Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW for 5/17 to 5/23: Three-day weekend edition!

To commemorate the beginning of a new era of people doing RotW, you get me.....the lone experienced veteran of the circuit. So, here I am, taking a break from my three-day weekend binging to bring you whatever the closest thing to insight and wisdom my battered brain can muster.

Like usual, there are rules. Cruel rules you might consider draconian and unfair. They shall be followed. Also, you can't fool me, hmd. I know your Call of Duty is a re-publish of your former RotW winner that someone vandalized. So, I'm thinking it probably shouldn't be eligible. That saves us the controversy of potentially having one review win two RotWs and saves me the grief of potentially having to read a whiny "OH THE HUMANITY!!!!" series of posts saying my RotW is a joke. So, just shine up your old RotW trophy (which I'm sure Jason did promptly send you) and read what I saw about these people.

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THIRD PLACE: Crazy Taxi 2 (Dreamcast) by fastkilr

It was a bit of a duel for third place. First, for aschultz, who narrowly lost out: I swear, when I read those two reviews, I'd have killed for a couple of screenshots. You were describing the screens of your games and I was reading and thinking, "Man, I can ALMOST see what he's talking about, but I need to see the screen to see if my imagery is accurate." If you have the capacity to take screens of these games and you're playing ones without them, I'd be very in favor of you doing so (hint: more HG Points for your HG Warring). With these two reviews, it's a "picture is worth 1000 words" scenario, as you wouldn't have to go into such detail describing the scene on the screen, which can drag down the pace of things, as when reading something, I find it a bit tiring to realize I need to take what I just read and put it all together to "see" what you're playing.

Fastkilr winds up in third place with a brief, engaging look at Crazy Taxi 2. I enjoyed much about this review, but felt it might have hurt itself a bit by being so vague about things — at least to readers who might not be overly familiar with the original Crazy Taxi (assuming there are people not familiar with the original who would be interested in playing the second). For example, you mention the two new levels early on. Are they the game's only levels, or does the game simply rehash CT's levels and give you two new ones? And what exactly is the Crazy Pyramid, other than apparently some sort of tutorial-place? And mentioning there's a change to the ability to jump and following it up with "There’s really no point spending extra time covering that function; its reception will vary." really fell short for me. Despite those issues, I still liked this review, as it did a very good job of getting across the point this game would be fun for fans of CT, but really offers nothing new and is, in essence, a slightly different version of that game. I just think certain parts of it could be expanded on to make it a REALLY good review.

SECOND PLACE: Spyro the Dragon: Season of Ice (GBA) by bigcj34

As I recall, you've reviewed a good number of the Spyro games, so have know what you're talking about concerning them. That might be part of why this review seems a bit more tight and focused than some others I remember reading from you. I remember seeing there were two Spyro games on the GBA and wondered how the series would translate to a small-screen isometric view and, sadly, your review more of less confirmed my uneducated guess. A bunch of areas that essentially play the same and only superficially look different combined with the occasional cheap death caused by awkward angles. The way you made your points in a short, sweet fashion combined with the sense of authority about the subject I felt in this review work together to make it a very good effort.

OVERDRIVE PLACE: Silent Hill: Homecoming by jill

This is one of those reviews that might fit into the "love or hate" category. I could understand a person (especially one who isn't a diehard follower of the Silent Hill series) looking at this review and thinking things like "really long and dry" and "PC clocking.....commence....NOW!". But to me, who's played the first three and is considering adding this game to my list o' SH conquests, I found this a very informative review that discussed this game effectively on multiple levels. The parts where you were noting the monsters didn't seem to fit with the psyche of Alex, as has been the case in past games.....or where you were theorizing that Pyramid Head was included solely because he was in the SH movie and many others show a depth of knowledge and passion about this series that kept me reading and left me feeling I'd actually learned something from the time I spent with this review. Kudos!

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All right! With that done, I can put my full attention on the Indy 500. Or the back of my eyelids. One of the two.

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I'm not afraid to die because I am invincible
Viva la muerte, that's my goddamn principle

The back of my eyelids and Indy 500 have so much in common, but the one thing they have most in common is this: they put me to sleep. :-D

Good job ona timely and interesting RotW, overdrive!

A note on RotW trophies: I had one commissioned that was constructed out of solid gold with a diamond-encrusted base, but I quickly realised that shiping it out and insuring it would be too costly. I melted it down and used the proceeds to pay for porn.

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"Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." - John F. Kennedy on reality

"What if everything you see is more than what you see--the person next to you is a warrior and the space that appears empty is a secret door to another world? What if something appears that shouldn't? You either dismiss it, or you accept that there is much more to the world than you think. Perhaps it really is a doorway, and if you choose to go inside, you'll find many unexpected things." - Shigeru Miyamoto

Oh darn. I wouldn't have won it anyway. XD

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There three types of people in this world: those who can count, and those who can't.

Why are you paying for porn Jason only stupid people do that! PROTIP: Torrents.

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Nice job, overdrive. Thanks for requesting the screenshots as I didn't realize the latest version of AppleWin had them. I know that feature now, so I may pour them on for all the games I want to write reviews for. There's a thorny problem with all the games I want to write for in that we don't have screenshots to verify what's written.

I've actually had a bit of a moral dilemma submitting screenshots for my retro contest game, as there are some good ones, but on the other hand I want the description to stand on its own. It feels somewhat like tapping-up the judges to drop in a screenshot just before the contest.

Anyway, thanks to you, and congratulations to the winners including the sort-of extra-bonus winner today.

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My principal said, 'Emo, Emo, Emo.'
I said 'I'm the one in the middle, you lousy drunk!'
-- Emo Phillips

Why are you paying for porn Jason only stupid people do that! PROTIP: Torrents.

Here's a better question: Why did Jason take a picture of himself in a wig and then use it as his avatar?*


* - No offense meant by that, I'm just trying to goad you into a Light Vs. Darkness battle.

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If I Die Young, May It Be Noble. If I Die Old, Let It Be Peaceful. And If I Am To Live Forever, Please Bless My Loved Ones With The Same Miracle.