How to Write Game Reviews - Suggested Format

This topic is for suggested purposes, and can be especially useful for beginner game reviewers.

The first thing you all need to know before writing a review is that there are 5 areas that can be reviewed on.

The format of the post will be set up in the following way:

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At the top of your article, provide an image of the games title. You can create your own image so that your review is more original and professional looking.

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You can choose 5 different ratings in each area of review. Please use the colors specified with the rating -

Ratings:

• Very Poor - Brown
  
• Poor - Olive
  
• Average - Green
  
• Good - Blue
  
• Excellent - Red
  

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• First Impressions - Rating
  Write what your first thoughts are when turning the game on and seeing it for the first time.
  
  
• Graphics - Rating
  Write what you thought about the graphics of the game. Was it impressive? poor? etc..
  
  
• Game Play - Rating
  Write what you thought about the game play mechanics, controls, story mode, learning curb and if the game has many or little glitches that affect game play.
  
  
• Online Mode - Rating
  Provide your feedback on what you think of the online community, functions, if it's laggy, runs smooth, etc..
  
  
• Overall Conclusion - Rating
  Write your overall conclusion to finalize your entire game article review.
  

Final Rating:

At the very bottom of your Game Review, provide your final rating anywhere from 0.5 - 10 / 10

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Tips -

• When writing your review, make sure you review for any spelling, punctuation and grammatical errors. Make any adjustments you need to make your review look professional and clean.
  
  
• Please have your final rating match your review. For example, do not give a game an excellent on everything and then rate the game a 5.0. That wouldn't make sense.
  
  
• Take a look at a review I created for LBP2 so you can get an idea of how your game review article should look. Click Here!
  

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Template for your game review -

This is a template I have created for you to use to set up your Game Review. This is exclusively made for The EN only. You can make your review look however you want, while staying to the format above, or you can use the template below. Just copy the code below, paste it into a new topic, and fill in the areas of review.

Code:


[center][img] INSERT IMAGE URL HERE [/img][/center]


        [img]http://i37.servimg.com/u/f37/13/67/77/07/red12.png[/img] [size=16][b][color=#932222]First Impression[/color][/b][/size] - [b]Rating: INSERT RATING HERE[/b]
        [list][font=Trebuchet MS]INSERT REVIEW HERE[/font][/list]

        [img]http://i37.servimg.com/u/f37/13/67/77/07/purple11.png[/img] [size=16][b][color=#9507c9]Graphics[/color][/b][/size] - [b]Rating: INSERT RATING HERE[/b]
        [list][font=Trebuchet MS]INSERT REVIEW HERE[/font][/list]

        [img]http://i37.servimg.com/u/f37/13/67/77/07/orange12.png[/img] [size=16][b][color=#e2a718]Game Play[/color][/b][/size] - [b]Rating: INSERT RATING HERE[/b]
        [list][font=Trebuchet MS]INSERT REVIEW HERE[/font][/list]

        [img]http://i37.servimg.com/u/f37/13/67/77/07/blue11.png[/img] [size=16][b][color=#0f6ec7]Online Mode[/color][/b][/size] - [b]Rating: INSERT RATING HERE[/b]
        [list][font=Trebuchet MS]INSERT REVIEW HERE[/font][/list]

        [img]http://i37.servimg.com/u/f37/13/67/77/07/green11.png[/img] [size=16][b][color=#3acd0d]Overall Conclusion[/color][/b][/size] - [b]Rating: INSERT RATING HERE[/b]
        [list][font=Trebuchet MS]INSERT REVIEW HERE[/font][/list]

[center][size=18][font=Trebuchet MS]The-EN.com gives (GAME TITLE HERE) a[/size]
[color=green][b][size=24](ENTER SCORE NUMBER) / 10[/size][/b][/color][/font][/center]


thanks for this, i will use it in my future reviews.

Is this format required for reviews or just a suggestion for those who don't have much experience with it?

tearsofash wrote:Is this format required for reviews or just a suggestion for those who don't have much experience with it?

This format is a suggestion and doesn't require you to follow it. However, the game review itself requires at least 5 areas of review. Those 5 areas listed on the above tutorial are usually the main focus points of game reviews. You can add your own areas of review if you wish. This will allow members to be unique with their own reviews. Get creative!

If I can ever commit to finishing a game thoroughly and actually pay attention to the story...I'll keep this in mind if I ever decide to write a review...just don't hold your breath or anything.. lol, I'm workin on it! (\(o_O)/) Nice format btw

SPADEZ wrote:

tearsofash wrote:Is this format required for reviews or just a suggestion for those who don't have much experience with it?

This format is a suggestion. However, the game review itself requires at least 5 areas of review. Those 5 areas listed on the above tutorial are usually the main focus points of game reviews. You can add your own areas of review if you wish. This will allow members to be unique with their own reviews. Get creative!

I see. I guess I won't be reviewing stuff here, then.

tearsofash wrote:

SPADEZ wrote:

tearsofash wrote:Is this format required for reviews or just a suggestion for those who don't have much experience with it?

This format is a suggestion. However, the game review itself requires at least 5 areas of review. Those 5 areas listed on the above tutorial are usually the main focus points of game reviews. You can add your own areas of review if you wish. This will allow members to be unique with their own reviews. Get creative!

I see. I guess I won't be reviewing stuff here, then.

Why might that be? As I stated, this format is a suggestion. If you wish to write your own review with your own format, you can. I'm sure its not difficult to list 5 areas of your choosing of a game to review..

I've been reviewing things for years, and I'm about to graduate from the journalism department. I write my own way, and get across a proper critique without arbitrary subjections, stars, x/10, misc grading systems, etc. I understand if there's a certain way you want things done here, and thats fine.

I guess I'm just not into the whole "five things" idea. One can get the point across about a game without necessarily delving into five different things. It's actually not a bad format at all, it's just I feel more comfortable writing in the standard APA format in inverted pyramid style. I guess I'd also just be paranoid that I didn't meet the quota or something.

I See. Well, that's great that you are about to graduate from journalism, shows professionalism and dedication to that field of expertise. I am a perfectionist when it comes to having things organized and broken down in a simple, easy to read, clean elaborate form. This is why I created this format topic as a suggestion, especially for people with not much experience on providing reviews.

I want to give members as much freedom as they want on EN. Therefore, I'll be making this topic a tutorial that is entirely a suggested format for beginner reviewers. With that said, enlighten me. Feel free to write reviews in which ever format you feel comfortable in. The style, layout and order of which you decide to provide reviews will be entirely up to you now.

SPADEZ wrote:I See. Well, that's great that you are about to graduate from journalism, shows professionalism and dedication to that field of expertise. I am a perfectionist when it comes to having things organized and broken down in a simple, easy to read, clean elaborate form. This is why I created this format topic as a suggestion, especially for people with not much experience on providing reviews.

I want to give members as much freedom as they want on EN. Therefore, I'll be making this topic a tutorial that is entirely a suggested format for beginner reviewers. With that said, enlighten me. Feel free to write reviews in which ever format you feel comfortable in. The style, layout and order of which you decide to provide reviews will be entirely up to you now.

wow, way much better now, thanks for changing the rules.