Mutants reviewing things other than movies??

[rabidmonkeys]

Hello dear mutants! To start, I realize that as a longtime reader that my sad excuse for a social life would not be complete without that chewy, gooey, mutant-y awesomeness that this website has brought.

I think because of the unique perspective that you guys bring to film criticism, this website has distinguished itself among countless other films sites (/shamelessly kissing ass)

So I think it would be AWESOME to bring that uniqueness to other art forms as well, no? Many of the mutants are gamers, and TONS of games are calling for that twisted mutant perspective (arguably more games than movies). Comics, quite obviously are an area as well well suited. Music, TV, all of that would be great to expand the mutant repertoire.

Has this ever been considered?

[Head Mutant]

Well, we have done TV, for sure. And some comics. And some music.

[PoolMan]

Justin and I also talked about reviewing games a long time ago, but the problem is that game review takes A) Time, and B) Money. Lots of both.

Believe me, I'd love to do game reviews (maybe the way Yahtzee does them!). But it just ain't feasible for a hobby gang.

[Head Mutant]

And the other unfortunate part of game reviewing is that games age so much faster than other entertainment mediums.

[Storm_Rider]

As for video games, I think we all make a sort of group ad-hoc mini-reviews when we write about them in the respective video game thread.

Justin, I guess you could make a special thread for that sort of thing, just like the Reader Reviews one. Instead of dumping all the load on the major mutants, maybe a couple of us readers can start putting up reviews for games, music or whatever. Just a thought, I know I'd enjoy writing video game reviews.

Maybe it's time to create a different breed of mutant reviewer, the mutant game reviewer

[BlackCatWhiteCat]

Dec 20, 2008 8:43:42 GMT -5 Head Mutant said:

Well, we have done TV, for sure. And some comics. And some music.

Really? Where would I find those? (Not the TV...I know that. )

I think doing reviews on other things would be a lot of fun. I've wondered about that recently. I'd be down for at least reviewing things in the forums.

[rabidmonkeys]

Dec 20, 2008 14:16:36 GMT -5 PoolMan said:

Justin and I also talked about reviewing games a long time ago, but the problem is that game review takes A) Time, and B) Money. Lots of both.

Believe me, I'd love to do game reviews (maybe the way Yahtzee does them!). But it just ain't feasible for a hobby gang.

Thats true, games are much more time consuming... I'd be interested in reading in depth thoughts of mutants when and if they complete them, ie. poolman could do a review of bioshock if he desired.

What is yahtzee?

[Storm_Rider]

www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/zero-punctuation is Yahtzee

[TheLuckyOne]

Dec 21, 2008 22:03:21 GMT -5 rabidmonkeys said:

What is yahtzee?

Yahtzee is the screen name of Ben Croshaw, an Australian game reviewer who does a weekly animated review known as Zero Punctuation (because of how quickly he speaks). It is... hilarious. Mind you, that's not "I think everything I see on the internets is hilarious, yay!", it's "This will honestly have you laughing really, really hard out loud and make people stare at you" hilarious. His review of Guitar Hero 3 is maybe the funniest review I have ever heard of a video game. He's also notoriously tough to please, so if he thinks a game sucks, you still might like it. But if he likes a game, it's probably pretty ace.

His reviews aren't for the puritanical - plenty of cursing and some scatalogical humor - but as long as you're okay with that type of humor, there is absolutely no excuse not to watch them. Unfortunately, it also means anyone else wanting to review video games has an impossibly large hat to fill.

-D

[BlackCatWhiteCat]

Wow. I can't thank you enough for suggesting Guitar Hero 3, Drew. That...was funnier than a video game review has any right to be. I'm going to watch it again right now b/c itz so hilarious yay!

[wdm0744]

I'm going to have to check those "Zero Punctuation" reviews out.

I've seen little bits of them on G4, but I've never gotten around to seeing a whole one.

I particularly remember the reviews for "Condemned 2" and "Uncharted". Good stuff.

[PoolMan]

I got hooked on Zero Punctuation last year while I was rooming in Milwaukee for work. My roommate and I watched the update every week, and I just kept right on being a fan.

I miss the old days before the ZP theme song... it's fine, but I really appreciated the opening and closing music being some ironically chosen piece of pop (usually) that mocked the game in some way.

Yahtzee's actually got a second project on the go, if anyone's curious. The pilot obviously needs work, but there's potential!

[Head Mutant]

Dec 20, 2008 15:24:33 GMT -5 Storm_Rider said:

As for video games, I think we all make a sort of group ad-hoc mini-reviews when we write about them in the respective video game thread.

Justin, I guess you could make a special thread for that sort of thing, just like the Reader Reviews one. Instead of dumping all the load on the major mutants, maybe a couple of us readers can start putting up reviews for games, music or whatever. Just a thought, I know I'd enjoy writing video game reviews.

Maybe it's time to create a different breed of mutant reviewer, the mutant game reviewer

That's pretty much what the video game forum is there for -- I don't really want to create another forum (especially considering that forum isn't exactly a hotbed of overposting).

[Storm_Rider]

Point taken master mutant.

[Rett Mikhal]

You could always just hire a mutant solely dedicated to doing the game reviews and expand from there. If you can convince a punk in a Starfleet uniform to die on some barren rock for no pay, surely you can get someone to play videos games for no pay.