{"id":194,"date":"2005-07-30T14:25:00","date_gmt":"2005-07-30T18:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/?p=194"},"modified":"2006-08-19T19:33:27","modified_gmt":"2006-08-19T23:33:27","slug":"reviews-update-and-a-bit-on-scoring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/2005\/07\/30\/reviews-update-and-a-bit-on-scoring\/","title":{"rendered":"Reviews update – and a bit on scoring"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three new reviews from yours truly. Game Method has posted the Cossacks II<\/i> review<\/a> I did for them, and you can find my Computer Games Magazine review of the same game in their September issue. My CGM review of Supreme Ruler 2010<\/i> is in the same issue.<\/p>\n

If you compare the Cossacks II<\/i> reviews, you will notice that I gave it a 65 at Game Method, but 2.5 stars at CGM. This is not an error or a change in opinion or editorial meddling with my scoring. Despite what Game Rankings would have you believe, you can’t always directly compare a star scoring system to a percentage ranking. Each site or publication has a definition attached to a scoring range. For both Game Method and CGM, I ranked Cossacks II<\/i> where it belongs – squarely in the low side of average. Game Method’s official definition of the 60s range is “flawed”.<\/p>\n

We can go round and round comparing scoring systems. I prefer to work in a star system because there is a prevailing image of the percentage grade of games as comparable to a school grade. This leads to what one colleague derisively calls the “7 to 9” scale – almost every game will fall in this gap. As a writer, all I can do is fit my impressions of the game into the prevailing editorial system. I’m not about to wage a one-man revolution against people giving me a chance to write about something I love. If asked, I’ll voice my opinion.<\/p>\n

As for Cossacks II<\/i>, it’s pretty dull. The battles are nice enough, but once again GSC has made the game nearly impossible for newcomers. Over at Eurogamer<\/a>, Kieron Gillen called it a RTS that wasn’t because effective play required a lot of pausing as you got your troops lined up. The strategy game has little to recommend it, and once again I fail to grasp the popularity of a European success story.<\/p>\n

Supreme Ruler 2010<\/i> is workmanlike. It’s very deep and Battlegoat seems to have avoided all the pitfalls that made Superpower<\/i> and its sequel completely unplayable – at least without a strong drink. Supreme Ruler<\/i> is, in many ways, a promising start. It’s not there just yet, but I eagerly anticipate their next project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three new reviews from yours truly. Game Method has posted the Cossacks II review I did for them, and you can find my Computer Games Magazine review of the same game in their September issue. My CGM review of Supreme Ruler 2010 is in the same issue. If you compare the Cossacks II reviews, you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5GFeQ-38","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flashofsteel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}