I'll respond to the Kokatu post.
TRUE 1. Video game publishers see game reviewers as marketing tools.

TRUE 2. Publishers sometimes allow positive reviews to be published before negative ones.

TRUE (not for me) 3. Publishers sometimes require game reviewers to not mention certain plot or technical details in exchange for being furnished with an advance review copy.

VERY TRUE (why I don't have ads) 4. Publishers might not want to advertise on an outlet that slams their games.

TRUE FOR CRAPPY WRITERS THAT HAVE NO BUSINESS DOING REVIEWS 5. Critics are often "at a loss for insightful ways of describing what they found objectionable" about a game they don't like.

DEFINE "BANAL" 6. Reviews are banal checklists.

I AM BIASED. I LIKE THINGS I LIKE AND HATE THINGS I HATE 7. Game reviewers may not know that they're biased, but "if they knew they were biased, would they tell us?"

TRUE 8. All these positive reviews from biased reviewers lead the public into accidentally playing bad games.

? 9. Legislators are happy when this mess results in pro-American games topping the charts.

? 10. "War has changed. When the battlefield is under total control, war becomes routine."

It seems very hard and extended.

Last year, a student at the high school I teach at was seriously injured while riding a moped to school. It was just after the switch to DST and, since school starts at 7:30 AM, it was still dark out when he was hit by the car. If it was still standard time, I wonder if the driver would have seen the student.

dj LiTh wrote on Mar 4, 2012, 18:50:
I cant decide whether to get Crusader Kings2, or Wargame: EE....i'm leaning towards CK2 as i like single player, and i've not heard good things about wargame's single player.....opinions of people who own both?

The Wargame: EE single player is not so good; buy that for the MP.

Buy CK2 because it's awesome.

DangerDog wrote on Feb 29, 2012, 01:32:
If it were just a one time flat fee of maybe $20 then it might be worth playing.

They tried that already.

Sounds like DCS is the way to go, then.

Prez wrote on Feb 27, 2012, 16:06:
the only feasible way of finishing the campaign in single player is unlocking the necessary units in multiplayer?

It was for me. I had to level up in multiplayer (it only took 3 games) to unlock enough points to pass the 2nd or 3rd scenario in the game. The campaign has some real balance issues that could have been solved if they simply added a difficulty slider that added or subtracted enemy units.
That said, multiplayer is fantastic.

SpectralMeat wrote on Feb 27, 2012, 12:42:
Should do a video review next time

Video reviews are a lot of work. I have, however, started recording one gameplay video for each game that I review. For WEE, I did two: one for multiplayer and one for the campaign.

SpectralMeat wrote on Feb 27, 2012, 11:58:
Awesome WEE review !

Thanks! After 3,000 words, my hands hurt. Can I sue them for carpal tunnel?

If you don't have AI, then you better have a large player base. Almost all indie games do not.

STELLAR IMPACT. MY REVIEW.

This game is great fun and I really, really like it. And I did not like RUSE.

Blair Fraser wrote on Feb 21, 2012, 20:15:
Is there anything particular about F2P as we've implemented it that we can change that would make it sit better?

I think a lot of people are down on F2P because they are just down on F2P, no matter how it is implemented. F2P conjures up images of paying-to-win, pushy microtransactions, and handing significant bonuses to veteran players. I'm not saying any of these are present in your game because I have no investigated it, but those are the reasons why some/many are instantly turned off by F2P.

My flashing borders in CK2 went away.

Guess that delay of an extra week didn't really help CK2. Wish it was higher.

Quboid wrote on Feb 13, 2012, 11:30:
That's a very impressive review. I'd like to see Jag review it.

Coming tomorrow

What is "retail"?

mixma242 wrote on Feb 7, 2012, 22:06:
Star Prospector has been out for a week, and is already on sale for 50% off?

Has anyone played the full version yet?

My review is going up tomorrow.

Golwar wrote on Feb 7, 2012, 06:42:
So did you receive and play your review version already?
After Divine Wind and HoI3 I enacted a strict pre-order ban on Paradox.

I've been playing the continually-updated beta since October (current game version is 1.01), so I'll have my review up the day after release after I make sure there aren't any major changes.
CK2 has been very smooth and bug-free ever since I started playing it in October. After logging around 65 hours of off-and-on gameplay in between reviewing other games, I haven't seen any major bugs, and no minor bugs except ones attributed to ongoing development (new events that hadn't been finished, for example).

eRe4s3r wrote on Feb 7, 2012, 06:55:
I can't even read half the UI text with this super small size and dozens of clipping errors for long text (in the tutorial)

Maybe i shouldn't have chosen German language... this Demo only convinced me once again to never pre-order a paradox game or buy one until at least 6 patches are out.

There are no text-sizing or clipping problems in the English version.

Prez wrote on Feb 6, 2012, 20:53:
As a reference, what did you score the original?

Never reviewed the original. Did review Lionheart and Fallen Champions. You are free to disagree

eRe4s3r wrote on Feb 7, 2012, 02:16:
Oil rush's biggest flaw is gone unmentioned The random movement of ships around a capture point means you can lose against an inferior foe because your good ships are at the opposite site of the war and while they cycle around you lost your entire other fleet.

I think there's too much luck involved there (you can't possibly time things to make it so your ships invade at the exact time when the enemy ships are on the opposite side of the platform. Plus, the enemy can't capture while any opposing ships are there. Plus, it can be countered by (a) having more ships or (b) having turrets.