Forums > Contributor Zone > RotW: May 17-23, 2021 -- bearded robots in space

This was a lean week, but sometimes those happen. There aren't as many people online these days who care to write about games, let alone with the passion we see in a community such as this one. So thank you to each of you who return here week after week and sometimes contribute reviews or just comment on the reviews others have left. You're the reason HonestGamers continues to exist. With all of that said, on with the reviews!

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Third Place: Tempest X3 (PlayStation) by vgc2000

Aside from minor grammatical issues throughout the text, there's nothing wrong with this very straight-forward review of Tempest X3, a game I've not played in any of its forms (though I did buy a spiritual successor from its creator that was released for Vita and eventually the subject of litigation... which I still haven't played). The text here gives me a general idea of what to expect from the game and its setup, and more importantly gives a solid rundown of how this port compares to the Jaguar version, with particular attention effectively paid to the audio deficiencies. That's not something I usually compare about, but good justification was provided here and is an example of the sort of quick criticism that can make reviews like this one work well (which it did).

Runner Up: Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball (PC) by Brian

I enjoyed the discussion of the evolution of bots for multiplayer games, or for experiences deisnged to mimic multiplayer experiences, but I confess the review felt a bit like attempting to put together a puzzle and starting from the middle before working outward. There's a reason a lot of people start with the frame; it gives helpful parameters that make everything else follow more naturally. This review was written to suit its unique order of doing things, but leading with the bot discussion made the gameplay talk feel dull in comparison, even though the game discussion was the part that felt more like a review. While I think the end result works, it demands more of the reader than some readers in terms of attention and practically participation than a lot of readers might care to give. Ultimately, the point is communicated: this is an arena game with effective AI that should be fun for those who fancy such things. I just can't help but feel that different organization and slightly tighter writing in places might have served your purpose slightly better. Of course, I wouldn't want every review to feel about the same and become rote, so I appreciate the experimentation even though the results didn't prove extra effective for me personally.

Review of the Week: The Beard in the Mirror (PC) by EmP

This review gives me a good reason to play the game (which I do have in my Steam library) sooner rather than later... or at least sooner rather than never. I especially liked the first two sentences, which set the tone nicely for a review that points to moments of absurdity throughout the game itself. There were a number of unfortunate sentences where the construction made meaning a bit murky, and there were missing or wrong words here and there, but those didn't detract from a confident, effective review that makes me regret my current lack of time with which to give this game a go. Excellent work!

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My thanks again to all who contributed this week, and to anyone else watching from the sidelines. The next week has begun, so hopefully most of us are having fun playing games and here's hoping for another excellent batch of weeks for the next topic!

"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 the timely topic, and thanks for the nod. I wrote the review last minute to round the week up to three reviews, so it skipped a lot of my usual editing process. And, by a lot, I mean more or less all of it. I'll go back in and try to smooth it out at some point, probably.

For us. For them. For you.