Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW for June 13-19 -- the ramblings of a diseased mind

Back in action, I am here to type up another action-packed episode of RotW. And by "action-packed", I mean the ever-so-exciting action of me typing on a keyboard, whether it be words of praise for our three winners or blatantly obvious, overly verbose, generally meaningless filler such as most of what I've done so far and, for no reason whatsoever am continuing, long past the point where it was even remotely humorous, but unable to stop, as if under compulsion to make this the most annoying intro to one of these topics ever written, to the point where it might come full circle and become funny again since there's no sign this horrible run-on sentence will ever end, at least until I run out of steam and figure I better get to the praising part before I forget what I'm doing and all you end up with is this, this and more this.

Anyway, after gasping for breath and putting my fingers under ice for a minute, the rules are the same. One review per person can count and every person counts except for me, which means that next week, EmP will be in charge of giving my review for Rusted Emeth first place. And you best not forget; I remembered to read your review for the game with the stupid title that Joe apparently was too disgusted with to give the time of day.

Now, with no further ado, except for all the further ado I'm currently typing, let the games begin!

THIRD PLACE

Kai Powell's Crimson Room: Decade (PC)

I could see what you're saying here. While I didn't play the original game, it seems like a sort of neat title for those early days of browser-based games. And so, a decade later, a sequel comes…and is essentially little more than an upgraded version of the original where there are changes, but not enough to make this a truly new experience. That point was highlighted by you mentioning how, at one point, you played the original for a bit and that proved to be a big help in figuring out how to do things in the new one. As you mention, puzzles might be reworked to be solved in different ways, but still, the similarities are striking. I mean, this isn't my style of game, but the way you talked about it, I can get both the reasoning behind your interest and how you were slightly disappointed that this sequel wasn't more its own beast.

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SECOND PLACE

EmP's The Incredible Baron (PC)

Oh, I did read that other review. I just couldn't reconcile how a game so infuriatingly frustrating warranted an "average" rating. Reading through that laundry list of the ways a person could die getting through one challenge…I swear on my holy name that I felt my frustration levels rising to computer-busting levels. Put me in that game and I'd be throwing your computer off a building, turning to you and saying, "Well, looks like I beat that damn challenge!"

Ahem…anyway, I could feel the fun more clearly with this review. It might only be rated one tier higher, but the tone between this and that couldn't be more different. I mean, as someone who lives in a rural area, I really need to look around more to see if I can find my own cyborg fox, but still… You did a good job of bringing out the light-hearted tone of the game early on and then put in the work to give a strong description of the game's mechanics and how things generally work, with the whole "devise a strategy and use it to beat most levels that aren't tied to their own particular gimmick". Also, a very strong conclusion that brings up the always-important point that the number one attribute a game should have is simply to be fun. And if a game causes you to tear through it over the course of a day, it succeeds in that.

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REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

Pickhut's Pocket Card Jockey (3DS)

Huh, a combination of horse racing and solitaire -- you know, when I was wondering what sorts of games I'd be reading about this week, I don't think I was expecting this. And I also wasn't expecting it to be remotely enjoyable until I started reading and saw you got immediately hooked on it. You did a great job of describing the mechanics and how solitaire actually is implemented into an event which seems to usually run a bit too quickly for anyone to have time to do much of anything with a deck of cards. I was getting intrigued by this game…and then you took all that away when you brought up this game's fatal flaw -- how you apparently have to spend an eternity in Final Fantasy VII's Chocobo breeding mini-game in order to make progress. I'm a big fan of RPGs and grew up on those old-school ones where you were expected to run in circles around towns in order to grind for enough levels to survive more than five minutes out in the wild and, man, this just sounded tedious as hell. In short, you did really good at pointing out the highs and lows of a bizarre little game.

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Tune in after a couple weeks to see if my insanity has gotten better, worse or stayed the same!

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

Much appreciation! Happy that you enjoyed the review, since I was a bit concerned that too much explanation was required in order to talk about the game properly. Adding oil to the fire to the whole breeding thing: new horses take time to be born... so you pretty much have to race with an entirely new horse to pass the time.

Congrats to EmP and Kai to their mentions, too. I never heard of Crimson Room and its history until that review popped up, so that was interesting. I also almost planned on reviewing The Incredible Baron myself, but I decided to play something else, instead. Catlateral Damage. Yup. Yeah...

I head spaceshit noises.

Congrats to the winners!

placid like acid

That second sentence was a doozy, but not (quite) enough to ruin the whole topic. Congratulations to those who placed, and maybe I'll be able to turn something in and compete this coming week. Pickhut, don't forget to get in touch if you wanted to claim something from the prize pool!

"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 on secret doors to another world2

I logged back on to HTOL last week in the attempts at picking away at some of the secrets. I decided to limit myself to five deaths then quitting, thinking it would maybe stop me before the rage quits happened. But Venter sent me a Steam IM asking me if I was nuts, then shoveling more work in my direction. Bless. It is, though, a very ragey game. I may or may not have only decided to pick it up because I'd already thought of the tagline and couldn't stop giggling to myself. But, yeah, that Baron game. Good stuff, there!

Props, then, to Kai and Pick on some interesting reviews. And to OD for this first RotW he didn't need to be prodded repeatedly at to complete. Another killer week all round.

For us. For them. For you.

Second, I think. I'm pretty sure I've done two of them without needing to get prodded. It's called "getting back into the swing of things". Now that I've said that, watch me miss my next week and then do someone else's week.

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