ID:638
 
I guess I do know what most reviews' purposes are, contrary to the title:
  • To describe the product being reviewed, to show those who have yet to try the product whether or not they might like it.
  • To address the good and bad points of something, that way the creator can improve it.
  • Advertising.

The last kind of review isn't exactly the best kind, mind you. >_>

So, then, how do most reviews end so biased? (Except the advertisment ones.)
That's a question I really don't know the answer to. But, hey, I do know some things about reviewing things! At least... I think I do. Correct me if I'm wrong. Please.

First, it's important to thoroughly look through whatever you're reviewing.
Next, you have to try and push aside how much you like or dislike what you're watching, and list the reasons someone would or wouldn't want to spend time with it.
If it's something still in development, you could mention the things that could be done to improve it; such as "running a spell-check on the text would help things immensely", or "less focus on this feature would make it easier for new visitors".
Vague suggestions and statements are things to avoid. ("That spaceship was something" is a good example. Why? It doesn't give an impression of whether or not the spaceship was good, or what about it stood out so much.)

I got about to there, and lost my steam.
So, I'll stop, and summarise what I wanted to say:

A review doesn't have to be long to be good.
List the good and bad of the review matter – however hard it might seem to you to find either.
Try not to tilt it too much to match your opinion. Though your opinion is what the review is based on, there's a fine line between "I love this game, even with its problems" and "I love this game, because it's perfect", or "I dislike this game, but it does have some features some people might like" and "I dislike this game, it's the worst thing ever".

Guess that's about it! Even though I didn't make my useful post yesterday, I made one up now, okay?
...well, hopefully at least slightly useful.
Very informative, thank you baby!
I liked it. I'm not a reviewer, but it was informative nonetheless.
Blu, your color scheme hurts my eyes! O.O
Good post. In addition to the points you mentioned (description, appraisal, marketing) there's another that often pops up in the better reviews: analysis. I'd differentiate analysis from appraisal in that the latter tries to come up with an overall "holistic" assessment of the worth of an artwork (e.g., thumbs up, five stars, 100%, whatever), while the former tries to identify features or themes in the work and suggest how they relate to the wider world. The metaphilm.com website is a good example of this -- their focus is not on saying a movie is good or bad, but rather on identifying aspects of movies the viewers might not have previously considered. You might enjoy browsing through it.