Grading System Explained

After four years of writing for this site, I figured it was finally time to explain my grading system, a.k.a. the skulls with sunglasses. It’s scaled from one to five, where one is horrible and five is an extremely rare experience of total bliss—to me, that is. By that I mean, it’s a highly subjective rating that has no basis in any kind of objectivity, as it’s an ENJOYMENT rating, and not a rating on the quality of the game from some kind of made-up list of “objective points”—for example, a criterion for gameplay, visuals, etc.

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Shower Thoughts – Was Microsoft’s Approach to Gaming Wrong?

While sitting on my balcony, taking in the sun and sipping on my coffee, I started to think, like you do: Could Microsoft’s approach to gaming have worked? As we now know, all those billions they spent on legendary studios didn’t really pan out in their “kindergarten” experiment. Kindergarten, since giving these studios infinite time and money didn’t produce any cultural milestones, which I assume was the intention—but instead gave us a bunch of mediocre titles just to fill Microsoft’s requirement to remain under the sweet money-tree. Let me explain.

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Splinter Cell: Conviction – Sam Going Loco [Review]

The one Splinter Cell game that, in my opinion, got the most flak. Not totally undeserved, but perhaps the critique was a tad harsh back when it was released. People wanted more of the slow, duct-crawling stealth kind. Instead, we got commando Sam Fisher, who has no problem with murdering people to the left and right for the slightest of reasons. This felt off with a lot of people. However, I think Splinter Cell: Conviction fits perfectly in the Splinter Cell lore. Sam is a loose cannon, and without anyone guiding his actions—he is just a brutal killer, especially when fueled by vengeful revenge. Having Sam go crazy with bloodlust, makes narrative sense in the grand story of Splinter Cell.

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Dverghold – Dwarf Digging [Early Access Impressions]

If I got a coin every time the dwarves dug too greedily, I would have zero coins, since they would nick them too. This will not be a full review of Dverghold, since this Early Access release is far from finished. And I don’t mean buggy, as it’s actually very polished and stable, but there are camp followers that should serve a role but offer nothing at the moment. This means that I’d rather stop now and wait for the complete experience instead of spoiling the game piecemeal. Even so, let’s go over my impression of this EA release!

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Critical Shift – Playtest Impressions

One thing that’s common now is to base your game on SCP, especially if you want mystery, and instantly want to set the tone of what’s to come. Critical Shift leans into SCP something fierce, being the game that feels the most similar—without actually being set in that universe. At least, that’s the impression I’m getting from the three missions in the playtest.

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