Link: http://kotaku.com/gaming/reviews/video-game-reviews-are-broken-please-fix-315469.php

Yep - they're broken thanks to numerical values in them!

If you read our site, you probably realize we agree with them. In fact, that's part of the background behind GamersInfo - a numerical review does not actually TELL you anything.

Ha! Took 'em long enough to realize it. Wonder if they've seen our site...

I've ranted about previews before. In short, one of the things that the discerning reader should remember about any preview is that, in most cases, a site or magazine only gets a preview on the whim of the developer and/or their PR company.

Thus, write a bad preview - giving the game bad press before it's even released to stink on its own - and you're not going to see more previews.

And also thus I was quite amused when reading Games For Windows magazine recently.

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Remember when I talked about sequels? Yeah, of course. That was a great blog, I thought.

Of course their website isn't updated yet, but they do have a nice article about how Fallout fans were reacting to Fallout 3.

Some overlap there - it amused me. Remember: you heard it on GamersInfo.net first!

My cost for Medal of Honor: Airborne and Bioshock (both for 360) after my turn-ins?

Negative $2.23.

(Which went towards the remaining $100+ of my Halo 3 pre-order.)

Sweet!

Okay, so we’ve talked about previews. Now let’s talk about sequels.

Possibly one of the bigger issues when it comes to sequels is not the fact that there are so many of them, but rather that companies seem to insist on calling additional games sequels when they’re only loosely tied into the first one.

Let’s look at the different types of sequels:

1. The Direct Sequel

The direct sequel is fairly straight forward. Typically the same studio/company does each sequel, they tie into the previous games, and have similar game play. Look at, say, the Brothers in Arms games, the Halo series, Diablo 1 & 2. Each might have refinements and improvements in gameplay, but they’re telling an interlocked (or continuing) story. In Mercenaries 2, one character, a Chinese colonel, comes back from Mercenaries 1, but is now promoted and a general. He’s an NPC, but you’ve got the same “main characters” that the player can pick from the original, too.

These are true sequels. They’re like good movie or book sequels – not when the studio says “let’s add more of the same!” to something, but rather when they concentrate on making a solid contribution to the on-going storyline.

(Halo Wars makes for more of the re-imagined sequel, down below, though it’s a prequel (technically), and manages to keep – from what we’ve seen so far – a lot of the same feel.)

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You'll probably see this soon enough, but not necessarily right away. That's okay; we're just getting started here at GamersInfo.net in this category, and I've got a lot of stuff to say.

If you've followed the site at all so far - and, honestly, I hope you have - you've seen that while we primarily do game reviews and MMO blogs, we've occasionally had other things. We've had, for instance, editorials about things such as buying gold, interviews with developers, previews of upcoming games, descriptions of media events, etc. and etc.

As I'm not playing any MMORPGs right now, I will admit one thing: I wrote that editorial about buying gold. It came up after I'd started playing yet another MMORPG and was tired of always being broke, so I went ahead and went to IGE to buy some start-up funds. I never regretted and still don't; on the other hand, it definitely felt more necessary in that game than it did in other games.

I digress, a bit. My point is that there are a number of topics that come up in relation to gaming, be it with the more meta discussion of the games, or the communities of games, or even the industry itself, and hopefully these blogs will be our opportunity to share our thoughts on these subjects with all y'all out there on ye olde Internet, and you can always use e-mail, the forums, or even the comments to share your thoughts right back at us.

Isn't that nice?

We're not the big guys; we're small, we're informal, we're friendly, we're indie! Well, maybe not Indie Rock Pete...

So if you want to talk about something, you can tell us, too. Don't forget that we also take guest submissions, and that you're, like, important to us, and stuff.

(And you know what? If you're really nice, maybe I'll even talk about non-electronic gaming once in a while! Wouldn't you like to hear about my uber-awesome first attempt at a 40K Space Marine army? Or why I keep buying RPGs even though I never play them? Or my hopes that I'll get a continuing Settlers of Catan going soon? Probably not - heck, I wouldn't necessarily want to hear them. But I'm on this end of the connection! BWAHAHAHA!)

(Yes, I'll shut up now.)

So - welcome!