Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week - The tri-weekly Pickhut praise topic - August 1st - 7th

Review of the Week is a reader’s digest of sorts, featuring all the reviews written in a given week, and then judged by a self-important author with delusions of grandeur. That’ll be me today. Only the top three reviews shall be mentioned, in order of relevance. No reviews from the judge will be permissible (though, under a snazzy new rule we just invented, will be then eligible for the next week.), and in the event that another writer submits more than one review for the week, only the review the judge deems superior will be included.

It’s also running late this week. Unlike other people, it’s not because I forgot. I’ve been in hospital having blood drained from my foot. It’s been an incredibly fun week which has left me shattered and medicated. So, now, let’s do one of these!

No staff reviews mean that this week is dominated by reader works from regulars, steam groupers and someone else who remembers the 32X completion project. Which is still a thing. Help! Please don’t make me play any more FMV games…

NOTES:

VGC2000’s WWF Raw (Sega 32X) review - Every time I’m reminded that the big pull for the 32X version of Raw was an exclusive hidden wrestler who turned out to be Kwang (mystical ninja billed from ‘The Orient’ despite the fact he couldn’t be more obviously Puerto Rican) I find myself amused all over again.

More words follow:

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six Siege (PC) by Zydrate

Zydrate took a break from dominating the site’s blog posts (slacker – get back to work) so we manage to slip a review of her in to fill the gap.

We’ve recently had a bit of a discussion about the worth of outside the game elements and their worth to the review. In the example we previously picked, it was fair to say the prolonged attack on the game’s atrocious PR choices did wander into overkill. Where I think such criticisms are more valid are perhaps noting a particularly toxic community. Zydrate does note this, but succinctly, and still manages to also mention some pros and alternatives.

The review lost out to a couple of the other ones because it’s a bit of a skim. There’s good information there, but it does feel bare bones and there are certainly points that could be fleshed out. Still, your first review put up on site that’s not 3/5 – there’s that!

Hard Reset Redux [PC] by Brian

Brian’s reviews always have a solid level of organization to them. They’re headered reviews, but not to the point where they’re just regurgitating “the sound is, the graphics are”, so the piece still comes away as talking about the game as a whole. He’s also obsessed with acronyms; if you’re reusing a title or the developer’s name so often that you need to shoehorn it into shorthand then you’re probably using it too much.

Some of the details in this effort would have probably not got a mention from people less familiar with the source material, so that gets props here. Talking about the new inclusion of Shadow Warrior’s cyber-katana is an especially good though, weighing up the fact that it’s a cool tool to now have against the fact that the enemy cast doesn’t make it particularly useful and its status as a new weapon not original planned for making it a bit of a thorn when it comes to using a weapon selection system it shouldn’t exist within.


3D Classics: Urban Champion [3DS] by Pickhut

I am not a Nintendo guy – have I drilled that into everyone’s skull yet? Because I am not a Nintendo guy, this is the first I’m hearing about Urban Champion existence. Now, I’m not saying I follow the 3DS review schedule obsessively or, in fact, at all, but I am aware of the 3D Classics titles. I’ve heard of all the others that I’ve stumbled across so far and my first question was how I’d not heard of this one. Question answered, I guess.

The reason this review won this week is because not only does it take the time to explain why this game sucks, but goes ahead and has a stab at answering the other question we’re all thinking about- why this game exists. We come away, safe in the knowledge that it shouldn’t. Pick’s not unrelenting or unfair nor does he take utmost pleasure in picking at the bones of failure – he just talks about a bad game and why it’s bad. Good stuff.

For us. For them. For you.

Congratulations to all, and especially to pickhut, who has become the guy to beat in recent months. Also, congratulations on now having less blood in your foot, EmP. I can only assume that it is somehow related to sports?

"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

Thanks for all the kind sentiments. Since review activity on the site has picked up over the last few months, I keep thinking, at best, I would get a mention, so it's always pleasant seeing a RotW. Congrats to Zydrate and Brian on their mentions!

And get better faster, so you can review more 32X games!

I head spaceshit noises.