This is the same sort of thing that’s happened with ratings of all kinds.
This skewing of scores seems to have kicked in with games as well.
Now that’s a 70.
Lucas Gouveia / Jason Montoya / How-To Geek
Getting an 80% score in the old days meant it was a genre-leading game.
Now an 80 just means “good”.
Effectively, the real scale only runs from 70 to 100.
Cianna Garrison / How-To Geek
Then look for games they’ve reviewed well to get an idea of what you should play next.
They might have disliked a game for reasons that mean nothing to you.
They might have liked a game for something that you abhor.
Did they post a gushing review five hours into a 100 hour game?
Are theyconsole warringin the review?
Again, the substance of the review matters as well as some of what’s between the lines.
Watch YouTube Gameplay
There are tons of third-party gameplay videos of just about every game on YouTube.
Just be careful not to spoil the game for yourself.
It may have poor controls, or feel unresponsive.
The good news is that there are several ways you could try a game for little or no money.
While game demos have become rather rare, some games still have them.
These days, demos even have the option to continue from your demo save in some cases.
Depending on the platform, you may also have access to game trials.
This lets you play the full game for a set time limit.
If you like it, you could buy the full game and just keep playing.
Usually, this is part of a subscription service, such as certain tiers of the PlayStation Plus service.
Just confirm you know the refund policy for your platform.
ASteam refundis easy, aNintendo or PlayStation refund is basically impossible.
