[07/30/01]:

Ciddy sez:
Hello, audience. Ciddy here again. Well, my senior year in highschool's coming up, and I've been *really* busy trying to get work together, CAS hours to burn and scribbling up college applications, so my apologies for getting this up so late. -_-; But... Anyway... Speaking of senior... This week is (as always) another special update. Legendary Staff Reviewer Jake Alley has done the impossible and gone uh... Red! (Does that sound awkward to anyone else?) In any case, we dedicate this update to him (again) and hope that this will inspire our readers to contribute more! After all, you DO get space for a blurb... Wouldn't that be nice? XD Without further ado, here's a few words from our hero!

Jake sez:
Hello again everyone. Now that I have another fifteen reviews under my belt, it seems I get yet another chance to come out of my cage and speak candidly. The last time I did this I gave out a number of tips on writing good reviews. I believe I covered just about everything then, so if you want more tips, go back and read that.

First of all, let me make a general reply to everyone who has ever mailed me regarding a review, since I never have a chance to reply individually. To anyone who has ever sent me a letter complimenting me on a particularly unbiased review, thanks. Glad to know I'm appreciated. For everyone who ever sent me a letter along the lines of "What were you thinking giving Chrono Cross a 4 in interface?!?" on the other hand, go back and read the review and you'll find the answer.

Now, if I may take up a little more of your time, there's a number of things I feel I should mention regarding some of my reviews. This review of Xenogears I just wrote is I feel, a good example of how to review a game you really like. It really is one of my favorite games of all time, but I've met my fair share of people who have some very valid complaints about it. So I made an effort to acknowledge the flaws, even though they didn't bother me much personally, and made an effort not to gush on the high points. The resulting review doesn't quite do as much justice to my personal feelings on the game, but there's more useful information for people thinking about picking the game up, and that's the important thing.

Another thing I've noticed from doing this so long is that should never review a game within an hour of finishing it. I did that with Chrono Cross, and I keep finding myself wanting to rewrite it.

Speaking of reviewing games after winning them, that if you're curious, is why average review score is a bit above a five. RPGamer has an ironclad policy against reviewing games before finishing them. While I play enough of the truly sub par games to determine a scale to judge the rest by, I never can seem to bring myself to finish games that are as truly loathsome as, for example, Parasite Eve 2. If things ever slow down enough for me to get through the dregs, I'll let you all see the other half of the bell curve.

Now that I have all that off my chest, it's back to work with me. I finally received my review copy of the Diablo II expansion after a month of postal mishaps, and let me just say briefly that it is a greatly improved experience.

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