Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW 7/27/08 - 8/2/08 -- At least it's finished

I could blame myself for the absence of the last two weeks' worth of RotWs, but it's probably no one's fault. Long story short: I went on vacation (or holiday, if you live in a country that lost a war to its colonists) and couldn't do my regularly scheduled week, and so I left a message hoping someone else would take care of it. No one did, so now it's being taken care of by Masters and will presumably be up shortly. And for this RotW's lateness... well, that's just me being me. It's moot now anyway so let's try to put this pressing matter behind us.

You should know how this works by now, but just to reiterate, only one review per person is accepted, and staff reviews are inelgible. But that last point is irrelevant since I was on vacation last week and didn't post any reviews. Hey now!

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Review of the Week: AeroFighters Assault (N64) by dagoss

First of all, read over this review and fix those typos, or I'm going to be sorry I picked this. It's an otherwise very absorbing review, beginning right with the excellent opening line. That's the kind of bluntness I try to incorporate into my own reviews, so obviously I'm fond with it. The whole review has a very sarcastic, mocking tone to it, very appropriate for a game so ripe with reasons to mock -- if anything, you never quite justify the 6/10, starting up with a head-on bash and never quite raising the scale to an above-average rating. Still, you've managed to overcome the two biggest problems that kept many of this week's reviews from hitting the top spot: It's not overlong, and you're not simply going through the motions. You've given genuine thought to the wittiness of each paragraph while still making a point and describing the game well, and as a result I found this to be the most accessible and entertaining review of the week. You seem to be enjoying yourself, too, and that's often a sign the reader will as well.

First Runner-Up: Q*bert by wolfqueen001

Here on HG, you can tell which writers are really serious about what they do, because they'll review something as simple and unremarkable as Q*bert and still give it their fullest effort. In that sense, I'm surprised to see this review land on the RotW rankings. What impressed me is that you don't waste any time on needless exposition to make the review longer; you jump right into this thing from the get-go. Reviews are obviously supposed to follow the basic introduction-body-conclusion structure, but the good reviews are the ones where you don't even notice such parts because they all blend seamlessly together. On a similar note, this review is very short, as it should have been. Even with your colorful detail (again, more effort than most would show for something as trivial as Q*bert), this review could have dragged had it gone on too long. You made the right decision in keeping it lean and concise.

Second Runner-Up: Trauma Center: Under the Knife 2 by darkstarripclaw

I mentioned in my brief critique for Dagoss's review that too many of this week's entries seemed overlong and not particularly enthusiastic, as if the writers' hearts weren't quite into what they were writing. While Darkstarripclaw's review isn't as entertaining as the above two reviews, it still manages to avoid those complaints. It's detailed but not talky, and written with a clear understanding that game analysis comes first and foremost. Maybe my distaste for the first Trauma Center keeps me from getting too enthused from your review, though for my money you don't spend quite enough time talking about the game's positive points. The 8/10 still seemed to match the review's tone, somehow, so I guess it's not a big issue. Solid stuff overall.

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It was typical solid work this week, and for the BWHY entries that I snubbed, allow me to say that I pretty much agree with what was said in the results topic. Sorry again about the lateness, and I hope you all have a good four to five weeks before I make my epic RotW return.

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You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it.

Thank you for the critique and placement (even though my review was technically posted on the 26th!). I will try looking a bit at adding in a bit of the positive stuff for the review.

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!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

Damn it. Well, I screwed this one up in more ways than one. Do I have to pick out a new third-place spot, or are we happy enough as is?

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You exist because we allow it. And you will end because we demand it.

(Tsk, typos!)

Darkstarripclaw's review must be really good to be included for the wrong week! Wolfqueen's review is excellent (as usual); it hits all the right points without doing anything flashy or needless.

Three of the four featured reviews currently on the front page are mine. That's -- kind of strange.

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Wow. I honestly wrote that fully expecting nothing special for it. Since the game's so simple and there's really not a whole lot I can say about it. I really didn't expect to beat people like vorty and Felix this week. It's kind of odd.

Congratulations to dagoss, though, who really is on fire now. Well done, and thanks for the compliments.

Heh. I hope darkstar's review gets that kind of placement for its proper week so that this little bungle won't be that huge a deal. And if not, at least you can be contented with the fact that you beat out a lot of good writers for a week that wasn't even supposed to be yours. Haha.

This should be an easy enough fix, though (hopefully). I hope no one makes too big a deal about it. It's not like he did it on purpose.

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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

If it were up to me, Suskie(and it kinda is!) I would replace the third place. You wouldn' want Mr. Claw popping up again in the previous RotW when it gets penned.

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For us. For them. For you.