Thoughts From Re-Writing Game Reviews

Minecraft is actually a really messy game. I think I would rate it much more poorly if there were anything else worthwhile in the same gameplay genre – as it stands, the other available games are messier still (titles like Dwarf Fortress and The Forest).

Which would you rank better, BioShock Infinite, or Bastion? They’re both linear, story-focused combat games with customization elements. I tend to prefer shooters, and BSI has twice the content and an assload more size and grandeur, plus it’s story has all manner of science-fictioney fun. But Bastion, I would argue, has a vastly superior customization system, and a much more solid, cohesive story that is much better integrated with the gameplay. I don’t really think either one had obviously better combat mechanics, which is pretty much the meat of both titles, so that’s a legitimately tough call.

Imagine how much more awesome Magicka would be if it were structured like Left 4 Dead. It’s biggest problem, by far, is the fact that it’s such a pointless slog to play through any of those levels a second time. If they were more interchangeable in terms of their ordering, and had some of L4D’s dynamic enemy spawns and a similar Director AI to calibrate difficulty, I think Magicka could have really risen above it’s limited means.

Does Gone Home’s purity as a story-game make it better than games like BioShock that switch between story/exploration play and gunplay? Or is BioShock just Gone Home plus guns, and therefore “better” because “more”?

Cogs is a really hard game to evaluate. It’s so good. It’s really friggin’ good. But it’s just slider puzzles! How do you rank that against some shit like Brink, which is a way more elaborate, complex kind of game, but sucks so bad at everything it’s trying to do? Same goes for all these little indie puzzle platformers. Braid? Limbo? Thomas Was Alone? Trine? Yeah, they’re all great, but, it’s just platforming. I don’t even LIKE platforming.