T w e n t y S i d e d
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A couple of weeks ago I was complaining about Chizumatic being down. Looks like it’s back in business. This is great, since I recently finished Haibane Renmei and have been looking forward to his review. I avoid reading detailed reviews of movies and things until after I’ve seen the work in question, and then I compare my impressions to those of the reviewer. I’m sure I’m not the only person who does this, although to many it probably sounds wierd. For me reading reviews is more like having a conversation about a movie after seeing it, and Den Beste always has interesting things to say about something that goes well beyond “it was good / it sucked”.
Tenpenny Tower
Bethesda felt the need to jam a morality system into Fallout 3, and they blew it. Good and evil make no sense and the moral compass points sideways.
If Star Wars Was Made in 2006?
Imagine if the original Star Wars hadn't appeared in the 1970's, but instead was pitched to studios in 2006. How would that turn out?
Deus Ex and The Treachery of Labels
Deus Ex Mankind Divided was a clumsy, tone-deaf allegory that thought it was clever, and it managed to annoy people of all political stripes.
Who Broke the In-Game Economy?
Why are RPG economies so bad? Why are shopkeepers so mercenary, why are the prices so crazy, and why do you always end up a gazillionaire by the end of the game? Can't we just have a sensible balanced economy?
This is Why We Can’t Have Short Criticism
Here's how this site grew from short essays to novel-length quasi-analytical retrospectives.
I know this is a really old post, but I absolutely agree with your stance on reviews. It’s what I do all the time, either with movies, games or pretty much anything which has a review.