RF Generation Message Board

Let's face it: I suck at writing game reviews. They're short, poorly written, and quite possibly misleading and not honest. All of this, of course, prevents me from getting the coveted Blog Writer Title on here. That being said, could someone teach me how to write better reviews? I know this whole thing is probably stupid, but damn it, I want to write something nice. Thank you.

Just take it slow. You don't have any deadlines or anything. Start with games you are VERY passionate about (either for or against) and just get some words out. Read over them a few times and add or edit anything you feel needs to be altered (such as the few things you mentioned above). If you find yourself using the same language a lot, just pull up a thesaurus to jazz up your writing a bit. Give yourself some goals like minimum word count or a target number of comments on your blog you'd like to hit and then you have something to work towards.

I am going to echo what crabby said.

Instead of writing snippets about whatever game you happen to be playing go play something you LOVE and then write about it. Play it all the way thru before publishing the review but maybe take notes or write it as you go. You might have more to say about it as you are playing versus once you finish. When you are done with the game look over the who thing. See what still work and what doesn't, shorten, embellish or mention how your opinion had changed.   

If you want an example for a long(ish) terrible biased review check out the Mortal Kombat Genesis page(mine) :
http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/getinfo.pl?ID=U-040-S-03680-A

If you want an example of a short(ish) terrible biased review check out the Super Metroid SNES page(not mine. Ex-staffers) :
http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/getinfo.pl?ID=U-044-S-05780-A

Or a guide that is very unpolished and was going to be considerably longer(mine) :
http://www.rfgeneration.com/blogs/IZRET101/A-mostly-completed-review-of-True-Crimes-Streets-of-L-A-1430.php

Everyone has their own style. The more you write the more you will find a style that works for you(and your audience).

Unfortunately i think most people are just leaving reviews only in their blogs and not linking or adding the guide to the gamepage....

If you'd like, I can critique your latest review:

- Your introduction is entirely too short. There's very little information there describing the history behind the title (and there's quite a bit of history surrounding it), and it does very little to hook the reader into continuing to read the review.
- Gameplay: Are the other boxers licensed boxers? How many rounds do you get to fight? Can you win by TKO? Is there a points system for determining the winner?
- Graphics: Good information here regarding "Final Blow" and palette swapping - however, what character was he a palette swap of?
- Difficulty: This section needs to be re-written properly. You have too many run-on sentences, and shouldn't be telling the reader that "they" will be mashing buttons in anger. It is a literary faux pas to be telling the reader what they should and shouldn't be experiencing by using the word "you", especially in this circumstance. Perhaps my experience may differ.
- Sound: Not much you can do about this.
- Conclusion: No real problem with this.

Part of the problem seems to be that your writing style is very casual in nature, especially with the sentence structure. While I have no problem reading your reviews and absorbing the information you are giving, it doesn't come across as professional. Unfortunately, I don't know exactly how to help with that. noise and slackur both have reviews that have been published - you want may want to ask them for advice.

"After Mike Tyson was defeated by Buster Douglas in 1990 (Possibly 1991, I'm not entirely sure)"
That would have been a REALLY easy piece of information to find.

Typing buster douglas into goole returns this:
"James "Buster" Douglas is a former undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion who scored a stunning upset when he knocked out previously undefeated champion Mike Tyson on February 11, 1990 in Tokyo, Japan. "


As i said writing about something you care about (or be better at pretending you care) makes a big difference.
By not taking 5 seconds to type the guys name into google it gives the impression that you don't care. If you don't why should the readers?

To be honest i did not read the most recent one until Ray pointed it out. I still haven't read it. I only made it that far then came back here to comment.

In all honesty, both of your words hurt, but don't get me wrong. I do appreciate your advice, and I am even more pleased that you were able to criticize constructively. Next time, I will take all of these words into account and write a much better review...I hope.

Wasn't meant to be insulting. I am glad you were able to take it how it was meant. To help you learn from the mistakes improve and move forward not to try and tear you down and say "you suck" or whatever.

Becoming a Blog Contributer and eventually Blog Writer is my goal too. Right now my articles are too personal, so I'm trying to move away from that.

Some things I keep in mind when writing reviews are to be objective - take a stance and back it up with information. Personal opinion is good too, but don't rely on that too much of that in your pieces. In a review you want to judge the game. Address what the game does right. What makes it good/memorable? Things such as realistic characters, depth of story; basically what made you keep playing. You should also look at where the game could be better. Could the controls be tighter, was there a sudden spike in difficulty that could tarnish the experience?

Look at the game's individual components, as well as a sum of its parts.

Some research into the topic also helps and gives you an authoritative voice.

But the most important piece of advice is to write. Write often and write about anything.

It might be easier to first look at the work of other writers.  Don't try to directly emulate them, but look at the introductions they wrote and the general flow.  How much history do they put in?  How much exposition do they put in?  Personal anecdotes?  The best thing you could do is to just bounce things around until you find a pattern you feel comfortable with.  Look at noiseredux.  Dude writes great reviews.

Difficulty spike in a boxing game could be definitely attributed to play style too.
If you are playing balls to the wall throwing punches nonstop(aka button mashing) you will not progress in most boxing games.

If you take your time and block and evade like they do in real boxing you will progress much further with more more ease.

That was somewhat hard lesson for me to learn when i played a few boxing games. And it is one i had to relearn every time i got impatient and inevitably lost what would have been a gimme if i kept playing the right way.

Well, along with the information given above, i would add a few more things:
- Do not write reviews that are too long, can be tiresome. Try to summarize your opinion briefly as possible.
- Try to go straight to the point we want to know: the game is good or not, and why?
- Avoid going too deep on stuff like plot, characters and others things that are not too relevant when we are thinking about purchase a game.
- Keep in mind that you're writing for a hardcore game fan base, so i think that over explaining gameplay mechanics of a Metal Gear and a Zelda is not needed, we already know what is all about.


I wrote a few reviews for RF Generation, like these:

http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/getinfo.pl?ID=U-182-S-00200-A

http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/getinfo.pl?ID=U-182-S-00110-A

http://www.rfgeneration.com/cgi-bin/getinfo.pl?ID=U-076-S-01600-A

That's my way to write a text , maybe you can relate (or not).

thanks man, though you might even argue that I don't even write "reviews" as much as just more personal anecdotes about my experience with a game.

I'll add in some critiques as well.

Your latest review of James "Buster" Douglas' Knockout Boxing reads more like a rough draft than a final copy to me. The intro is short and even has a note leading to research to delve into: "After Mike Tyson was defeated by Buster Douglas in 1990 (Possibly 1991, I'm not entirely sure)" in my writing process would mean to me that I need to look this up before I even move onto middle drafts.

Maybe mention controls while you're talking about gameplay, explain what each of the 3 face buttons would do. And an idea for if you run into the situation where you can't play with sound, watch a youtube video of somebody playing it without voice so you can gauge the sound quality? Or omit the category completely.

One thing to keep in mind when writing a review or really anything for that matter:  Do not introduce new information in your closing paragraph.  It's a trap a lot of inexperienced writers fall into.  It's usually due to some minor detail that doesn't really fit elsewhere, but the writer feels is necessary to provide.  ZIt's better to leave something like that out entirely than to just staple it onto your closing remarks.   

I'm not accusing you of doing that, just try to be very conscious about it.  Nothing ruins an otherwise good review for me than a bad ending.

Every year, I write of 'Best Of' music list that I post in the Media Room (insert shameless plug to go read the 2012 edition). I absolutely agree with starting by writing about things you are passionate towards, whether good or bad. Honestly, one of my favorite parts of the Best Of lists every year are the disappointments, because it allows me to flex a creative muscle instead of constantly saying 'Oh I love X album for Y reason'. The important thing is to just have fun and get lost in the writing part of it. You'll know once you get in the zone, and then that's when your best stuff will come out. :)

Seems like a popular topic. Everyone wants to help Redd to be a better writer  :)

Writing is a skill and like other skills, can be learned. How do people learn things? Practice.

I wanted to look up something I remembered hearing about Stephen King and found this article:
http://www.authormagazine.org/articles/thayer_james_2009_04_09.htm
King, whether or not you like his books (not me) writes well. I don't think you would get too much grief putting him near the top of a 'best authors' list. Was he just born with this skill? Probably not. But he does claim to write at least 2000 words a day. Everyday. I would say that was practicing.

Good thing for you Redd, you are already doing this. Maybe you aren't writing 2000 words a day but you are at least putting up blogs and wondering how to do it better. It doesn't come instantly.

The internets are full of blogs and forums about being a writer. I'm sure there are videos short and long on the topic of author'n up documents.

And you can just ask the people on RFG, I didn't even know that....

wall of text

Three things:

1) Be objective.

Keep the facts straight.  Write about elements you enjoyed, and the ones you didn't.  Compare and contrast against similar games from the same genre or other games from the console's library.  Try to pinpoint gamers who might be interested in this particular game.  Save the rants and raves for your personal blog.

2)  Use the "inverted pyramid" writing structure

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/735/04/

It's straight out of the AP stylebook.  It is taught in public schools and universities, and is used in just about every newsprint and magazine article you've ever read.  Give them the straight dope.  Dish it out right away, then give all the reasons to support it.  Save the trivial stuff for later.  It's not original, and it certainly isn't a narrative, but the inverted pyramid grabs peoples attention which is important since you're competing against the rest of the internet for reader's short attention.

3)  Proofread your work

Other people can't be bothered to read your writing if you can't even do it yourself.  Fragments and typos are distracting and take away from the point you were trying to make.  Wait 10 minutes, an hour, or even overnight before proofreading.  I'm always correcting my own stuff hours afterwords because I'm not satisfied.

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Whatever you do, make sure you're qualified to review it.  Don't be like this IGN reviewer who credit-fed his way through an arcade game, then complained it was too short.  He didn't try to master it, and he certainly didn't get the true ending.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2000/07/26/giga-wing

I think it's pretty awesome that you can look at your own writing and identify what's wrong with it. Next time you write something, leave it for a day (seriously), then come back and identify everything you don't like about it and simply re-write those parts. Once you have re-written the parts you didn't like, leave ti for another day before coming back to it and looking for anything else you don't like and feel needs re-writing. Rinse and repeat until you are finally happy with what you have written.

I know that it sounds really long winded, but after a while you will know if something isn't very good almost as soon as you write it.