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Voigtkampf
03-14-2004, 18:37
Well, for all those people who want to try on writing the game reviews, here are few tips to get you started. You need not take them all too literally, but they could make your life much easier and your review much more appealing to the other members. These are no guidelines, but mere suggestions, limitations for the picture space usage and similar have been already established from our lady frogbeastegg, the hairpin throwing moderator

So, you got a game that you would love to talk about here on the Org, since it has left quite some impression on you? That is a good start, but a complete review is more than the simple statement it sucks or it rocks; the members here want to know more about the game, and they want to know exact details of it and why it eventually sucks or rocks.

So, for the beginning you may want to:

Write an introduction

You know, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…, that type of thing, you reminiscence how you played the first part of it or how you waited for it for a long time, or if you write about Formula 1 simulation you remember how you went to see Schumacher some few years ago. You might want to keep this part short and crispy, a sort of appetizer before the main course.

Begin reviewing the game

You start from small and work your way up. Your approach may start from as I saw the opening menu, I fell off the chair from excitement to when I went to bed afterwards, I kept dreaming how my valiant knights charged the enemy lines. In between those two ends, the whole story must fit in, and all the important information about the game must be revealed, among the most important ones are:

- gameplay
- graphic
- sound
- multiplayer
- replay value
- bugs

and so forth.

Conclusion

All good things…must come to an end, same goes for the reviews. At the end you wrap up your impressions and present them to the reader in an appropriate manner, drawing a sound and objective conclusion why some game is worth or not worth being bought. The engine specifications are quite important, state those that are minimum requirement for the game as the publisher claims and write about those that would probably be needed in praxis.

You may also want to give it a rating, 1-10, bad to excellent, once you've reviewed it.

The most important issue is to remain objective in your writings and never succumb to blindly bashing or idolizing the game. If you, for example, don't like the HUD, you should state all the reasons why you don't like it and even possible suggestions on how to improve it.

I might once again remind you that only 5 pictures are allowed, check screenshots thread (http://www.totalwar.org/cgi-bin/forum/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=33;t=16073) for more details.

So, basically, that would be it. Hit it and have fun

frogbeastegg
03-14-2004, 19:17
Great stuff, this should help anyone wanting to take advantage of the fact this forum also houses patrons' game reviews. :throws hairpin, fastening the topic to the wall:

Krauser
07-09-2005, 22:01
Where are these reviews?

frogbeastegg
07-22-2005, 15:06
Just start a new topic in this forum.

King Henry V
08-20-2005, 21:14
Wouldn't it be better to have one stickied review thread with all the reviews in it so that they don't get "lost"? Or something like the Library in the Mead Hall?