Sites like Metacritic and Gamerankings are still a very good place to start. If a game gets less than 85% on these sites then it is pretty much going to be crap. So while you can't necessarily trust that a game deserves to be rated highly you can put a lot of trust into the fact that a game sucks. Not to say that if you are a fan of a particular license or game style you won't enjoy the game but if you are looking for an exceptional gaming experience you aren't going to get it from the lower ranked games. Your advice is good but I just want to add that Gamerankings et al are good "shit filters" - they just don't filter all the shit.