Why Reviews in under 500 words?

I thought I should explain my thinking behind Game Reviews in under 500 words.

I find generally that game reviews are bloated detailing every little part of a game, be it story line or features.

For example I wanted to know about GTA4 before I purchased it. Reviews generally began by laying out the scenario and the beginning plot. Maybe it is supposed to entice me to go buy a game but to be honest I only found game stories interesting to play, not to read about. So I wanted to avoid making reviews laying out story arcs, if a story is great a simple “The story is great” will suffice. You can then go and make your own judgements on how good or bad the story is when you play.

The GTA4 review I read also laid out the new Mobile Phone feature. Taking completely out of context of actually playing the game this is a feature that is alot more interesting to play than it is to read. Knowing I can use a mobile phone in a game isn’t going to make me rush out and buy it!

So I wanted to write reviews that avoided being 5 pages long and detail every great piece. To me the message of a review should be shorter and simpler.

So I decided to try and make some reviews in under 500 words. In which I would lay out what the game is as quickly as possible. My main loves, hates, my overall opinion and who I felt the game was for. I also decided to throw in some “quick tips”, some short handy info that could save you frustration. So in COD4 knowing enemies will keep spawning unless you push on is actually helpful to know from the outset.

Is it possible to give all the information a player needs to decide whether to buy a game in 500 words? I think so (at least I hope so). I also avoided adding a score, adding a number to a subjective opinion just seems silly to me.

I hope this is useful to people and I hope over time I will have more than my current 0 readers. I’m doing this just for hobbies sake and will always appreciate criticism and praise. So please add a comment or e-mail me.