Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: June 16-22 -- I'll think of a witty title for this one later (not really).

Counting overdrive's holdover from last week, there were ten reviews for me to sort through and rank this week. I don't have anything fancy to say, other than that I've provided critiques for all of them this week. Most of you indicated you wanted that treatment, anyway, so I might as well provide it.

As always, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on the games you reviewed this week. And now, without further ado, here are my comments first on the reviews that didn't quite make the top three, followed by my comments on the ones that did...

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The Amazing Maze (Arcade) by Midcore

This was a solid review for a game I hadn't previously read much of anything about. You took some rather dull subject matter--a generic maze game--and provided answers to questions I might never have thought to ask, in addition to the more obvious ones. You also got me thinking about maze games in general, with your bit about Pac-Man. How remarkable would players have found that game if it suffered from the faulty controls that impact the Amazing Maze experience? Having played Pac-Man on an Xbox 360, where the d-pad is all but usless, I can't help but think the genre's fortunes would have been considerably worse. Anyway, this was a strong review that I enjoyed reading despite the rather bland subject matter. Good job!

Legasista (PS3) by JoeTheDestroyer

There were a few minor errors throughout this review, like this one: "You know that you'll be able to move as quickly as you can think, and handle tense battles with without blaming faulty mechanics." I think "with without" should be changed to just "without," but even then the sentence seems a bit odd. Extra words seem to be the source of most of the mechanical issues I found throughout the review, and that's easy to understand if it's a review you touched up and maybe just didn't go over as many times as you could have during the editing process. Aside from such minor hitches, it's a strong review of the sort of game sites like HonestGamers can thrive by covering more frequently. I enjoyed reading it, so thanks for posting it!

Axiom Verge (PC) by bwv_639

This review frustrated my efforts to read and enjoy it, primarily with unnecessarily complex sentences that don't seem to say anything you couldn't say more directly. You recognize and use to your advantage the fact that readers tend subconsciously to enjoy sentences of varying lengths. That's good. However, the structure of the review overall is such that if someone is unfamiliar with the game, they are likely to get lost at multiple points. For example, you mention Happ feeling uncertain about whether the game is anotehr Metroid, before you establish a paragraph later that he is the game's long developer. Overall, the review feels like it is trying too hard to be artful. Challenging yourself as a writer is good, and a necessary step as your style evolves. With any future efforts, I suggest that you make clarity your focus.

Shining Resonance Refrain (PS4) by Phazonmasher

This review is perfectly serviceable, so my comments here reflect my personal taste as a reader, trying to offer suggestions as to how you might take things to the next level. My first suggestion is to think carefully about your introductions as you write future reviews. The trivia at the start is accurate, but it goes on a bit too long for what you're saying: "This is the first new Shining game to come west in 10 years." One issue is that you pretty much make that point again at the start of the next paragraph, so the two paragraphs might have more fruitfully been combined and trimmed to allow you to get into the analysis more quickly. Then at the end of the review, you conclude with a comment about not ignoring one of the better players because he's not a cute player. It feels like an irrelevant aside at that point, when it might have been more usefully integrated somewhere in the review. But as I said, the review is perfectly serviceable, so all of the above is just me nitpicking.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves (PS2) by JoeTheDestroyer

A strong review for the third game in a series you've written about a lot lately. I enjoyed reading it, and liked the attention to detail that can only convincingly come from someone who has played prior games in the series. I just felt like your review for Agony was the stronger submission during the last week or so.

Conan Exiles by Zydrate

You picked a good time to review Conan Exiles, with it being affordably offered as part of the latest Humble Monthly bundle. So first of all, thanks for that! Your disclaimer as an opening paragraph felt a bit awkward, because your opening paragraphs are your opportunity to let the reader know they've found something special and a disclaimer tends to read like the written version of white noise. Your second paragraph, though not really talking about the game itself, is a more interesting hook that would be even stronger if you started with it, I feel. I suggest that as you write future reviews, you pay more attention to organization. Work more on getting to the point quickly, and guiding the reader from one point to another, so that your resulting review is a bit more direct and feels less like a collection of general comments on aspects of the game that annoyed you or didn't. You have good ideas, so now it's time to find more direct and interesting ways to present them.

Virginia (PC) by Flobknocker

I enjoyed this review a fair bit, but it didn't really seem to spend a lot of time up front actually reviewing the "game." You're to the fourth paragraph before you start talking about the game itself, and that's just so you can remark on the aspect ratio and such. Your engaging voice carries me through that, and by the end of the review I get the idea that Virginia is a game that barely requires any interaction from the player to tell a lackluster story. But while I appreciate you not spoiling anything by diving too deep, I don't feel like you really did enough to tell me what the story is about or how it develops. And the formatting is iffy, because people are used to reading paragraphs with double spaces between them on the Internet, not just a bunch of short paragraphs with only a single hard return to separate them.

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Third Place: South Park: The Stick of Truth (Xbox 360) by overdrive

Your love for South Park definitely comes through, and that's one of the best things this review has going for it. Since most people have by now heard that this game is really quite good, you couldn't get much out of the old "Licensed games usually suck but this one doesn't" angle, and I think that was for the best. Your infectious enthusiasm for all the hijinks and characters and even the game's mechanics came through, and yet you were able to point to elements that might have been improved. A solid and informative entry, all around!

Runner Up: Agony (PC) by JoeTheDestroyer

The repurposing of Dante's quote is an appropriate strapline for your review, and nicely sets the tone. Agony sounds like a hellish game to play, all but completely devoid of value because its developers commited the eighth deadly sin and produces a game so relentlessly shocking that it actually becomes dull. I liked a lot of what you wrote about it, but I thought some of the best writing came when you showed how easily the game is broken (as when you talked about sprinting past enemies rather than taking the stealthy approach the developers intended). All in all, this was an authoritative, insightful review of a game I now have absolutely no desire to play. Thanks!

Review of the Week: Unreal Tournament (PC) by Follow_Freeman

You did a great job with this review. Before I forget it, here's the start of one sentence that didn't come out quite as it should have: "Being able to tweaked many mechanics is a PC gaming staple, and Unreal Tournament is..." That should be "tweak," not "tweaked." But anyway, there weren't a lot of errors in your text, and you made some excellent points (particularly with your detailed discussion of weapon shots leaving visible trails) that go a long way toward letting someone who has never played the game--because to me, it looked too generic--know why there really is something special. Such analysis really makes for a compelling, informative read, and that's why I declare you this week's winner. Great work!

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Thanks for your contributions, everyone! You continue to tell me about all sorts of games old and new, indie and mainstream, which is just the sort of thing I love knowing I can expect from the site and this community. Keep up the good work!

"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

Always appreciate the honorable mention. I aim for those more than direct placements. Any commentary on experienced site-dwellers is always helpful.

I think my disclaimer informs my blog-like style. I feel my disclaimers help clarify why my experience differs from everyone elses. The game has gotten a lot of flak for balance, lag, and other issues. Meanwhile I did basically turn it into Skyrim via the admin settings and had fun for almost 40 complete hours (I had a lucky timing with three days off work) before starting to explore multiplayer servers.

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Thanks for the placement in what seemed to be a strong week. Wasn't sure how this one would work, since I started it one day, wrote about five paragraphs and then nearly scrapped it all to start over before just heavily editing them, as I liked the premise, but not the execution. And when I do stuff like that, things can easily get disjointed.

I think about the only thing I wanted to say that I couldn't figure out a way to say it was how the creators even learned something about their show doing this game because they'd created the town of South Park, but never really put it into a concrete map. Just having the kids at one place and then at another. So they had to sit down and think about where one house was in relation to another and so on, which I thought was kind of a neat factoid.

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

Wow, thank you! I'm very glad that despite the heavy competition (and this was one tough week to compete in due to all the great reviews) I managed to snag a win with this one since Unreal Tournament may be my favorite game. I'm doubly glad that the review seemed to have resonated with a few and brought back good memories. Oh, and thank you very much for the feedback, and I'll be sure to fix those typos; I've had to sacrifice polish in order to make time for juggling movie reviews and IRL matters, so I really do appreciate anyone pointing out these slip-ups so it doesn't take weeks after many have read them for me to find and fix.

A song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RqzFkV2K4g
Film reviews: https://letterboxd.com/Follow_Freeman/

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Nice work on the RotW, Jason. It was up super fast and complete with critiques all around. First Rob, and now you -- raising the bar for those to follow.

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

Another V for Freeman! Thanks for the speedy post, critiques and placement.

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

I'll admit, that Amazing Maze review was pretty boring to write. There really wasn't much to say about the game, so I'm genuinely surprised that I managed to find enough stuff to talk about, there. I don't plan on reviewing every video arcade game out there, but I do want to cover a significant number of them, at least the notable ones.

The next game I'm reviewing, while still nothing special today, has a lot more historical relevance than Amazing Maze. Not just to video games, but it also has possible connections to the film industry as well. I doubt that I'll finish the review this week, but I should have an easier time with this one than the previous one.

Congrats to the winners!

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