Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Feb. 19-25, 2018 -- The "I'm busy at work, damnit!!!" edition

Been a busy week for me work-wise, so this is late and will be reasonably short. Four reviews, as well as TWO OF MINE to be shunted onto Jason (SMT IV and Cross Hearts Arcadia, if you're keeping track).

THIRD PLACE

Rhody's Hands of Fate 2 (PlayStation 4)

It was a fairly tight battle for third place. I dug Follow Freeman's enthusiasm over the Turrican series, but wound up thinking his review was a bit light on details about the game other than that he really liked it, it has some cool weaponry and the music is great. I don't know if series basics were more thoroughly explained in a previous Turrican game review or not, but I thought this one could have used a bit more "how it works" stuff added in with the "this is awesome" praise.

As for your review, other than the minor detail that you seemed pretty harsh on a game you have 4/5 to (or maybe I just read your criticisms as harsher than they were because this looks to be the sort of game I don't think I'd find remotely interesting), I found it to tell me what I wanted to know. This is a solid, no-frills review where you describe the game and what you do in it, pointing out that it's a deeper, more complex take on the original game in the series, as well as describing how combat works and what other stuff you do besides combat in this card-oriented game. And, hey, when I don't find the game itself interesting, I LOVE it when the review I'm reading for it is short and no-frills! It tells me all I need to know without assuming I want to read 2500 words about every little detail (something I routinely ignore with my regular long essays about fringe RPGs!).

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SECOND PLACE

Joe's Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons (PC)

This is a pretty strong review that makes a strong attempt at trying to engage my interest in the sort of game that really doesn't engage my interest. The pictures help back up your assertions that this is a beautiful and atmospheric adventure. You do a good job of describing the mechanics and how the puzzles work, while adding in little details such has how certain "show, don't tell" aspects help to give the two characters personalities without beating you over the head with those attributes. While I think Masters did a bit better at thoroughly explaining just what works so well about his game this week, this is still a quality review that I enjoyed going through.

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REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

Masters' Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap (PlayStation 4)

Quite the persuasive effort, this. What I liked most about this review was sort of a two-fold thing of two elements that work together well. First, getting to the point of why people like modern remakes of old games: that entire "I wonder how cool they can make this NOW!" excitement that usually gets kind of blunted by the whole "Oh…they did WHAT to my beloved game…" sadness after actually playing it. Secondly, in describing how this game avoided the whole second part of that equation, you did a great job of showing how this game works as a pre-metroidvania metroidvania. How the animal transformations essentially work as those abilities you gradually gain and how the difficulty of monsters serves as your guide as to which path to take. And, of course, those great descriptions of the graphical enhancements this version has. A really good review.

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And that's it for February, I say in March!

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

Thanks for the words and the distinction, Rob. Everyone seems to be quite busy these days, so getting it up at all is something to be thankful for (obligatory, that's what she said). Also, how dead are these forums? I seem to recall more life in them just a few months ago, as we closed out 2017.

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

Thank you for taking the time to create this topic, and thank you for the comments and placement!

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

Thanks for the, uh, thanks, guys! And, yeah, Marc, the forums are in a bit of a lull right now. I think my response to EmP's comment on my Borderlands review was the last one up for some time -- about until I did this topic. Might be just a lull -- I know I haven't had time to do much because I'm in one of my two-week periods I have a couple of every year where I'm so swamped at work, it's hard to even find much time to game, let alone write reviews or post about anything online.

Oh, Jason: I forgot Emp's holdover review from his week that should have been covered in my week, so that one moves on. We discussed potentially adding it in post-topic for me, but I wasn't really at home at all during the weekend, so that never got done. That's twice for me at doing that! And that's what happens when I'm so distracted by work that it takes until Friday for me to even rush it out to begin with...

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