Just wondering how many of you finish the games you review BEFOER you review them. And if you do not, how far do you get before writing a review?

I'd either beat the game, play 30 hours in, or when i quit because i'm frustrated...

I've beaten most games i've reviewed, either on a previous console/generation, or recently.

I have played almost all games back to back that I review here.
Although I have played it on steam and NOT their GOG version.
Only game that went over my head was Supreme League of Patriots.

i only review games i like. but gog.com seems to refuse to show them on the games' pages for some reason?reviews are curated too?

No. It's just taking time sometimes.

Hmmm i usually don't specify which version i'm playing, because minor differences between platform usually don't add up to much.

I'm reminded, i played and beat BloodRayne years and years ago, back pre 2002. Recently i replayed it from here on GoG, and the only difference that i experienced really, was that there was no dead-zone on the controller so you would always be walking in some odd direction. Naturally i'm not counting mods, or resolution or how keyboard/mouse handle, i would be talking about the game in general, and only have a few select words if it's version specific. Same with Sudeki and Bard's Tale...

Actually controller support is usually my largest jarring experience usually, mostly due to the controller i was using is identified as a 'generic' controller rather than being a PS2 so the buttons you assign don't make sense when it says 'Hint: press 12 to block!'

Finish the game? Surely you jest. In case you haven't noticed, many reviewers haven't even bought the game they're "reviewing". :P I think that's because the PS2 pad was never officially supported on PC... ?

I finish the main game first and get a decent chuck of other side quests/collectibles out of the way before I even consider reviewing a game. I try to avoid multiplayer games unless they are a huge part of a single player game (i.e Dark Souls or Street Fighter etc) because they are ever-changing and can vary from user to user. I also avoid MMORPGS because...countless hours.


If you want to see one of my reviews check out my latest one here:
https://youtu.be/0AVnQptsNeA

I just plugged in a PS2 to USB converter and the OS says it identifies it...

Then again this is windows we're talking about. Microsoft won't support their original controller at all, yet there's a fan-made Drivers that give it full functionality and button names and let you customize it, yet move to Windows Vista and after and the drivers won't work unless they are digitally signed. Seriously a generic driver should let me specify what the buttons are rather than defaulting to numbers.. Then again by refusing Microsoft can force you to buy their 360 controllers which ARE supported... (Go figure :P)

No... it's much more in MS's interest not to give better generic support. Which is annoying....

Thankfully PS1/PS2 emulators happily accept the input and let you use the controllers with no problems, and the games give you the proper buttons/prompts that are built into them :P

I don't really review games since I don't trust my writing skills enough to be sure I'll make something enjoyable to read, so I guess the answer to your question is... that I do finish games before reviewing them.

Out of curiosity, how do emulators handle? I've been intrigued to try some NES and SNES ones since going to college will mean limiting the volume of space I can use, thus getting the consoles isn't really an option. This and Nintendo's online services like Wii/Wii U/3DS Virtual Console are a bit shoddy right now, so I'm reluctant to giving them my money and I have never owned one of their systems, so that once again requires me to get one. Well, and student loans are also a thing to take in consideration.

Emulators that i've used are fairly straight forward. You go to the controller, and then you specify the input to equal what the emulator controller expects. So it asks for up, left, down, right, and you press the DPad in those directions, etc. Once it recognizes it, it's identical to having the actual system (except for a few visual glitches for the Playstation, usually PS2 and up-scaling)

I hesitate to go into further detail.

I rarely do any reviews but if I do, always after beating the game.

GoG reviews? Only got, like, two. Normally I only review games I know inside and out. Same deal for TechRaptor (spectacular blunders with save files aside). If you’re asking whether I personally believe that you need to play through an entire game to accurately gauge its true quality, in most cases I’d say no. I don’t need to play through every match in WWE 2K15’s mind-numbing career mode, but I'm gonna’ do it anyway, because I like ya. :)

There’s always one exception lurking out there though, waiting to trip you up. Imagine not finishing a game and writing a glowing 10/10 review for it, only to find the poor ending was incredibly important to a lot of people.