Nope. Most people dont like the games i like. (Gottlieb for one). If i like it, i dont care what people think.

Not really because everyone one has a different opinion most people hate Rob zombie but I really enjoy the game. I only listen to my friend Jared sometime because we share similar taste in machines.

Sometimes the reviews help me better understand a new (to me) game.

The best way to decide if a game for you is to play it. . . you may like it even if the majority do not.

Reviews CAN be beneficial but never go all in and buy just on reviews, unless it's an old cheap game. The gold standard reviewer on this site is Caucasian2step, his reviews are unbiased and really well written.

I find most pinball reviews pretty lacking in any actual insight. Yeah it's great you like the 'flow' or the callouts are cool, but

Average.... 4/10

I personally find them very helpful, however it takes a little bit of time for them to add value for me. The reason being is I need to gain an understanding of what a reviewers baseline is when it comes to the types of games he likes. For example I have watched enough STDM to know that I tend to share the same tastes as Zack. With that said I will still want to play the actual game, however because I know I share similar tastes chances are I am going to like the game. I have also listened to enough of Kaneda's pod casts to know that though I love his podcasts I tend to like the opposite of what he likes and respects in a game. I do the same with Deadflip and Buffalo Pinball as once I understand what it is these individuals love and hate in a pin I am able to create a solid baseline to assist in what I am going to spend my time obsessing wanting to play\buy!!

In summary Podcast and video reviews definitely assist me in fast tracking where I am going to spend my time digging deeper, which means I then need to eventually hunt these pins down and play them myself for the last litmus test. I do the same with all my hobbies (Board games, Video games, A/V ect...)

I value a few peoples opinions but no one person could ever convince me to buy a game. I do however value the general opinion of the masses but i still like to try before i buy no matter what or at a minimum watch lots of streaming video on the game im interested in. I did buy AS without playing it first but i was pretty certain that i would like it.

On the media front i do t watch them really so that's a no there, and sometimes I buy before playing so mark me down for option 3.

I prefer watching a stream of the game with some useful commentary on the rules or goals. Much more valuable than a "review" in my opinion.

Let me interject with this observation... reviews on PiNSiDE and other web forums are the only and best information I can get for the games I collect (to old for common reviewing). Just saying that I think private opinion would always be more important to me than a review of any individual. Just like movie reviews, there is always someone at 100 and some other review at 40 and its not like we get to average 40 critical reviews of a new game... so at least with public reviews you can distill and average and if you ignore the noise, even learn some truths but you have to know what you want and so its not easy to wade through, at least pros provide a coherent opinion and are consistent- use both.

Reviews are nothing more than opinions. Just because someone does a poscast or a show, that doesnt mean they know anymore than the next guy about pinball or what makes it good. That stuff is just entertainment bullshit is all it is and nothing else.

When one person speaks about a game i listen and sometimes depending on who it is, i get excited about the game but as i said, i like hearing what a large group of people say. There are a few people on here that say IMDN sucks, but almost everyone on here is saying its awesome so that tells me its awesome and that it doesnt suck, i dont care what a few jackasses say.

Boat anchor.

I like them.

They can be entertaining, point out aspects I hadn’t thought about before and flesh out opinions expressed elsewhere such as Pinside. At the end of the day any personal opinion is a combination of personal preferences and outside influences and is always evolving.

I enjoy the SDTM video casts. Keep it up, guys !

reviews for films or music or pinball or whatever = Crap. You have to play/hear/see etc. even then with pinball anyway theres almost always an initial love fest happening playing a new game which can sour quite quickly.

I read them, and appreciate them for what they are: Subjective interpretations of the games being reviewed. Some I agree with, some I don't, but almost all of them give you some insight into the game, good or bad.

Yeah but to them it sucks and thats why reviews should be used as a very very very (thats right 3x) loose guide.

The problem with reviews is that, if you read/watch enough of them you can be influenced to see mole hills as mountains. X game has cheap drains. Y game is too floaty. Z game has a particularly annoying callout. Then you play them and that's all you see hear is the floaty callouts with cheap drains. Of course, you also have an immediate distrust of a review that just fluffs a game too! Everyone is influenced by a review/opinion especially when it is repeated more than once. Anyone who says they are not influenced by a review/opinion "at all" is either lying to you, themselves or are simply not human. Human beings take all information available to them and synthesize it to form an opinion. We are hardwired that way.

The problem is that these are very expensive and heavy machines that you not only have to buy but eventually you have to resell. Doing a little research is prudent on a game you don't have a lot of experience with. Nobody wants to have a boat anchor sitting in their collection that they can't easily get rid of without taking a substantial loss.

Then again, you have to go with your personal preference or you wind up with "cookie cutter collections" made up of games in the top 20. Whenever I see pics of a collection consisting of MM, AFM, Tron, Metallica, IJ, TZ, BM66, Latest Stern, etc, I just think "well there goes a person who can't think for themselves!". Those sort of people are usually collecting for some other reason than the love of pinball and usually are out of the hobby within 5 years. Not that any of those are bad games, mind you. Just seeing the same top 20 lineup over and over leads me to believe those people are in it for the status symbol aspect and likely came from or will move on to some other hobby where they collect the "best" of something.

The solution? Well that's tricky and takes a lot of years to develop. Understand what you like in a pinball machine. Don't be afraid to take a chance, knowing you will be in the hobby for a long time. Don't think about a game as "bolted to the floor" forever. Your opinion on a game WILL change after playing it several hundreds of times. You SHOULD get bored with a game after awhile. Choose your collection based on different shots, themes, different layouts and have the ultimate goal of experiencing ALL of them for yourself. Everyone has an opinion and most of them are correct to one degree or another. Make sure you can separate those opinions from your own and find what appeals to you. This is not easily done but is usually the sign of a person who really likes pinball.

Anyway, these are just like my opinion man. Your mileage may vary.

Like all reviews they are ultimately someone’s opinions and subjective but if there is a landslide of negativity that can certainly make me proceed with more caution, then again if it’s all out praise it’s more likely to make me risk going all in!

As a mediocre player, I look to reviews to assess some of the features, modes, etc that might take me forever to access on my own. I also consider if the dominant opinions are things that bother me or not—for example, the GB flipper gap doesn’t piss me off, so if ppl are complaining about that on a new pin, I figure it probably won’t bother me. I won’t buy a pin without playing it myself though, so I never would base my final purchase on reviews alone, no matter how much I respect those opinions.

A few years ago when I first joined pinside, my purchase decision was purely based on those reviews (pinside, podcast and YouTube). Now those reviews have very little influence in my purchase decisions but I still enjoy listen or watch those reviews. Currently I decided to buy pinball machines based on my favorite pinball designers. My rule is one designer per game in my little collection. In this way, no game will feel the same in my collection.

I don't pay attention really to any reviews. Competitive or just really serious players have a really different expectation of gameplay than I do. It's nice to see a stream of a brand new game just to get an idea of how it plays. No fun to have entire gameplay spoiled before I play it, though. Ultimately, I have to play it myself to form any opinion. Sometimes I do like to watch tutorial vids once I get into a game to learn how to play better.

Do you think a review could have bias?? Everyone has a unique opinion, only way to know a pin is for you is to play it.

875F8F38-6947-4622-9E1E-9177B4997F8B (resized).jpeg

Lol really? Id say that guy is thinking pretty damn good for himself! That would be one bad ass collection of games.

Since you capitalized “Pinball Reviews”, I thought you were talking about pinballreviews.com. I miss that website.

https://web.archive.org/web/20121028011738/http://www.pinballreviews.com:80/

You really have to pay attention to the review source. In my opinion, reviews by folks that are serious tournament players are often way off the mark (in terms of how I view/enjoy games).

I don't look at pinball reviews and I don't listen to any pinball podcasts whatsoever. I look at pictures of the game and play the games if possible to make up my own mind. Once I get a game, I look for a PAPA tutorial and a rule-sheet. That is about as close as I come to a review.

I find review shows and podcasts informative on the layout, art and rules of the game which helps direct my interest level and knowledge of the game. The opinions are fun and exactly that, opinions. If a game is on the market it is fair to be reviewed regardless of the state of the code.

@alveolus: I used to check out the reviews on “pinballreviews.com” as well and found them pretty informative. I also miss that site.
Does any one know if any of those reviewers are known players or regular posters on Pinside?

Fuck off with yer reviews dude Obituary forever

Pretty sure Elwin was one of the reviewers. Not sure about the other guys.

Interesting that Elwin was one of the reviewers- I don’t recall any of the guys on “pinballreviews.com” posting their real names. Not sure why they pulled the site down.

When I was first starting out like 13 years ago, they were super helpful on the new machines because the machines actually launched with finished code. Now the machines are launched in half complete states constantly so the reviews are kind of pointless because it'll be like 2 to 4 years before it's actually done. By that point, I don't care anymore. The last NIB game I bought was AC/DC premium but not till they had the code to a decent level. There are a couple games I've thought about buying but since they're not finished I won't even consider it.

Honestly, it feels a lot like dealing with inefficient contractors. You just want them to finish so you can pay them, but they just drag their feet forever until one day after you've totally forgotten about it they show up and actually finish what they started a long time ago. All the meanwhile they'd been telling you just wait a couple weeks, etc.

so true, but since they make pinballs, fanbois put them high upon pedestals and consider them beyond reproach, even in the face of a reality that doesnt justify it.

lookingup01 (resized).jpg