f13.net

So, this is just another little pet project of ours. No need to be scared, it's completely safe and has been tested on cute animals. The idea here is that you simply don't need to finish a game to judge it. For whatever reason, the internet community of games believes that reviewers finish games before reviewing them. I can tell you flat out that most of them don't. In fact, it would be a silly waste of time to do so. However, sometimes the reviewer does finish the game because something kept driving them. And this thing tackles that concept head-on. To be blunt, this forum is going to be comprised of one thing: reviews. But not a regular review, but rather thoughts on the first few hours of the game. Old games, new games, demos, freeware, etc. The idea here is for people to put into words why they're going to continue playing a game or why they're done with it. As such, there will be a review system. Please don't leave this little sub-forum yet, it's quite simple. Here, let me break it down:

Buy it.
Rent it.
Total Crap.

See. 3 scores. You could say it's a 1-3 scale, but it's really not. That would make some people think that all 3s are of the same caliber. Which they're not.

Also, we're making this a forum project simply because the point is for people playing said game to discuss it with the review. Agreement, disagreement, etc. In other words, reasonably concise and on-topic discussion of a single game per thread.

Now, who can make threads in here? Right now only the following groups: administrators, moderators, developers and contributors.

If you want to review something and want it posted, send it to me or another staff member (green and sky blue names). The reason we're keeping it so strict is because all of these reviews will get posted onto another site (butisitfun.com). That site will then generate the RSS feeds needed to make entries into this experiment elegantly fit into the main f13 frontpage.

As such, I'll say this simply for those that can post here and those that may get the privilege extended to them:

Don't do anything stupid (like engadget did once with kotaku - tubgirling their frontpage). The banhammer is strong and swift with this one. And don't test us.

Rules:

Posts need to look like this:

Subject: Game Title - Developer - System

Content/Post Itself:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Morbi purus. Nam aliquam, purus ut sagittis porta, quam lacus eleifend nisl, pharetra fermentum urna orci id massa. Sed tempor porta eros. Nam rhoncus pulvinar felis. Nulla tempor, nisi pulvinar dapibus nonummy, massa nibh rhoncus dui, a condimentum tellus mi in sapien. In tristique tellus eu felis. In hac habitasse platea dictumst. Ut nibh ante, cursus at, consectetuer nec, ullamcorper nec, pede. Sed imperdiet elit quis nisi. Integer dapibus porta justo. Quisque sollicitudin est ac est.

Cras sagittis. Suspendisse luctus, quam quis mattis facilisis, turpis felis euismod nisl, et mollis mi magna et nisi. Cras ante magna, consectetuer vel, iaculis vitae, pulvinar eget, lectus. Maecenas egestas, dolor feugiat fringilla fringilla, tortor nulla euismod mauris, ut euismod est leo ut purus. Pellentesque orci urna, porttitor porta, porttitor sit amet, rhoncus et, nibh. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nunc velit. Proin sed leo ut lorem malesuada scelerisque. Fusce metus nulla, volutpat a, lobortis quis, sodales ac, arcu. Nullam eu neque iaculis felis suscipit euismod. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Aliquam vehicula nisl eu arcu. Suspendisse rhoncus.

Nam ac ligula et nisi suscipit aliquam. Nam tincidunt nunc a libero. Nulla facilisi. Quisque vehicula. Sed sit amet arcu. Phasellus velit. Donec urna. Etiam urna. Praesent eros felis, egestas a, dictum eget, faucibus vel, massa. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Praesent velit. In eros mauris, iaculis quis, posuere at, pulvinar quis, neque. Aliquam sit amet elit sit amet felis fermentum mattis. Nulla felis pede, condimentum et, mollis sed, rhoncus nec, nunc. Duis euismod nisl placerat metus. Vestibulum ipsum lacus, pretium in, elementum ac, faucibus eget, augue. Curabitur enim justo, posuere a, feugiat eu, pulvinar et, eros.

Phasellus vitae felis. Vivamus eu orci. Donec dignissim facilisis erat. Cras nulla velit, vulputate a, ultrices et, suscipit in, tellus. Pellentesque ullamcorper sodales metus. Aliquam sagittis placerat neque. Class aptent taciti sociosqu ad litora torquent per conubia nostra, per inceptos hymenaeos. Donec a orci. Ut placerat. Phasellus commodo, nulla vitae posuere semper, massa turpis imperdiet ipsum, fermentum sollicitudin massa nunc id velit.
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Rating: Buy It, Rent it, Stay Away

Now, as you can see, that's 4 paragraphs (which equates to about 360 words). Much, much shorter than your average review, and something that most people exceed whenever they make the post in the PC/Gaming forum about a new game. Now is 4 paragraphs needed? No. It can be 2, 3, or 4.

But please try to keep it under 400 words.

IMPORTANT: IF YOU WANT TO POST IMAGES, MAKE ANOTHER POST FOLLOWING YOUR FIRST ONE, AS IT WILL NOT BE MOVED TO OTHER PARTS OF THE SITE.

And yes, we're super about following the format guidelines.

-

Boy, I sure have written a lot. Thankfully there's a tl;dr version:

0. Admin, Mods, Developers and Contributors can make topics. If you want to submit something, send it to a member of staff (green or sky blue names).
1. Subject: Game Name - Developer - System
2. Post content (2, 3, or 4 paragraphs). If you want images, put it in the second post).
3. Rating after the content spaced down a line (with a dash inbetween if you so feel like it).
4. Make sure the post contains a brief description and why you're still playing it or why you've put it down for now (or forever).
5. Press submit.

And that's it. Enjoy!

This will be up in a day or two. Took more work than expected.

Some of the frontpage integration will be different, working out some kinks.

Any questions or concerns, go ahead and post in this thread.

Is it time?  I have a cold Phoenix Wright cart ready for the experiment.  Also Elite Beat Agents.

Hopefully be done tonight.

I downloaded Tabula Rasa.   :awesome_for_real:

Soul Nomad is ready to go.

I see your Tabula Rasa and raise you an Enchanted Arms.

I cannot compete with that gayness.

Anything in particular that's off-limits?  I mean, presumably any major releases that already get discussed here would be redundant, but what about imports, expansions, anything that would be next to impossible for anyone else to find if they wanted to try it after reading the review. etc...?  Also, given the inability to rent PC games, would the "rent it" score just equate to "track down a demo, or if one isn't available, buy at your own risk"?

Sounds like a good concept to me.  I'll probably write a few reviews, if only because I've far too much time on my hands right now.

PC should theoretically be "Buy it" "Demo It" "Avoid it." Anything Off-Limits? Nope.


No, you won't.

Dibs on Love and Berry.

Downloading the Universe at War Demo.

Torrent it?

schild
Administrator
Posts: 22336

(http://forums.f13.net/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3205;type=avatar)
Katamari Damacy Dooby
Doo Waa

Could your stuff get any longer?

Yes.

 :heart:

Suit yourself, I'm actually reasonably good at reviews (http://www.gamespot.com/users/geldonyetich/contributions?mode=reviews).   At least, much better than I am at telling the future.  Hindsight and all.

Edit: Sorry, that was mean. I meant don't care. Answer is still No.

Question: can you point buttfun.f13.net to the site?

You gave Vanguard an 8.0.

Epic Fail, Especially when compared to your other reviews.

Also, any chance I can do La Pucelle Tactics, even though I have already finished it?

And how about Gal Civ II?

Wow, you review like 1up, gamespot and gamespy, pretty much all 8s with just a few 7s and 9s.

I don't play enough bad games is why my reviews tend to skew a bit high.   My Vanguard review wasn't that much out line with the industry average (http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/920083.asp?q=vanguard).

Moot point, I'm leaving you in peace with this endeavor.

No.

The point is, initial reaction, in fact I'd argue people reviewing shit that they know the peer group loves or hates is kinda stupid.  Not that I have any say, but the way I read it the system only works if you play less then 8 hours and write your thoughts.  That's sort of the point, don't worry about anything beyond, is the game fun.

Yes, quote the knobgobblers at the more mainstream sites as a way to validate your own review. Good Job.

I give this criticism a 7.5

Sorry, I'd have tried to find a more appropriate mark to compare my Vanguard review to, but none of the Goths down at the roller rink would admit to playing an MMORPG.

Fixed.  :awesome_for_real:

So when does this start? I'll planning on getting Fire Pro Returns and Power Pro Baseball soon, I can always accelerate that process. Sorry if this has already been mentioned, I suck at reading and life.

What's going on here?  Are you kids smoking dope again?

(http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/d/d9/Matt_Foley,_Saturday_Night_Live.jpg)

You're gonna be doing alot of doobie rolling when you're living in a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER!

ROFLOLLMAO

(http://japaner.istheshit.net/images/lcsxgoxw.jpg)

Front page is fucked for me, right side-bar is script instead of script output. IE7.

Well holy shit. Stupid cross compatibility trash.

This is fantastic.

I see tiny links in the upper right corner of the front page, don't expect anybody else to though.

We're gonna work it into the main page also (in a week or two).

This is actually doing a lot to get me try out new games.  Currently downloading the demo for Stranger (http://www.stranger-game.com/index.php) to play through a little bit after I get some sleep.

I picked up Phantom Hourglass the other day, but I think VDL posted something someplace about it, although I think it was super-brief. I got a DS for Christmas and I picked up quite a few games (FF1-2, Etrian Odyssey, Pokemans Diamond, Phantom Hourglass, Spyro (my girlfriend picked it up), and Harvest Moon. I've really only been spending time on the Pokemans, Zelda, and FF1, but I could find time to write some stuffs.
  :awesome_for_real:

I would also like to add that it would be AWESOME if you guys created an image for your review.  It is by no means required, but if you do make sure it's 480 x 150 and put it at the top of the review.

Pictures make everything better no?

I failed at picture-insertion.  Will RTFM ASAP.

That wasn't part of the manual at first. It remains optional.

Not sure if it's known or not, but I noticed something happened to the RSS feed when this went live (using http://www.f13.net/xml-rss2.php). It seems the main channel info (title, link, etc) was commented out, so when I read the feed in Opera it doesn't identify where the entry came form other than the items <link> in the body of the message.
Opera uses its mail display for feeds and fills the "From" field on the list with either the <dc:creator> for the entry or otherwise the channel title. The f13 feed has neither now so it just shows up blank. Not sure if other readers would try to fill it with something else.

Just thought I'd mention it..... eventually.

Speaking of pictures, my thanks goes out to whoever picked up my slack in CoD 4. Nice picture; Awesome tagline.

Um...bump...for whatever reason, when I viewed the frontpage....it was showing all the early '07 BiiFs.

My local newspaper has picked up this concept:
Here's their review of Destiny (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/technology/gaming/i-played-destiny-for-an-hour-to-figure-out-if-you-should-too/article20491143/#dashboard/follows/). It's actually a pretty amusing read. I like this line: "First things first: pick a character class and race. That role-playing game standby is the first hint of the time suck to come." But yeah, your concept has hit the big time, Schild.

GamePad is big time? Yayyyyyyyy ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I've never heard of it.

Of course you haven't. It's in a newspaper. Not sure that people under 50 still read those.