Agreed,
Thats why I haven't squandered my money on any, for at-least 5-6 years now...
The same goes for 90% of online reviews I'am afraid...
(Pro reviews I mean, I have to exclude a Lot of Fan/volunteer sites from this)
Mostly the ones I have read for the past several years seem to most often
than not: miss the point, misrepresent the strengths and weaknesses,
(BTW: Who the hell promoted DMoMM as an Action-RPG ?! I can't figure out
why they seem to review it based on that assumption !)
display a profound ignorance of key features or focus on trivialities and the
glossy exterior of a game.
They, most often than not, seem to indicate a disturbing Laziness from the
reviewer which rarely seems to bother to scratch anything but the surface
of the game,or at least whatever he was able to gather in a few initial hours
of casual gaming. I can't count how many times I see copy pasted PR or
early/erroneous info be counted as fact by the "honest" reviewer were
a few hours of playing would be enough to reveal the opposite.
I mostly take my reviews from volunteer sites that I follow, and there mostly
from gamers that express themselves coherently and their general opinions
seem to have a continuity. Gauging if they are able to express an objective
opinion and if their tastes go in the general direction as mine from their
overall stance in each forum also helps.
I would have missed on an awfull lot of my recent years favorites I'm afraid
otherwise (The Gothics,Arx Fatalis, Vtm, ToEE, The spellforces etc)....