Reviewing Games

I asked the Game Emporium, an online business, if they would like me to start reviewing games for them as I am an actual game designer. I can offer some insight into the games for all of you and hopefully will also give you some good advice on games you may have been thinking about buying. They agreed to let me review games and I shall be posting up copies of my reviews here as well. So not only will I be updating you all on my current happenings in my classes and work I shall be updating with reviews as well.

So that you understand how my reviews are going to work I'm going to break each game down into separate pieces and grade each one individually on a scale of 0-5 as well as grading the game overall. 0 will be the lowest score I can give something and 5 will be the highest. The individual areas that I will grade are: Concept, Graphics, Sound, Playability, and Entertainment.

Concept meaning the originality of the piece and whether it just feels like old games redone or if it brings something new to the table and if it does use old ideas, does it use them well or not?

Graphics obviously means I will grade the game on how well it looks. It's style and feel. Whether the graphics work or if they feel like the belong in an Atari 2600 game.

Sound will be whether the music and sound effects make you feel like you're right there in the action or if they make your ears want to bleed.

Playability is all about controls. Does it feel like you're actually punching someone in the face or does it feel like you're trying to steer an elephant down an alley.

Entertainment is whether the game is fun or a chore.

And for those keeping track if you count up the points above from all the different categories that equals a possible 25 points. So I will personally be adding an X-Factor category. Which will make the score an even 30 possible points.

The X-Factor is all about how good the game is. There can be a game that flunks multiple other areas, such as graphics and sound, but if you ignore those flaws you find yourself playing an incredibly addicting game that you don't want to stop even if people look at you funny.

So this 30 point score will be the overall score for the game.

With 30 being this game is perfect if you like video games at all you should try it.

25-29 meaning amazing. This game is a cut above the rest you should check it out.

20-24 very good. This game is a great example of whatever genre it belongs to. If you're an FPS fan and this is an FPS game you will probably enjoy it. Otherwise it may not be for you.

15-19 average. This game is middle of the road. Nothing spectacular but nothing particularly wrong with it either.

10-14 it's ok... The only people that will enjoy this game are people that are fans of the series. Assuming it's a sequel.

5-9 this is a poor excuse for a video game. There may be one or two things that are good about the game but it's hard to notice with the overall pain that the game brings otherwise.

0-4 means don't even bother.

Seeing as I haven't actually reviewed anything yet this system may prove to not work as well as something else. So I may change the system later. But rest assured if I do I will update you on what the new system is before I start using it. And depending on how slow a month is I may even update some of my older reviews to the new system.

I'll also be writing all my reviews in word for it's spell checking abilities before I post them on here so if anyone's been irritated by my spelling and grammar it should hopefully get better. Now as a special treat since you're reading this here on my own personal blog I will tell you what game I'm going to be reviewing first. It is for the Wii and it's name is MadWorld. I hope to have it up soon.