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My daughter wants to get Ecco (sorry can't account for tastes here - that's not the point)- The game isn't out for another week or so yet it has two customer reviews against it - how - you cant buy it yet ? I have seen this happen before many times and am always perplexed - good word considering I'm now of home.
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cool i have a question about some thing that will happen in a couple of weeks
yeah I said that before.
By the way KR my MSN is working again, so we can chat some time. Im not on right now as im just about to come offline
By the way KR my MSN is working again, so we can chat some time. Im not on right now as im just about to come offline
or some people could have played import versions?
I dont know why they had it as its not out until march 3rd, but they did.
I actualy saw Ecco on sale yesturday for the PS2 and yes it was the PAL version. So it is possible that this person did buy the game.
In my opinion, the main ingredients for a review are:
Introduction - This doesn`t require that you have played the game as you are merely setting the scene, and telling the reader what to expect later. What genre the game is, a little bit of history perhaps, and what the game could be like.
Story - This can easily be found out from another written source. Simply hearing the story for yourself is no different from hearing it from another person, assuming their account is accurate. From an informed source such as IGN, you can expect to gain a good outline of the story to put in a review.
Gameplay - This is the tricky one, and really requires you to play the game. However, you can get a good feel for the basic elements of the gameplay based on the use of demos. If you asked me how the ships handled in Wipeout, I could tell you from the demo on OPS2M. The main point left from this is the difficulty learning curve, however, its probably better to take your estimation of the learning curve from another source with a more unbiased or generalised view than it is to base it on your own. For example, I love racing games, and might find them a lot easier than most. I could therefore be in error about the learning curve, where as IGN would give me the information I needed to put forward a proper view of the difficulty.
Graphics - The basic impressions and overall look of the game can be ascertained quite easily from a demo, and from screen shots. The latter is less reliable, but each give a good representation of what the game would be like. Obviously there are points you could miss, like a glitch that only appears later in the game, or a special effect you don`t see until later, but these are only minor things, and are likely to be mentioned in other reviews anyway, so you could use them as information sources again.
Sound - This is basically the same as graphics really, except sound not sight. There could be glitches... but you can get a good general impression from the demo. You may only be given the best songs to listen to in the demo... but its quite simple to go and find the complete song list from an informed website - SR`s news often features sound track lists, as it did for Wipeout Fusion.
Lastability - Here`s the real tough one, and perhaps the only really reason not to review a game from a demo. How can you tell how long a game will last from a demo? You can make small assumptions such as "Oh, this demo is so addictive, I want to keep playing it again and again (like MGS2)" which suggests replayability. Then all you need to know is the length of the game. However, this is similar to the difficulty of the game as well. Its perhaps better to research how long it took other people to do the game, rather than basing it on how long you took. You might be slow... or really fast, giving a poor approximation.
Overall - To finish off, you give an overall opinion of the game, based on the above, and this requires a general feel for the game, but that can be built from the above.
That would be how I would write a review IF I wrote them before the release of the game, which as I said earlier, I`ve only done once anyway, and put future tense and "probablies" in it. Whilst I may not agree with writing reviews before the release, I can`t see why it shouldn`t be done, as long as you do the research and play the demos extensively.
Introduction - This doesn`t require that you have played the game as you are merely setting the scene, and telling the reader what to expect later. What genre the game is, a little bit of history perhaps, and what the game could be like.
Story - This can easily be found out from another written source. Simply hearing the story for yourself is no different from hearing it from another person, assuming their account is accurate. From an informed source such as IGN, you can expect to gain a good outline of the story to put in a review.
Gameplay - This is the tricky one, and really requires you to play the game. However, you can get a good feel for the basic elements of the gameplay based on the use of demos. If you asked me how the ships handled in Wipeout, I could tell you from the demo on OPS2M. The main point left from this is the difficulty learning curve, however, its probably better to take your estimation of the learning curve from another source with a more unbiased or generalised view than it is to base it on your own. For example, I love racing games, and might find them a lot easier than most. I could therefore be in error about the learning curve, where as IGN would give me the information I needed to put forward a proper view of the difficulty.
Graphics - The basic impressions and overall look of the game can be ascertained quite easily from a demo, and from screen shots. The latter is less reliable, but each give a good representation of what the game would be like. Obviously there are points you could miss, like a glitch that only appears later in the game, or a special effect you don`t see until later, but these are only minor things, and are likely to be mentioned in other reviews anyway, so you could use them as information sources again.
Sound - This is basically the same as graphics really, except sound not sight. There could be glitches... but you can get a good general impression from the demo. You may only be given the best songs to listen to in the demo... but its quite simple to go and find the complete song list from an informed website - SR`s news often features sound track lists, as it did for Wipeout Fusion.
Lastability - Here`s the real tough one, and perhaps the only really reason not to review a game from a demo. How can you tell how long a game will last from a demo? You can make small assumptions such as "Oh, this demo is so addictive, I want to keep playing it again and again (like MGS2)" which suggests replayability. Then all you need to know is the length of the game. However, this is similar to the difficulty of the game as well. Its perhaps better to research how long it took other people to do the game, rather than basing it on how long you took. You might be slow... or really fast, giving a poor approximation.
Overall - To finish off, you give an overall opinion of the game, based on the above, and this requires a general feel for the game, but that can be built from the above.
That would be how I would write a review IF I wrote them before the release of the game, which as I said earlier, I`ve only done once anyway, and put future tense and "probablies" in it. Whilst I may not agree with writing reviews before the release, I can`t see why it shouldn`t be done, as long as you do the research and play the demos extensively.
How can it be your own work if you are sourcing from other peoples work and no I wouldn't. The idea is to do a review of a game - not a demo - read my earlier replies to you
alik wrote:
> but you can still win off a demo review,
There then - exactly what I was saying at the beggining - all you are trying to do is con your way to a GAD win - you are not attempting to provide others with a concise review of the completed product. You cannot obtain this knowledge yourself without playing the game - as I also stated earlier you are using other peoples work to provide your "review"
> but you can still win off a demo review,
There then - exactly what I was saying at the beggining - all you are trying to do is con your way to a GAD win - you are not attempting to provide others with a concise review of the completed product. You cannot obtain this knowledge yourself without playing the game - as I also stated earlier you are using other peoples work to provide your "review"
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