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Eh, my solution was to just find specific reviewers who have consistent criteria on how they rank games, movies, etc. and other media.
When I say consistent criteria I mean someone who won't rank a Marvel/Star Wars/Disney film highly just because it is popular and will, likewise, rate certain films highly even when they're unpopular or otherwise derided by the mainstream, and will apply the exact same logic in each case.
Once I get a feel for how such a critic determines their ratings and where their 'biases' lie, and I'm relatively certain they're not a shill, I can usually transcribe their opinions on a given work to my own tastes and figure out how much I would like a given film based on their ratings.
For movies, once I've heard input from YourMovieSucks, RedLetterMedia and TheCriticalDrinker I can VERY accurately predict how much I'll enjoy a given film. Each has different tastes and each is very thoughtful in how they approach their craft, so if all of them like a film its probably a damn good one, and if they all notice a particular flaw or strength, I take that as a sign that the movie is, in fact, flawed or strong in that way. Then I can exercise some personal judgment.
Of course, there's some irony in that after I've imbibed all of the above's opinions I've very possibly used more time up than if I had just watched the movie.
I don't know of many consistent reviewers for video games, but yahtzee from escapistmag is at least entertaining and, I believe, actually finishes his games before opining.
Basically, if you can find a decent reviewer who puts out regular content and thus can act as a reliable yardstick/compass, hold them tight.
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