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Hello once again TL! Anything is possible it seems when you are on break, but when the semester starts there is hardly time for anything =[
Luckily I've had some free time and I've added reviews for Dragon Age: Origins and Parasite Eve:The 3rd Birthday
A Starcraft II review will be up soon as well! I plan to be torn to shreds on that one (but seriously, it's a great game).
As always, feedback is appreciated.
Reviews(sorry I use a separate forum to post these, the formatting is fairly amateur too -- hope to have a real site up in the future!):
Final Fantasy XIII
Valkyria Chronicles
Dead Space
Muramasa: The Demon Blade
Dragon Age: Origins
Parasite Eve: The 3rd Birthday
Current questions:
Is the writing too cheesy?
Is the decimal based system too specific?
Do you like the Love it or Hate it approach at the end?
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Sorry to create a 2nd blog for this, I was unable to edit my previous for leaving it alone too long. I will keep this OP up to date this time though, as I'll have more free time in the coming months and can hopefully pump out more material.
What I like about old posts on forums though, is that you can really see how much you've changed (and hopefully grown) over the years. This holds true to my view on gaming journalism, and I hope I can provide valuable material for other gamers on here.
My view is this: mainstream gaming journalism suffers from too many issues to take seriously. It's insulting to think that gaming is still not respectable enough to be treated by a more mature approach to judging what is essentially an art form. It's shameful to think a game may be touted as a masterpiece it is not, or that a game be dismissed because of issues that aren't really flaws.
Now you say this ultimately boils down to opinion, and truly, it does. Every reviewer has bias, every reviewer has a taste for something another does not. But a person who is experienced not only in gaming but also in the people who play them, can make 100x more accurate analyses, ones that guide the consumer to the most accurate conclusion. By knowing gamers, you can know what a game does well, regardless of personal feelings. Giving poor reviews to games you love and great reviews to games you hate isn't fun, but it wouldn't be fair to your readers either.
My aim is for objective as possible reviewing. Not fact by fact, but a detailed look on how and why the game was designed, and whether the design is effective in its execution. You'll notice that when I wrap up a review I summarize it in segments like most reviews do -- but I only rate the game on elements that I felt it was asking to be rated for. I still write using colorful adjectives, as reviews shouldn't be a boring mess to read through, but hopefully my content comes across as more balanced.
I also include a Love it or Hate it section, a short paragraph that allows me to cover any misconceptions about the game people may have. A game can be great and easily hated by a lot of people -- and vice versa.
The number at the end of the review? It will be there -- but it will not be the most important item the reader takes away from the article.
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Your reviews seem very impersonal and overly positive. Almost the entirety of the text are just descriptions of the game; you say you want to portray the game as its designed and I understand the intent, but I feel like I am reading a marketing bible rather than the honest thoughts of some dude who plays games. Game design decisions do not automatically give merit to a game.
Lets take your FF13 review for example. I mean, let's be serious here; giving FF13 a 9.3? Based on mass opinion of the game, you're not really giving the gamer the real deal. I understand you're trying to, as above, give merit on how it stands as itself. But you just can't possibly believe you can sit there and tell me (and others) that the ridiculously confusing story and segmented dialog, and vanille's terrible voice - is anything but.
If you can't objectively find flaws in games then you're not really reviewing the game, just trying to sell it.
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I only read the review of Dragon Age as its the only one of those games I've played, and I must say I enjoyed it immensely. The introductory paragraph gave just enough details to keep you interested in reading on but not so many that it ceased to be "introductory", which is always a very tricky balance to strike.
I also do like the Love it Or Hate It section, it also doubles as a sort of tl;dr for those who just want a quick answer.
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Final Fantasy XIII's story isn't terribly hard to understand, the game is designed for practically all ages. It's admittedly without a destination for much of the game, which gives reason to the confusion of the characters themselves -- but no one wrote a book saying you couldn't make a plot that way (hey look, Lost was good). I'd hate to spell it out here, it'd be like ruining a good joke.
I specifically mentioned the corny dialogue and voice acting as issues, but specifically mentioning Vanille sounds like an exaggerated personal gripe that isn't an identifiable flaw across reasonable judgement. Final Fantasy games in general thrive off their melodrama, and this aspect is mentioned in the Love it or Hate It section.
Every glaring flaw on FFXIII was covered in the review, you are asking me to take into the account of other popular review scores and make up more flaws in my head to agree with the mainstream opinion.
Thank you for the feedback though, XIII was the first review I wrote and I do need to work on how positively I sound when covering well made games. It's just hard not to get the reader optimistic when you get software like that, but I hope you noticed I was careful to warn gamers of key issues they may be divided on.
edit: yes, I do see that the beginning segments covering the game's premise seems to use too kind of words. I will look into a remedy for that, the premise section is indeed the most difficult to get right.
On April 20 2011 13:38 Dhalphir wrote:
I only read the review of Dragon Age as its the only one of those games I've played, and I must say I enjoyed it immensely. The introductory paragraph gave just enough details to keep you interested in reading on but not so many that it ceased to be "introductory", which is always a very tricky balance to strike.
I also do like the Love it Or Hate It section, it also doubles as a sort of tl;dr for those who just want a quick answer.
Thanks for the feeback -- DA:O was the beefiest review I've written, it's such a huge game! Glad it came off well though, I was worried I put in way too much information.
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EPT
