Patreon button  Steam curated reviews  Discord button  Facebook button  Twitter button 
3DS | PC | PS4 | PS5 | SWITCH | VITA | XB1 | XSX | All

Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Feb. 20-26 -- Another high-quantity and high-quality week!

Add a new post within this thread...

board icon
Author: overdrive (Mod)
Posted: February 28, 2017 (12:35 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

Yeah, no need to remind me this week, people! Mainly because this is about the only day I'll have time to do this thing, what with 10 reviews by 8 people to sort through. It's now or never!

To give a couple honorable mention-type bits of recognition. I really liked EmP's review, which did a good job of showing the appeal of that title, while also exhibiting the frustrating features of it. Probably the only thing keeping it from being a REALLY tough choice for third place was my difficulty in reconciling your description of how utterly horrible that desert area is with your conclusion that it has some rough points to go with its highlights. And all I'm thinking is that there's no way I'd subject myself to that unless the highlight was my dream girl knocking on my door to take me to a new life reclining on some swank European beach until the end of my days. Uh…is that one of the highlights? I do have money floating around.

Brian's EXTREMELY DENSE Baldur's Gate review also was a good thought-provoker that raised some good points. When I think about my time with BG II, yeah, the difficulty mainly was provided by just how unfair advanced-level AD&D monsters are unless you know about them and their stats and abilities in the gamebooks. I was making good progress through BG II before my old computer broke down…until I got to the dungeon under the mage prison area, opened a book and a Mind Flayer was summoned. It wiped out my party with its "drop intelligence" attacks JUST. LIKE. THAT. And that was after getting through fun things like having to cast certain spells the instant vampires (and a couple other undead) attacked so I wouldn't lose levels, needing really good weapons to simply fight golems, needing to use fire or acid attacks to kill trolls, simply avoiding Lich battles because !WHOA! and….oh my ever-loving god…all the damn debuff spells you had to have on hand whenever you fought wizards with their damnable way of auto-casting 500 protection spells the instant combat began. I'm getting mad just typing this. I never had this sort of trouble with any other game. Just making it through 2-3 fights could be an hour of tooth-pulling agony and I loved it until that damn computer broke and I know I'll never take the time to try again.

*ahem* Time to regain composure to talk about the top three.

THIRD PLACE

Jerec's Cities: Skylines (PC)

I haven't seen the appeal of this sort of game since I was a little kid, obsessed with things like maps and stuff because I wanted to see everything in the world. This looks to be the sort of game that could dangerously re-ignite that sort of thing in a person's imagination. You really painted a great, in-depth picture of this game, mentioning all the options you can have as far as view and stuff, as well as mods. And, of course, the part that really got you in the top three of a strong week: your description of how this game has a certain trial-and-error slant to it that'll make you want to keep trying in order to make a city that actually, legitimately works. As opposed to some of the issues you mentioned, like traffic jams and the corpses of the uncollected dead causing a bunch of damn prima donnas to leave their neighborhood. It's kind of neat, how you made a city-building game seem, in actuality, like a really big and involved puzzle game, where the goal is to create something sustainable and then work to improve it, while hoping you don't actually screw up and wind up with a deserted ghost metropolis.

---

SECOND PLACE

Pickhut's River City Ransom (NES)

Looks like you had the same general opinion of RCR that I did when I reviewed it a couple (or few?) years ago. It's a fun game that gets bogged down by the grinding, back-tracking and other stuff. You made some great points throughout, focusing on the fun, chaotic nature of the brawling, with enemies coming at you at a dead sprint and how so many things can be used as weapons by both you and your foes. One really neat touch that I don't recall coming close to mentioning is the simple truth that, regardless of what their names are or what color shirts they're wearing, you are essentially fighting the same guy over and over again from beginning to end. One of the things I noticed when playing was that when you buy a couple good techniques you're comfortable with, you can spam them constantly to beat anything from the weakest footsoldier to the final boss. Reading that kind of made me sit back and think, "Well, that explains why that strategy worked." I guess I never thought things out to that level. No wonder you're always placing and oftentimes winning. Little touches like that add a bit of "experienced, knowledgable voice" to these things, which makes reading a review of a game I know a lot about more enjoyable than it probably should be.

---

REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

Joe's Tempo (THE UTTERLY AMAZING SEGA 32X)

Ah, nothing like a good 32X review to brighten any of my weeks. The lesson here is "Ruined Potential". You did a fine job of getting to the bottom of the facepalm-worthy mascot-with-attitude era and then segued into discussion of this particular game. I remember thinking about playing it, but choosing not to. I'm kind of glad, as it features one of these major, MAJOR pet peeves: not being able to tell if something is part of the background or foreground. Then you add how it's hard to tell whether something is helpful or will harm you. And then mention how flawed the battle system is, with some of your attacks being really erratic. How some bosses are lazily designed. How some seem to be more luck-based than anything else. Throughout it all, I can see how this game could have at least been decent, but was let down by programmers who apparently didn't notice all its flaws, leaving it as just another blah platformer.

---

And that's it for another fun week of judging stuff. Looks like I have an additional week before my next go at this, thanks to Jerec stepping up, so watch me forget all about it and need reminded again!


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

board icon
Author: dementedhut
Posted: February 28, 2017 (03:41 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

Thanks for the placement and words on the review! RCR was never a game I truly dug deep into in the past, because I thought it would be complicated, but the moment I actually focused on stuff for the sake of the review, I realized it was a pretty simple game in a lot of aspects.

Congrats to jerec on his placement, and Joe on RotW! I bet that felt good after all those blog entries where Tempo sounded like it was torturing you. Now do the rare and ultra-expensive Sega Saturn import sequel, Super Tempo!


I head spaceshit noises.

board icon
Author: Nightfire
Posted: February 28, 2017 (07:22 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

Another week of great reviews. Congrats, winnars!


placid like acid

board icon
Author: jerec
Posted: February 28, 2017 (10:20 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

Woo! Top 3! That is a real achievement these days.

Thanks Overdrive! Insightful comments, I'm glad you liked the review.


I can avoid death by not having a life.

board icon
Author: JoeTheDestroyer (Mod)
Posted: March 02, 2017 (02:15 AM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

POWER UP
POWER UP
RAWR!

[translation: thank you for the victory and kind words, and congrats to the placers, too!]


The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.

board icon
Author: Nightfire
Posted: March 02, 2017 (01:38 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

Was that an Altered Beast reference?


placid like acid

board icon
Author: JoeTheDestroyer (Mod)
Posted: March 02, 2017 (04:03 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

Yes it was.


The only thing my milkshake brings to the yard is a subpoena.

board icon
Author: Nightfire
Posted: March 02, 2017 (05:16 PM)
Actions: Register for a free user account to post on the forums...

You rock. :)


placid like acid

User Help | Contact | Ethics | Sponsor Guide | Links

eXTReMe Tracker
© 1998 - 2024 HonestGamers
None of the material contained within this site may be reproduced in any conceivable fashion without permission from the author(s) of said material. This site is not sponsored or endorsed by Nintendo, Sega, Sony, Microsoft, or any other such party. Opinions expressed on this site do not necessarily represent the opinion of site staff or sponsors. Staff and freelance reviews are typically written based on time spent with a retail review copy or review key for the game that is provided by its publisher.