Forum: boardgames.stackexchange.com
Tags: <recommendations>
Title: Where can I find reviews of board games?
Question: Before buying a board game, I would like to read some detailed reviews.  It's also hard to tell if the review is just a paid announcement from the publisher.  Is there any website that is " the reference " for those?

Answers:
sents: text: BoardGameGeek can be a great resource, but it can be a bit hard to figure out where everything is.
text: First, you can search for games by name, if you know what game you're looking for.
text: Or you can use the "Browse" feature to find games by category or mechanic.
text: Once you've found a game, you find yourself on a page that's stuffed full of information , somewhat haphazardly laid out.
text: At the top, there is the name of the game, a picture, and some basic information on number of players, suggested age range, and so on.
text: This can be useful to determine if it will work well for your group.
text: You then see a description of the game, followed by some places it might be for sale, followed by some additional information.
text: Keep on looking as you go down, you eventually come to the Forums.
text: Click on the "Reviews" link, and you will see a list of all of the reviews for that game.
text: Look through these; they tend to be fairly detailed, explaining the mechanics of the game and how they work.
text: That's not all that BGG has to offer, though.
text: If you keep looking further down the page, you come to the Statistics section.
text: This is where statistics about people's ratings and the game's ranking are collected.
text: One of the links is to "Personal comments.
text: " This will give you a list of many short comments that people have made on the games, organized by their rating.
text: I find this invaluable for getting a quick feel of why some people liked the game, and some didn't; I usually try to check out a few of the comments with a 10 rating, a few with a 7 rating, and a few with lower ratings, to get a sense of how different people see the game.
text: Only a few people leave long, detailed reviews, but there are usually hundreds of people who leave comments.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/112/Brian Campbell
score: 32
sents: text: BoardGame Review is a blog that provides useful board game reviews.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/67/Maniero
score: 6
sents: text: BoardGameGeek has lots of user reviews and ratings of board games.
text: It's a little hard to navigate sometimes, but there's a lot of valuable information there.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/32/lilserf
score: 4
sents: text: Dice Tower Reviews goes over a mind-boggling variety of games.
text: They have a great youtube channel worth subscribing too.
text: I'd also suggest Downtime Town for great, ludicrous, and nuanced reviews - the Scottsman who reviews there is a total nut.
text: Sadly, hasn't been updated lately.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/682/jebyrnes
score: 4
sents: text: Board Games with Scott is an excellent review site that provides video reviews of games and attempts to describe whether the game in question is a good match for the type of game you'd like to own.
text: There are quite a few reviews available, but he isn't necessarily going to cover every single game on the market.
text: Scott has been reviewing fewer games lately, but the reviews that continue to come out are always of very high quality.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/441/Zoot
score: 3
sents: text: I write for MTV Geek, Wired GeekDad, and The Geek Collective.
text: None of the sites are as comprehensive as BGG (in fact, all of my reviews are cross-posted to their linked items list).
text: You cannot go wrong with BGG
text: but if you really do want other sites, those are great places to check out!
text: MTV Geek
text: The Geek Collective Wired GeekDad
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/491/Gundabad
score: 3
sents: text: There is also a long-running German board game magazine called Spielbox .
text: As of (I think)
text: last year, they are also publishing an English version.
text: I've only received one issue, but it is chalk full of reviews for new games.
text: The translations can be... interesting, but it is quite readable.
text: A VERY interesting resource.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/201/livingtech
score: 2
sents: text: I'm a fan of Ogre Cave .
text: They're good, down-to earth guys with an active community of commenters.
text: There's RPG stuff there too, but there's plenty of boardgame reviews too.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/612/invisiblejon
score: 2
sents: text: It's not really an online resource, but Games Magazine does game reviews, too. (board games, video games, etc.).
text: Even if you don't pick up the subscription, in the December issue each year they have a 'best games of the year' feature.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/143/Joe
score: 2
sents: text: Amazon has user reviews for the vast majority of their products, and they also sell board games.
text: Some of the most well-written reviews I've seen for games has been on their Amazon page.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/71/GWLlosa
score: 2
sents: text: The best collection of reviews I have seen are on a site called Games from Pevans .
text: It contains a summary table plus a detailed review.
text: It seems completely impartial and well written with lots of details and pictures.
answer_details: author: boardgames.stackexchange.com/users/2286/Ray Vahey
score: 1

Summary of the answers:
Try BoardGameGeek, Dice Tower Reviews or Downtime Town. You could also try the magazine Games Magazine for reviews.
BoardGameGeek  is a great resource, but it can be a bit hard to figure out where everything is.  BoardGame Review  is a blog with board game reviews and another place to read reviews is Dice Tower: In addition, Downtime Town has great reviews. 
Board Games with Scott  is an excellent review site providing video reviews of games and aims to describe whether the game in question is a good match for the type of game you'd like to have.  There is also a long-running German board game magazine called  Spielbox . Ogre Cave and Pevans are useful sites and not to forget that Amazon has user reviews. Offline Games Magazine also has game reviews.