EGM Review Crew Omnibus Progress And Ongoing Adventures.

[CrazyMax46]

So here is what at the very least this project would be. A Google spreadsheet with the full review scores of every game reviewed in EGM from EGM #2 which was the debut of the 10 point scoring system and going on until Question marks. Doc would have game name, developer names, individual scores, the average score and if it was Silver, Gold or Platnium (for simplicities sake I'm using the system they used from like...97 on? Where Silver, Gold and Platnium were averages of 8, 9, 10 respectively) and finally what issue it was reviewed in.

Okay. So now that we've got that out of the way, here's where an interest check comes in. I'm thinking of taking pictures of every review and putting them in a giant folder in chronological order. That was when reading the doc you could see a game name and the issue it was reviewed in and if interested you could go read the review.

Im asking if anyone would be interested in this because let's face it, it's a lot of work and I'm not sure I want to take the time on the photos if no one is interested. But I think there's a benefit in that people wouldn't have to constantly download issues putting a strain on the server just to read one issue for one review. At the very least I'm doing the Google doc as a reference. I just am wondering how deep down the rabbit hole I should go with this project.

Just to show how serious I am, here is my all time favorite EGM review. It's the one in the middle.

[kitsunebi]

On the one hand, I have to admit that there really isn't much point in elaborating on the lack of merits in a bad game, particularly in one so simple as an NES title, but at the same time I look at those non-reviews of Flying Dragon and Hydlide and it makes me shake my head at the lack of journalistic responsibility so rampant in early video game mag reviews.  That's one of my favorite things about mags like CGW and PC Gamer - they had to fill one or two entire pages with a single review, so they had no choice but to actually do their job and give the reader the details on the positive and negative aspects of the game.

[CrazyMax46]

Lo and behold, I believe I've found the first 10 in EGM history. And it's probably not the game you'd expect.

[kitsunebi]

Ah, but that's still not a perfect score.  That didn't happen until 1998 with Metal Gear Solid.

Btw, EGM copied their review system from Famitsu, which began publication in 1986 but didn't hand out a perfect score until 1998 with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

Seems like 1998 was a pretty good year.

[CrazyMax46]

Ed...you gave a 10 to...you know what never mind.

Like, isn't this your like...job? Shouldn't you have a memory of which games got which scores? Did Steve Harris get you drunk at some CES parties and you lost some short term memory? 

[kitsunebi]

17 minutes ago, CrazyMax46 said:

Ed...you gave a 10 to...you know what never mind.

Like, isn't this your like...job? Shouldn't you have a memory of which games got which scores? Did Steve Harris get you drunk at some CES parties and you lost some short term memory? 

 

Pretty sure he meant to say "perfect score," as in 40 out of 40.  Of course, he's still wrong.

[RetroDefense]

On 7/21/2017 at 5:41 PM, CrazyMax46 said:

So here is what at the very least this project would be. A Google spreadsheet with the full review scores of every game reviewed in EGM from EGM #2 which was the debut of the 10 point scoring system and going on until Question marks. Doc would have game name, developer names, individual scores, the average score and if it was Silver, Gold or Platnium (for simplicities sake I'm using the system they used from like...97 on? Where Silver, Gold and Platnium were averages of 8, 9, 10 respectively) and finally what issue it was reviewed in.

This - in some ways - reminds me of Defunct Games' Countdown lists.  If you like to track and correlate magazine review scores, be sure to check out their content sometime.  And they may appreciate access to your Google doc as a reference once it's completed.

Good luck with your project!

[kitsunebi]

On 7/22/2017 at 6:41 AM, CrazyMax46 said:

Doc would have game name, developer names, individual scores, the average score and if it was Silver, Gold or Platnium (for simplicities sake I'm using the system they used from like...97 on? Where Silver, Gold and Platnium were averages of 8, 9, 10 respectively) and finally what issue it was reviewed in.

Yes, and if at all possible, give the spreadsheet sortable fields.  Otherwise it's just a list.  Oh, and make sure platform/system is also one of the fields.  Genre (RPG, shooter, etc) would also be a really nice sortable addition.

I've never used Google Spreadsheet much, but you can make nice sortable fields in Excel, so I imagine it's possible.

[CrazyMax46]

Yes these can all be done and are good suggestions.

[CrazyMax46]

AHAHAHAHAHAHA. Ed couldn't be fucked this month with the game boy games.

[kitsunebi]

I just finished playing Nekketsu Oyako for the PlayStation earlier today.  Here's my review:

"5"

 

Err...

Of course, I'm just some dude on a message board, so that kind of completely worthless "review" is easily ignored.  But to call yourself a journalist and print it in a magazine that you expect people to pay money for is reprehensible.  I'd say I hope it was just an error when the page was being laid out, but that's just as bad, since an editor should notice things like missing reviews.

It seems you at least have a sense of humor about it, but I guess I just don't have the patience for that kind of thing. 

[Areala]

Still, 'Game Review' is a better filler text than the racist rant that wound up in the middle of a GameFan review...

*huggles*
Areala

[kitsunebi]

4 minutes ago, Areala said:

Still, 'Game Review' is a better filler text than the racist rant that wound up in the middle of a GameFan review...

*huggles*
Areala

I haven't read an issue of GameFan in my life, so I never saw that until now.  I hope it wasn't written by anyone working at the magazine, and not just because of the offensive content.  No professional writer should even be capable of writing anything with such a high level of grammatical illiteracy that it reads like something a 10-year-old internet troll would write.

 

[te72]

CrazyMax, it may not be everybody's cup of tea, but if it's something you think you can contribute to the world, I say go for it. I've done some things over the years that mean little to nothing to the majority of the world, but it meant something to ME, and therefore, it was satisfying.

 

Take my car, for example. I've spent far more time and money on it than most people would consider even relatively sane. Yet, it's all been to fulfill a vision I have for this particular model, and weird as it sounds, when you get something that's just RIGHT, you know it. The same could come of your work on a review database here.

 

Also, Kitsunebi, 1998 was an excellent year for gaming. Half Life. Resident Evil 2. Suikoden 2. Tekken 3. I want to say Thief. I could probably go on, but yeah... 98 was a great year.

[kitsunebi]

1 minute ago, te72 said:

Also, Kitsunebi, 1998 was an excellent year for gaming. Half Life. Resident Evil 2. Suikoden 2. Tekken 3. I want to say Thief. I could probably go on, but yeah... 98 was a great year.

Oh I know.  I didn't mean to suggest that I wasn't around at the time.  I just think it's interesting that both Famitsu and the mag that copied Famitsu both rolled out their first perfect scores in the same year.  On different games, but still...

[te72]

I still stand by the idea that the mid to late 90's was the most polished era of gaming. In all the past 15 or so years of the last few generations of gaming, I have only played maybe 3 or 4 games that I felt was truly on the same level as the ideas that were coming out toward the late 90's. Granted, the level of polish is obviously higher, but on the merits of the ideas and execution alone? It's been a slow moving needle for me.

[CrazyMax46]

The overwhelming message of the Sonic 3 review is "Wow, There's no way Sega could ever top this"

Heheheh, yeah...hehehe...AAAAHHHHH *cries*

[te72]

Sonic 3 was a milestone game. Just like the Mario series, Sonic continued on, but 3 (and the expansion Sonic & Knuckles) was the pinnacle of the series, much like Super Mario World was the pinnacle of the Mario series, in my opinion.

 

That said, I had almost as much fun with Sega's Crazy Taxi. That game was just right, at just the right time for me.