Harvest - Massive Encounter

You say the "network" mechanic is new, but..."You must construct additional pylons!" ;) Granted, this game seems to have the network aspect much more highly developed.

I played the demo of Defcon and then never played it again, because the premise and implications were just too disturbing for me. I don't want to think like a genocidal maniac.

Your final points about Defcon are drowned out by the sound of dying aliens...

Possably it was in a sci-fi setting to be more accesable, ie not lose half the potential audiance right of the bat by being overtly political. To quote Frank Herbert (author of one of the greatest sci-fi novels of all times, Dune)...

"If you want to get anything across, you have to be entertaining first. If you start standing on a street corner, people will tune you out. We human beings tend to have very good filter systems in our heads to see and hear only what we want to see. But analogues give you a marvelous device for getting past that screening system, because people can be caught up in the drama of the story, be deep into the problems of it. Then later on, much later on, they say, Oh, my God, he was talking about this!" And they come out of it with a brand new view of what's happening in their world."

Just replace story with gameplay and there you have it.

I'm sorry to say that as much as I enjoy reading your reviews and critique, I find your narrative in these videos far inferior and, frankly, tedious for lack of structure and stumbling diction. I realize that this new format has appeal for showing straight away "how the game works", but I question the necessity of *showing* an experienced audience what a strategy is. I, for one, greatly prefer a well written and concise presentative review, with the added value of critique over this "popular" format. And you write well indeed. While I greatly appreciate the enterprise of doing something new, I would advise gaining proficiency in said activity before executing it for the benefit of a supposedly critical and demanding audience.

Should you wish to keep producing such reviews, your diction and structure present a problem in presenting otherwise sound and interesting material. For structure, the solution is quite simple: pre-writing your narrative, then editing the damn thing. That may also help your diction, since concentration on not blasting lifeforms may help you with not saying: "Uhh...", but I suspect you lack practice in public speaking in general, and recording your narrative more than once and/or editing your recorded speech may help here. Of course, practicing a speech never hurt a body either. :)

My criticism of the video would be the opposite of Rover's: I have no problem whatsoever with the technical aspects of the video (apart from the aforementioned sound problems at the very end of the clip). I got the impression that the reviewer was well prepared, knew exactly what he wanted to say and structured his presentation effectively.

However, when it comes to the actual content of the presentation, I found the overtly political approach to be rather heavy-handed. Notwithstanding what appeared to be a questionable de facto-identification of the global economy as such with US foreign policy (many would no doubt argue, that while misguided American neocolonialist interventions in the Middle East is certainly bad for stability in that particular region, long-term developments in India and China are far more consequential to the global economy in the 21th century), I found the parallells between the game and the vaguely Wallersteinian theory as presented by the reviewer to be relatively superficial and not compelling enough to sustain at least this viewer's interest.

Since HARVEST apparently is a slightly unorthodox RTS, I would have appreciated a much more in-depth discussion of the pros and cons of the actual gameplay mechanics as well as a comparison with similar games in the genre (such as Perimeter, for example). That would have been far more interesting and informative, and judging by the99th's (in my view) entirely satisfactory presentational skills, I think he could do a very good job with a more conventional approach to video reviewing (which, by the way, isn't to say that he necessarily has to drop the geopolitical angle altogheter...).

Since others are chiming in on the review format, I'd suggest that if you're going to post video reviews, they be accompanied by at least a short paragraph describing the game. A reader shouldn't have to click play and watch for the first minute (while, in this case, you show the title screen and settings options) to get a sense of whether the game is something s/he is interested in at all.

Ideally I think video would accompany full text reviews, not replace them. The idea of posting video reviews is neat, but they pull a lot of agency away from the reader since they don't allow the reader to first skim and then delve in with full attention only if their interest warrants it.

These people complaining about the video format are missing the point. Patrick doesn't REVIEW games, he CRITIQUES THEM! A short, 1 paragraph summary just doesn't work. If I wanted junk like that, there are plenty of mainstream review sites out there to satisfy one's need for regurgitated PR.

This site happens to be my favourite video game related site because Patrick's video critiques. He has a great insight into gaming and life in general that I can't find on any other site.

John: I realize now that I was sort-of repeating myself, and it was just funny that the meyhem won out in the end.

Pole: I agree with your example, but on the other hand directly "real-life" oriented settings have been proven commercially successful as well. How many people would overlook the game because it seems like just another sci-fi videogame? Amoung "gamers" (a somewhat demeaning term we need to retire) that might not be many, but amoung the general population...

Rover: I actually have a pretty decent public speaking experience, it's just hella difficult to play a game in synch with a presentation adgenda. I like keeping it improv; the gameplay is a performance, my analysis of the gameplay is a performance. I'll drop a bit of text if I do another one.

Demiath: If Greg reviewed it he'd probably do something along those lines, that's what you're likely to get from a more experienced person. I'm 22, so I didn't even know about Perimeter, and I make up for my lack of history with provacative ideas.

Nobody: Ok, it's true, will do.

Chong Li: Thanks a lot!

Saw this game mentioned over at gamedev.net and tried it out--cute/quirky and nice trial download. Spent a while playing it and the nags were easy enough to ignore... but I was hooked. Bought the game to move on to other planets and earn more medals. Addictive. Don't play unless you've got hours to lose!