Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: Dec. 31, 2018-January 6, 2019 -- First in 2019 Edition

As the winter holiday period continued, it was another slow week for contributions. But there were still seven new reviews posted, which isn't so bad. Four of them came from one author, though, and that author was me. Since I'm ineligible, that means everyone who contributed something places in the top three. Without further ado...

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Third Place: Final Fantasy X / X-2 HD Remaster (PC) by hastypixels

This review contains some genuinely great bits, but it's just too long to be particularly useful to a lot of contemporary readers, given that the game came out ages ago and given how allergic some readers have become to blocks of text in that time. We don't need the rundown of some of the information you provide, which would more helpfully exist as part of a strategy page, when we're trying to decide whether to play or buy a game. The organization could also use some tightening. You mention the various characters and outline how you feel about the quality of their attacks, for instance, but that doesn't really tell the reader anything useful because there's not enough context. Then you return to the characters a short time later and describe them in detail, which just feels redundant because you're going over things a second time (even though the material is actually new). Your introduction also goes on for a bit long, and some of the comments seem to have been provided more for the benefit of someone who has played the game than someone who has not. Overall, the feeling is that a bit more editing--with particular emphasis on organization and brevity--would have done wonders for your draft. I do like the more conventionally "reviewy" parts, where you speak with authority and cover important info for audiences old and new, but too much of the rest of it feels like filler to qualify the review for higher placement. I see from the comments that you're recovering from bronchitis, and I hope that is going well. Final Fantasy X is a surprisingly difficult game to write about effectively, even when someone is at his best.

Runner Up: OutRun 2019 (Genesis) by pickhut

There were minor little rough spots throughout this review, including some passive voice issues and a little more word repetition than usual, but the organization and the points you made were terrific. The auto-boost mechanic sounds absurd, and your review did well to spend a paragraph focusing on it. The other discussion was also solid, but by the time I reached the end, I wouldn't have been surprised to see the game receive a score even lower than the one you awarded it. I know you cleared the game, so I guess that says something for it, but did you encounter anything the game did right compared to the main franchise in which it appears?

Review of the Week: Motocross Championship (32X) by EmP

This doesn't sound like a particularly grand affair. The visuals don't look so bad in the screenshots you provided. There's a pleasing retro flair to them. Which is why it's good that you spend time in your text outlining ludicrous things such as a track that disappears if you get too much air. This sounds like the sort of game that really is a 1/5 right now, and it sounds like it probably wasn't much better a showpiece for the hardware when said hardware was new. You had a few great lines in the text (I especially liked the evocative John Carpenter reference), which made up for some of the grammatical stumbles I encountered and pulled you into the lead for the week. Congrats!

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Thanks to all who contributed this week and ensured 2019 got off on the right foot, with quality content. Keep it coming, and have a good one!

"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 runner-up, Venter! I guess the one main thing the game "did right" when compared to other OutRun games is the branching paths. Everything else about it is just standard racing rare. They couldn't even be bothered to make the car red... making the red car on the box cover a lie!

Congrats to the RotW win, EmP! Venter and hasty for participating in what could have been a very tiny, after-the-holidays week!

I head spaceshit noises.

Good job on what looks like a very prompt and very helpful RotW, Venter. Congrats to Emp on the first win of the year.

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

Thanks for the win! I put a lot of time into that awful game in order to write that review; I've said before, but I doubt there's many people alive who have played as much 32X as I have by this point. God help me.

Props to Pick and Hasty for holding down week one with me. Now to pull a Jerec and NEVER WRITE AGAIN, thus ensuring I have a 100% win record for the year.

For us. For them. For you.

^ Jerec likes this post

I can avoid death by not having a life.

I agree with your points ... my relationship with FFX is how shall I say, "complicated", so an outline could have done wonders, or even letting it sit for twenty four hours before editing it.

Oddly enough I did apply that old school technique to my next review.

All things considered I'm pleased that it made third place. Thank you.

Look, the only time I'm not wrong is when I'm right, so...