Thanks for the replies everyone. I find the lack of trust across the industry pretty unsettling, but there's not much I can do about it. Gamerankings seem to link to a lot of smaller reviewers, which should give a lot more rounded reviews that the big guys. That may turn into my new default site.
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Trust No One. I use reviews to determine what i might rent, but only Halo 4 or a licensed Urusei*Yatsura port might get me to buy a game untested. [ Final fantasy, Zelda and Metriod used to be on my must-buy list but left the list for a few reasons]
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Generally, I agree that renting before buying is good. But a cost of $5-7 to rent a game means I'm spending a much larger amount of money on goodness-insurance than I like. Since I tend to sporatically play for long amounts of time, rather than having a gaming schedule like I used to, GameFly or the Blockbuster Game Pass are not good options for me.
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It seems to me that since the last format change, they've been reviewing less D-tier and lower games, which would lead to higher scores. AND I know from experience that in the last 2-3 years, B and C level games have gotten MUCH better, which will also lead to higher reviews.
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Sorry, I just don't buy it. They've taken down a lot of their old reviews, which makes it hard to show you specific examples of the inflation, but a couple are pretty obvious. The sheer number of 5s that they hand out now would have been impossible under their old system; Spore and Assassin's Creed are the most notably inflated scores. Giving Big Bang Mini, a very gimicky and limited play DS game, a 4/5 this year is another one that stands out as something that would have gotten a very obvious 3 when the DS first came out.
And more importantly, we all know that graphics are going to get better over time, and more complex games will be released as the latest generation of consoles matures. But the average game is still the average game. If you look at the number of same-genre games (sports games, WWII games, racing games, etc) that Xplay (and other sites) gives 5/5 or 4/5, you'll realize that there is simply no way all of those games will be memorable when they are all so similar. A high rating used to mean something truly stood out, now it just seems to mean "acceptable".
It's also worth noting that reviewing the lower tier games and finding the diamonds in the rough was also a nice feature of the old Xplay. Just reviewing the same top-selling games as everyone else really dulls their edge.
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