Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: 11/29 to 12/5, 2009.....uh, my intents were to have it done on time.....

You might be wondering why it took me until Wednesday to put out an RotW that only featured six reviews. Well, read on!

SUNDAY: Visited my mom. When I got home, I was hungry and ate a big dinner. Too big. I was in a lethargic food coma the rest of the night.
MONDAY: Hellish day at work. No mental energy when I got home.
TUESDAY: Not a hellish work day, but a long one. The fact I took a lengthy afternoon nap during the break I had between my early-day work and my evening/night work also played a factor.

Now that all that's been taken care of, let's look at our six contestants and see which three of them were worthy of my praise. As always, there are rules, but I'm not mentioning them because neither of them come into play this week.

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THIRD PLACE: Chocobo's Dungeon 2 (PS) by spaceworlder

This is a weird review that gets its position here solely because it was wonderfully effective in convincing me I don't ever want to play this game. You probably had me filtered out after the second paragraph, as I'm not a roguehound, but in the event I was, you gave me plenty more reasons to avoid this one. I was 100 percent loving this review until the end, but I found the last paragraph/score combo to be a weak conclusion. You give a couple of positives presented halfheartedly and then give it a 5 (average -- not good, but not bad) when I was thinking 2-3. Is the 5 just because you're a roguehound and were able to at least tolerate all of those negatives due to the general essence of rogue games? I think this review could be a bit better if those positives were fleshed out a bit more to make them seem like viable reasons to play this game if one likes the genre.

SECOND PLACE: Dragon Age: Origins (360) by PAJ89

You went for a good tactic in this RotW: pick the game I'm primarily playing and say a lot of things that I'm currently feeling. Fun battle system that makes you think about battles, especially at higher difficulties. Check. Too easy to make companions like you due to gifts and stuff. Check. Things were well-written, too, as you did a good job of explaining the nuts-and-bolts without rambling on. When I review this game, I about dread writing about it, because as complex as things are, it could easily go on for 1500-2000 words with me still feeling I could say more. You gave me (if I wasn't currently playing it) a good basic explanation in a quick read. Kudos for accomplishing that.

OVERDRIVE PLACE: Viking: Battle for Asgard (PS3) by LowerStreetBlues

This is just a strong review. You do a great job showing how aspects of this game parallel many others, but also make it perfectly clear that it doesn't live up to the standards of those other games. You don't waste words and your conclusion really does a great job of tying everything you'd said together. It's really hard to say much more than that. Other than I find the concept of implementing stealth into a VIKING game to be funny.

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Well, that's that. I return you to your regularly scheduled......stuff. Well, except for one of you. ASchultz, the one thing that kept this review from the top three was the simple fact that I'd consider it really inaccessible and confusing for anyone not familiar with Might and Magic II. Basically, it's a review of that game for fans of that game, but neophytes would probably be lost. However, since I'm familiar with the game, having beaten it once a good number of years ago, I did want to comment on it and ask one question. To me, MMII was a fun game with a quirky sense of humor, but also one sadistic SOB. It seemed this thing went out of its way to give me an inferiority complex. Like where you, to (I think) please one king, had to take a time machine to two different centuries to find one specific overworld square to participate in one battle for an item. And, as you mentioned, as you progressed, the random battles got a bit over-the-top. But the overwhelming scale of things made this game seem really full of mystery. Like, for example, those HUGE rewards you could win by finding out-of-the-way locations in the Dragon Cave.

I have had one question about this game for an eternity, though. If you look in the bestiary, there are a two monsters that are head-and-shoulders above the rest as far as HP go. One is the Mega Dragon. The other is called Orc God with 50000HP. Back in the day, I spent eternities searching for that thing because I figured it was one of those super-tough fixed battles, but never could find it, leading me to think it either is not actually in the game or a very rare random encounter or a fixed encounter in a place I never found. Have you encountered it? It might be the only unsolved mystery I have about this game (at least that I care to find the answer to).

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

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Thanks for the runner-up, and congrats to PAJ89 and LowerStreetBlues!

Is the 5 just because you're a roguehound and were able to at least tolerate all of those negatives due to the general essence of rogue games?

Kind of. The rating stems from my conclusion that the game is more tiring than awful. I probably should have elaborated on that point a bit.

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Spaceworlder was able to build this sig IN A CAVE…… WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!!

That's OK, OD - you're not as late as lewis! =D

Congrats to the winners. And wow, I commend LowerStreetBlues for his whirlwind victory in these things lately.

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What espiga does in his free time
[Eating EmP's brain] probably isn't a good idea. I mean... He's British, which means his brain's wired for PAL and your eyes are NTSC. - Will

Glad you enjoyed. Agreed on the fact that one could easily write a lot more about DA:O. Grats to all.

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Hey Overdrive--I seem to remember getting a random Orc God fight or two. I spent a lot of time mucking about in the 500's through 800's looking for the Loincloth. It wasn't on the Apple version. So I ran into a lot of weird monsters including, I think, the Orc God. It was not available.

It is a problem that MM2 is less accessible for those who've never played it. I think also there are other problems with my review to fix (eg a bit of FAQ-itis,) and I'll look at them. At the base, the game tries a lot of abstract combinations of Cool Things to Throw without graphics. The thing about the game that sticks with me is the logical excesses it goes to and how they don't make it fall apart.

Congrats to those who made it to the ring of honor. It's always fun to see what others do, and how they do it, and it gives me good ideas either way for what I want to do.

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