Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW // 15th January – 21st January // The “I’m Ridiculously Ill” Edition.

Let’s see if I can look at my screen for more than a few minutes without my eyes rebeling and trying to forcefully exit my skull.

Nope not this time. Try again in a couple of days.

Attempt Two: I can’t figure out what this thing I coughed up is. It looks alive. It’s telling me to burn things. I must obey the phlegmy monster that once lived in my chest.

Attempt Three: Okay…. Okay. I can do this.

Apologies if this feels a bit briefer than I usually kick out.

*wheeze*


THIRD Running Dead [PC] by Pickhut

This week’s hard choice was who got third. Pick and Jason (twice) supplied very good reviews that centered on various degrees of puzzle games which often don’t lend themselves out as particularly gripping source material. On the other hand, Freeman writes about a Castlemania fangame in a review that drips with enthusiasm, but has more structural issues and some word repetition. For most of this topic during draft, it was Freeman’s piece that took third but then I went away and coughed for a solid half hour, re-read everything and just couldn’t get passed how many times the word ‘canon’ comes up.

Pick’s review isn’t as engaging or as easy to get into -- it’s a review on a poor puzzle game, after all, but it’s a patient bash, thoroughly explained without ever reaching for the low hanging fruit of outright mockery. Good work to all; it was a harder pick then my spluttering mental faculties were functioning well enough for.

SECOND Super Mario Odyssey [SWH] Fiddlesticks

Obviously, because this site is run by a Nintendo-crazed lunatic who religiously chants the lyrics to the old Super Mario Bros. weekend morning show like a mantra for half an hour every night because, if he doesn’t, the Kirbys will devour his dreams, we already have an Odyssey review on site. The only problem with that one is that it spends so much time talking about what the game does wrong that the things it does right comes across like an afterthought. I guess the reason for this mini-rant isn’t so much as to lay the boot into Jason but to point out that if superfan Venter can fall into this trap then it’s probably an easy obstacle to stumble over. That never happens here.

There’s criticism included -- fair-sounding ones like how drowning in a thousand moons can make what should be satisfying captures feel mundane -- but it’s overshadowed by someone talking about falling back in love with a series he’d been losing hope in. It’s a strong angle to take and the game sounds all the better for it.

WIN Hellblade [PS4] by Joe

Reviews like these -- for a socially ill-adjusted miscreant like me, at least -- are a blast to write. Being able to write about any medium’s honest attempts to make you miserable often makes for some fun writing material, even if you have to constantly try and hold back on what you really want to say because dropping a spoiler and then trying to explain it in context is a tumbling house of cards. It’s far too easy to stray innocently into spoilers that will probably make your review sound more awesome but will give the reader slightly less interest in playing the game. That’s not a good thing. Don’t do that.

Joe doesn’t do that. That’s a good thing. And now he wins.

I’m off to sleep forever.

For us. For them. For you.

Thanks for the commentary. I am pleased to see that my review is a good companion piece to the one that Honestgamer wrote.

Also, congrats to Joe who covered a complicated game quite well.

Both site reviews for Senua’s Sacrifice have now won RotW.

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Considering it was a three-way battle for third placement, thanks for choosing my review! Sounded like it could have been any one with the way you were going back and forth. I think I spent nearly an entire week playing that game, and ONLY that game, so I guess that helped with the review's thoroughness; it was the only hands-on, video-related thing on my mind that week.

Congrats to Fiddlesticks for that Odyssey review and Joe for taking RotW!

I head spaceshit noises.

Thank you for the victory. I shall cherish it. Also congrats to Fiddlesticks and Pickhut for placing during this week. I hope you feel better, EmP. We need your snark.

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

Both site reviews for Senua’s Sacrifice have now won RotW.

I've awarded both those wins, too. I should probably play that game.

For us. For them. For you.