Deracine
PS4
https://gamestop.com/product/games/deracine-psvr-only-at-gamestop/167794

Added.

Home Sweet Home
PS4
https://gamestop.com/product/ps4/games/home-sweet-home-only-at-gamestop/166253

Added.

Third place! Nice! Thanks, Jason. I appreciate it. It took me months to even rate a mention in the RotW, so that's another indicator that I'm improving. Your vote of confidence is reassuring.

Looking back, I see what you mean. I wasn't honestly sure how to present it ... since I'd reviewed it once already and was only doing it again for comparison sake. I hadn't expected to go so deep with the review, hence the sideways introduction.

Can someone add the following:

Canabalt
Platform: PC - Steam Edition
Store Page: Canabalt

I haven't decided what to rate it yet, but it'll get more than a 1, methinks.

Thanks.

We already have Canabalt listed here. It's a PC game that happens to now be available on Steam, but we don't do separate listings for each version of the same PC game. If we did, there would be all sorts of games with an Early Access listing, a Desura listing, a Steam listing...

So what you're saying is that it's a platform listing, not a distributor listing. Got it. Thanks. :)

Speaking of Joe and busy schedules, I wonder if he'll need relief for his RotW this week...?

I think, because of Jason's busy schedule over the past however long and because of the October horror game review thing necessitating that each of his reviews go up on a certain day to keep up the "new horror review a day" deal, that Joe submitted a lot of reviews as user reviews while they were waiting to be edited. And then when they got edited, he resubmitted them as staff reviews, which I guess causes them to go back to the top of the review list.

I don't know the right place for this, but there are three Joe reviews on the top of the front page... that I'm sure I've seen before...? Am I losing my mind? (I know I am, but with regards to THIS specifically?)

Appreciate the nod; I'm as happy with Pathfinder as I've been with anything I've written all year. Forth place confirmed!

Glad you got an easier week that still managed to throw out some quality reviews about them thar video games we just keep playing. Cheers, all.

Detroit: Become Human
PS4
https://ign.com/articles/2018/05/24/detroit-become-human-review

Added.

Spyro Reignighted Trilogy
PS4, Xbox One
https://ign.com/games/spyro-reignited-trilogy

Added.

Yup, "Runner Up" is the distinction you were bestowed. I just forgot to include that in the original post, so I've updated it to make things clearer.

Huh. Odd how I missed that mistake in the sentence you provided. I even read through the review a few times before submission. Whoops!

But thanks for the (second?) runner-up! An interesting gimmick squandered. I understand why you would want to hear more details about the inner-workings and descriptions, and I would normally do such a thing, but the game was so strictly generic, that I was concerned mentioning any more of that stuff in detail would have dragged the review. I could be wrong, though.

Also, congrats to EmP, and to everyone that participated this week.

I had Emp placing fourth. But opinions differ, I get it.

This week saw the addition of only 5 new reviews. I wrote two of those five reviews, which means they're excluded from the running until next week and leaves me with three reviews to rank. I feel like Oprah, as I talk to those who submitted something during the eligible period: "You get a place, you get a place, and you get a place!"

There wasn't a bad review this week. There wasn't even a mediocre review this week. They were all great reviews, but alas, there can only be one winner. So here they are, starting with the review that did the least for me and building up to the one I thought worked best.

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Third Place: 20XX (Switch) by hastypixels

This review probably didn't rank higher because of the introduction, which felt a bit awkward. It wasn't entirely clear whether you were trying to say the game's technical issues surprised you by being a noteworthy issue, or if you were saying the game's technical issues didn't surprise you and were about what a person might expect. If the latter is the case, that seems a weak way to open on an otherwise solid, detailed review. You haven't been back from your hiatus for long, but one thing I appreciate is that your reviews in general seem to be slightly more focused and easier to follow since your return, which works to their benefit. You included a lot of helpful details in your review, in justification of your high score. You were simply going up against some stiff competition.

Runner Up: Triggerheart Exelica (Xbox 360) by pickhut

I liked this review a lot, in particular the middle portion where you described in terrific detail what sounds like an interesting mechanic. There were some great lines, too. I especially liked this one: "Yeah, the is action occasionally frantic, but the chaos is actually tame for bullet hell standards... I would even say, in many areas, it's tame for normal shoot 'em up standards." However, the review had a variety of small grammatical errors throughout and those held it back a bit. I also wouldn't have minded more detail, with more discussion about some of those more generic elements with details such as the number of stages, variety of environments, technical performance... stuff like that. As-is, this is an effective review for a particular audience and I think strong overall. But it wasn't enough to win the week.

Review of the Week: Pathfinder: Kingmaker (PC) by EmP

On the forums, Marc made a joke about how long this review is. He's not wrong. It's definitely a lengthy read. However, I read it and didn't look at the clock once. It is a very entertaining critique of a game that sounds great, one that explores various elements of the game with anecdotes told in the lively manner you manage when you're truly inspired. Sometimes, I felt like it could have included a little more opinion in response to the scenarios described, but I'm sure you were running up against word counts and trying to keep things from going on even longer than they did. In any event, it's a terrific review and a performance worthy of this week's crown.

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Thank you for your contributions, everyone! I hope we'll see a lot of great content this next week and beyond, as well. Tell our audience about all the games!

The game that (none of) you all have been waiting for me to review...

Doggy Dash
Developer - Gamelab
Publisher - PlayFirst
Platform - PC
Release Date - 03/06/2009
Genre - Casual/Sim (mostly casual, this is in kind of a weird area)

It's a spinoff of those Diner dash games you see here and there. Also, I can't find info on this game anywhere. I didn't realize it was so obscure until today; I figured that it would have a page on here or at least Wikipedia since the game's in pretty much any big-box store's electronics section. Sorry about the lack of info; I need to look into these things in advance before I try to submit 11th hour reviews...

Added.

I think Mario Kart is actually a series that gets better over time rather than worse. Time will tell if MK7 and MK8 end up feeling as dated as the MK games before it.

Super Mario Kart is still a blast! I think the series mostly went slightly downhill with each subsequent installment from there, until 8 brought things back in line. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Nintendo Switch is about as good as Mario Kart is likely to ever get, and always fun to play with friends.

Yikes. I replayed the original SNES Super Mario Kart and still thought it was a lot of fun, but then, I don't have much experience with the series on the whole. I'm probably easily impressed as kart games go.

Jerec: I'll never forget the rain. Nor will you!

I was all aboard the Final Fantasy VII hype train in junior high, but I wouldn't rank it very highly these days. It's a decent game, but a step down from FF6, not to mention FF9 becoming the definitive PSX Final Fantasy.

Xenogears is an even more severe fallen star. I tried replaying it this year after enjoying the heck out of Xenoblade 2, but I quickly got fed up with the slowly scrolling text. This sort of thing normally wouldn't bother me, except Xenogears has a ridiculous amount of dialogue, and it's mostly terrible to boot. The mecha battles are also really awful, and they're supposed to be the focal point of the game. I'm glad Monolith Soft has shifted their focus toward gameplay these days. Xenogears does suck.

Now, the most heart breaking case of this for me is Mario Kart DS. Back in 2005, I considered it the epitome of Mario Kart games. After playing Mario Kart 7 and Mario Kart 8 in 2015, I thought it would be fun to order a used copy of MKDS and revisit it ten years later. I was not ready for how poorly it had aged. The courses were still great, but the controls, mechanics and A.I. were so bad that I ended up selling the game back after I was finished with it. It might be best never to revisit Double Dash either.

@Marc

Do you still remember the rain?

I reckon that what you grew up playing might have something to do with it; I didn't really play Zelda in my formative years, but I did Zelda III. I consider Zelda III better for all the advancements it made in terms of accessibility alone. The map and the save system make the newer game much less of a pain to play. Not to mention the awesome soundtrack. But I get that the original is way less linear and there's something special about it being the first.