Let's talk about video games! I really wanted to start this now that we're right in the middle of the holiday season with next generation consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X) coming out. My first video game review will be on Tom Clancy's The Division 2, but I want to talk about my personal rating system.
Why Not A Traditional Rating System?
I'm really bad at giving ratings. I don't like to pigeon-hole my personal feelings about a game into a star rating or "1 to 10" skew. I also don't like my ratings compared with others especially legitimate critics. Thus, I'm going to borrow from one of my favorite Movie and Game Youtube Reviewer: Jeremy Jahns, and include some nebulous categories based on my mood. Here they are: LIFE, 5G, SURE, ITDS. Taken alone, these don't mean anything to anyone. My breakdown is below and will be referenced for each review:
LIFE - Quote "My favorite cereal is LIFE, and I got it and I lived" (Credit: Patti LaHelle Youtube Series). This is to describe the great effervescence I feel playing this game. This is a life-changing game. A game that I can replay at a moment's notice and feel like it's the first time playing it. Or better yet, like it's BETTER, because I'm discovering new details, new missions, and an ability to tap into my inner perfectionist. An example is The Witcher 3 - The Wild Hunt.
5G's - Quote: "Good God, Get a Grip Girl" (Credit: RuPaul's Drag Race, Latrice Royale): This is a game that was pleasant to play and I had genuine excitement for. It's the game that I will play at night by myself without any coercion with commitment to completion. However, after completion, I'm not playing more than a few times on my own. If it's a co-op, I will play it a few more months with my husband, but it's moreso for the bonding experience. This for me is Final Fantasy XV.
SURE- Sample Dialogue in the Robinson Home: "Do you think this dress looks good on me?" Alexis asks after the 8th outfit. "Sure...it does the job", says my husband exasperated that we're 20 minutes late. This is a game that's a good time, but definitely not great. It might follow the tropes that I like in a game: role-playing, or third person shooter, but there is either "by-the-book" story telling or unremarkable gameplay that doesn't make it a 5G. Thus, it's a game I can check the box and say that I've played it, but as Chad says, it just does the job. An example is Star Ocean: Til the End of Time.
ITDS - Quote: "SKIRRRRR...I Don't Think So (ITDS)" (Credit: Kenan Thompson, Saturday Night Live "Disney Channel Sketch"). This is a game I don't know why I even touched. I either was bamboozled, coerced, or held hostage to sit my behind in front of a screen to pick up a controller to play this game. Or maybe this game and the person that might've referred me had the best intentions. It was just the execution failed my personal expectations. Common games that fall into this realm are really buggy, virtually incomplete games that just come out that require a couple of patches to be sufficiently playable. A game could also just strike me at the wrong day and time and I struggled through it. Either way, the experience makes it impossible for me to recommend this game to anyone else and the case is buried in a box in the back of the house. An example is Destiny (No I'm not going into it, my experience was trash. Period).
I must caveat, this is my personal review. People might notice that I have 3 positive ratings and only one negative or fail rating. That's because, it already takes me a level of effort as a grown person to pick out a game and dedicate time to play it. I don't like wasting my time. Most of the games I play are already tailored to my preferences and proclivities. Honestly, I hope to never review a game I deemed as "ITDS".
Additionally, some of the games I might rate as "ITDS" are some of the highest rated games for professional reviewers. Some of the games I'm rating as "LIFE" would be considered child's play and mediocre to the community. This is based on my personal feeling as I play the game and more than anything, it's replay value. Another factor that I value is co-op play, even more than online play. I play with people in person, and one of the ways that my husband and I bond, even while dating, was through playing video games. The first Borderlands was one of the very first games that we played together. It was memorable for many reasons, but it started our relationship off in how to communicate with each other, value each other's strengths, compensate for each other's weaknesses, and to just get to know each other. I KNOW, sappy. But that investment continues to pay off.
Okay enough with the feels! The whole point is that I want to convey with this blog the feeling I experience when I play video games. This is either by myself or with a partner. The emphasis is not exclusively on the rating system. It's the experience that I'm getting out of it which can be manipulated based on when I pick up the game, who I'm playing with, what I feel like that month, and my own skill-level (which for most people, it's trash).
What Will My Reviews Entail?
For all of my reviews, I will cover the following:
What are the Specifics? - This will be a high-level breakdown of the game, including the style, the release date, any previous games, synopsis, and average play-through time.
What Persuaded Me To Pick It Up? - I dive into what drove me to pick up this game. It's not intended to be long.
What Do I Love About It? - This is self-explanatory. I got into generally hyperbolic language of what moved me about this game.
What Do I Not Like About It? - I won't get too negative here, but I simply go over either problematic areas, issues with story-telling, and perhaps some missed opportunities (if there are any at all).
What Can You Get Out Of It? - I talk through what a new gamer can experience here and what more experienced gamers can grab from playing.
My Verdict? - This is where my personal rating system comes in.
Why Am I Review Video Games in the First Place?
Ultimately, I hope with these personal reviews to do the following:
Debrief a game for catharsis purposes. For those that know me, I'm big into opening and closing chapters in my life. With a video game taking up 40 - 80 hours of my time in a given setting, I would like to leverage this as an outlet to close a chapter and pick up something new.
Encourage gaming for women. I want to encourage more women (particularly minorities) to pick up gaming for themselves or with their partners. Obviously there are physical dexterity and hand/eye coordination benefits. But there is some great story-telling in video games now that's really compelling. I don't want people to miss out.
Proselytize my gaming preferences. I'm a glutton for free gifts. I want to refer coworkers, friends and family to what I like to play so they can selfishly know what to buy me next.
Either way, I want everyone reading these posts to generally have a good time and laugh at my expense as I barrel through an explanation of a video game on my terms. Regardless of how many people reading this, I want to go back and read my musings and see if anything's changed. I HOPE there are updates, new things that I'm able to read into a game or check-in with a new epiphany after a second play-through.
However, if I inspire one person to just pick up a console and play along, then I can retire content!
Happy Gaming Everyone!
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