Forums > Contributor Zone > Review of the Week Feb. 27 – Mar. 5

EmP pulled me out of retirement because he felt threatened by my reviewing comeback and needed to increase the number of weeks he could potentially place in RotW at the same time as reducing mine the increased number of reviews this year has made it tough to just have three rotating judges. More people should get in on this action so I don’t have to do it every month. I actually did officially retire from judging a couple of years ago. It was glorious and epic, but now I’m basically Scrubs Season 9…

So, this week we have seven reviews by seven different authors. I’ve decided to leave separate feedback topics on the reviews that didn’t place in the top 3, since that seems like a nicer and fairer way to handle things. So, our top three for this week includes some of our usual suspects, although this seemed to be a quieter week than some I’ve seen. I certainly didn’t bother submitting anything. So, we’ve got pickhut, Nightfire and EmP. I’m actually struggling to determine which order these three will go in, although I had no problem picking the top 3.

Okay, I’ll probably need to re-read the top 3 reviews.

Seasons change, time passes by, as the weeks become the months become the years…



THIRD PLACE - Sniper Elite 4 by pickhut

I liked the introduction paragraphs, with the contrast to the previous game, and then the story of how you lost yourself in a game’s level that was much bigger than you expected. Games like this lend themselves to descriptive reviews where you can describe how you went about playing the game. The comparisons to the previous games in the series are useful. Although I’ve never heard of this series before, I get a sense of how each game has added to the series. You’re also wise to counter your descriptions of these large levels by reminding us it isn’t sandbox or open world, because I definitely got that impression throughout the review.


SECOND PLACE - Broken Sword: The Smoking Mirror – Remastered by EmP

The Broken Sword series has always interested me, although I’d always been more of a Monkey Island fan, myself. I remember trying to play through the director’s cut of the first game, and not really finding it to be all that enjoyable, and now I see why. This seemed like a difficult game for you to approach – but I think it came across well, it’s a better remaster of a weaker game. Your writing is to the point, full of amusing asides (Myst does suck, and yes I am quick to run to a FAQ these days), but it makes me want to give this series another shot someday.


REVIEW OF THE WEEK - Breach 2 by Nightfire

I decided to give this one the win this week. You strike a really good balance between nostalgia and current realism in your approach to this game. I’m sure we’ve all got memories of little-known PC games we loved as kids, before we got older and more discerning. There’s nothing like those games we could sink countless hours into, with very little regard for their quality. You mention the micromanagement and a clunky interface makes the game sound awful, but by that point you’ve already made me quite sympathetic towards the game for its approach to strategy, your love of the campaign editor, and the really interesting “interlocking Game System” thing, which is something I know I would’ve loved the hell out of as a kid. I’ve never heard of anything quite like it.



And that’s it for this week. Thanks for playing! And writing! And writing about what you’re playing. I enjoyed writing about your writing about what you’re playing. We’ll do it again in a month.

And I remembered why I didn't do this in Microsoft Word...

I can avoid death by not having a life.

Thanks for the placement! It's actually nice to know someone with no knowledge of the series was still able to process and understand all the things I wrote about the game. It's a tough balancing act when writing about sequels, since you have to figure out if you're saying too much or being too vague when making descriptions and comparisons to the other games.

Congrats to EmP on his placement with his millionth, entertaining Broken Sword review, and to Nightfire on the RotW! Never heard of Breach 2 until you submitted a review, so that was a nice surprise.

I head spaceshit noises.

Good job on the topic, Jerec, and kudos for providing feedback to those reviews that didn't place. Congratulations, of course, to the top three participants in particular! Maybe sometime soon, I'll be able to throw my hat in the ring another week. I have been playing games. It's just a matter of whether I can review them.

"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

Seamless comeback, jerec. Of course, I knew you'd be able to do this easily, and that's why you were top of the list when a space opened up. Or, the only one who got back to me. One of the two; I forget.

Thanks for the place, and congrats to Pick and Nightfire for coming up with the goods. Being an X-Com geek, I especially enjoyed Night's effort, and that interlocking thing seems awesome.

In seven years time, on this very date, I'll finally get around to reviewing Broken Sword 3.

For us. For them. For you.

Arigato gozaimasu, Jerec-san, for the win. I wasn't expecting anything, but I guess my methodical approach to analyzing older games paid off this time.

You're certainly quick on the draw, too; you wrote a great article and delivered it exactly on time. Thank you for picking up the slack, and I look forward to reading your ROTWs going forward! :D

placid like acid