Nathan vs Video Games: Week in Review for 1/22/2012
By theuselessgod 1 Comments
Greetings blog readers, and welcome to the week in review for 1/22/2012. This week saw a boatload of reviews, 12 in fact, pushing the grand total thus far to 33 games. I reviewed a bunch of old PC games this week, particularly Sierra-On-Line games, but I'm not finished with those just yet! I have a bunch more in the pipeline, considering those were what I mostly grew up with, so prepare yourselves for more reviews of old PC games you played and then forgot existed.
I thought I'd also take a brief moment to explain how I review games, and specifically why I only give whole-star ratings. When I sit down to write a review, I have such a massively stupid amount of choices (from all the games I've played) I usually only write ones that I immediately can think of something to say about. I write them all in one sitting, with no planning in advance whatsoever, and I only go back and edit if I made specific errors or mistakes. Basically you are getting me saying what I can think of off the cuff, in one quick breath, and without me redacting anything I've said. I want these to be as completely honest as possible, and keep in mind they are just my opinion (though I do balance the score a little based on game quality, even if I didn't enjoy it, but that's for another post) so if you love a game I hate, I'm totally cool with that (or vice versa).
I give full star ratings rather than half ratings (Giant Bomb, where I am also posting these reviews, allows half-star ratings) because I feel limiting myself makes me both think more about how many stars I give a game, and gets rid of an easy out. In truth, the star rating is there as an afterthought; what I really want you to do is read the words of the review, figure out if you like what I'm saying, and make a judgement from that. There are a lot of games that I think are decent (Legend of Dragoon from this week comes to mind) but I really can't justify giving a high star rating. Hopefully I explain this well in my review (though I am considering putting the star rating just under the last part of "The Short" in reviews, for the especially lazy).
Well, that's it from me. I'm really enjoying this as both a writing exercise and a trip down memory lane, and I really hope you are enjoying reading them. My intentions are that, once we start getting more games on here, you might discover some games you haven't played yet that you'd like to try, or games you forgot about that you can dig back up again. The possibilities are endless!
It is also worth noting most next-gen games were played on Xbox 360 unless otherwise noted. I'm not a fanboy or anything, it's just the system I bought first, so I tend to preference games on it (I like the controller better, too, and all my friends are on there).
Anyway, here is this week's reviews in blurb. And, as always, requests are welcome (and I promised a Super Mario Bros 2 for NES review this last week; sorry, I totally spaced it. I will do my best to get it out this week, though)
Dead to Rights: Retribution - 2 / 5
King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride - 3 / 5
Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - 3 / 5
Oh yes, I've also started my "Rock Band Review Fiasco," which will be combination reviews of every Rock Band game as well as personal side-notes by me regarding how much I've enjoyed playing this game with friends and family. The first game is up; I intended to do more tonight but I finished a novel instead, so expect the saga to continue tomorrow with Rock Band 2, The Beatles: Rock Band, Lego Rock Band, Green Day: Rock Band, and Rock Band 3.
Have a great week!
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