How do you review?
A lot of websites have their own mechanics for reviewing products. One common scheme is rating a game either on a numeric scale (1 to 5, or 1 to 10) with the higher score being better, and other may employ the classic “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” approach.
Me? I like to make my reviews a little more practical. I will sometimes use hyperbole to indicate that something was “200% more fun once patched” or “about 10% of the game I liked; the rest was trash” but that is more for dramatic effect than anything. I like to keep things complicated. I like to talk about flaws.
All the games in the world can have all the shiny graphics, tight gameplay, and amazing music they want, but it all comes down to the things that wear down at your patience over time. That one UI window you avoid because navigating its options is some dark art that will consume hours of your time with little reward, or the one character that you are forced to listen to for hours and hours and their voice just drives you insane.
I find a good balance is essential, so that will normally not kill a game for me, however there are just some times when I am unable to ignore several aspects of the game, and I do not have the heart to continue on on spite of them. My system, if you could call it down, breaks down pretty easily.
Major Flaw: I consider this a wallbanger, or other game-breaking flaw. Examples would include the combat system of Star Ocean: The Last Hope, or perhaps the real-time-only element of Infinite Undiscovery. Two disappointments that hit very hard and very early on into the game.
Minor Flaw: Not nearly as jarring as the Major Flaw, but still significant. This would be akin to having to click 20 options in order to log into a game (yes, I know this was patched, but that was about 3 years after the fact). Perhaps the game is part of a series that is just More Of The Same and makes you consider your yearly investment carefully.
I will call anything an outright “good” game, if it does not have more than 1 Major and 3 Minor flaws. I would consider owning these games, and getting significant replay out of them, before trading them in once the urges are gone. Anything more than that is an “okay” game, and would most likely be worth renting via Gamefly (or Blockbuster, if you’re into that sort of thing). The rest are games I probably can’t play more than a couple of hours into (at least) or ends in some extremely unsatisfying way (if it has an ending; MMOs are mostly exempt from this) is usually a blight on the face of gaming industry.
Like I said, I’m rather fond of hyperbole. I’m going to use this review system to break down some of my most and least favorite games of some time of my choosing, and most will likely be brief, unless I am inspired to rant!
