Alright, so I’m not going to lie here by saying “you all told me to do this”. We all know that it’s been nothing but a lie, and there’s no one that actually comes to this website, or sends me emails.. or any of the BS I keep saying (mainly to myself that having this website is still a good idea).
First off, yes this has to do with gaming, but it more has to do with the way I’ve been feeling lately of reviewing games. Plus, it’s about time this blog got some updated posts since the Presidential Election.
Now, I love reviewing games. I love tearing them apart and exposing the devs as being con artists (or praise them for a damn good job). However, I feel I’m also wasting my time doing so. Mainly because.. I feel my opinions mean nothing when they aren’t being read by -real- people; especially video game companies. How I would love to be one of these semi-professional reviewers who get exclusive review copies and full rights to show off the game as I please.
Though I also feel I’m not fully explaining the game’s many details, such as character development, and doing research on the developers/publishers beforehand. Apparently there’s a lot more work involved, than just having a review copy in my hand and basing it off of my honest opinion.
This comes apparent with these “mini-reviews” I’ve been doing of either not being ready to tackle the game, or downright refusing to review it because it’s not what I want. I cannot do this if I wish to be one of these good reviewers that people trust.
The way these professional reviewers (that people listen to) word their opinions, I feel that I cannot possibly compete with that. I try my best by explaining the story, but often I’m literally repeating myself with the Game Features and Story being the same thing (when I can’t think of what else to say).
I’m out of ideas in setting up a new system (that I can work with). I don’t want to post paragraph after paragraph of all the fine details about a game. I want the review to have structure, and feel like my opinion counts. Yet with no one reading them and giving me constructive criticism(the irony)… what’s the point?
Another reason I’m not popular is because, I don’t do videos like the pros do. Ask any Youtuber who does reviews like this, and they can easily tell you that this alone takes a very lengthy amount of time to set up (having the knowledge of using the right encoding options and knowing what to/not edit) in order to present to the public (especially if doing it as a job rather than a hobby).
Yet people would rather watch ingame footage on Youtube instead of read a bunch of words in a blog post, as it’s much more convenient (and also speaks for itself a lot better).
Remember that I tried this (as I said). I thought I could really be a someone. But the fact I couldn’t stand the sound of my own voice (as it’s not a deep, calm voice that most professionals have), I also refused to spend the required cash (and to learn) to improve my videos (by not using SHAREfactory as my encoder/editor).
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Though, if the program’s dev ever adds the option to set a button to pause active recording(to avoid using a large section trying to get to the good parts and taking up nearly all of the recording time), I might reconsider restarting my ‘PS4 Video Reviews’. Having a way to ‘edit’ the video on the fly instead of after the recording is already made, would save me a LOT of headaches.
So, does this ultimately mean I’m going to stop doing reviews (and eventually shut down this website)? Honestly, I don’t know. The only person I know that may be still reading these blogs (yet only if his name is mentioned), offers no real advice on what I should do.. or even if I’m ready to take this website to the next level and make it public.
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Though I won’t be stopping anytime soon. As long as I still have somewhat of an interest in gaming (and Gamefly remains), I’m going to keep reviewing to the best of my abilities.
I just wish I could be reviewing these hot games as soon as they’re released, instead of several months (or even several years) after, when most people have already lost interest (and when Gamefly is finally able to send me a copy).
Yes, once again, no one’s going to even read these reviews. But I feel I “owe it to myself” to review them. There’s some really interesting games(first time I’ve said that in years) coming this year, and I want to get them all played and reviewed before next year.
As for Gamefly shipping when they have a good supply of a specific game(which often means it’s several months or a few years old), I managed to luck out by reviewing Far Cry: Primal while it was still new’ish. I feel I’m going to luck out again by reviewing Dishonored 2 quite soon, as soon as I get the next shipment (as it has a High Availability the last time I looked).
But usually if it does this and the game is still new’ish, it means the game sucks balls and hardly anyone’s interested in it. Yet I felt Far Cry: Primal was actually pretty good compared to what I personally heard about it.