How I grade games, among other things.

Hi there. Welcome to my new blog, which I am maintaining to help improve my writing. I thought I’d write something on how I grade games, to the random reader who has stumbled upon this blog.

REVIEWS

‘Reviews’ will be given a score of either A, B, C, D, or F. There will be no A+, A-, B+, ect. There will be no other grades besides the 5. This is because I believe you don’t need to have such unnecessary discrepancies in reviewing video games.

• A – This means the game is excellent, with good controls, game mechanics, but above all, it is extremely fun.
• B – This means the game is good, but there are certain areas that bring the game’s overall enjoyability down.
• C - This means the game is average. It it has some good ideas and is sometimes fun, but not something you’d buy and enjoy immensely.
• D – This means the game is bad, below average. The decent ideas it may have are poorly executed and it is usually a chore to play.
• F – This means the game is terrible, and no one should ever play it. Its mechanics are terrible, the controls are not responsive, and it is downright depressing to play.

The score will be easy to understand, and if you need elaboration, read the text. My goal in the future is to write short and concise reviews (unlike that 1000 word MGS4 one). I think, at least on the internet, people don’t want to read extremely long essays about something.

IMPRESSIONS

In my ‘impressions,’ I will play a game that I am possibly reviewing. The game time played can range from 10 minutes to a few hours. Here, I will tell you my thoughts on what I played so far. I will sometimes do impressions when I’m halfway or so a giant game, and want to write about it, or I’ll play a game for a short amount of time just to try it.

• Promising – This means the game has some great ideas and some fantastic gameplay, so far.
• Interesting – This means the game has turned my head, but I’m still on the fence about its quality.
• Meh – This means the game is boring or I’m not interested in it at all.
• Bad Idea – This means the game looks terrible from glance.

Again, these are easy to understand, and if you want the full breakdown, read the text, which will hopefully also be short and concise.

POSTMORTEMS

‘Postmortems’ will not be given a grade of any kind. These sections are for looking back on big, critically acclaimed titles, and seeing if they’re as good as we remember them to be. I’m hoping these pieces will be slightly longer than a ’short and concise’ review, examining certain aspects of the game that hold up to memory, or were just plain glassed over in the ensuing hype.

And there you have it. For anyone who ever comes back here more than once, now you know.

~ by Patrick Nguyen on June 15, 2008.