Topic: Reviewing a Game

After many years of writing and gaming, I thought I'd try my hand at a review. I've been reading the reviews here for a long time now, and the way they've always been handled inspired me to do my own! However, I am at a loss as to what to be sure to do. It's my first time reviewing, of course! What I would know to do is be straight to the point, mention all aspects of a game, and detail those aspects and how they work before getting to my thoughts on them.
So...any advice, as to what I should remember, or include? I'd really appreciate it. ^^

Well I'd say it depends on the game but overall most reviewers just talk about the experience that the had with the game. Also keep your opinion sounding like an opinion not as a fact. Finally make sure your judgement is fair not overly praising but not diminishing the value of the game. With that you should be good, good luck!

I have never written a review before (have considered doing so several times) so take my advice with a grain of salt but here is how I would do it:

Start off with an interesting opening that will grab attention. What is the game about? What does it do differently from other games? Be short, concise, and to the point while remaining entertaining and captivating. After this, go over the different aspects of the game: story, gameplay, graphics, sound, etc. Give your own thoughts on these sections but also try to remain objective. You do not want your own opinion to give a biased viewpoint of the game. Lastly, give your thoughts on who would enjoy this game (is it a game for turn based rpg fans, first person shooter fans, etc.) and then give it a score (if you want to).

Again, I have never written a review so you can take my advice or leave it but I hope it proves to be useful!

Personally, I would say refrain from using a score, especially given it's your first review. Stick to a simple "hate it", "ok", "liked it", "loved it" type scale. If you are clear and concise in your review, there is absolutely no need to score it.

Experience.

That reduces to the exact same concept as a score. It just looks superficially different.

I'd say just write in the way that feels most natural. Some people like to give as much detail as possible, some like to just focus on the parts that stood out as either good or bad. Some like to try and take as objective an approach as is humanly possible as to rate the game with the average gamer in mind (but it's quite hard to identify your own biases so probably a waste of time trying). Some like to just turn reviews into short comedy performances roughly based on the game.

To be honest, and no offense to those who do it as a job (it's a very important job that needs to be done), but it's not the hardest thing in the world. If you're a capable writer in general, just give it a try. And like nearly everything in life, except suicide bombing, you only get better with practice. Of course it's very helpful if you have some kind of independent standard that you're comparing yourself to in order to improve in a skill (otherwise people are remarkably good at convincing themselves they're good at something they're not)

I do game reviews (currently I'm doing Color Zen for 3DS), the link to our site is in my signature (eShop Gurus), and what I usually like to focus on is the gameplay first, and go over the graphics and music too. I point out the creative points, or things I thought were boring or overly frustrating or held the game back from its potential, that kind of thing. Anything I liked about a game gets attention too. I start with the big pieces of the game, and then move into the finer details, and then conclude with an overview of my thoughts. Hope that helps! ^-^

Now I don't reveiw games, but maybe thinking it as a school report might help.

• Start of with an introduction.
• Open up with what might you expect in the game and make a small summary.
• Talk about the game step by step. First graphics, story if any, music, gameplay and how it fits into the genre well than others, etc. I fell to talk about the story first and talk a little graphics and music before hammering at the gameplay. Make sure after you've talk about what the gameplay or what the story is that you say something about them that moves you and maybe someother people that have taken intrest too.
• Talk about what you liked and disliked about the game.
• Talk about problems. Loading time, glitches, screen placements like hard to see icons, online difficulties and etc.
• Talk about extra little things you may have picked up on.
• Share you thoughts on what you might change.
• Finish with an conclusion on what you think of the game overall and keep it small.
  Well, I hope I helped.

what i used to do when starting out was I'd go on a media blackout on the game I was reviewing, and then play it blind. I'd jot down my impressions and interesting mechanics and design choices I wanted to talk about, and then I'd figure out if I wanted to give it a positive, negative or mixed spin. The score didn't really matter much until the very end. To edit, I'd do a quick google of what everyone else thought of the game, just to see what the overall view of that game was. If the general opinion is way different to mine, I'd go back and play it again with everyone else's thoughts in mind and see if it colours my experience of the game differently.

...forgot to mention earlier, but also when I review a game I try to go in with no expectations/very little expectations (I try to avoid knowing anything about the game beforehand to keep the review unbiased), and I try not to compare it to too much else, I try to look at the game as it's own game; more heavily than weighing it against other games I weigh it by how it works for the console it's on. I've only reviewed 3DS downloadable games so far, so I review them as 3DS downloadable games. I talk about how well it works as a 3DS game, not anything else.

Thanks for the input, guys! I really appreciate it. I'll keep all of these in mind!

Thanks! I'll check out that site of yours when I get the time. ^^

Couldn't have said it better myself. My advice is to just jump into the review from a creative writing point of view. Don't focus too much on what points you need to have in your review, just write/talk about the game and what you liked/didn't like. Then let your reviewing style grow from there.