Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW // 12th February – 18th February // Last Minute Zerg Rush

This was looking like a reasonable week to work though; not a massive amount of submissions, but all good stuff. Then Jason remembered that there was a copy editing room and cleared out a couple of week’s worth of backlog. And then, on the Sunday right before my week’s deadline, there was a whole new front page full of content. Making a mockery out of the decision to only feature four reviews up there and waste page space on a guide block that’s not been updated in two years.

I don’t have time for tangents! Got a lot of reviews to sift through. Let’s go!

In an attempt to make the forums look slightly less dead then they are, I’ve put the feedback I’d typed up for the reviews outside placement in the feedback topics.


THIRD Shadow of the Colossus [PS4] by Fiddlesticks

Go away, Fiddlesticks! Stop reviewing all the AAA games that I don’t have time to play and you constantly write great reviews for that make me want to play them! This Shadow review isn’t quite as attention grabbing as, say, Mario Odyssey or Hellblade was, but it works well within the confines of a remake that doesn’t just spit shine the graphics and lob in achievements. It talks in comparisons, not just telling you that it’s a game rebuilt from the ground up, but contrasting these changes against the original original. I’ve heard the argument before that the clumsiness of Shadow’s control scheme fits in due to how you shouldn’t feel in control, but I think taking time aside to make that point well was a boon to you review.

I think its main stumbling block is that it does lean on comparison quite heavily and, in doing so, assumes a fair bit of prior knowledge. Which should work great for most of the review’s audience who have played the game before and are just looking to see what’s new and what works better. But it turns out I was too busy trying to work through my PSX JRPG backlog in 2005 to play anything, you know, current, so the details skimped over on the foundation game stood out more for me then they would for perhaps the rest of the RotW rota.

SECOND Gothic II: Gold Edition [PC] Joe

Take a shot every time Joe says the game’s title. Even OD’s kidney will tap out at this point: “Needless to say, Gothic II: Gold Edition's campaign is a hell of an odyssey. I'll admit, though, that Gothic II: Gold Edition could have used more entertaining side quests.“ That’s an extreme example but, if was was to criticize (and I am; it’s why I’m here), I would say that not only do you use the game’s title throughout the review way too often, but there’s no need to tack Gold Edition to the end of every mention. I get that it ties into one of the last paragraphs explaining what the Gold Edition changes from the foundation build, but it reads like you’re on name drop commision. I guess keeping the title fully intact in preparation for that paragraph would work better if it didn’t crop up so often?

Anyway!

I like Piranha Bytes, but I actively avoid them, and your review explains why I rob myself of these games; they take over your life. No one else out there manages to pull off a rags to riches tale quite like these guys, starting you off as a scrub getting wrecked by local wildlife and finishing the game as the destroyer of worlds. It happens on such a gradual slope that it’s rarely jarring and that sense of progression makes you want to battle through the occasional awkward phase or buggy bugged bit. I put my life on hold once upon a time to play Gothic 3 for that very reason, which is the most important aspect to get across. You nail that.

You had another review in the running, but while congrats on knocking # out early, it doesn’t hold a candle to this one. Very fine work.

WIN Mortal Manor [PC] by Masters

As has become annoyingly routine for him, Marc says in very few words what many of us struggle to get across in double the amount. Both his reviews this week do just that being short, direct, and cut right to the heart of the matter. In that vein, I prefered his review for Mortal Manor this week because it gets across a more complex argument in just as few words. Though he frames it as a negative review, it still retains enough parise and well supported reasons behind his complaints that a subset of gamers will still come away from this review thinking that Mortal Manor will be a great game for them because of its hardcore approach. At the same time, Marc makes it clear that MM’s difficulty curve is often artificial, presenting the gamer with an unreasonable checkpoint feature that punishes you for exploring, which is a hallmark of the genre. The line about crawling back to previous checkpoints to ensure you don’t lose progress rather than continue into the unknown and risk half an hour or progress was an especially strong point in this thesis.

Bonus points for reviewing a game that wants to be viewed as overly hard and not buying in to the “X is the Dark Souls of its genre” meme. We get it, other review writers; everything is the Dark Souls of something. Christ; play a different difficult game.

Thanks to everyone but Venter for a solid if not top-heavy week of reviews. Rob's up next week who'll forget that I have Q-YO Blaster locked down as a carry over and then pretend he didn't forget it was a thing at all. But we all know better. We all know.

For us. For them. For you.

Thanks for the comments and congrats to the winners. This was a game I actually did not realize was coming out until pretty much its release and then quickly let nostalgia goad me into getting it. It basically obsoletes the other versions, so skip them if you have a PS4.

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Thanks for the kind words and the placement. I read all the reviews again this week; they're all good. Kudos on getting the topic up so quickly, and the feedback topics are a nice touch.

I don't have to prove I'm refined - that's what makes me refined!