A few thought on my game reviewing process
While I have owned a number of gaming consoles and games during my life, I got rid of many of them either as trade ins for newer systems, or when I joined the Air Force.
While I have a decent collection of games for the few systems I currently have, I make up for it with a sizable collection of emulators and roms. Most of the videos I post to my YouTube channel are from emulator. Using emulators have given me access to thousands of titles that I wouldn’t have if I was only using physical equipment and games that I owned. I am planing on doing a series of articles down the road for anyone interested in getting in to emulating.
When I am deciding on what game to play there are a few thing that I look at:
· How much to I want to play this game? this is the most important that I consider and can make or break my decision.
· Would other people be interested in reading a review / watch a lets play video of this game?
· Can I safely post a Lets Play video? This is based on the publisher / copyright owners permission / policy.
These three are the biggest part of my decision making process. I also consider:
· How hard is this game? How long does it take to play? In order to keep up with my posting schedule I have limited time to play any given game. Generally I give a game about 7 hours of play time (more on why below)
· Will I be doing a blind lets play (where the play that is recorded is the first time I play the game) or do I need to practice playing first?
Why don’t I finish the games I play? There are several reasons for that:
· I only have limited time to play the game and write the review. In order to keep up my posting schedual of a review a week, I play several games at a time. I try to have several weeks (or months) of content written and schedualed ahead of time. When I was researching how to get into game reviewing I was suprised to learn that many proessional reviewers only play a game for around 7 hours and have found that 7 hours also works for me to get a feel for a game.
· Some games I do play longer because I like them.
· Some games it is not necessary, or possible to play for 7 hours.
Once I play a game I write the review. I am quite new to writing game reviews and prefer to keep my review casual. I’m not sure what should or should not be included in a review, so I just ut my thought on the game down and try to make it as interesting and informative as I can. I usually play games and write the review weeks, sometimes a few months, before when it posts on my blog (however the video is uploaded to YouTube when I am playing the game.)
With my reviews I also try to link to any guides I used and if I looked up cheat codes or discovered tips / tricks that are worth sharing I include them too.
