Have you ever watched a movie, bought a game or book, or done something else that had bad reviews or word of mouth, and you end up enjoying it so much you were glad you ignored everyone and made the purchase or action?

I can think of two times for me.

One is Galactic Civilizations 3. I ignored the reviews and went on my gut feeling and love the game.

The second was going to see "Gremlins" in the mid 80s in the theater even though it didn't do too well in the ratings. I decided the heck with it and went, and ended up loving the movie.

How about you good people? Have you ever ignored bad press or word of mouth and were glad you did?

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The producers of gremlin 2 said that it happened something like this.


Also quest 64 i enjoyed it waay more then i thought i would though the saving isnt great.

More than a few times and I was glad I did!

The Warcraft movie was panned by critics since "It's not LOTR!" went to watch it with some friends and really enjoyed it. The same goes for Ghostbusters, had more than a few laughs and enjoyed my time!

The Technomancer had more than a few bad reviews but I really liked playing through it.

Quest 64 is pretty fun despite being panned forever.

Galactic Civ 3 as well, I really enjoyed it, not as much as 2, but I have fun with it.

Dragon Age 2...

Then there's stuff that gets awards and 10/10s that I just find boring, bland or just simply don't like it.

God of War 3, Witcher 3...

Final Fantasy XIV(I enjoy bits of it, but the padding is downright insane "The world is ending and we need to help right now, but first bring me some bread from the other side of the world. Okay thanks for the bread, but I forgot to ask for the milk. Yes, I know that we have an item that let's us talk through long distances, but that's only used for the plot! Now go do 300 quest that are nothing but padding or else you can't play with your friends despite being the same level as them!")

FO4 got plenty of mercy scores because Bethesda. Skyrim and Oblivion are so much better but got worse reviews.

Oh gosh. On an almost weekly basis.

I can name a few: Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith the movie, The Underworld movies, Civilization III, The Force Unleashed, SWTOR, ESO, and Mad Max the game.

Ive watched, ive lost count of the movies that got bad reviews and were really good movies, and same with games. But im sure im repeating myself depends where the review comes from, popular sites have interests in giving good reviews to big companies whether the game or movie is good or not, and fan-boy reviews i wouldnt even look at.

Traditionally here if the the movie is sci fi or fantasy, except LOTR's the reviews are bad, and the only television game review show, i can pretty much call how they are going to reviews games as they announce them, dont give a bad review or next year you wont get a free pass into the games expo.

Almost every movie I tend to enjoy has a ratings of 20% or less on Rotten Tomatoes. God only knows how many tv shows I've enjoyed that were almost universally panned by critics.

I pay little attention to reviews. If something interests me I will watch it, read it, listen to it. I make up my own mind.

In the case of games I totally ignore reviews. It has been my experience that most game reviews are based on superficial exposure. The initial experience of many games these days can be great.* But it is only after one plays a game for tens or hundreds of hours that the flaws become readily apparent. This longer-term experience with a game is exactly what most reviewers do not have, in my opinion, and it makes their reviews almost worthless to me.

Contrary to what someone stated above, reviews for Oblivion were universally glowing. But after playing playing 100+ hours, the players themselves discovered all of the many faults in that game that the reviewers missed, because the reviewers did not play the game long enough to see them. It seems to me that this is a pretty common problem these days. In my darker hours I've even wondered if games today are being made to create a great first impression, specifically to get good reviews and stimulate sales. I don't know. Maybe I'm just jaded.

* This is the opposite of many games made in the past, in my opinion. Many games dating from 15+ ago could often be frustrating at first. They became more entertaining the longer you played them.

Civ 3 got bad reviews? I love that game! I know that ESO got bad reviews because "It's an MMO!" but I found that it had better quest writing than the main series, I love the quest, I'm actually getting attached to the NPCs, I love exploring and the fact that they have been improving with each patch! Several of my friends are somewhat worried that ESO will be the only place where we actually see the culture of the different races instead of everything being Imperialized.

What if you just enjoy things that others don't like such as UHF, The Ninth Gate, or movies the Wachowski made that came after the Matrix.

Here's another one, Yokai Watch 2 it's getting hit hard by "It's a Pokemon clone!" when it plays more like Shin Megami. Wow that IGN review was horrible, the reviewer hated it but go so many things wrong about it, he mentioned how the purification system was new in this installment when it was a major system in the first one for example. Now imagine if I had listen to that review which was filled with tons of lies. I wouldn't be enjoying this game right now!

Happens all the time.

It's all about expectations. A person will be happier with a mediocre product for which they had low expectations than a very good product for which they had overblown expectations. Not living up to excessively high expectations results in disappointment ... negative emotions, regardless of actual quality. Exceeding low expectations comes as a pleasant surprise and results in positive feelings towards the product.

I can think of quite a few where reviews were glowing and I was either disappointed or hated the thing being reviewed.

Off the top of my head something I liked that was negatively reviewed? Probably the most recent thing was Suicide Squad. I actually liked the movie. I wasn't blown away and there were definitely some critiques to be had, but I personally felt that some criticisms were overblown or I just flat-out disagreed. IMO, it was a solid movie.

Exactly. It is sometimes better to hear a bad review, because you are prepared for the worst and then you are positively surprised, than the opposite.

With Hobbit movie I was told it is really long, so I prepared forward and enjoyed every minute of that, and then I have heard everyone else saying how it was long - not for me.

On the other hand I had some period in my life, when I was fascinated by World War II movies and after some time I was so cynical that nothing could really surprise me, but then when I was thinking that nothing can surprise me, I was watching movies like Pianist or Pan's labyrinth and I remember sitting like 10mins after the movie in the cinema unable to move

With games - I have heard bad reviews about Risen series and it became my favourite or Dragon Age II. On the other hand I cannot say it was a lie, just I was prepared for the worse and I didn't expect something I was looking for to be there - so still it had the flaws, but I could ignore them.

But still it wasn't true about the Technomancer - I was laughing, because I was so upset about the bad reviews, I was so certain they are lies, then I started the game with confidence that it was all lies, turns out I said exactly the same about the game as the negative players, so it depens if you find something for you there or not I guess.

I think he's trying to say that 100+ hours is an absurdly long amount of time to play any game, let alone just start to notice issues you have with it. At 100 hours, you've got your money's worth 10 fold honestly, so it's pretty irrelevant.

Lucky for me, I have this talent called "Idgaf syndrome". The side effects include: Not giving a rats booty about anyone's opinions on stuff I'm interested in. Not giving a donkey about the problems people had/have with something I enjoy and other more, complex issues.

To be blunt: No. I make my own opinion on any media or people I'm interested in.

I'll give a small example: People who hated Dead Money upon release. I didn't give a hoot what they had to say, brought it, and it easily became one of my favorite if not the best DLC I ever played.

I actually like FO4 better than FO3 or Oblivion.

I tend to ignore reviews, unless they give specifics about why they liked or disliked something. I've lived long enough to know what I like and don't like. Mood also fits into the equation. I can like or dislike the same thing on different days

It is much easier now than pre-YouTube days to make more informed decisions about entertainment. This also means that anyone (and almost everyone has) can become a reviewer, so there is a lot of crap one has to sift through.

I can't think of anything off-hand that I have gone against the reviews and differed in opinion, though I am sure there are some. Believing the "Hype Train" is dangerous and almost always fails me, for negative examples. I read no reviews on "The Hobbit" trilogy (TRILOGY!) of movies, for I knew there would be a lot of fluff and added content not in the 50 page book. It may be a good movie trilogy. It may not be. I'll never know

PS: I also do not buy or see anything day one. When it comes to entertainment purchases, I find I have an abundance of patience

Even those dialog options?

No, the dialog options are terrible. I'm using a mod that replaces them with the text of the actual response, which helps a lot.

I was giving you a chance to acknowledge the obvious alternative viewpoints.

I wouldn't say absurdly long, nor any game; I've put over a thousand hours into Europa Universalis IV, and that's not too uncommon among people who are into it (a single playthrough can take dozens of hours, and there are many unique countries to choose from, and that's without installing a single mod). There are a number of games that can easily be played for quite a long time.

However, I did have in mind that a hundred hours of entertainment (assuming it is actually good for that time) is pretty good value for money -even if you paid $100 for it- especially compared to the price of a movie ticket. Many, if not most, games straight up aren't designed to be played for that long, too.


Annnndddd I have to leave for work. kthnxby

I learnt in the eighties to take reviews with a pinch of salt when I finally got to watch Blade Runner on tv after being put off seeing it on release by a famous BBC film critic of the time. Thankfully I managed to see it at the cinema a few years later - breathtaking on the big screen.

I don't remember if Civ III got bad reviews, but I do remember a lot of bad mouthing among friends. ESO is great, my girlfriend and I play it nightly, we even got married in game. It was her idea not mine. About ESO being the only place we see different cultures besides Imperial. I never thought of that. I do hope it's not true, I'm kinda worried now.

That is my way of thinking. After Oblivion when Skyrim came out I had low expectations for it and was pleasantly surprised. I am that way with movies too, maybe that's why I enjoyed "Revenge of the Sith" and the "Underworld" films.