Rude_Dude69

I am looking for games whose character progression is similar to RE5 in that you revisit past levels to find more things and collect money to upgrade your gear. I enjoy it because, with the co-op especially, non-linear play is encouraged as well as multiple playthroughs. Another example is the most recent Devil May Cry game where you can take your new abilities to older levels in an attempt to increase your grade. I hope to be pointed towards games with similar systems.

Thanks :)

@spaceinsomniac: You're right. Now that there has been some time I can look at what I wrote and see that I went a little overboard with the punctuation. My fundamental grasp on grammar and punctuation is seriously out of whack, in fact, it is so out of whack that I'm having trouble writing about my thoughts on how out of whack it is. As my high school English education has recently come to an end, I have to take it upon myself to get a MUCH better understanding of the basics during this stretch of time between now and college. Could you please provide more examples from my writing that can be fixed? I hate to ask a stranger for a grammar lesson.

@yi_orange: I have to thank and commend you for writing so many helpful answers to vague questions. My first question, though, was a bit too vague and didn't get my intent across. I'll try to better articulate my thoughts on it below.

• When I intend to look at an older game what is the best mindset to approach it with? I am 18 years old and the PS1/N64 era of games make up a large portion of what influenced me. These are just some of the traits that inform the way I see games and, ultimately, how I will write about them. With the review above I can't recall it ever crossing my mind to compare the game to something newer. I felt as though I had struck a happy-medium of providing my subjective thoughts and providing some objectivity by separating myself from other, possibly better, game experiences. In retrospect, I feel as if this was the only way I could approach writing about Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase...
• I won't be surprised if what I just wrote is incoherent, but it helped me to better articulate my actual questions which are as follows:
• Is finding the right balance between subjectivity/objectivity important?
• Do you need to find your own balance?
• How strictly should you adhere to your balance?
• Can and should the balance you use when looking at a PS1 game be applied when looking at PS4 game?

P.S.

If you ignore the numerous grammatical errors, did I at least manage to write a review of Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase that clearly tells the reader how I felt about the game, while delivering the needed information in a casual way?

Using the advice given to me here, I wrote up a more cohesive piece on Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase for PS1. Having structure in this review, in my opinion, makes it ten times better than what I was able to write about Bushido Blade. I hope it gets checked out, so I can get more feedback.

Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase PS1

The Phantom Virus transports Scooby and the gang into a virtual world in this videogame adaptation of the movie by the same name. The game consists of 7 worlds with 3 levels in each; multiple worlds from the movie are missing, so don't come to the game if your expecting a faithful retelling of the movie's plot. By pulling from the source the material, the developers manage to make all of the worlds visually unique.

Most of the 3D platforming is nestled in the first 2 levels of each world, but is broken up by vehicle segments sprinkled conservatively throughought. The two playable characters are Shaggy and Scooby Doo, it is seemingly random as to which one you are going to control in a level. This doesn't mean much, as the only difference is the size of your hitbox; there are no significant changes, if any, in how they control. The game demands a lot of your ability to move on a narrow diagonal path using the d-pad, but don't even think about taking it slow; Those bone projectiles in Rome are a doozy.

The camera is most often fixed behind the character as you navigate the narrow cooridors, that make up most of the game. At some points the camera obscured upcoming platforms making it difficult to tell where I was going to land; a segment late in the game involving catapults is particularly egregious.

Your only weapons in the game are pies, they are important in the early game but for a long stretch the only time you need them are in the bossfights that occur every third level of each world.

In general, I think that it if a game has bad controls you can adapt, play by the games rules, if your patient; Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase is one of those games, though the unresponsivness of the controls, that frequently have you running into holes when your positive you had the timing on the jump, are particularly bad and provide a steep learning curve.

I guess it's time to say this. It took me one sitting of about 97 minutes to beat this game. As a kid I just thought this game was really hard, but as a kid you don't really know if that is true or if the game is just bad. The game is bad, no denying it; nevertheless I had fun and felt good about myself when I made progress on tough levels; upon finishing the game I mostly felt relieved it was over, but I felt the slight sense of satisfaction that comes with any job well done.

@gaff: "Kitana. Katana. Mortal Kombat. %$#! %$#! %$#!" This is just some brief insight into my thoughts immediately after reading your post.

Oh yeah, I just noticed the error in my title for the first time. I bet that helps me look like I'm serious about what I am saying.

Sorry for replying so late, if anyone who replied is still watching this thread. As soon as I uploaded (whatever you call that stuff I wrote) I immediately felt a shower of self-doubt wash over me. I had read those things multiple times looking for mistakes and seeing if they sounded OK, but seeing them in a different context made feel weird, to say the least. Hopefully you guys won't mind as I mention each of you in this post so as to address your feedback individually.

@tehbull: I understand that I could have made mistakes, but I spent a fair amount of time checking my grammar against The Elements of Style. Could you please point to any specific examples if it is not too much trouble.

@gaff: Honestly, I'm glad you called out my usage of the word kitana. I told myself that it should be okay to use that word since I was describing my experience, and that "sword" or "weapon" also didn't feel right. Multiple times I was able to convince myself of the converse, that the word kitana just sounds hacky and any word would be better, being true. I went back and forth a lot, but I guess we all see where I ended up.

@spaceinsomniac: Thank you very much for your feedback. When it comes to assuming a developer's intentions, I am very much against it. (I'm going to make a criticism of our beloved GB editors that I shall preface thus: first, This mostly concerns audio and video content; second, I respect all of them and it was the integrity of certain GB editors when faced with difficult situations that inspired me to not only take an interest in games journalism, but an interest in journalism as a whole; and finally, they probably have a good deal of knowledge regarding what goes on during the development of a game.) While discussing a game and providing interesting insights and perspectives, more often than not, somebody will throw out something that "probably" happened during development and everybody begins talking about it like it is a fact. It really bothers me. Sorry to go off on a tangent, but this is something that has really irked me for awhile and I wanted to get it out there.

@thephantomnaut: I'm sorry to skip thanking you and analyzing your feedback individually, in favor of listing a few questions I have that relate to this thread as a whole.

• Is there any advice available on whether or not I should practice writing by reviewing older games? An older game is generally shorter, but sometimes lacks the amount of features necessary to write a full review; which is a graceful segue into my next question.
• What is a full review of a game?
• How long should a review be?
• I know that I need to develop my own voice or recognizable way that I talk about video games, but how should a review be formatted?
• I didn't plan on using a numbered scale to establish an overall score for a game, but could that help me in any way?
• Is it important to establish some kind of standard or baseline that I compare games to?

If you have anymore answers or advice, I would really appreciate it. Thank you.

I've written a few very short samples for a review of Bushido Blade for the PS1. I know that writing is a skill that can be learned and mastered but as someone interested in games journalism at a semi-early age I was wondering if I could get some feedback on whether or not I show any potential. Thanks!

• This example was my knee-jerk reaction when first I started writing. I set my notes on the game aside and wrote an intro with the purpose of catching the readers attention, but now I'm not sure that's the way to go about it.

• This was my second start, I was trying to form a thesis statement so as to write out my thoughts in an essay format. It mainly turned into a brief summary of the good parts of the game, I don't really like the tone of this one.

• This was just a writing exercise to see if I could write a short, negative review. I guess it helps to develop a critical eye, I'm not sure. For the record, I am a really big fan of Bushido Blade.

• This is one where I picked an aspect of the game and attempted to discuss it briefly.

I guess its easy to see that my main problem seems to be taking what I know and what I've already written and making it into one cohesive piece.

Yeah, but luckily, I was able to find my original "fat" PS2. It's dirty but it seems to work fine.

@skullpanda1: This is a different model PS2 than mine. But, after many hours of digging I discovered that the tamper sticker is on the bottom of the SCPH-90001. The sticker was badly faded and I couldn't read what it said, but I was able to see a vague outline of a square that was roughly the same size as the other plastic tabs that I had to remove to get to the screws. In short I was able to get it open, but alas, I could not fix the problem I had identified inside the console.