How much do you research a game before buying it?

How much do you research a game before buying it?

i just use Sup Forums's reaction

if they shit on it because its popular/high ratings then its good

if they shit on it along with links/videos of bugs and problems then its bad

worked all the time, nothing failed so far

This 100%. Sup Forums is right about 2/3 of the time at least.

A little to some. Mostly youtube videos to see how it plays.

if it's an established brand i've still been happy with, i don't do any research, in fact i tend to avoid pre-release information so i can enjoy it "without spoilers"

otherwise i'll watch trailers to see if i want to look into it more, and basically wind up waiting for release and hearing how it is from friends with similar tastes before i'd be tempted to buy it

what happens when you realize that Sup Forums is not one person

Anything 85+ on metacritic is good enough for me

Ideally I'd prefer to know as little as possible, but that generally doesn't happen. The moment I hear someone's opinion on it, my expectations are altered even if it's just a tiny bit. I only have one game in my entire backlog that I remain completely, 100% uninformed about.

Sup Forums is a collective conscience. the "Sup Forums isnt one person!" excuse will always fail be an argument

I watch a full playthrough on youtube before buying it.

Let's assume I know NOTHING about the game
>Google it to see who made it (If it's Square Enix, Ubisoft, or EA it immediately gets thrown out)
>Get brief summary of plot
>Watch a Lets Play of a segment to see how the controls, graphics and gameplay are
>Google bugs/glitches/etc

If it hits my sweet spots in terms of superficial aesthetics then I pursue further. Word of mouth on this site and others will also egg me on look into it more.

Then I'll look at gameplay videos, then reading the most opposite ends of popular critic and user reviews.

Sometimes I impulse buy, based on a review or two, or a short video-clip, thinking "Wow that looks great!"

Or sometimes I've impulse bought based solely on the cover. The most memorable of these impulse buys was pic related a few years back. What a good choice I made.

in no specific order:

>friends
friends are usually cautiously optimistic or give their honest opinion if they have played it, regardless of any mob mentality or filter sites might have

>Sup Forums
Sup Forums likes to highlight the bad things out of games and unless they showcase it in retarded ways ("IT'S SHIT, THE WORST", etc) they have some form to back it up - then again I never take Sup Forums's critique to heart, but I take them in account regardless

>steam reviews
steam reviews and other shit i've found to be mostly pretty levelheaded and honest, specially with games that require a long time investment because people can point out both good and bad things without completely praising or shitting on it

>watch non-specific gameplay
out of youtube or whatever, just to check out the general feel of the game, although it's a flawed procedure because there's no interaction which is key to know a game's feeling

>if I can, pirate it
best way to check out if a game hooks me right up without any of the restrictions, implications or waiting of buying and refunding

>do I get anything out of it if I have it legit?
this includes current sales (and if my purchase would contribute to their livelihood or if it'd be one more among millions), the dev (and if i want to support them), and if there's online, patches, or anything that signifies a major advantage for the retail version over just pirating it

>gameplay footage to see if it's fun
>some cutscenes to see if the story gets my interest
>average time people put into it before dropping or completing it

That's about it

What's a game?

none, I usually preorder them ahead of time and forget about it

If it's the second game in a series and the first game was great? Barely at all. Honestly, the only time I remember this turning out poorly for me is Godfather II.

Any other game requires at least a couple weeks worth of research.

>hey this game looks kinda neat
>add it to my watchlist
>wait for it to come out
>read wide variety internet sources for reactions, reviews, footage, etc.
>add to buy list if it seems okay
>wait for game of x/complete edition to come out then buy it
>play other vidya in the meantime

If it's a series I trust, none. Best to go blind.
If I've seen others talk about it and it seems interesting, a gameplay video is enough.
If I haven't seen anybody talk about it then I might look up a few reviews and take a look at the reoccurring flaws.

How do you pirate? I used to just go to TPB but I hear they're a honeypot now, and I don't have a vpn

Depends on the game, desu.

If it's something I'm familiar with already, I avoid looking too much into it to keep it at least somewhat surprising.

If it's something I've never heard of, I'll ask my friends if they've heard of it.

Next resort is Sup Forums. I expect shitposting, but it's still usually enough to figure out what's actually bad or not. In rare cases, Sup Forums actually praises the game (ex: Rabi-Ribi, which they were 100% right about it being great).

I only use mainstream press to try and re-confirm my desire to purchase it. They're useless for determining if a game is actually going to be good or not.