I used to read reviews and lurk in the subs for games and watch streams for ages and camp price trackers to find great games at lowest ever prices.

Wound up buying lots of games dirt cheap that I never played, because when I got around to trying them, they just weren't fun. This happened about as often with "classic" games and ones that have "overshelmingly positive" on Steam as it would with games that had lousy buzz and reviews. They're "great" games, but I just don't like them, for whatever odd reason.

Now I just try random stuff off Game Pass or Origin Access whenever I feel like playing something new. If I like it and wind up playing it through to the end, then I'll wait for the next sale and buy all the DLC (if it's not included in the vault version) and eventually buy the base game on sale (if they leave at some point, like with Game Pass).

I still sometimes watch streams of people playing games I'm somewhat interested in to decide if they're worth the download to try out. But that's about as much research as I ever do any more, because all the rest that I need to know I will get from just playing the game. And I don't spend money any more on anything that I have not already tried and liked.

The result is I probably spend about the same amount overall, but it tends to be on much more recent releases, at more like half off release price instead of 80-90% off. But the value I get for the same money is a lot more because it's all games that I actually get lots of play time out of.