Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week, 24-30 October 2010 (bloomer)

Review of the Week, 24-30 October 2010

This week's field was both strong and numerous. Back In the GameFAQs days of doing this topic, you might have had to look at 50 reviews for a day, but you almost never had to look at 13 at once that were as good as this week's, including multiple entries from Sho and JoeTheDestroyer.

First Place

Zipp's Blue Lacuna review (Mac)

It was probably an advantage this week to be reviewing a game totally unlike all the others reviewed. Blue Lacuna is a peace, love and mung beans mongering epic of modern interactive fiction, quite unlike Splatterhouse 2, for instance, so Zipp benefited from the game's novel dissimilarity for writing purposes, and was able to build on this with a thoughtful and evocative review of a game containing none of the typical contents we are used to reviewing.

The review did invoke a major site of attack of mine, which is rhetorical writing along the lines of 'How can I convey to you in words the splendour of X, Y or Z?' … Especially when the writing then immediately conveys the splendour of X, Y or Z in the same sentence. With words being the base unit of reviewing, I think people had better get conveying or change gigs.

Nevertheless!.. the desired information was conveyed successfully, so I'll not let my personal gripe interfere with my assessment of this review's overall quality. Zipp's review is the review of the week.

(For anyone submitting on my day in future, now that my gripe has been stated, I no longer have to prevent it from interfering. Beware!)

Second Place

Sho's Splatterhouse 2 review (Genesis)

Sho is a star of this week with his eight Halloween reviews of exceptional quality. I wouldn't expect to click on any one person's contribution page and be able to read eight reviews in a row all as good as these. Each one pulls you through in a compelling and humorous manner, weaving in gameplay and research with no apparent effort. The voice is distinct and clear as a bell.

I admit I was close to second-guessing my choice of which Sho review should appear in this topic. I think Vampire: The Masquerade as a game offers deeper subject matter to talk about (which lends itself to this kind of competition) and Sho did talk about it, and that review's second paragraph alone is a killer example of telling as much in a paragraph as some reviews manage in a whole review. And I suspected that anyone who had already read this week's reviews would probably choose the Sho Bloodlines review as 'the one'.

In spite of all that, I found Sho's shorter review of Splatterhouse to be, in some way, perfect. It is perfectly formed, entertaining, informative, and really enjoyable to read. I wouldn't change a word of it (not that it's mine to change).

Third Place

Leroux's X-Men review (arcade)

A combination of excellent detail and research, Leroux's X-Men review is simultaneously made compelling and leavened by nostalgia. The density of writing is ambitious, occasionally to the point where the flow of rhetoric is chipped. At this level, proofreading needs become very subtle, and this is the only area in which this remarkable review was not able to climb higher this week.

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Wow. I really didn't expect to win this one. There were some incredible reviews this week and, while I was quite pleased with mine as a personal achievement (it really wasn't an easy game to review) I saw some stiff competition lined up against it.

Thanks for the notes on this. While I think the rhetorical paragraph captured what I was looking for, I agree it's a cop-out and I promise it won't happen again.

Note to gamers: when someone shoots you in the face, they aren't "gay." They are "psychopathic."

This was a big strong week and my award-craving side is very glad I was too busy to contribute anything.

Eight reviews in one week--yeah. I got crossed up by all the similar names, but I should probably sit down and straighten them out for my own good. Uh, entertainment.

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