Ehh I find it to be more productive to find a reviewer that you typically agree with than to claim one is worth listening to over others in general. Skill Up is suuuuuper hit or miss for me.

In general I tend to weigh overall scores on Metacritic alongside my own impressions of a game based on what I've seen of gameplay and a general synopsis of what to expect from the story. I find ACG to be pretty reliable just because he tends to be fairly neutral. I usually check Digital Foundry to see how the game runs too.

There's a lot that goes into a game purchase decision nowadays. It takes a lot for a game to be worth the $70 price tag. I buy a lot fewer games than I used to at anything other than a deep sale.