Changes to the Blog

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

There are a few changes coming soon to the blog thanks, unfortunately, to me having a shortage of time. However, it's not all doom and gloom since I'm hoping this time can be better directed back towards what I really want this blog to be for: PC game reviews.

So firstly, I'll be placing the "Where are they now?" Wednesday posts and Spotlight Sunday posts on hold. While I found the exercises to be educational and fun (and even some of the original game developers came by to say "hello" for the "Where are they now?" posts) they were time intensive. This doesn't mean I won't revisit these in the future - far from it, but I don't see myself revisiting them on a weekly basis for the next few months or even few years.

Video Game Music (VGM) Mondays however aren't that time intensive so you can still tune in here every Monday for some choicest PC game music!

Secondly, I'll be revising how I do my reviews. The reviews will now incorporate ideas from my "First Impressions" articles since I found that many of the "First Impressions" articles ended up sounding like reviews anyway and it's in an easier to digest format than the traditional reviews. This means I will no longer have category scores but I shall still use the categories in the background as a kind of checklist when reviewing the game.

I'll continue to give the games a review a total score but now this is more a comparison of the game with other games in the same genre or at least games to a similar genre if it's hard to pigeon hole it. I will give the game a score out of 5 and then multiply it by 2. Half points are allowed though to give me some leeway when I think a game doesn't quite fit one of the whole numbers.

As a rough guide, here is what each score will mean:

0 = Worst. Game. Ever. Or at least in the genre. Should be pretty rare to get this.
1 = Bad game. This game has no redeeming features, but it's not the worst game I've played in the genre.
2 = Mediocre game. This game might have one redeeming feature but everything else is done poorly.
3 = Okay game. This game is probably lacking in gameplay or presentation or it's one of those games that would be great if they spent more effort elsewhere
4 = Good game. Only some minor bugs or issues keeping it from greatness (probably a lot of games will end up here since I usually pick damn good games ;))
5 = Excellent game. Best game ever or best game in genre. Pretty rare to score this.

So what's the upshot of all this? I should be able to type up reviews sooner and it should leave more time to actually play the hundreds of games I intend to review!