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Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week - September 11-17 - Haven't quit yet

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Author: jerec
Posted: September 18, 2017 (04:16 AM)
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Yep, still doing this. I'll try and see out the year, but if you've got any interest in reading reviews and ranking them, please tell EmP and join our roster. It's not so bad unless EmP schedules a tournament deadline in your week.

This week we have seven reviews from seven unique writers, and no holdovers from last week.

Usagi reviews a hidden object game, although it seems to be very light on examples of why things are good, and the grammatical errors cause some lines to not make much sense. I think you just need to follow through on various thoughts - you say there was one type of puzzle you don't like, but you don't tell us what it is or why. You don't really tell us anything about what the game is actually like, the mechanics of it all, just an overview. These sorts of games could make for interesting reviews, since you obviously know this genre. Look at what Overdrive is doing with those Mobile Kemco RPGs. He really gets into the story and the mechanics of a lot of games that are probably very similar, but usually draws out enough unique stuff to make it interesting. This is a niche just waiting for a dedicated fan.

Hastypixels reviews the Steam port of the mobile remake of Final Fantasy VI. I agree, this looks terrible. I decided not to buy it. This review basically just compares this version of FF6 to the original SNES version and the GBA version, and it is interesting to see how they differ. There's quite a bit of energy and enthusiam to this review, which does convince the reader there is a really great game under the terrible design of this version. Hey, FF3 is on the SNES Classic, so the definitive version will live again!

Jason Venter tortures himself with more Switch shovelware. Hey, if these reviews are bringing traffic to the site because you're the only one bothering to review this stuff, then more power to you (actually, I checked Metacritic and there are six critic reviews and this isn't one of them). You do a pretty good job of describing the mechanics and rules of this bizarre card game, but then it all came down to luck. You make an uninteresting game tolerable to read about.

Pickhut just misses the top 3 this week with Greendog. I liked this review. It's a funny and interesting deconstruction of a crappy Genesis game. I've read quite a few of your Genesis bash reviews, and I wonder how many of these you played back then, and how much is just down to picking through roms you've never tried before? Don't get me wrong, you definitely know your stuff with these platformers. The technical stuff is solid.


THIRD PLACE
Aphelion 2 by Joeseph Shaffer

I've never heard of this or the first game in the duology, but this sounds absolutely dreadful. Not being able to import character data between games sounds lazy, and the absolute lack of challenge would bore me senseless. Like you, I've played a lot of RPGs. But hey, I can deal with boring boss fights if the story and characters are good. They're not? I went back and forth between you and Pick for the 3rd spot, but I just really enjoyed how this review described this as a bad RPG while making the reader understand exactly why it was bad (lack of challenge, barely acceptable story, best stuff locked behind a whole lot of grinding).


SECOND PLACE
Ys VIII by Zachary Walton

I didn't know this game existed, that's how out of touch I am. After reading this, I feel like I must have this game. I've played a few of the Ys titles (and have many more in my Steam library). I liked the tounge-in-cheek mention to Adol getting shipwrecked a lot, but then this game seems to do something different. I want to see how the survival aspect of this game plays out. Your reference to Ys VIII taking some points from the Trails series is appreciated - there is some great character work being done in those games. I'll need to keep this one on my wishlist for a while. There's nothing really stylish about this review compared to most, but it is a well thought-out review of a new release game, and that's something this site could really use more of. As a site, we tend to be a bit behind the curve on this stuff. The tagline made me chuckle, too.


FIRST PLACE
White Day by Gary Hartley of House EmP

You are really good at this, you know? You manage to make a game sound fascinating, also inject some history and context (with a persona touch, no less), plenty of examples of scares and interesting things, and even some comparisons to other games in the genre, and you do it all in a really easy tone that takes the reader on a journey. This is the last review I read of seven, and I admit I was getting a bit fatigued. But I barely even blinked reading this. Luckily survival horror isn't my thing, or I'd be going back on my "no more game buying" rule again.

I really need to sit down and play Oxenfree...



Phew, managed to knock that out quickly. It helps to have a quiet Monday at work for once.


I can avoid death by not having a life.

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Author: EmP (Mod)
Posted: September 18, 2017 (12:04 PM)
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I'll have you playing horror games yet - Oxenfree's the first baby step of my five year plan.

Thanks for sticking with and getting this one out in a time frame that shames us all. Props to Zack 'n' Joe and further thanks for remembering my review the placement!


For us. For them. For you.

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Author: honestgamer
Posted: September 18, 2017 (03:36 PM)
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Thanks for a timely topic, Jerec, and congratulations to the winners. I felt like this was a nice strong week for the site, and I hope to see more like it.

Our reviews aren't featured on Metacritic at all. I've been trying to get that fixed for years and years now, but it's not going to happen until at least year's end (and I'm not holding my breath on that). However, our reviews are listed at GameRankings and the sites that still feature that one, and we get really good traffic to our Switch reviews. By which I mostly mean my Switch reviews, since I'm practically the only one writing them. I would be reviewing Switch games anyway, though, because they're new and interesting to me even when they fail a bit.


"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

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Author: dementedhut
Posted: September 20, 2017 (03:59 AM)
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I wonder how many of these you played back then, and how much is just down to picking through roms you've never tried before?

I was curious too after you posed this question, so I counted. Of the 34 Genesis reviews I submitted to the site, 20 are games that I played back when the system was still new. The rest are mostly used games I never had a chance to play in their prime, because the closest electronics store usually had a terrible selection. Screw all those good Genesis games, gotta promote the 32X and give away Game Gears because they weren't selling! Funny how a lot of them turn into unintentional bash reviews; whenever I revisit a game I played decades' ago, it always surprises me how many things I never noticed back then, good or bad. The Saba village stage that I mentioned in the Greendog review being one such example. Thanks for the comments, as well.

Congrats EmP on receiving RotW in a solid quality week. And also I'm reminded yet again I need to play the Ys games... But there's a million versions of Ys I & II, Ys III and its remake, three different versions of Ys IV, an-aagghhhhhhHHHHHHHH.


I head spaceshit noises.

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Author: hastypixels
Posted: September 29, 2017 (11:23 AM)
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I don't have any expectation of getting an SNES Classic, but it's one of those things I'd painstakingly review from stem to stern if (and perhaps when) I were to lay hands on one. It's a shame we don't do hardware reviews, as I've wanted to do a couple. Not that I'm particularly swimming in hardware...

The hype machine very rarely has any impact on me, and it certainly didn't when FFVI landed on our shores. It was impressive, but the story didn't grip me the way FFIV did. Being a demoscene fan I saw the sort of tricks they were pulling with the SNES and thought: "Aw yeah, that's the stuff!" I mean, the SNES doesn't even have a blitter.

They sure did show us what they could accomplish with 128KB of video memory though. I've always found hardware limitations more interesting than FLOPS of any kind unbound. What a silly acronym. The 16-bit era of gaming is probably the most technically interesting just for that reason.


Look, the only time I'm not wrong is when I'm right, so...

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Author: jerec
Posted: September 29, 2017 (04:01 PM)
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Yeah, there certainly are games that push the console to the extreme. I think Perfect Dark was the first real example of that I saw. I think these days they fit pretty well, although in this generation and the last, some games were better on PS, Xbox or PC depending on their design.


I can avoid death by not having a life.

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Author: overdrive (Mod)
Posted: September 29, 2017 (08:43 PM)
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Yeah, I remember how systems worked to get around limitations of older systems.

Like how Castlevania III had some enhanced chip that hardly any other NES game. And how Yoshi's Island has something different in its processing (that makes it annoying as hell to play via emulation, as least Snes9x. Or even little tricks like making Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver take place in a world where vampires manufacture smog to block out the sun in order to have a story-line reason for all the fog used to block pop-up (ala Silent Hill).

Perfect Dark was the one where you needed that add-on to the N64 right? Like Majora's Mask, I think? I remember playing that and being really impressed with how much better it looked than GoldenEye. My friend and I only did the first few levels (maybe half the game?), but I really liked what I'd seen to the degree I still vaguely remember a thing or two, despite it the game being new when I played it.


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

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Author: honestgamer
Posted: September 29, 2017 (09:59 PM)
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You needed the "expansion pack" to play most of Perfect Dark, as I recall, but I'm not sure if it was required for all of it. That pack was also used in Donkey Kong 64 and Rogue Squadron, in addition to Majora's Mask. It basically was just more RAM, I think, back when RAM was even more magical than it is now.


"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

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Author: jerec
Posted: September 29, 2017 (11:01 PM)
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Yeah, DK64 and Majora needed it. Perfect Dark apparently let you have 35% of the game, but I think that number was generous as it was just parts of the multiplayer. You definitely needed it for the single player mode.


I can avoid death by not having a life.

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Author: shinnokxz
Posted: September 30, 2017 (01:24 AM)
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Nintendo's little RAM upgrade module was just a farce, in retrospect it felt almost as desperate as the 32X and Sega CD. I seem to remember it being required and bundled with DK64, a game that had you wading through 8 MB of crap to enjoy (if that was your thing)

But how does one look at the current generation? The PS4 Pro and the Xbox One S? The same console but remade, respecced, and repriced- and if you play the old version of it then don't expect it to last very long trying running the current A+ software.

My 'newest' owned retail console is a fat PS3 I bought over a decade ago. They are still releasing on the PS3 to this day (sports titles of course). I have to put on those goofy ear muffs that airport workers use if I want to play Last of Us, because that console is cooking itself from the inside out trying to play stuff that isn't optimized for it.







hey

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Author: honestgamer
Posted: September 30, 2017 (10:16 AM)
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Yes, definitely cooking itself. I lost my launch-era PS3 to that, in fact, and with it my ability to conveniently play PS2 games (because only the launch-era ones had backwards compatibility). In my opinion, buying the N64 expansion pack definitely made more sense than buying an Xbox One X does now.


"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

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Author: jerec
Posted: September 30, 2017 (02:08 PM)
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I never thought much of it, since I was given DK64 for Christmas one year and I put the expansion pak in and never gave it much thought.

I imagine it was annoying for people who had to buy one separately.

And yeah, not buying into this PS4 Pro/Xbox One X. I don't even have a 4K TV... still using a Samsung LED I bought back in 2010.


I can avoid death by not having a life.

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