Category Archives: Review

“Don’t Starve” Review

Posted by TheeImmortalPhoenix on
(Exploration without the kid gloves. It may hurt a bit at first to play but it’s impossible to describe how rewarding the game is. You learn things in one way, trial and error.)

Sandbox games are some of my favorite types of games because they give you the freedom to explore, take chances, find new things, and have unique experiences. I think the days of linear gameplay are slowly coming to an end or at least being revolutionized in such a way that gamers never feel the gameplay itself has become linear. Don’t Starve thrives in this environment where the creators plop you into the game and wish you the best of luck.

Don’t Starve is one of a jumble of games that have been testing that out lately, just throwing gamers in and letting them figure things out on their own. Journey does something similar, and through sheer will and intellect, the player through trial and error, will stumble to the right answer.

That feeling of success, when you don’t know what to do, but you’re playing the game intuitively, thinking about what you should do, and wondering if the game will play along, is amazingly thrilling. It’s important to note though that you do get subtle hints at crucial moments, such as when you experience your first night and the game says “….(play the game to find out :) )”

Don’t Starve technically hasn’t been fully released yet and is still in Beta, but it seems to be following the success of fellow indie game Minecraft. One of the hallmarks of the early Minecraft was constant updates on a tight schedule that propelled the game forward and rewarded the players with new goodies encouraging them to buy the game early and support the developers. Like Minecraft as well the final release date isn’t as important as watching the game grow before your eyes.

Value

You get a lot when you buy Don’t Starve. For 12 dollars you get two copies of the game, each with Steam keys that are unlockable immediately. This is for a game that I have played for almost 8 hours, including 40 minutes with the Demo, and barely scratched the full End Game. The amount of sheer value here is phenomenal given that most $60 dollar game releases charge 10 times more than your 6 dollar license and barely scratch 8 hours on average on the story campaigns. That’s 10 times the value of regular games I’ve already received without mentioning the regular addons that will keep adding content to the game.

Art
After you get past the amazing amount of content that the game exudes you have an amazing presentation placed in front of you, with beautiful art direction that makes me reminisce on games like SuperBrothers: Sword and Sworcery.

It’s one thing to enjoy a game’s mechanics, enjoy the story, and enjoy the adventure, but it’s a whole other thing to enjoy the presentation, art form and graphics. You simply can’t knock the art direction of Don’t Starve, as even small  objects are focused on with minute detail to give the world a grim, rugged, and happy look that makes the game both beautiful and unique.

Sound

The sound is wonderful and has trigger that go off depending on your actions. If you’re right about to hit someone or get attacked, the fighting music initiates and gives you a real sense of excitement. The sound effects of the spiders and creatures really make the game jump out at you and immerse you in the environment.

At times the game does get a bit silent, and it’s why I slightly knocked the sound score a bit, but I’m hoping as newer updates are released, more sound effects, creatures, and music will be rolled out. Again like Minecraft, the music knows that it takes a backseat to the gameplay, sound effects, and immersion, and so it only kicks in when it’s needed, so as not to distract you.


Gameplay

The gameplay isn’t entirely unique but it does bring a lot of elements of gameplay together that haven’t necessarily seen themselves in the same place at once. Sure you can create items like Terraria, but those items will degrade just like Minecraft, and unlike both games, there are recipes for the most important items and mystery’s to be solved for the rest. The game also rewards and punishes you for discovering new things, as you go on your adventures, forcing you to be on your toes as you try to survive.

The gameplay is definitely punishing and you’ll have to get used to dying and starting over, but there are perks to playing that stay with you from one gameplay session to the next. That’s what keeps you coming back, because you do get better, your unlockables do stay with you, and your points do travel. I’m being vague on purpose btw, so as not to spoil anything.

The Gameplay can be extremely deep as well, just like Terraria where from the outset you don’t expect it to have all that much content, until you start scratching at the surface and the idea dawns on you.

For the naysayers that may call the game too shallow, simply ask them the difference between renewable items and finite ones. That discussion alone and the implications will hugely affect your Mid and Late game in Don’t Starve. Your early choices will affect that gameplay and there will be no way to go back except die and start over. This game demands multiple replays to feel its true intensity and richness.

A big issue I have with the game though is a lack of multiplayer support and I think the potential for robust multiplayer support and the potential for 3rd party mods and servers is huge.

The maps should also be bigger and a seed generator would also be nice. For those reasons the Gameplay score gets docked slightly, but still reigns higher than most games get.The best part of all of this though is the game is still in beta and like Minecraft is constantly releasing updates and new content supporting its player base.

Technical Excellence

There are very few bugs in a game this early in development surprisingly and the developers really have done their homework for the game. I’ve personally only had one bug occur and there was an easy fix to get rid of it which was to simply restart the game. That bug after 8 hours occurred twice and nothing since has crashed, lagged, or interrupted the immersion of the game

But because it’s still in Beta, there are many features the game is screaming to add, like multiplayer, and because you will have to wait for that content, possibly for a significant amount of time, this score does get docked but will get better as the game releases more content in the future addressing these issues, any other bugs that may be out there, or any other player concerns about the general gameplay.

Verdict

For any serious PC gamers, such as myself, this is a must own. The value, the lack of really fun survival games, and another open world Goliath all call out to the gamer. It’s a beautiful game to enjoy just for the Art, to enjoy for the thrill of survival, and to enjoy for the exploration. Most of all this game will leave you with a feeling of accomplishment and will reward you for every day you tick onto your total.

It keeps the gameplay fresh by adding challenges as you go, and you add challenges yourself as you explore and try new things. The sheer amount of time you sink into the game before it even gets a whiff of staleness is also impressive, with the promise that more content is being added, and a strict release schedule is counted down on the main menu of the game.

The game is a must buy, thoroughly enjoyable, and will be beloved by anyone that played and loved games like Minecraft or Terraria. It’s a solid A and at the very least you should give the Demo a try here:

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/dont-starve/hiledapehlkhdehbhppgmekfalnlfajc

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www.ImmortalPhoenix.net

[Editor's Note: The views and opinions supported in this article do not represent or express the views of Immersed Gaming, it's members, or its affiliates. The views in this article are that of the author alone.]

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Review (Spoiler Free)

Posted by Immersedgaming on

It is an undeniable fact that the Elder Scrolls franchise has been a staple in the video game industry for the last 17 years. The series has held some of the best RPG’s in the history of video games, with such titles as, “The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind,” and “The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion.” Bethesda Game Studios is no newcomer when it comes to making a beautiful, expansive, and heavily addicting RPG, but does their latest outing in the Elder Scrolls Series live up to its own legacy and the expectations of the fans?

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the latest installment in the epic Elder Scrolls series of fantasy Role-Playing Games, developed by Bethesda Game Studios.

“The Empire of Tamriel is on the edge. The High King of Skyrim hasbeen murdered.

 Alliances form as claims to the throne are made. In the midst of this conflict, a far more dangerous, ancient evil is awakened. Dragons, long lost to the passages of the Elder Scrolls, have returned to Tamriel.

The future of Skyrim, even the Empire itself, hangs in the balance as they wait for the prophesized Dragonborn to come; a hero born with the power of The Voice, and the only one who can stand amongst the dragons.”

[Via Elderscrolls.com]

Overview

At the start of the game, the player takes control over his or her character. Bound and being taken to an unknown location via carriage, the player knows nothing of the circumstances he is in, why he is there, or how he got there to begin with. The player quickly learns that the High King of Skyrim has been murdered, and by none other than the man sitting in the seat beside him, Ulfric Stormcloak, the leader of the Stormcloak rebellion. Over the course of the next few minutes, the player disembarks from the carriage, along with the other prisoners, and is ordered to present himself. This is where the player is allowed to truly create the character he wishes to be in the world of Skyrim. Once that is finished, the player witnesses the execution of a rebel soldier by decapitation, whose fate will soon mirror his own…or will it? Only seconds before the player’s head is no longer acquainted with his body, a frightening and mythological being manifests over the town. Dragons have returned and one is about to decimate everyone and everything within the town. This begins a series of events that will begin to shape the rest of the game. The player is presented with the first of many choices; does he follow the Imperial soldier, who was a participant in his almost untimely death, or does he choose to follow an escaped rebel? This is a choice the player must make with only a split second to decide.

As the plot unfolds, and the player learns more about the events that are occurring around him. One fact becomes undeniable, the player is the Dovahkiin, or Dragonborn, capable of learning and using the Thu’um, which are several Dragon “shouts” capable of destruction, enhancement, and mysticism. Dragons have returned to Tamriel and are beginning to wreak havoc on the world, lead by the ancient and feared dragon Alduin. The Dovahkiin is the only person capable not only of saving the world from this new dragon threat, but also of ending the campaign of civil unrest in the province of Skyrim. Who will the character become, and what choices will he make in the world? This is up to the player to decide.

Oblivion V. Skyrim

Right from the start, I have to say I’m a huge Elder Scrolls fan. I started the series with Daggerfall, skipped to Oblivion and am now heavily involved with Skyrim. I can honestly say I’ve had my fair share of experience with the vast differences in play style and overall gameplay change in the series. It would be an obvious statement to say that Skyrim is nothing like Daggerfall, but surprisingly it would be a lie to call it similar to Oblivion. For those of you who have played the Skyrim already, you probably know what I mean. In my eyes, Oblivion and Skyrim have almost nothing in common, with the exception of the overall style of the series, but that is a good thing. Before the release of Skyrim, Oblivion was my favorite video game of all time, and I held Skyrim to a very high standard before I got my hands on it. That being said, after playing Skyrim for a surplus of 100 hours now, I can say that Oblivion and Skyrim should not be compared. I feel that Oblivion and Skyrim are, for the most part, two stand alone games, both of equal merit and amazing gameplay. These two games may be within the same franchise, but as Bethesda tried to stress, Skyrim is not a sequel to Oblivion, it is the next chapter in the history of Tamriel.

The Story

The main quest line of Skyrim is obviously the main focal point of the game, and the majority of what was marketed before the game’s release. Without sounding too much like a fanboy, Bethesda delivered once again with a thrilling story line and even better guild quest lines. The main quest, albeit short, is probably one of the better story lines of the Elder Scrolls series. Bethesda finally brought Dragons to the series, which the fans have been asking for quite some time. Without giving too much away, the main quest is as action-packed and thrilling as ever before, with a few shocks and surprises thrown in for good measure.

On the other hand, I think side quests are the real selling point of the game. While the main quest gives the player a role to fill, side quests let the player choose who he wants to be, starting from the very beginning of the game. The most fun I had playing the game was during the Thieves Guild and Dark Brotherhood guild quests, mainly because I’m more inclined for stealthy gameplay. The guild quests definitely have the most entertaining and best experiences in the game. Other guilds, like the Companions and College of Winterhold offer entertaining experiences as well, but for me the “guild” that tops them all is not considered a guild at all. What I’m referring to is the early choice to either join the Imperials or the Rebellion in the fight for Skyrim. While the quests were admittedly repetitive and don’t vary much between the two sides, I had the most fun deciding where my personal politics sat in the game and what the morals of my character were, which increases the role-playing value. I’ll admit it took me awhile to decide whose side to join based on what they both stood for, and ended feeling like I chose wrong during my first playthrough. I found (between my two playthroughs) that who my character was determined which side I joined. While I had joined the Imperials the first time around, out of habit, as a Bosmer, the second time I joined the Stormcloak Rebellion as a country-loving Nord. Overall, side quests in general really sold the game for me. As usual, Bethesda injects both humorous and challenging random side quests that keep me coming back to the game. I took great pleasure in killing a crew of bandits that were able to trick me into an ambush by using an “injured” decoy. This is only one example of the “endless” side quests in the game.

The Combat

The combat, as you might imagine, is amazing. Whether you want to run into combat swinging a battleaxe or a sword, sneak behind your enemies and kill them with a dagger,  kill them from afar with a well placed arrow, or even obliterate them with a fireball, you have the freedom to choose one or ALL of these options. Unlike Oblivion where the player was basically restricted to one type of combat based on his or her decisions, in Skyrim the player can experience all types of combat in one playthrough. One of the main points that Bethesda Game Studios championed during marketing, was that if the player wishes to do something, all he has to do is actually perform that skill and he will get better.

Aside from how you fight, the fights themselves are equally amazing. Fighting is smoother than ever in this game. Whether you fight with a two-handed battleaxe, a shield and sword, or two daggers the combat is fluid, easy to master, and fun to do. Combat is pretty much straightforward, with the exception of finishers. I can not describe the amazing feeling I get when I perform a special combat finisher, such as decapitating my enemy or shoving my sword through their chest. These new finishers really bring out a dynamic that was missing in previous Elder Scrolls iterations. Fighting has evolved further than finishers as well. Each unique enemy you come across has its own unique way of fighting as well, so the player must create a strategy to combat them all. I found myself utilizing stealth kills and archery for the majority of my fights. Stealth remains mainly unchanged from Oblivion, the familiar “eye” is still present to represent when the player is hidden or seen.

Finally, the biggest leap in combat that Bethesda has taken in the series is the Dragon Shout, or Thu’um, which the player has access to throughout the game. The Thu’um are a collection of many, many different powerful shouts that the player can advance in power by collecting and spending dragon souls. The shouts range from destructive fire breath to the ever-so-useful “Dragon-Rend” which has the ability to make Dragons land. The possibilities are endless in battle when you utilize these shouts, and become an essential part to combat.

The Gameplay

Graphically, Skyrim is a beautiful and majestic game. The people look real, the environments are alive and full of life-like flora and fauna, and the sounds really immerse the player into the landscape.  For the first time in a Bethesda game, everything is true to life. The NPC’s no longer look overly plump and comical like Oblivion, or squarish and un-emotional like Fallout 3. You can really tell they spent a long time re crafting their character models. The enemies as well are realistic. A bear will run like a bear and not like a wolf, as in Oblivion. Each enemy now has its own movements. In addition to the characters, the environments and settlements are absolutely gorgeous. One of my favorite things to do in the game is climb High Hrothgar to the peak of the mountain and look out across Skyrim. The design of the world is something you need to see to understand. Finally, all of the caves and dungeons are not identical, and settlements vary greatly in style and size. My one and only complaint is the city size. Although this is Skyrim, a mostly unruly place, the settlements are dwarfed in comparison to Oblivion. The largest city is Solitude, which is large, but no where near the size of The Imperial City. I feel that the game is missing something without at least one enormous city.

The UI and HUD are simple, quick, and easy to use. No longer are the days of searching deep within the menu to find a certain spell or item. Bethesda cleaned up its act and made the menu as simple as it can be. You want a spell? Click to the left. You want to level up? Click up. It is simple and easy to understand, but even still, Bethesda has implemented a “favorite” section which is easily activated at any time, which can allow the player to quickly and seamlessly change gear, armor, weapons etc. on the fly.

The map also underwent a drastic fix. Although the player must still drag the pointer around, it has become faster to do with the addition of the zoom in/out and rotate option. The HUD is also well balanced and the screen is never cluttered, the only bar on the player’s screen is the “compass” on the top of the screen and the reticle. When in combat, no health, stamina, or magic bar will appear until the player takes damage, uses stamina, or uses magic, respectively.

Levelling up and the class system have also undergone a major change. The player is now free to be a mage-archer-knight-rogue within one save file, instead of being forced to choose and level up one class. As previously stated, if the player wishes to be a mage, he just has to cast more spells, if he wants to be an archer, shoot more arrows. It really is as simple as that. As for levelling, players now have the option to pick “perks,” similar to Fallout 3, that allow the player to gain an advantage in a particular skill tree, or in this case, constellation.

The Soundtrack

Without going on an on extensively, I really don’t have to say much about the soundtrack of an Elder Scrolls game. I mean, really. As usual, the music is beautifully crafted and perfectly suits the environment the player finds himself in. Whether it be a snowy mountain or in the midst of an epic battle to the death, the music is always there to accompany the situation accordingly. Like any great story of epic proportion, Skyrim has an amazing epic soundtrack to back it up. The score could probably win an award in and of itself.

Closing Comments

Although Skyrim is amazing in almost every way, and is one of my favorite games of all time, no game is perfect. As many are already aware, the game is facing some troubles post-launch. Many players have been experiencing frame rate drops, major lag, as well as texture problems. Bethesda has been working nonstop to correct these problems via patches, but in some cases the patches themselves have caused more problems than they fixed. In addition to these problems, as with most Bethesda titles, Skyrim suffers from a multitude of bugs and glitches, both major and minor. To this day, I still am unable to complete the “Blood on the Ice” quest, which would definitely be considered a major issue. Minor issues include: dead enemies not despawning, quest items remaining attached to the player’s inventory, and other minor bugs.

One thing I can say, is that Bethesda has been dedicated to the fans and working tirelessly to fix these problems. Most people might not realize the difficulty a developer must go through to find and fix problems, as well as getting the patch through Xbox and Sony. I have the utmost faith in Bethesda to fix whatever is broken in the game.

Despite all of that, Skyrim is still an amazing experience, that definitely should NOT be missed. This can be attested to by the “Game of the Year” award that Skyrim won at the 2011 Spike TV VGA’s, as well as Bethesda Game Studios’ “Studio of the Year,” both of which were well deserved awards.

Don’t miss this game!

Recommendation

Buy it!

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This work by Immersed Gaming is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Game Ratings – Objective or Subjective? Facts or Opinions?

Posted by TheeImmortalPhoenix on
  ImageSource Steve-H
(Game ratings are like shades of colors during a sunset. It’s not right to say one particular color rules over the rest or that only one game rating is correct)

One of the biggest dilemmas facing most gaming sites is how to provide their readers with proper game reviews. A good game review is essential at the end of the day and lets people know which games should be played and which are not worth their time.

The biggest question always lies on the game’s score though. How do you pick it and how can you get most people to agree with the number you picked? What method did you use to determine the game’s score and is that method correct?

Do games even have one unique score they deserve or is a game’s score mostly based on opinion? Then if you get into Philosophy you can scratch even deeper by asking if a game even has an Objective score at all or if all game ratings are Subjective.

Objectivity vs Subjectivity

First off, on our quest to answer some of these questions, I want to define what I mean when a game’s score is Objective or Subjective; either it being based off of fact or opinion. The best way to do this is to use an example.

If a knife’s edge is truly sharp, it doesn’t matter how much I disagree with that statement of fact because at the end of the day my opinion of its sharp edge doesn’t take anything away from the fact it’s a sharp knife. I can call the knife dull or soft all I want but it’s still going to be a sharp knife. That characteristic or attribute of the knife being sharp, regardless of my opinions, would be its objective sharpness.

The same can be said about the color of an object. Even if 100 people decide an object is orange but it’s really blue, their opinions would not affect the color of the object and the object itself would have its own color regardless of what we feel.

Something Subjective though would be an opinion on which knife is the best or what your favorite color is. These types of questions have no factual right answer and cannot be said to be within the knife or object themselves. There are no right or wrong answers and because so many variable are at play, subjective questions can have many answers all equally being valid.

Applying These Concepts to Games

So when it comes to a game, is its score solely based on opinion, or does it have an intrinsic rating that game reviewers should try to find and evaluate through a certain method? Or is it a slight mixture of the two somehow or something different altogether?

It really depends how you look at games and evaluate them. By evaluating them correctly, I argue, that you come to the right conclusion.

One opinion or evaluation of games is that they are like movies. Just as movies and actors get similarly agreed upon ratings and scores, so too games need scores that are similar to one another, even if not exactly the same.

Certain metrics can be used to analyze and evaluate an actors performance or a movies success at telling a story. Those same methods, some would argue, should be used to analyze games and get “fair” ratings for games so gamers aren’t disappointed when buying a game.

Just by looking at how the argument is presented you might be convinced with the above statements and then push for game sites to try to harmonize their ratings more closely and work towards a proper method of rating games.

The counter argument though is much more compelling in my opinion and helps explains a lot of gaming culture and the grayness of the world we live in. It’s nice to want things to be black and white but I think the following gray conclusion helps explain a lot about game ratings and why they’ll always vary widely between game reviewers, magazines, companies, and gaming networks.

Interactivity Plays Into Human Nature & Tastes

I think the faulty logic of the previous argument, that games should be reviewed like movies and acting, lies in the fact that gaming is not a lazy occupation.

Gaming by its very nature is interactive. This interactivity throws a monkey wrench into a number of issues that would not be found in movies or books which are much more passive and don’t factor in as many variables.

The moment you get an interactive art form or medium, you have to make room for human nature. Some people hate interacting with objects in a certain way.

Take sports for instance. People rarely all agree on their favorite sports. Some people actually have a hatred of certain sports and refuse to play them altogether. On the other hand we have people who can tolerate a sport but would rather not play it because they don’t find it as fun.

It’s the same for gaming. We like different types of games. Not everyone is a Basketball fan. So when you tell them to play basketball, naturally, they won’t enjoy themselves even if they have the best court, team mates, shoes, and coach.

Take hobbies as well. We all have different hobbies and some of us can’t stand to do certain activities for long spans of time. As most of my readers know, I love writing, and while I may be happy to sit down and write for hours on end, it could drive other people mad or insane.

That doesn’t say anything about writing itself, only that human nature is different and we have different likes and dislikes. Everyone is different. The world would be horribly boring if we were all the same, so it’s good we have differences. It’s interesting and creates funny situations throughout life.

But we can’t forget those differences. We can’t blame others for rating a game low or high because they might honestly hate or love that type of gameplay. Both game ratings have a hint of truth and neither are inherently wrong.

Game Ratings are 70% Subjective and 30% Objective

Taking into consideration that a game affects people differently because we interact with it, gamers should understand that some people don’t like interacting with games in a certain way and others love that type of interaction.

That makes game ratings mostly subjective. Not everyone likes the same types of sports, hobbies, or past times as everyone else, and similarly the same game will be experienced significantly differently by millions of people from around the globe.

Trying to say a game DESERVES one particular rating for all people is wrong. Some people hate EA sports games like Fifa. Telling them it’s an 8 or 9 out of 10, regardless of the fact that some people don’t like those games, is misleading and wrong.

But to say a game’s rating is completely opinionated is wrong as well. Certain things such as graphical quality, number of bugs, smoothness of the game, and story elements can all be agreed upon to a certain extent by most gamers. That’s where the 30% of objectivity comes in. Someone rating a game  a 3, even though it has excellent graphics, a great story, and has high production value, is doing an injustice to the game itself.

All the effort and polishing it took to make the game would give the game at the very minimum a 5 out of 10.

But beyond the 30% of  a game we can all evaluate easily and agree upon, the other 70% is really up to the gamers likes and dislikes. It’s sad but true and explains why some gamers can never agree upon a rating for a game. Some people just really loved it while others would rather not play it.

Some people do not enjoy Strategy games, or RPG’s, or FPS games. To force them to play one of the best FPS games ever made, doesn’t mean they’ll enjoy it, if they dislike the FPS genre. To force people to play Starcraft, when they dislike Strategy games, is a similar problem.

But if 70% of a game is subjective how can we get a proper rating? Should we give up on that endeavor altogether? In my next part I want solve this problem and keep alive the dream of game ratings. Even with all these issues we can still have ratings and proper reviews for games.

What Game Reviews/Ratings Should Look Like

1. It should immediately label it’s target audience by saying: “This game is for people that like” and list different genres of gaming such as  “FPS games” “RTS games” “Adventure Games” “RPG games” or “Sports games”.

From the beginning it’s defining its audience. That way anyone who hates a particular genre of gaming can avoid them. If people hate strategy games, they would know right away, this rating does not apply to them.

2. Then it should move onto the rating itself. I’ve been rating games this whole article on a 10 point system but to be honest 10 points is too wide with too many digits to properly inform a gamer. The rating of a game becomes ambiguous to say it’s a 7.5 or an 8. It’s hard for our mind to process quickly how different that is from a 7 or an 8.5.

A lot of review sites, for that exact reason, have moved or are using a 5 point rating system which I propose we all adopt. This comes with one extra rule that decimals cannot be used. Games are either 3′s or 4′s. They are not 3.5′s or 4.5′s. In both cases we are copping out from a whole number. Saying a game is a 4 instead of a 3.5 is much easier for a gamer to understand.

Also a 4 out of 5 is a much more recommended game then a 3.5 or a 3 out of 5. Decimals make rating games very difficult and we should focus on whole numbers to help gamers understand exactly how good the game is they’re thinking of buying.

We also shouldn’t shy away from rating a game a 5 if a game is that amazing and game of the year material. There is no such thing as perfection in this world, but that doesn’t mean we have to shy away from using perfect scores to signify “Amazing/High Level” quality. There’s nothing wrong with that and gaming companies should be rewarded with perfect marks if they made near perfect games; which are the best we can hope for in an imperfect world.

Final Thoughts

So even though games may be more opinionated then factual, that doesn’t mean a game’s score is fully based on a person’s opinion. As mentioned before, in the gray world we live in, it seems games are 70% based on our likes and dislikes and 30% based on the measurable qualities of the game itself.
Together these items should be taken into account and used to form a proper 1 out of 5 point game score that does not use decimals. The games should also be labeled for a certain audience of gamer so that people who are attracted to that type of interaction and experience know to play the game and others whom don’t enjoy that experience do not buy it and are not forced to play something they won’t like.
An example of a proper review as defined above would be:

Red Dead Redemption:

(Action/Adventure/Free Roam/Story Driven)

5/5 – Possible game of the year contender

It’s simple to understand, quick to glance, defines its target audience, and lets the gamer know EXACTLY what to expect, so as not to be fooled into buying a game that’s not of their tastes or liking. Game ratings are essential and important to people looking to know which games are worth their hard earned money. The dark ages before these reviews is a time no one wants to go back to. But doing these reviews properly and with everyone’s tastes in mind is the future of where game reviewers should be going. We should move in a more positive light making ratings less confusing. With that in mind, the 10 point rating system is one object that should be retired because it inherently causes confusion having too many digits and being less sensitive than a 5 point alternative. Lets be honest, a game rated a 6 or a 7, is very close to the same. Where as a game rated a 3, 4, or 5, are all significant digits and range from 3= Average, to 4=Great, to 5=Amazing. This clarifies and clears up a rating so that anyone reading it immediately knows the quality of the game they are thinking of buying.
Please, again, for the love of God, don’t ruin this system by adding decimal scores like 3.5′s, or 4.5′s, because you’re introducing unnecessary digits and making the whole process confusing again. Take a stand, grow a spine, and either give the game a 3 or a 4. Is it closer to an average game or closer to a great one? If it’s game of the year material, consider a 5. Our lives are complicated enough, we don’t need more problems to deal with. :D

“Tea Party Zombies Must Die!!!” Politically-Charged Video Game Review

Posted by Immersedgaming on

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Although this is not what I had in mind for my first video game review, I feel I must air my opinion on this game now. Before I go any further, I must vehemently insist that the views expressed in this review do not reflect the opinions of all members of Immersed Gaming. I am not going to express any political viewpoints in this review, only straight facts and moral standpoints. Immersed Gaming is a firm believer of unbiased journalism.

The online video game, called “Tea Party Zombies Must Die!!!” was first brought to my attention from Game Informer’s online website. While I love Game Informer, subscribe to their magazine and read their posts everyday, I can’t help but be slightly offended by their coverage of the game. The title alone, “Conservatives Upset Over Tea Party Zombie Game,” paints their coverage of the story already in a negative and biased color. While I am the last one to judge another websites politics or business methods, I find it hard to understand how self-proclaimed journalists can shed their bias within their news…then again, it’s all about the views, isn’t it? Regardless, this is not a review or rant about Game Informer.

This game was created by “StarvingEyes AdverGaming” who, according to the website, are from Brooklyn, NY. Apparently this is not their first game, having made several random others such as “Kung-Fu” Election (where the player fights as one of the 2008 presidential candidates in a Mortal Kombat-esque fighting style).

The goal of the game is to fight your way through three different level areas, each of which have their own level-specific zombie types. The 3 different areas are, “FOX News,” “Trailer Park,” and “American For Prosperity.” The game pretty much plays like classics Doom and Duke Nukem’, with the exception of higher picture quality levels, and of course, shorter gameplay.

There are several zombie types that you will encounter within the game. A few examples of the “normal” zombies are: “Generic Pissed Off Old White Guy Zombie,” “Pissed Off Stupid White Trash Redneck Birther Zombie,” and the Ku Klux Klan-dressed zombie labeled, “Expresses Racist Views Anonymously On The Internet Modern Klan Zombie.” The zombies only go downhill from there. You will later end up facing zombies stylized to resemble popular Right-wing Politicians and journalists (all whom have appeared or have a show on FOX news) such as: Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Mike Huckabee, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum, Bill O’Reilly, Brit Hume, Sean Hannity, as well as the female zombie labelled “Factory Made Blonde FOX News Barbie Who Has Never Had A Problem In Her Life Zombie,” and the end-boss, Glenn Beck. Then come the zombies who are made to resemble those from Koch Industries. All of the zombies with real names have an actual picture of their respective character as a face, clearing depicting who they are to everyone.

 Newt Gingrich and Bill O'Reilly

The game starts you out in a generic area which is surrounded by the three different level area warp zones. You must first kill one or two generic zombies with either your melee weapon, or a pistol which appears behind you in order to advance on to one of the three locations. When I played, I chose to go to the “FOX News” area first. As I fought my way through a building stylized with TV’s and desks that would resemble the Fox News Studio, I eventually came to the “special” zombies such as the ones seen above. These zombies are harder to kill than normal zombies, who only take one hit with a melee weapon to kill. When I successfully completed several zones, I had to fight the level boss, who was a grotesquely overweight rendition of Glenn Beck.

"Redneck" Zombie and "Ku Klux Klan" Zombie
From there, I was transported back to the main hub where I advanced to the trailer park. Once again, I fought my way through the zones until I was faced with the next boss, the “Harpies” Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann. I then progressed the last area, “Americans For Prosperity,” where I was eventually pitted against the “Koch Brothers Zombie.” This was a two-headed, Goro-like creature who was the hardest boss of the three. When I finally beat this boss, I was “awarded” with the special video ending that includes (but is not limited to) a donkey defecating on popular members of the Republican party.

Gameplay   

The game follows an outdated style of FPS which is an exact replica of Doom and Duke Nukem’. The control scheme (arrow keys to move, Z to change weapon, X to reload, C to attack) is clunky and hard to get used to, and the graphics aren’t the best I’ve ever seen, even for an indie online game. The level design is appropriately decorated, to say the least. However, another one of the game’s many downfalls is the movement. I found myself getting stuck on everything except the ground, which makes some areas incredibly annoying. There is no soundtrack, only the droll and eventually highly annoying sounds of zombies. The only thing I can say about the game is that it is “clever,” and I don’t necessarily mean that in a positive way. It is definitely something I never expected to exist, and I’m glad I no longer have to play it. I’d rather politics and political attacks stay out of video games and remain in the other mediums that I care less about.

Closing Comments

Obviously, this game is not a game for children, or in my opinion, anyone at all. It’s blatantly a personal and political attack against many public figures. I don’t condone these kinds of attacks on anyone, regardless of their political beliefs. Say what you want about these people, or what they speak out about, but it is NEVER appropriate or professional to create something like this. It is hurtful to these people, as well as their families. Many of these people have children who ALREADY have their parents in the public spotlight everyday. Now, the negative reaction to their mothers and fathers has hit a medium that they are exposed to. It’s incredibly disturbing to me. I would never want something like this done to me, my family, or anyone I know, and I’m sure you wouldn’t either.

Recommendation

SKIP IT

    [Original Story: Game Informer]

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