How I “Review” Video Games…

Reviewing Rubric:

Value: 1-10 ; Gameplay: 1-10 ; Overall Presentation: 1-10

Plus or Minus a “Modifier” if there is something especially positive or negative in the game that was unexpected/unintended/not advertised etc.

Explanation:

Ever bought a game for $50-$65, played through the campaign in under 10 hours, and found that you really had nothing left to do?  It has happened to us all, but there are ways to avoid this hazard by simply doing a little bit of digging…

Reviewers often do not make reference to the replay value of a title or its current price point in relation to the presented game-play/content.  There are a ton of games out there today for PC, XBOX 360, or PS3 that you can pick up at the “used” or discounted price points and then get hundreds of hours of game-play.  “Bad games” from developers & studios seem to ignore the “value” premise of a game.  They would prefer consumers pick up the next recycled first-person shooter for $60 and then drop $50 more on DLC even though the game was maybe 85% percent done when they released it…

It bothers me when a publisher spends two or three years making trailers for a game, gets the guys/girl at GameTrailers.com all excited, and then they release a crap product. What about all those people who pre-ordered before the game was reviewed?  Many of those customers often desire to show support for a game or developer but instead are duped by the parties who chose to release a sub-par product in the end…

Example after example in the marketplace shows us that a game is not done until it is done!  Nobody is gonna argue with you for dropping $60 or more on GTAV or a game that delivers similar value relative to content.  I think we all realize that there are only 10 or so games like this released each year while publishers would have us believe that every title of the hundreds they release each year are worth $60 plus DLC…?   I think not.

*Here is an example of “current” great value for PC gamers:


Just Cause 2 sells on Steam for $14.99, it was originally released in March 2010 at the $60 price point to decent reviews…I bought multiple copies for the PC @ $2.99 during a recent Steam Sale.  The game has now been patched in recent months to include multi-player support for the PC (patched to version 1.3 on 1/30/14).  Most users find that they end up sinking 50 hours or more into the main campaign/side quests and now multi-player support will add to this!  This is the type of game that I want to review and re-review on this site so that gamer’s do not miss these opportunities.