Free Games to Review/Other Games Forum

[Rusty Edge]

Right again, Buncle.

Yes, I'm willing to give a game a try and write about it in hopes of making it better. I cited Civ and Pirates!, because those are my two favorites of all time. I continue to play them year after year.

It's probably fairer to say that I'm attracted to games with a historical element. That's what I spend money on, even if they wind up in a cardboard box.  A War between goblins and elves doesn't really excite me the same way as a game in an Ancient or Age or Reason setting.

I play Luminosity games, too. On my phone I play mostly memory and sorting games. I thought Khet was an awesome game, but I gave mine to my nephew because he has many nerd friends, and my nerdy friends are all virtual or in another time zone. I used to love playing submarine games, and tank games, and biplane games.

 I might like a shooting game, because shooting/hunting  was my real-life hobby, but when I researched shooting games that real shooters enjoyed I wound up with games that had too much shifting visual perspective, and that aggravated my inner ear disorder to the point that I had a hard time staying in my chair.

Gotta Go.

[BlaneckW]

I can try to review a wargame if that is desired.  Most of the games I'd played could probably have been called wargames.

[Buster's Uncle]

If I was talking to someone, I would have endorsed all the volunteers thus far in a briefing I would have just sent...

[BlaneckW]

lol

[Green1]

The only beta I did was one of the last closed then open betas for vanilla World of Warcraft back in 2004. I had a battlenet account and played a lot of Warcraft 3 back in the day and kind of lucked into it. Was not much to miss. I had an older machine that was underpowered for World of Warcraft at that time, and it was painful. I also had a beta for the Cataclysm expansion, but never logged into it.

All in all I have never been a fan of betas. Yeah, there is the whole nerd pride thing about being "one of the first" or maybe "being able to shape the game" crap. But all and all it just seems to be unpaid QA work.

[Buster's Uncle]

No interest in writing reviews?

[Green1]

No interest in writing reviews?

Reviews are on the table.

But, this will be via YouTube. I did finish recording an Age of Wonders 3 underground only game at Knight difficulty, but the game was not painful enough and I stomped the 4 AIs. I am discarding that and upping the difficulty and recording again.  I will upload that. I can not stand folks uploading vids of them stomping everything and I will not share anything like that.

That said, I think there are some things that can only be done through text. I personally can speed read much faster than watching a video. Add to that, video watching for many is painful if you have a smart phone connection. But, then again, youtube videos can provide more beer money than a forum post, podcast, or blog. Even the folks that were good reviewers on iTunes, blogs, etc seem to have all moved to youtube. Sad.

Maybe I will find a compromise.

[Valka]

I can't link my reviews, since they were sent directly to Big Fish Games. The way it works is, they occasionally email me with an offer to beta test a game, and when I've done that, I click a link to answer questions and provide a review. I never saved any of them. The only other extensive posting I've done re BFG has been a rather snarky series of comments on "Design This Home."

Can you tell us anything about genres you beta'd and your tastes in general?  I imagine you have some atypical likes, and as I mentioned above, that's an advantage, probably.

Most of the games I've beta'd are Hidden Object Games. I've also done a few Match-3 games, and a couple of the open-ended "find resources and build your town/castle/manage whatever" sort of game (I don't care for that kind - too much confusing micromanaging).

I've never done first-person shooters or the usual RPG-style games that a lot of folks here have done.

[Buster's Uncle]

I've been surprised at how little variation in tastes have been reported here - 4x TBS is a given for this crowd, and the same sort of people will usually go for the Age of Empires family and some RTS, allowing for stress levels.  I wish I could get some MPlayer participation; that would probably provide more diversity.

[sisko]

  I wish I could get some MPlayer participation; that would probably provide more diversity.

not necessarily. they are all builders anyway.. which means they're most likely playing RTS/TBS games.

[Green1]

I've been surprised at how little variation in tastes have been reported here - 4x TBS is a given for this crowd, and the same sort of people will usually go for the Age of Empires family and some RTS, allowing for stress levels.  I wish I could get some MPlayer participation; that would probably provide more diversity.

I dabble in MMOs. At least until they sicken me. Does that count as diversity? I think I am one of the few here that stands them.

 In fact I think I have shared some MMO drama and snippets in the past. Never did finish up that Eve Online one, but it ended up we ended up losing the war and I became a villain (er... misunderstood hero). I blew up a fellow corp member's Orca mining ship because he annoyed me (being excessively whiney) and ended up being kicked by the corp because that guy was the CEO's mentally challenged brother.

That went over well.

Then I stopped my sub and had to move IRL.

[Buster's Uncle]

Are you expressing interest, sir?

You certainly always have a lot to say about gaming that has an online community aspect...

[Green1]

Are you expressing interest, sir?

You certainly always have a lot to say about gaming that has an online community aspect...

I tend to go through those little spurts. I get into games then get tired of them. Longest I ever lasted was my first foray in Eve during the Atlas-Pure Wars (6 months of dying horribly and losing millions over and over while being totally worthless) and about 3 years in WoW (Guild officer for a 500 member guild during Vanilla/BC/early WotLK).

Only on MMOs, though. I am preparing to switch to Cox instead of my tether since I have had a bit of disposable cash in a few weeks, and an MMO may be on the table. Depending on what I do, I will share and create some drama.

Plus, If it is Eve, I have been reading things like this:

http://themittani.com/features/being-villain

Not sure I like that style, though. Some things are even too much for me.

Before then, though I should have a video up on Age of Wonders 3 patch 1.10. I will link it when it is ready. Would do it tonight, but I have been sweating my ass off in a hot factory for 12 hours and just want to type on multiple sites. Tomorrow most definitely.

[Rusty Edge]

Eve sounds like an online version of Survivor.

[Green1]

Eve sounds like an online version of Survivor.

Depends on where you are in Eve and where your travels take you and who (if anyone) you fly with (if at all).

Some people never see the inside of a ship, they sit and treat it as a complex commodities market simulator. Which Eve has such a complex economy, they had to hire a Phd economist to keep tabs on it. There are even stock market style tick sites for market indicators across all 60+ regions of space, each having many hundreds of star systems. That and scam.