You know, it's somewhat unsettling and surprising to me that after six months, I'm still doing this job. Writing a videogame review week after week after week, just like any other daily routine I have. If I had a time machine and could tell my former self that I would be doing this while being a student, I'd slap myself in the face. The sheer thought that there are some crazy people, willing to pay me for writing down my opinion of a game for a newspaper is nothing short of mind-boggling. Yet, here I am, writing a blog about my experiences of the sixth month into this.
In my last blog, the descriptions of the review processes were shorter than before, and some requested having a more in-depth view into the review processes themselves. That wish shall be granted, but I want to open another topic first. This time, I want to briefly talk about social media and how important they are, if you want to get into the 'writing stuff about videogames'-business. I don't know about your stance on social media, but one thing is for certain: Facebook and Twitter are helping to bring down regimes in North Africa and the Middle East. Meaning, they can also be of great help, when it comes to promoting your stuff.
First rule of thumb here: promote everything you write everywhere where it makes sense. It's also important to be consistent about it, since some of your followers will only react to stuff you put on these platforms. Twitter is great, because it makes promoting stuff quite easy. Facebook on the other hand is a bit more complex: If you have connections to certain local stores that have their own Facebook page, ask for permission to share links on their walls. Are you member of a local or national gaming group? Do the same there. It helps your popularity and you are almost certain to get feedback. If you don't get feedback immediately, you can always ask for some constructive criticism. I have yet to check out Tumblr, so if anyone has experiences of that, feel free to share!
Alright, I think that is enough about that. Down to the reviews. Remember, I always include the links to the original reviews. If you want to read them, rune them through Google Translator or something similar, you'll get the gist of it. Feel free to tweet and like them too!
Monday Night Combat (Steam)
I was actually quite thankful to Bioware for releasing a port of Mass Effect 2 for the PS3. This is mostly due to the fact that it is my favorite game of 2010 and reviewing it was quite a lot of fun. I rushed through the game, since I had completed it already twice before, once on the highest difficulty. It was a breeze, I didn't notice any real big differences and could thus concentrate on the narrative and the like.
The review wasn't as positive as I suspected it would turn out. Having played the game so many times, I could narrow down some problems with it, that I would not have been able to if I had played it only once. The judgment of your moral choices by game is stupid, for the lack of a better word and the game has some lengths. I was happy about being able to point out some of these because else, the review would have been way too positive and unbalanced in a way.
Alright, that's it for February. I hope you liked it! If you have any comment or question, write them in the comment section. Remember, you can find me on Twitter (@Subenu), so feel free to add me there!
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