Hey, if you just found this blog, then you are extremely nosey, and shame on you for catching us with our metaphorical pants down!
In all seriousness, though, this blog is a pet project of a couple of long-time gamers, with experience on both sides of the counter, and enough collective hours logged on the controller and the keyboard that we really ought to be ashamed. We both have a lot of experience recommending games to family, friends, acquaintances, and strangers, both in real life, and on the web, so creating a repository of our recommendations was the next logical step.
The goal of this blog is to present game reviews as unbiased as possible. Our method of choice? Well, since it is impossible to really go into a review without bias, we have made it our goal to make all bias explicit. This means we'll tell you up front what games we personally enjoy, so you can compare your tastes to our own. We'll tell you, when reviewing a game, what our impressions were prior to the review, and whether or not we have any familiarity with the series. Most importantly, from my personal perspective, we'll tell you how we played the game that we're reviewing. If we only had enough time to get half-way through, or we played single-player only on a game that has a large co-op focus, or we attempted to control a flight-sim with a Guitar Hero controller, you'll know up front, and be able to take our reviews with the grain of salt that you deserve; because if you're going to be basing your buying decisions even partially on our recommendations, you deserve to know how we came to our conclusions of what you should do with your money.
Now, as for rating systems, you should know that I am personally adamantly opposed to them. I think that game reviews get far too bogged down in ratings, and people lose sight of what really makes the game. Still, I recognize that they are important to people, and my co-creator of this blog pouts at me when I start talking about eschewing ratings altogether, so we have agreed on a five-point system for rating games. It works as follows:
5 - A game that gets a five is a perfect game. It is like meeting an incredibly attractive lady, and when you get to talking with her, you discover that she is incredibly intelligent, and shares your interests and sensibilities, but that she is also enough dissimilar from you that she can challenge your preconceived notions, and help you grow as a person. She also doesn't mind folding laundry, which you absolutely HATE doing. P.S. If there is a lady who meets this description reading this blog, you should know that I am single. ;-)
4 - A four is not a bad score. A four is a title worth buying at launch; one that guarantees a great time. It is extremely difficult for a game to be absolutely perfect, but there are plenty of amazing games out there that suffer from camera issues, or force you to do some tedious grinding to progress at certain points, or have an awful ending. These games are fours. Most "triple A" titles are fours. Do not bitch at us because your favorite game of the year got a four, that is a great score to get.
3 - A three is a game that is solid, and is worth renting, and probably picking up used, or after a price drop. Not every game can be a "triple A" game, nor should they all have to be. There are lots of great game experiences to be had that are not mind-blowing, but are definitely worth your while. A solid game is a great thing to have on a rainy day, or to fall back on once you beat the latest "triple A" title, and want more gaming fun before the next one comes out. Most of the games that you play are probably threes, and that is a perfectly acceptable thing.
2 - There are a few different reasons a game might get a two. The first is a good game with a serious flaw. Maybe it is a great game, but it has a tendency to glitch out, or the camera placement artificially ramps up the difficulty. A game may also get a two because of its severe niche status. A two is also the score given to a game that is clearly bad, but has some kind of redeeming value that is worth giving it a second glance. Essentially, a two is a game that is worth taking a look at, possibly renting, and maybe buying if you find that it really appeals to you. There is no shame in playing a two.
1 - A one is just downright bad. Sometimes a one might be worth renting, but never worth buying. A one is the kind of game that makes you ask the question "Just how stupid do they think we are, that we might buy this piece of crap?" This is the home of severely flawed games, broken to the point of unplayability. It is the home of needless shovelware, and ports of games that weren't any good to begin with. It is the home of a sea of endless cash-in games, based on licenses from other mediums. Don't buy a one, unless you know exactly what you are getting in to, or as a gag gift. If you are considering buying a one at launch, you should probably just donate the money to a worthy charity instead.
That is our score system, and what it means. We don't give half points, or tenths of a point, or anything like that. We don't claim that multiplying our score by 20 gives you a percentage score comparable to those of other sites, although we won't stop you if you really want to do that. Mostly, we are just giving you a quick way to see the bottom line on what we recommend you do with your gaming budget. Sometimes we may give a game multiple conflicting scores, when more than one of posts up a review for the same game. In these instances, remember to take our personal biases into account, and choose the score that most closely reflects your own tastes. We're not here to tell you what to think, we're just telling you how we feel.
I hope you find us helpful, and if not that you at least find us amusing. Whether you're hear to seek our wisdom, or just to laugh at us, we're just appreciative for the traffic.
Share and Enjoy,
Evander
