Shallow Depths

I love discovering different approaches to game reviewing.

40 Ounces, 1 Game seems to be inactive, but I approve of the premise:

I’m going to purchase a 40oz bottle of beer, and drink it while playing a computer game that I haven’t played before – and then, the following day, I’ll write about it based on notes taken in a progressively inebriated state.

I feel like it's an idea with potential, at least.  Someone should start up a new site with a similar theme.  Go on, you know you want to.  Preferably someone who knows there should be a space between '40' and 'oz'.  I'm not an experienced enough writer to be a proper Grammar Nazi, but units of measurement bring it out in me. Better yet, why not review games while drinking appropriate drinks from The Drunken Moogle.  I'd read it.

I recently discovered Action Button Dot Net, which uses a stream-of-consciousness approach and takes no shit from anyone.  What I've read so far felt a bit like someone was punching me in the head, which is kind of awesome.

Naturally, I'm very excited about the Five Minutes With... column which recently started up on Gamasutra.  Focus in on five minutes of a game -- sounds great.

Given the huge number of game sites and blogs out there I'm sure there must be others taking a more unusual approach to reviews, but it's hard to find them under the huge pile of formulaic score-based stuff.  There's a place for that too, it just doesn't interest me much personally.

Always interested to hear recommendations.  Less interested to hear whining about how these things aren't really reviews, because I don't care.  Although, I would love another term I could easily use for my own 'review' approach: something that describes writing about a single game in a subjective, flexible way, incorporating amateur analysis and related tangent stories.

Just some quick links today.

The guys from Game Taco Podcast were kind enough to give me a link on their blogroll. After two episodes I think they are really starting to click, and they have conducted some interesting interviews. I look forward to hearing their future discussions.

Coelacanth: Lessons from Doom is an interesting look at game design with less representational graphics, and how it may actually serve gameplay.

For any current World of Warcraft players, the Daedalus project is looking for survey participants. They are "trying to find out what our behaviors in WoW reveal about who we are in RL."

I don't play a lot of flash games, but I have been enjoying Closure. I am fascinated by games that play with the idea of perception tangibly altering reality. Another example of a game using those sorts of ideas is Echochrome.