Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Oct. 28 to Nov. 3, 2019 -- The thrilling conclusion to OctJOEber

Quick and easy this time, as I'm at the ending stages of a very busy week. In other words, the sort of time where I'm rushing through anything resembling an obligation not directly related to my paycheck!

This will be a pretty easy week, regardless. There a few of Joe's reviews, as this is the very end of OctJOEber. And EmP has both a new one and holdover that I remembered mainly because he specifically called me out over it in his later-than-mine RotW. And, well, that's that. There was a weird site deal where Jason's review initially was listed as Oct. 31 even though it came up after that day, but now is listed as Nov. 5, which seems more accurate. So I just mentioned that as a warning that I. NOTICE. EVERYTHING. So, all hail me, your omnipotent overlord.

THIRD PLACE

Does not exist this week, so that's that for that! I'll give it to myself for doing this! And I'm really sure EmP will give me that extra point in Site King. So sure I won't even check to see if he does!

SECOND PLACE

Joe's Unforgiving: A Northern Hymn (PC)

During my last RotW, the review of yours I liked the most was one where you used your knowledge of horror and horror-themed games to illustrate just how paint-by-numbers and generic that Alone? was. While one of your other three reviews was pretty much along those lines, it wasn't the one that impressed me the most. No, your top review for this week was this one, where you take that same knowledge of Generic Horror 101 and put it to great use, showing how that knowledge gets subverted by how this game works. Which put it a step or two above your other three reviews for this week, as it leads to some great descriptions of how you'll wind up getting conditioned by this game's sound effects to be in this perpetually freaked-out state where you have no idea if you're safe or not at the current time because you're hearing scary sounds, but they're probably just background noise. Until they aren't. This is a great companion to those "let me tell you what happens next because it's predictable as hell" reviews, in that having that same tone makes all the mentions of the game using that attitude as a weapon against you all the more powerful.

REVIEW OF THE WEEK (aka: Overdrive Place)

EmP's Alan Wake (PC)

This is a really strong review that fits in perfectly with the quality horror stuff we get a ton of during OctJOEber. It took a while for me to decide what I liked more between this and Joe's Unforgiving (a lot longer time than it took to pick which of yours and his reviews I liked the most) but you wound up getting the win. I really liked the progression of this review, especially when you started to discuss this game's flaws, doing so in a way that should make perfect sense for any fan of horror games. Enemies going from terrifying to mundane, commonly-fought annoyances. Or how a forest might be a creepy location, but when most of the game is either a forest or tree-related, it all blends together. You do a great job of not only pointing out these issues, but also in giving examples to illustrate your points, making this a really fun review to go through.


And now, I'm offer to continue pondering if God of War was super-popular for any real reasons other than its amazing (for the time) production values (or, to be more cynical, because EVERY big-budget AAA title of even reasonable quality seems to get unending praise from big publications). I swear, every time I feel I'm liking this game, it does something evil to make me frustrated, screaming obscenities at my TV (and here I am, trying to be middle-aged mellow Rob) and coming thisclose to abandoning it, for good this time. Up to Pandora's Temple, it's a blast. Then you have the Trial of Poseidon with its two "timed run" swimming sections where moving too slowly for the first one or not dodging the moving walls for the second one equals instant death. Then the Trial of Hades (I think) has that section where you have to walk narrow rafters while jumping rotating blades. Then the Cliffs of Madness has that hellish chamber where you have to pull a lever, move a box a fair way and execute a perfect double-jump to climb up to a ledge before instant-death skewering on spikes. That one was so stupidly evil (ONE HOUR of non-stop try, die, restart, try, die, restart) that in comparison, the first bit of Hades where you have to balance on narrow, rotating platforms covered with spikes that''ll typically send you falling to more instant deaths was actually pretty cool. Even though, in most games, I'd find that to be a pretty annoying challenge. Bonus points for the two times the game crashed while restarting from last checkpoint, causing me to have to re-do some stuff.

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

I'd have gotten third place too -- if it wasn't for those pesky trees!

Thanks for the nod; I was a big fan of Joe's review, so I'm glad to see it register more props. Looks like another third place finish for VACANT, that scamp.

For us. For them. For you.

My review was submitted on October 31, ahead of the date it was to go live (due to embargo). The front page briefly displayed its submission date rather than its live date, but I (eventually) noticed that and fixed it. Any new feature I implement is likely to have the odd kink here or there, due to how much stuff has to be updated all over the site, but things should be in order now. And of course, the review indeed should be considered for this coming RotW. Or... it would be considered, if not for the fact I am on deck for that topic. So it'll have to wait another week after that.

Thanks for the timely topic, even if it was an easy mode topic compared to some of the ones we saw in October. We all deserve those once in a while, don't you think? Now let's flood the site with reviews for the rest of the year! >:D

"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

OctJOEber is over. Thanks for the kind words, and congrats to EmP for the victory.

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