rankings and review sites, usualy they are so full of shit that they say a 10/10 game but when you play it its a worthless POS

[polobunny]

That's mostly why i only check users reviews.

[Cyberxion]

I read review sites to get differing perspectives on things, but I don't rely on them to make my decisions.

That's mostly why i only check users reviews.

That's even worse! If you want totally biased opinions that either gloss over a products short comings or over-exaggerate them, then yeah, user reviews are the way to go.

I've read reviews that totally praise something as if it's the second coming of Christ, and I've read reviews for the same product that exist on the other end of the spectrum, slamming it as if it's the Anti-Christ. Users are often too biased to be considered a decent source of incite into something, at least in my experience. Sure there are exceptions to that, but they're too few and far between for my tastes.

[Ragnar]

Actually I read reviews just for that. On GameFAQs of all places. IMO you can get plenty of good opinions from a ranting fanboy. I guess I've just gotten good at filtering out the kind of information I want to hear though

[Ryan]

I personally go by my own judgement, And about 95% of the time, the game is good. But unless I really dont know, then Ill go to either Gamespot, or IGN.

[Norgus]

I use several anime sites to find out about series, with <a href="http://www.anime-planet.com/animerec/">the anime recommendation database</a> as one of the most interesting.
The <a href="http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/">Anime news network</a> is another good one, and <a href="http://www.animenfo.com/">anime nfo</a> usually has fucking poor english writing, but can be useful.
Other than those I use some that get linked at <a href="http://www.animesuki.com">anime suki</a>.
Link mayhem!

[Ultimate X]

well in my opinion gamerankings is the best for games since they average what all the other major sites give and they tell you what each site gave