'Can reviews be trusted?'

I'd say one first needs to establish what it is we're referring to by the word 'trusted'.

For instance, I'd like to think reputable game reviews are not only the honest opinion of the reviewer but that the reviewer himself/herself is writing in an objective manner. By that I mean the reviewer should be professional enough to not let their own personal prejudices and/or bias colour the review. A reviewer should always bear in mind that the purpose of a game review is to inform the audience in an objective manner of a game's quality - it is not an opportunity to let the world know what you think because, reality check, few if any people actually give a damn what you think.

If a reviewer is incapable of acting in such a professional manner then it's incumbent on the editor to carefully select which games said reviewer is allowed to review, e.g. it would be an irresponsible editor who let a known 'hater' of a particular game series review a game from that series. The same rule applies to not letting known fanboys review the latest game from the company and/or game series that they blindly worship - reading endless gushing hyperbole from a fanboy where they describe everything as 'amazing' while consciously glossing over any negative points does the publication/website no favours whatsoever.

There's also the issue of whether one can truly trust in the integrity of a review. If I see a publication or website that regularly features paid for adverts from a certain company but then also notice that the products of that company are given mostly +90% review scores and that said company is given prominent and consistently positive coverage then it's only reasonable to question the independence and integrity of the reviews.

It is for reasons such as these that I tend to,

* check a game's rating on metacritic as it's the average of all review scores so in theory should provide a more reasoned rating which strips out the overly positive and overly critical scores to some extent

* examine a selection of reviews that are linked on metacritic - ignoring the most gushing and most critical reviews works to some extent

* examine a selction of reviews looking to identify common positives and negatives highlighted so as to try determining if such issues are genuine (or just the subjective likes and dislikes of one person)

So, in summary, I don't consider any individual review to be truly trustworthy. A review, even a well written one that strives to be objective, can only ever be the opinion of the reviewer.

Just as I believe it would be foolish to wholeheartedly trust in the,

* comment of any individual newspaper, TV news channel, etc, for an accurate and non-biased telling of the news
* personal recommendation of one so-called expert when deciding on which car to buy, mortgage to get, etc

... I also think it best to do some proper research before committing to purchase.

Wow i love it..nice one fella.

Excelelnt question what makes a game diffiuclt ? tomwaits says a combinaison I think he is right plus if you add the poor programming of a game you have some of the most frustrating games.

You allready listed some of them....

For me bad control can be really annoying the zelda plateformer on CD-i are the perfect examples poor control due to the limitation of the system make them almost unplayable.

Trevor Mc fur ion the Grescent Galaxy is alos for me one of the most difficult game but I know that soem poeple where able to finish it in one afternoon... So 2 questions
1. How is it possible for some people to stay sain enough to play Grescent galaxy until the end  ?
2. Why Was i not able to finish this game while I could finish POD on Gizmondo which is also quite difficult ? 

I played POD over and over for days and I finally got to the final level which can not be finish because it is a scoring game. But I played overt and over the Grescnet Galxy but I can hardly get through the First planet due to the level design, poor hit detection, etc...

Which game is the hardier ? POD or Grescent Galaxy ?

Atari Age user KidQuaalude has just released the first beta of a new homebrew title for the Vectres, Nagoya Attack.  The game is a single life survival game inspired by Taito's Minivader tester board.  The original thread can be found here: Vectrex - Nagoya Attack (WIP).

Great read so far, really enjoying it.