Good point. I guess that would be a rock (or a boulder?) of salt. :D

"Take 5-star reviews with a boulder of salt."

Youtube exists, go watch a Let's Play to see if you like a game or not.

Who bases their opinions on reviews anymore anyway?

This thread, 1/5 stars :o)

Does anyone actually read reviews in the first place?

You know a good game is a good game no matter how along ago it was released so if you loved a game to death in 1985 then it's still going to be great today, it's just people's perceptions that change so then start to question whether that game or any game was great to start with. As for reviews well yes gaming journalism has certainly changed no end and not for the better, too many other things come into it now and is more about exposure and money of course and the actual game itself is a second thought which is kind of sad.

If i'm genuinely interested in a game then i certainly will not be viewing any kind of review for it because if i did i wouldn't be playing it, man reviews are kind of screwed these days and come to the conclusion that they generally have little interest in the game itself and sometimes they appear to be playing a totally different game so i end up laughing about it.

20 years ago it was all different and you could pretty much rely on a review in a magazine but with the net and trolling comes with it's downfall, people actually review a game without ever seeing or playing it and have their own agenda's against a particular company such as EA or Activision for instance and will hate because they can.

TLDR - Reviews mean nothing today.

Usually people write reviews if they feel strongly about a game. Wether positive or negative. Hence the many 5 stars. I don´t recall if I gave a game 5 stars. My ratings are:

1/5 abomination
2/5 didn't like it at all due to <insert critique here>
3/5 It was okay
4/5 It was great!
5/5 This is one of the best games I've ever played!

Are you sure that its all that bad? As I read it, OP just says that some games ages better than others, and that games which ages well is to be considered better than those which don't.

I mostly googles "[game name] review blog", because a random result on teh interweb typically is better than the GOG reviews. Sure, problem solved - just ignore the in-house reviews and go somewhere else. But still, it kinda irks me.

Though it's not because a game is old that it's necessarily less good than it was 10 years ago, i agree that reviews on gog are a little bit exagerated. Every game is almost 4+ stars.
It seems that people don't give less than 4 because they consider 3 stars and lower are for aweful games.

3 Stars is still above average of 2.5 you know....

Fair enough but what got me was his line "For the sake of people like me, who are actually looking for a decent game to play today."

God knows I am more than capable and often guilty of misreading and over reacting, but it would seem the OP isn't so much upset about 5 star reviews for games but rather 5 star reviews for games that he doesn't like. :P For every god awful piece of shit it has ever been your displeasure to play there is an army of people out there who think it is the greatest game ever, and vice versa, so I have a hard time with this "decent" crap. You can't define good and bad.

On top of that, and I know this is kind of silly, this guy just joined and pretty much all he's done so far is roam around telling everyone what he doesn't like in here and why it has to change. Kind of a shit thing for noob to do IMO.

Well, Sonic is not a bad game, it is just not as interesting as the game I listed.

I donno, maybe there is not enough gameplay variety in the Sonic I played to keep me hooked, just jumping around and collecting rings. While Mario have different power up and let you ride a turtle. Or Jazz rabbit many guns and enemies.

And for the RPG and Strategy games, I am spoiled for choices to try.

I don't think as times passes a game quality suddenly decrease, just the overall games get better, with improved game mechanics or controls or presentation. Play older strategy games and you will vomit at the notorious path finding.
Newer RPG games retire game mechanics that proven no fun, like hunger and the protagonist have to keep eating food.
Diablo won't let you move unless you keep clicking like no tomorrow, while diablo 2, titan quest, torchlight lets you move by holding the mouse click.
After experiencing Age of Wonder Shadow Magic simultaneous turn that lets you do things while the enemies make their move, I cannot go back to Master Of Magic where after I end turn I need to stare at the screen for a long time before I can move again.
Before experiencing Baldur Gate RTWP, I have to subject myself to stressful fanatically clicking in real time games or boring turn base where I have to wait turns and turns till the enemy finish their turn.
Now Strategy games like Sins of a solar empire have a speed up / slow down and pause option to the pace of the game align to me.
Platforming game move away from the pixel perfect jump and allow room for error and no longer have cheap instant death.
You don't see annoying escort mission where the stupid AI controlled NPC keep doing stupid things that dies and make you loose.
There is not more un-skip-able cut scene or dialog.
And game hardware and software improvement allow more elaborate worlds to be build. Even combination of different genes that previous game don't have enough resource to do well.

All these improvement that are taken for granted and look back to the older games......

I always read reviews before buying a game. Both positive and negative reviews and i think everyone should do that before buying a game and not rely on sheer star points. Just wanted to add this cos I read that some people said reviews are meaningless.

This is exactly the kind of thing i was suggesting, thanks for the post.
With this kind of system, only a small "few" should fit into the 5 star category.

I find it comical how you are all defending sonic as a great game, yet i can near guarantee you all dont even play it today. or yesterday, or even within a year. Obviously the game sucks, caus noone plays it!

And my reasons for starting this post, is because i am looking for new games to play and enjoy, but seems that EVERY single game i check out, has a 5 star rating. "Read the reviews" everyone says. I do, of course, read them, but most are long reads, probably about 1 in every 5 is informative, its a very time consuming process. The star rating is meant to be a quick an easy guideline, if i get told to go elsewhere (steam, google, etc) to get my reviews, then whats the point of me even being here? i might as well go get games elsewhere, where the ratings and reviews are more reliable. GOG is what we make it, and at the moment, it seems to be full of useless information from nostalgic gamers reminiscing over their youth, its kinda depressing.

Thumbs up-thumbs down, like-dislike buttons should be implemented here, because the star review system isn't working as it should. Everyone seems to agree on this fact, but most want to justify the error with comments like "just read the reviews instead" or "pretend 3 stars is 0 stars" or my favorite "go elsewhere for info" how do comments like that help GOG grow and prosper? We should be encouraging people to get info HERE, not elsewhere, and ESPECIALLY not fuckin steam that's for sure. I came here to get away from that place, now im being told to go back? im sure the GOG staff would love that advice. Sad.

I think nostalgia goggles tend to play a huge role in the reviewing process here. A 5 of 5 to one person may be strongly tied to their personal moments and memories with a certain game, not necessarily how it has aged, or how playable it is, or if the UI is even functional enough to not be a massive annoyance.

(It happens, especially with the eldest games, like Sierra's initial offerings.)

Would it be awesome if people could keep to a more professional and objective view in their reviews? Absolutely. It won't happen though, for the same reason Metacritic or Google reviews don't and can't work, due to subjectivity and peoples' personal opinions and biases based on what they consider good.

My advice is to find a few people that DO try to tell it like it is and give pros and cons, or even ask around about certain games before buying them. We're generally pretty helpful around here.

Words, however many you use, will not justify your advice directing me to go to steam, that was bad advice bro, full stop.

Thats like telling me to go to my ex-wife for relationship advice.. hahaha :) Cmon man, have a laugh with me, its funny.

Let's put it this way...just because YOU think 5-star reviews should be rare, doesn't mean most people agree. Just look at Hollywood movies. Most reviewers give ratings between 3 and 5 stars (when using a 5 star system). Same as GoG. Hyperbole is the norm these days, and the GoG review ratings (as well as Steam, Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, Amazon, you name it) are top heavy. It's probably more like school, where 90+ is an A, 80+ a B, etc...you see few scores under 60%...

Frankly, that is the system, and the few games I have scored, I've tried to match the way it is...
If I start a game and play it all night...that's a 5. If I think it's good quality but it just isn't doing it for me right now...a 4.
Pretty much anything else is probably a 3 unless it is really really bad (and I can't think of any real examples of that off the top of my head, but I'm sure some exist).

If you look at the ratings that way, then you'll be far more in sync with what they mean.