The "Sony Games" forum, which includes Retro Game Reviews, has been archived and is now read-only. You cannot post here or create a new thread or review on this forum.
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Introduction
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This is a (much promised) quick tips section on how to submit content and format your submissions to ;
a) Assure that all your submissions are actually used
b) Help Freeola staff members spend less time formatting submissions
I will go into a bit of detail about how things are done here :D
Please note that the advice I give here can be used by technical reviews however this is specifically for the Gaming side of the site/forums.
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Contents
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1. Cheats, Tips and Achievements/Trophies
2. Walkthroughs
3 Reviews/Chat Posts
4. General Tips
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1. Cheats/Tips/Achievements
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Achievements/Trophies
Also referred to as A/T
This category is for official XBOX360/PS3 achivs or trophies.
When you submit these please do so in this format:
Effect: List the name of the A/S and then the amount of points or the value of the trophy in brackets (ie: Blah Blah (10)/Blah Blah (Bronze)
When: During game
How: List how to perform the A/S (ie. Kill 20 zombies etc)
Submit these one by one, as they look horrendous submitted in one block, and will only count as 1 submission.
Cheats/Unlockables
These are pure cheat codes, or something that you have to unlock during the game. If there is no A/T for the achievement, then it is an unlockable.
Submit these in this format;
Effect: List the exact effect and nothing more. If the cheat gives you +10 lives state "Gives you +10 lives"
When: Say exactly when, and try and avoid vague phrases. During game is not detailed enough in most cases. If you have to pause say so
How: List what you have to do, if you enter a code list it here, if you have to kill a certain boss.....etc
Tips/Advice
Try and submit these by going through the tips page on the site. This will make our job slightly easier :D
Format is self explanatory by now. Try and use the above advice to by as detailed as possible.
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2. Walkthroughs
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What is a Walkthrough?
Let's put this is simply as possible. A walkthrough is a guide, describing how to perform certain levels or tasks within the game. In general this will be a complete level by level guide of the game, walking the reader through every section and teaching them how to succeed.
What will be accepted as a walkthrough?
As with everything we monitor all submissions manually, and as such there is a bit of lee way here. Generally we will accept anything that is helpful and concise, and chuck away anything that is complete nonsense.
We will also accept non-guide walkthroughs, such as a users recent "How do I get that achievement" submissions. However these should be clearly labelled and as concise as possible. Kill 100 "Blanks" to get "Blah" (10) is not good enough.
How should I submit a walkthrough
Walkthroughs are generally quite long, and detailed. We use the forum text field to display the content on site which is quite small, compared to other walkthrough sites. Due to this it is best to;
-Submit your content in normal text, edited in a simple word processor (Notepad for example) using no strange or uncommon characters, or html
-Avoid "ASCII drawings" of any nature, unless they are small and less than 30 characters wide
-Assure any "tables" (example below) is less than 60 characters long. We have to limit this to avoid breaks occurring ans destroying the "table"
-Assure text is not broken at any point other than where you wish it to be. Do not submit a paragraph on 9 different lines etc, (formatted for another walkthrough site). Sections of text should be effectively, 1 long line until it needs a new line or paragraph. The site will wrap it into the display anyway, and extra breaks will destroy the guide.
Anything else?
Not really. Just make sure you put a title at the top of the game, and check your spelling and punctuation :D
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3. Reviews/Chat Posts
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What is a review
Well this should be easy for veteran reviewers. Everyone has an opinion, and the more we share we more we learn. This section is mainly for reviewing games/movies/anything you want. If you have an opinion let people know! No rules dictate what is allowed to be reviewed (despite our regular forum T&C's)
How good does it have to be?
Again no rules here. Just say what you thought. I am not going to lie and say that quality does not matter, however it's the thought that counts (as they say)!.
Generally a 2 sentence post, poorly punctuated and full of spelling mistakes shows no effort and is unlikely to get any interest. It is also unlikely to win any awards (and in Freeola's case, Awards mean prizes!).
Any advice
There is no harm in submitting anything really, what we want is honest opinions and to let us know what the game is like. But in order to improve the review you may wish to;
-Make the review as tidy as possible, using correct punctuation when possible. This not only improves the look, but makes it a lot easier for readers to scan through the review.
-Explain in as much detail as possible. We are not asking for essays, but saying a game is "brill" is not as good as saying why the game is "brilliant", and explaining your thoughts.
-Score the game. You would be surprised how many people flick straight to this, and read the review based on this.
Anything else?
DO NOT plagiarise! Simple rule this. We do check these manually and there is a 5 second way of making sure the review i your own work. A forum user has posted a helpful topic helping people figure this out, so it's best to avoid it at all costs.
- DO NOT under any circumstances, use content that you do not have express and direct permission from the original owner to use.
- If the content states that anyone may use the information, then feel free to post, but make sure you abide by the owners requests, and credit the owner regardless.
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4. General Tips
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"Common sense is a wonderful thing, try and apply it wherever possible"
-Warhunt, 2009
Joking aside, as you may have noticed I have mentioned that we monitor things pretty much by hand. This gives us a lot of room to fully moderate and control submission, so it's generally a good idea to take your time over your submissions, and put some effort into them.
-Spell check your work. This saves us a job, and increases chances of a win!
-If you are not sure, ask before submitting. This will save you time and give us layabouts on the forums something to do :D
-All submissions should be entered before midnight on the day before the Award period (so to be eligible for Tuesdays award, your submission would need to be done and approved before Monday night at midnight)
Introduction
************************* ************************* *************************
This is a (much promised) quick tips section on how to submit content and format your submissions to ;
a) Assure that all your submissions are actually used
b) Help Freeola staff members spend less time formatting submissions
I will go into a bit of detail about how things are done here :D
Please note that the advice I give here can be used by technical reviews however this is specifically for the Gaming side of the site/forums.
************************* ************************* *************************
Contents
************************* ************************* *************************
1. Cheats, Tips and Achievements/Trophies
2. Walkthroughs
3 Reviews/Chat Posts
4. General Tips
************************* ************************* *************************
1. Cheats/Tips/Achievements
************************* ************************* *************************
Achievements/Trophies
Also referred to as A/T
This category is for official XBOX360/PS3 achivs or trophies.
When you submit these please do so in this format:
Effect: List the name of the A/S and then the amount of points or the value of the trophy in brackets (ie: Blah Blah (10)/Blah Blah (Bronze)
When: During game
How: List how to perform the A/S (ie. Kill 20 zombies etc)
Submit these one by one, as they look horrendous submitted in one block, and will only count as 1 submission.
Cheats/Unlockables
These are pure cheat codes, or something that you have to unlock during the game. If there is no A/T for the achievement, then it is an unlockable.
Submit these in this format;
Effect: List the exact effect and nothing more. If the cheat gives you +10 lives state "Gives you +10 lives"
When: Say exactly when, and try and avoid vague phrases. During game is not detailed enough in most cases. If you have to pause say so
How: List what you have to do, if you enter a code list it here, if you have to kill a certain boss.....etc
Tips/Advice
Try and submit these by going through the tips page on the site. This will make our job slightly easier :D
Format is self explanatory by now. Try and use the above advice to by as detailed as possible.
************************* ************************* *************************
2. Walkthroughs
************************* ************************* *************************
What is a Walkthrough?
Let's put this is simply as possible. A walkthrough is a guide, describing how to perform certain levels or tasks within the game. In general this will be a complete level by level guide of the game, walking the reader through every section and teaching them how to succeed.
What will be accepted as a walkthrough?
As with everything we monitor all submissions manually, and as such there is a bit of lee way here. Generally we will accept anything that is helpful and concise, and chuck away anything that is complete nonsense.
We will also accept non-guide walkthroughs, such as a users recent "How do I get that achievement" submissions. However these should be clearly labelled and as concise as possible. Kill 100 "Blanks" to get "Blah" (10) is not good enough.
How should I submit a walkthrough
Walkthroughs are generally quite long, and detailed. We use the forum text field to display the content on site which is quite small, compared to other walkthrough sites. Due to this it is best to;
-Submit your content in normal text, edited in a simple word processor (Notepad for example) using no strange or uncommon characters, or html
-Avoid "ASCII drawings" of any nature, unless they are small and less than 30 characters wide
-Assure any "tables" (example below) is less than 60 characters long. We have to limit this to avoid breaks occurring ans destroying the "table"
-Assure text is not broken at any point other than where you wish it to be. Do not submit a paragraph on 9 different lines etc, (formatted for another walkthrough site). Sections of text should be effectively, 1 long line until it needs a new line or paragraph. The site will wrap it into the display anyway, and extra breaks will destroy the guide.
Anything else?
Not really. Just make sure you put a title at the top of the game, and check your spelling and punctuation :D
************************* ************************* *************************
3. Reviews/Chat Posts
************************* ************************* *************************
What is a review
Well this should be easy for veteran reviewers. Everyone has an opinion, and the more we share we more we learn. This section is mainly for reviewing games/movies/anything you want. If you have an opinion let people know! No rules dictate what is allowed to be reviewed (despite our regular forum T&C's)
How good does it have to be?
Again no rules here. Just say what you thought. I am not going to lie and say that quality does not matter, however it's the thought that counts (as they say)!.
Generally a 2 sentence post, poorly punctuated and full of spelling mistakes shows no effort and is unlikely to get any interest. It is also unlikely to win any awards (and in Freeola's case, Awards mean prizes!).
Any advice
There is no harm in submitting anything really, what we want is honest opinions and to let us know what the game is like. But in order to improve the review you may wish to;
-Make the review as tidy as possible, using correct punctuation when possible. This not only improves the look, but makes it a lot easier for readers to scan through the review.
-Explain in as much detail as possible. We are not asking for essays, but saying a game is "brill" is not as good as saying why the game is "brilliant", and explaining your thoughts.
-Score the game. You would be surprised how many people flick straight to this, and read the review based on this.
Anything else?
DO NOT plagiarise! Simple rule this. We do check these manually and there is a 5 second way of making sure the review i your own work. A forum user has posted a helpful topic helping people figure this out, so it's best to avoid it at all costs.
[b]Remember:[/b] If you post a review that isn't your own work please follow these rules, otherwise you will be plagerising, which is strongly frowned upon.- DO NOT under any circumstances, use content that you do not have express and direct permission from the original owner to use.
- If the content states that anyone may use the information, then feel free to post, but make sure you abide by the owners requests, and credit the owner regardless.
************************* ************************* *************************
4. General Tips
************************* ************************* *************************
"Common sense is a wonderful thing, try and apply it wherever possible"
-Warhunt, 2009
Joking aside, as you may have noticed I have mentioned that we monitor things pretty much by hand. This gives us a lot of room to fully moderate and control submission, so it's generally a good idea to take your time over your submissions, and put some effort into them.
-Spell check your work. This saves us a job, and increases chances of a win!
-If you are not sure, ask before submitting. This will save you time and give us layabouts on the forums something to do :D
-All submissions should be entered before midnight on the day before the Award period (so to be eligible for Tuesdays award, your submission would need to be done and approved before Monday night at midnight)
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The hitman one was mine. :/
Someone has posted it on Neoseeker giving me credit for writing the original (which is found on GameFAQ's). Same as with Thief 2 & 3 walkthru's found there and elsewhere on internet, soon to be here.
[I am stealth game addict :p]
I don't know where else they would be, because the Lycos portal closed and I cannot receive emails there any more. Also I am too lazy to have changed emails for accounts at sites I rarely visit now.
Internet is public domain / piracy heaven anyway... Trying to retain IPR of anything you post without involving lawyers is quite hard, so I tend not to bother unless I am earning money from it.
The original [hitman silent assassin] I made has a big ascii Hitman logo at the top.( I draw a lot of ascii: saccade's ascii suckings )and was originally found on hitmanhq.com.
I will rewrite it, as that shouldn't take long, if that is acceptable as I am quite proud of that one..?
Okay about the Full Pipe one - that was taken from the Steam forums.
Is just such a protracted game... eesh...
Wilco.
I see how this works now and if, after checking that there are duplicates, it is found that an existing one is elsewhere - I will alter accordingly or rewrite for you. :)
Someone has posted it on Neoseeker giving me credit for writing the original (which is found on GameFAQ's). Same as with Thief 2 & 3 walkthru's found there and elsewhere on internet, soon to be here.
[I am stealth game addict :p]
I don't know where else they would be, because the Lycos portal closed and I cannot receive emails there any more. Also I am too lazy to have changed emails for accounts at sites I rarely visit now.
Internet is public domain / piracy heaven anyway... Trying to retain IPR of anything you post without involving lawyers is quite hard, so I tend not to bother unless I am earning money from it.
The original [hitman silent assassin] I made has a big ascii Hitman logo at the top.( I draw a lot of ascii: saccade's ascii suckings )and was originally found on hitmanhq.com.
I will rewrite it, as that shouldn't take long, if that is acceptable as I am quite proud of that one..?
Okay about the Full Pipe one - that was taken from the Steam forums.
Is just such a protracted game... eesh...
Wilco.
I see how this works now and if, after checking that there are duplicates, it is found that an existing one is elsewhere - I will alter accordingly or rewrite for you. :)
Just to update you on the results. I have approved your Samorost 2 walkthrough, however have had to reject your other 2 attempts as they are duplicated from another website (..FAQS)
We can not allow the use of copyrighted material on our websites without the author's permission.
Please feel free to submit more of your own work however as I rather enjoyed the style of Samorost 2. Let me or Sonic Chris know if you need any help getting something up or just some advice.
We can not allow the use of copyrighted material on our websites without the author's permission.
Please feel free to submit more of your own work however as I rather enjoyed the style of Samorost 2. Let me or Sonic Chris know if you need any help getting something up or just some advice.
Hello Moto
:p
Thanks - I just posted a walkthru for Samorost 2 and I received the message:
"Thank You. Your Samorost 2 walkthrough has been uploaded successfully."
(I kinda feel bad that we're limited to simple text and can't use [spoiler ] tags so that there can be clues before the great and terrible unveiling of the solution)
I didn't get that with the last lot, which is why I asked before attempting another upload.
Just as well I didn't by the looks of it.
[ed]
the message, not the feeling bad bit [/ed]
Thanks again.
:p
Thanks - I just posted a walkthru for Samorost 2 and I received the message:
"Thank You. Your Samorost 2 walkthrough has been uploaded successfully."
(I kinda feel bad that we're limited to simple text and can't use [spoiler ] tags so that there can be clues before the great and terrible unveiling of the solution)
I didn't get that with the last lot, which is why I asked before attempting another upload.
Just as well I didn't by the looks of it.
[ed]
the message, not the feeling bad bit [/ed]
Thanks again.
Hi there Saccade,
Cheats and walkthroughs require staff moderation before they are made live, I can see your walkthroughs there, Ill try and get them done asap :).
Cheats and walkthroughs require staff moderation before they are made live, I can see your walkthroughs there, Ill try and get them done asap :).
Hey guys, I am not so sure that some walkthru's I published a day or so ago completed upload...
One is for the adventure game "Full Pipe" and the other is a guide to get the highest ranking on the hardest difficulty for "Hitman: Blood Money" (one for Multi-platform, one for PC, I think.)
There was no confirmation and I do not want to spam you with multiple submissions.
I haven't seen them credited on-site nor in my profile, but I know that these things take some time.
If they have not been uploaded, will you please let me know so that I can resubmit them..?
Thanks,
Pete
One is for the adventure game "Full Pipe" and the other is a guide to get the highest ranking on the hardest difficulty for "Hitman: Blood Money" (one for Multi-platform, one for PC, I think.)
There was no confirmation and I do not want to spam you with multiple submissions.
I haven't seen them credited on-site nor in my profile, but I know that these things take some time.
If they have not been uploaded, will you please let me know so that I can resubmit them..?
Thanks,
Pete
pete_21 wrote:
> Warhunt wrote:
> Had no real influx of higher quality after writing this :(
>
> Like
> this ?
Joking aside...this did actually want me to buy the game.
But then I remembered that I didn't have a PS3 and all the other lengthy reviews I've read about it said it wasn't that good.
It's actually a helpful thread - not written a review in ages and am about halfway through a Halo Wars Walkthrough that I started back in April :S maybe I should finish that one and start some reviews...my GAD fund has been empty for AGES :p
> Warhunt wrote:
> Had no real influx of higher quality after writing this :(
>
> Like
> this ?
Joking aside...this did actually want me to buy the game.
But then I remembered that I didn't have a PS3 and all the other lengthy reviews I've read about it said it wasn't that good.
It's actually a helpful thread - not written a review in ages and am about halfway through a Halo Wars Walkthrough that I started back in April :S maybe I should finish that one and start some reviews...my GAD fund has been empty for AGES :p
ok, I'll wait a bit and see if they can fix it.
You could do. It's more complicated than it seems. It has to go through 3 or so different systems to get on the site. 1 of which is causing the issues.
I want to fix it rather than work a "fixaround" of re submitting.
I want to fix it rather than work a "fixaround" of re submitting.
Still not sorted.
Let me know if you need me to resubmit it or anything.
Let me know if you need me to resubmit it or anything.
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