Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week – 7-13 November 2010

Welcome to another Review of the Week! As always, only one review by each person is eligible, so I’ll be looking for the best of your submissions if you have more than one review up in this week. People who are named Zigfried are automatically disqualified for various reasons, mostly due to being above such petty competitions and secretly afraid of losing. There were a decent amount of reviews for me to read this week, even after the various exclusions. So much for Gameroni. The Morlock invasion has not begun yet, my gentle Eloi. Not while some of the Morlocks are still lingering on the surface – they haven’t mutated fully just yet.

And that’s enough rambling from me. Let’s get on with it!

Third Place - Ben – Rock Band 3

I’ve been playing Rock Band 3 myself, and picked up a keyboard to go with it. I agree with every single thing you say in this review. It’s spot on. If anyone was interested in buying this game, they would do well to read this review. It doesn’t matter that you focus primarily on the keyboard – that’s what a lot of music game fans are going in for at the moment. You mention most of the best songs for the keyboard, and it’s true that there are a few duds. Some songs just have the same simple sequence of keys the entire song. You don’t mention Bohemian Rhapsody though, which seems like the ultimate party song (harmonies, keyboard, guitar etc.) All in all, an excellent review for a new release title. You can’t focus on everything in a game like this, and since we’ve probably all used a plastic 5 button guitar at some point, we all know that hasn’t changed. Interested in giving the Pro Guitar a go, though.

Second Place Sho – OutRun

I’ve been digging these Arcade showcases lately. I’m not sure if this is tied to what Leroux has been doing, but I have been enjoying you guys putting the spotlight on some old arcade game and telling us why it rocked. Sho, it’s obvious you’re so familiar with this game that even if you did some research to confirm some of your points, it doesn’t show. It looks like you know this all already. The writing was as fast and energetic as the game itself at times, and it makes me wish I’d gone to the arcade more often in my youth.

Review of the Week Overdrive – Uncharted 2

I really liked the comparison of Uncharted 2 being like Avatar, a huge blockbuster propelled by hype. It was a really good way to set the game up as being excellent, but not a perfect game, and that after the hype wears off it’s nothing too special. The complaints about there being too many checkpoints is a valid one and well-illustrated. This is an excellent review and my pick of the week because of how cleverly and clearly you conveyed your points about the game, and it’s true that games like this become a lot less special once the hype passes and you wonder about how much better the game could have been (or how much better the sequel will be). We’ve all been there.

---

All in all, a tight week. EmP, Fastkiller and Schultz all came fairly close to the top 3 and it did take some thought on how to rank you guys. JoeTheDestroyer’s reviews are also good reads and I’m enjoying the frequency of his submissions. SamildanachEmrys is someone I haven’t seen before, and his stuff is pretty good, too. It was a tough week for submissions. HonestGamers is a quality review site. Keep up the fine work, guys.

See you next month.

---

I can avoid death by not having a life.

Awesome, thanks Jerec! I'm happy that you liked my review and placed it in the top 3.

Not mentioning Queen was a bit of an oversight, though there were many others that I wanted to mention, like that song from Back to the Future and "Centerfold". It really is quite a solid setlist.

---

...

Thanks for the win! Wasn't sure how it'd be received, here or in True's contest, just due to how the world has been deluged in Uncharted 2 commentary since its release. In fact, I'm awaiting Zig's friend to tell me how if I sat down with him and let him talk me through the game, I'd have a much more favorable opinion of it.

Funny thing is that the only reason this review was written was because of True's contest and how he listed this as one of the games he was interested in reading a review of. I don't have a PS3, but my best friend does, and we played through it at his house a number of months ago (early in the year). I wrote about 2/3 of a review and scrapped it. Seemed too much like Zig's (which I'd read when it came out and really PO'd a fanboy) and I really try not to write reviews where I'm not sure if I'm giving my opinion or essentially re-saying someone else's opinion. I decided to try it again for this contest and was pleased with the result this time, so it's good to see that someone else agrees!

---

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