That's something else I meant to mention. If you guys are using real games to review, why not real screenshots? Or is that against the DMCA?

I think a sidebar of "what our readers think" would be great. Something like GameInformer's "Second Opinion" which I really like.

What do you mean real screenshots? We get screenshots from the PR firms that we use, they look real to me.

I think you should hand draw your screenshots.

THe PS2 side just started getting them with NCAA 06

i don't. only a small selection of reviews. no screenshots. usually online way after a game comes out.

i skim over them sometimes, but i usually have the game and beat it before you guys have a review of it up. i usually read reviews in the OXM magazine and PC gamer magazine for the simple fact they always have a couple short short pre looks, kinda like the peek you get at the movies when they blast you with "comming attractions" before the main movie. it just makes sense to me to do it that way, hell even if i don't really want the game but the pre review reads of how great it will be i'll give it more of a thought because the finished product is usually better i mean look at full auto, the demo sucked it was almost two years old, the reviews sucked, but i have yet to meet a live buddy who says the game sucks.

oh well end my rant anyway guys keep up the good work, its nice to have game reviewers even though i almost never read your stuff.

oh yeah add some screen shots

yeah but PR firms dont always have the true gamer screen shot, they have what the maker thinks looks the best. and i agree with martin5 you should hand draw them

Well, sadly we can't swipe other screencaps from other sites that are exclusive due to copyright. But as we get better in the eyes of PR companies, we'll get more shots to choose from. I hope

It's tough to get good quality shots with a digital camera of a game that's running on a TV set. For PC games it's a little easier as it's all on the PC, but console games it becomes near impossible to get high quality, conisistant shots without some sort of capture device.

got ya untill the PR people give you guys good screen shots i put this great HD shot of DOA4 feel free to use it in a review, that is me on the left and strangehateTHX on the right. as you can he is getting his ass kicked.




more serious though it sucks that game makers or PR people dont give you guys more, i mean dvd talk is a really popular site, you'd think they be cool about it.

lol. you're missing the jiggle factor in your screen shot though

okay i fixed it look at it now!

i've got a couple camera phone pics (real ones not drawings) of full auto on my moblog if any one cares http://rbogan2.textamerica.com not a review or anything but the game is cool.

Kind of knew they existed but never really bothered to check them out. The main reviews I check are gamespots, IGNs (usually only if they beat gamespot to the punch, or if something in gamespots review looks a bit fishy), and Edge magazine.

I do usually look for member's opinions on this forum, in particular certain members who I have become familiar with through a number of posts. Therefore I think the idea of combining quotes from certain long standing forum members into a review as kind of second opinions is also a good one. Also a review could stand to have some level of promotion on the forum itself. For example, if someone does a Grandia III review, then they should post to the Grandia III thread and let everyone know.

I've thought about investing in this type of thing before, but honestly don't know enough about computers to be able to pick a good one. I've seen captures from a card that looked like utter crap on some other sites so kind of figured "what's the point". That's a lot of great feedback from everybody! We really appreciate it and love to hear what you all think!

I don't mean to single any specific review out (and I think this review is actually well-written): http://www.videogametalk.com/read.php?ID=325&___rd=1

BUT...

Would it kill someone yo just spell-check the review before sending it? Spelling errors ("derelect") and missing words ("The pacing of the entire is nearly perfect")...

(The review was good overall though!)

Don't forget "within each zone that we normally touch on during out reviews," and several others I noticed by skimming through.

But seriously, this brings up an excellent point. One of my biggest pet peeves, and something that quickly takes written word from professional to amateurish, is spelling, grammar, flow, etc. mistakes.

It seems as if most game reviews, even many magazines, have little, no or bad editing. Even at a newspaper/magazine where there are people hired just to do this, things get missed. So, when there is no one, writing can get sloppy (I am not saying this is in the case here, just in general).

Do DVDTalk's reviews go through someone acting as an editor/proofreader? One person reading through carefully would catch a lot. It is hard at times for a writer to do so just because he or she knows what a sentence or paragraph is supposed to say.

we do some light proofreading before posting, but generally it's up to the writer...and oops to those things you pointed out *sheepish* I'll tweak that for you...and done.

Keep in mind, none of us game reviewers are professional writers, just casual gamers like you who have the priviledge of sharing our joy of games with others.

I also voted no, though I have read the section before.

My biggest criticism is how skewed the reviews are toward Xbox/X360 games. Not that those platforms are being overrated or underserving of review (far from it), but that those are the almost the only games being reviewed. Any general review site that has more Xbox content than PS2 content is seriously flawed, IMO. Also, there is no portable content for all intents and purposes.

I don't. Generally, I read IGN or Gamespot, have for years and years. I tend not to read the DVD Reviews here too often either though... so take that how you will.

This is more a byproduct of the PR firms shipping us more xbox/360 titles than PS2. We try to review as much as possible and obtain for as many systems as we can.

But looking at our reviews...108 Xbox, 80 PS2, 19 x360...seems like we're doing OK as covering consoles as equally as possible.

well you have to admit the xbox was the hot item 2004/5 (halo2 release rocketed sales) and the 360 (only next gen on the market) was the hot one 2005/6. so of course where ever they get their review games from they're going to get more titles for those. as far as being a hot item the ps2 is dead. another hot one is the Nintendo DS the DS sales have being going through the roof. i'd say the reviews here are on target, beside the guys here can't review what no one gives them to review. I'd like to see PSP and GBA and Nintendo DS games up for review.

Gamecube? GBA? DS? PSP?

And I think his point was it's stilly to have reviewed more X-box games when there's a ton more games available on the PS2.

But I get that your limited by what the PR firms send you and that's out of your hands as this is a DVD site and thus not going to get the review options of a big gaming site.

yeah, but when the game side actually started rolling, a lot of PS2 titles were already out....and PR firms could care less if an old title is reviewed.

We're trying to get as many titles as possible, so keep reading. The more reads we get, the better our chances at more titles, cross platform reviews as well (We have reviews for Black for both PS2 & Xbox coming soon).

I'd also think you guys could review some games you buy yourselves, and not rely totally on review copies.

I'm not saying you should buy games for the purpose to review, but I imagine you all buy several games that you never get review copies of.

I wouldn't mind some reviews of some older games. Especially if you pick them up when they drop to $20 as I tend to wait on most games until that price point.

I thought of this too. Is there a policy at DVDTalk that only supplied games will be reviewed? It seems some companies might be willing to give you a chance if you first show them that you are commited to a platform/company.