Rapid Fire Rant: On the Style of Reviews

Each Rapid Fire Rant allows a writer to vent their spleen on a certain topic relating to gaming. Leave your thin skins at the door.

Greetings once again, gamers!

I feel that I should take this opportunity to discuss my particular reviewing style with you.

I have always been particularly irritated with games reviews which focused so heavily on the technical aspects of how the game performed, how pretty it was, etc. I'm not a big lover of charts, and I've only ever run benchmarking software twice. Seriously!

What I choose to focus on when I write a review is the emotional aspects of the game. How does it make you feel when you play it? I think that at the end of the day, that's what defines a successful game. It's also why I hate trumped up Tech Demos like Crysis.

For those of you who still don't understand what I'm driving at - watch At The Movies or whatever. Do they talk about what sort of cameras the director chose, and what engine he or she used for any 3d effects? Did they instead talk about how they connected to the characters and the situations on the screen? The gaming industry seems to be the only place where an emotional product is mainly dissected in terms of it's technical qualities. And I'm pretty sick of it.

Thanks for listening, I feel better now.

Karl is a highly opinionated host and reporter for the Rapid Fire Podcast. He is currently attending Uni, and working towards his lifetime dream of becoming a Games Developer.

Better Know a Podcaster

Each "Better Know a Podcaster" post details a member of the Rapid Fire team.

Hello, I'm Karl call sign DumbparameciuM. I'm one of the two hosts of the Rapid Fire Podcast.

I've been a gamer for as long as I can remember. I'm just old enough to consider myself a member of the DOS 1.0 generation. Old enough to remember our 2600 baud modem. Old enough to remember how much of a relief Norton Commander was. My favorite games back in the day were shmups. I'd spend hours playing and replaying the original FPS games - Wolf3D, Doom and Doom 2, All the Duke Nukems. Even games like Heretic, Hexen, and Descent.

As I got older, my tastes expanded. I was soon a rabid Sega supporter - I owned both a Genesis and a Mega Drive. Favourites at the time included G-Loc, Road Rash, Sonic 2(of course), and Michael Jacksons Moonwalker. (The last one is an actual game. Check it out, it's one of the most hilarious things you'll ever come across). After being introduced to the Metal Slug series (at the now closed Sega World) I became a huge Neo-Geo fanboy, but could never afford a cabinet or even one of their handhelds.

It wasn't long before I was back to the PC though, spending lots of time with the new generation of 3d FPS games - I can still remember the first time I played Quake, which just blew my mind. Likewise with UT. The crazy speed just blew my mind. Only a few short years later, I joined the LAN scene, and found my element. I miss those days, and I'm always pestering the clan to have more of them.

Ever since, my main gaming focus has been competitive FPS. I prefer deathmatch over anything else, but that seems to be getting less common these days. I'm currently going through a Counter Strike renaissance.

What I've written here is only a very small selection of games I've played. I'd list everything, but that would be boring and obnoxious (and who really cares that I've put approximately three hundred hours into Creatures 2: Deluxe anyway).

Karl is a highly opinionated host and reporter for the Rapid Fire Podcast. He is currently attending Uni, and working towards his lifetime dream of becoming a Games Developer.