It’s been probably 10 years or so since I was writing reviews, and I have to say, I never felt pressure to skew a review one way or another.
The biggest heat I got was from fanboys when I had a sneak peek at PAX of Duke Nukem Forever and had to report how shitty it was. “YOU DON’T KNOW!!! YOU DIDN’T PLAY THE WHOLE GAME!!! YOU HACK!!!”
And I was like “Yeah, you’re right, I didn’t play the whole game, I played what their marketing team WANTED me to play and it sucked, you think the parts they DIDN’T want me to play are going to be better?”
Surprise… the game stunk up the joint.
But when it came to reviewing games, I approached every review as if the game were a 10/10, and then as I played I looked for reasons to subtract or add points. The plusses and minuses would balance out and I’d have a final score.
As a former teacher, I used school grades, which is why I think most sites are on a 7-10 scale.
A - 90%+
B - 80%+
C - 70%+
D - 60%+
F - 59% and down.
A game can be bad because it’s a bad game or it can be bad because it’s functionally broken. D is generally the Ralph Wiggum of games, possible to like, but you have to admit it’s pretty bad.
I had to give a failing review to Assassin’s Creed Liberty on the Playstation Vita even though I really liked how it looked and it played, because it had a game breaking bug that made your save file unloadable. Ubi took 2 months to fix it, rendering it unplayable for the first two months after launch.
Once it was fixed, I amended the review, but it was plainly unacceptable to release it in a broken state like that.
I was surprised at the 7 scores until I caught the bit about how it’s all fast travel. You can’t just start on a planet, take off in your ship, point it at a moon or something and fly there.
OTOH, how boring would it be having 1:1 space travel?
“Considered by Penn to be the “best part” of the collection, Desert Bus is a simulation trick minigame and a featured part of Electronic Gaming Monthly’s preview. It is the most notorious minigame in the actual game. The objective of the game is to drive a bus from Tucson, Arizona, to Las Vegas, Nevada, in real time at a maximum speed of 45 mph (72 km/h). The feat requires eight hours of continuous play in real time to complete.[2][3]
The bus contains no passengers, there is little scenery aside from an occasional rock or bus stop sign, and there is no traffic. The road between Tucson and Las Vegas is simplified compared to the real highways: it is now completely straight. The bus veers to the right slightly, and thus requires the player’s constant attention.[3] If the bus stops, or veers off the road it will stall and must be towed back to Tucson, also in real time. If the player makes it to Las Vegas, one point is scored. The player has the option to make the return trip to Tucson for another point, a decision which must be made in a few seconds or the game ends. Players may continue to make trips and score points up to a maximum score of 99 points, which requires 33 days of continuous play. Although the landscape never changes, an insect splats on the windshield about five hours through the first trip, and on the return trip the light fades, with differences at dusk, and later a pitch black road where the player is guided only with headlights.[2] The light eventually returns at dawn, but due to a programming bug it will cycle endlessly between dawn and night for the remainder of the game. The game cannot be paused.”
Not currently, no. They burned enough dev cycles trying to get split screen co-op on the S that now BOTH the S and X versions are delayed, which I guess is better than “not happening at all.”
The S has every right to exist, but as soon as it starts interfering with Series X development (which has been for a while now), it’s time for it to go.
Microsoft needs to cut it loose like the boat anchor it is and just release a discless Series X and call it good.
The main example cited in the article comes from recruiting Minthara instead of killing her. It looks like Act 3 didn’t really take that option into account.
Other problems include questlines that can’t be completed.
You really should get Saturn emulation running, because as far as fighting games went, the sheer variety of games on the Saturn were STUNNING.
Battle Arena Toshinden Remix
Dead or Alive
Fighters Megamix
King of Fighters ('95 and '97)
Last Bronx
Marvel Super Heroes
Night Warriors: Darkstalkers Revenge
Samurai Showdown IV
A bunch of Street Fighter games
Toshinden S
Toshinden Ultimate Revenge Attack
Virtua Fighter
Virtua Fighter Remix
Virtua Fighter 2
Virtua Fighter Kids
Virtual On
1-2-Switch - Some game to show off new features.
Just Dance 2017
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Cross gen game.
Skylanders: Imaginators - Merch game.
Super Bomberman R
I Am Setsuna
Tokyo RPG Factory
Snipperclips - Another new feature game.
Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove - Shovelware
Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment - Shovelware
Fast RMX
I could see either a new Mario game launching on the Switch and Switch 2, maybe a Metroid game instead. Zelda will be too old and played out by then, but then Zelda fans love buying the same game over and over.