Virtue and Reward
HIGH The Lovecraftian transformations of Armon Ritter.
LOW The painfully sluggish sword fight against Hibaru Yaju.
WTF So, the hideous bird-lion boss is our new best friend?
Author: Sparky Clarkson
Alpha Protocol Review
Lost in this Masquerade
HIGH Steven "Don't call me Steve" Heck.
LOW The '80s-themed boss fight against a knife-wielding cokehead who somehow is still talking after taking ten bullets in the face.
WTF Let me get this straight: a brilliant intelligence analyst lost track of his own daughter because she took her mother's maiden name?
ModNation Racers Review
Prepare Yourself for the Rubberband Man
HIGH Fulfilling all the conditions to earn all of a track's prizes and skidding across the finish line in first.
LOW Fulfilling all the conditions to earn all of a track's prizes and getting dropped from first to sixth by attacks within sight of the finish line.
WTF Why did they include this dull story (announcers, skits, etc.) in career mode?
Red Dead Redemption Review
The Legend of John Marston
HIGH Taking down the Bollard Twins gang in a running gunfight in Pike's Basin.
LOW A late mission using a surprisingly ineffective car-mounted Browning machine gun in poor visibility.
WTF I went through all that crap with the grave robber just so he could dance like a lunatic in Fort Mercer?
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon Second Opinion
You Talk too Much
HIGH The desolate, yet familiar environments, although they're repeated.
LOW The constant tedium of the Inventory Tetris.
WTF "Friends give each other kisses, right? I read that somewhere."
Resonance of Fate Review
Grinding Gears
HIGH The first fight where I really figured out the battle system.
LOW The difficulty spike in the final chapter.
WTF "Guys don't make passes at girls who kick asses!" Seriously?
Metro 2033 Review
The Ghost in the Tunnels
HIGH Successfully sneaking all the way through a war zone.
LOW Killing the endless stream of Lurkers in Hole Station.
WTF What, exactly, are the librarians eating to get that big?
Infinite Space Review
Adrift in the Sea of Stars
HIGH Defeating the third wave of a superior enemy fleet with just a sliver of life left on my flagship.
LOW Getting lost for six hours in Chapter Two.
WTF The acronym for fame points is FAP.
Camp
Jim Sterling gave Deadly Premonition a score of 10 points out of a possible 10, easily the highest score the game received among major gaming review sites. In his review, he makes it plain that this game does not deserve that score in any "objective" sense. The graphics are dated, the gameplay is limited, and its systems pay too much attention to irrelevant details. This is to say nothing of its absurd plot and characters. In comparison to almost any other game, Deadly Premonition is awful, but within the bounds of a certain kind of sensibility, that does not preclude it from also being good. Sontag identifies that sensibility as Camp, and it's an idea worth thinking about in connection to games.
Deadly Premonition Review
My Coffee Warned Me About It
HIGH Running desperately from the Raincoat Killer.
LOW Driving around town with my car constantly trying to take off to the left.
WTF "F K… In the coffee!"