What I would expect

...is for a reviewer to do theur journalistic duty and analyse the game from a professional standpoint and not bring personal bias into it. Adding a little humour to a review is fine and actively welcomed but not at the expense of conveying important information. To go back to one of the shining comments of this review:

"The levelling system is totally blandflakes"

..hardly tells you much about the process. There is no detailed information about the way the classes work, the use of different roles for different situations, the synergy between various soul trees and the way that points can be attributed. There is no mention about the overlap between certain classes means that some mechanics often override each other (for example, Warlord buffs are occasionally overwritten by Bard and Archon skills).

You could also cover how experience can be gotten from a number of different sources (quests, warfront PVP, closing rifts), talk about the various crafting professions (again, you could mention how certain crafts have issues at present, such as Apothecary). Miss Orr's problem with her reviews (not just this one - I'm also thinking of the review she did for the high performance network card) is that she assumes too much prior knowledge on the part of the reviewer. For some people, Rift may be their first entry into MMO gameplay and describing a certain warfront as "like Alterac Valley" is not particularly helpful if you have no idea what Alterac Valley actually *is*.

If I were doing a full review of Rift (a tempting idea when I have a free moment), I would use the time spent levelling from 1-20 as a good indicator of how well the game performs. As you point out, expecting a reviewer to reach the end game stages is unreasonable given the normal time for a review, which is why its important to explain as much about the early stages as possible. Granted, you don't have to get right down to tiny detail (e.g. attacks are performed by right clicking on an enemy target and clicking on various skills from the tool bar) - most gamers looking at Rift will have a little experience of basic RPG systems.

Just remember that not everyone has played World of Warcraft.

Cut out the middle man

Prosecute under age teens, then they'll get the hint.

Wow....

All this from one post about elephants.

That said

I'd pay some top money for a Blu-ray edition of the original trilogy PROVIDED nothing had been altered in anyway shape or form whatsoever. That means all the original scenes, right down to the damn fool Ewok song, no "remastering" where you shoe-horn in pointless scenes. Just the original stuff.

Get that right and I might even allow you to put on a directors commentry.

Hmm

Does it have to be in a sock drawer?

We may end up having to ask for an Amazon icon

Can it be one of those scantily clad Amazons that I've heard so much about?

PC Gamer

Clocked it in at 85% - quite a detailed review and they didn't even have to use the word "blandflakes" even once.

And?

Point still stands.

Woah there Skippy

"Its a games console. Thats what it is." Nice opening statement from someone who was trying to compare it to a deadly weapon in his previous post. One thing that you've missed is that hacking a console != piracy. Some people have an interest in encryption systems and enjoy poking at the holes in things to see what happens. It's called curiousity. Merely inspecting and testing an encryption system does not automatically turn you into a freeloading pirate but in fairness, this fact seems to have escaped Sony, so I'm not too surprised it's gone over your head as well.

Oh, and for the love of all that is holy, would it really kill you to use some proper grammar, punctuation and spelling in your posts? It's really taxing having to translate "speekurbrainz" into English.

Oh

So when I was frying masses of troops with the Ion Cannon in C&C, I was actually just giving them a short back and sides?

Hmmm

Maybe if we keep making snarky remarks about Apple in the comments section, they might go away again? =p

No, I'm Sparticus

...and so's my wife.

PVP in Rift

I'm only 27ish in Rift but while there are certain specs that are powerful (Dominators, Saboteur + Bard combos certain warrior specs), almost everything has a counter in some form. It's still too early to make precise calls on balance (it's only been live a couple of weeks) but I do enjoy the PVP when I do it.

Druids don't have bears in Rift though, not even strong ones. They do have freakishly big satyrs at higher levels which are bad news for anyone near by.

Sigh

One thing a lot of people have overlooked in these articles on El Reg is that Lewis is basing his articles on the information available to him, whether its from World Nuclear News, science journals or astrological predictions. If a statement he makes today turns out to be incorrect due to a lack of information on his part, like a government witholding certain details for example, it's not really fair to crucify him because of it.

I've been following events closely through a number of articles on a number of websites and while there's no denying it does take a pro-nuclear stance, at least it doesn't seem to revel in the destruction while crying about the Hugh Manatee.

Indeed

"If so, it appears that the Radeon HD 6990, formerly known as Antilles, may be an effective weapon."

Looks like this is merely the thin end of the Wedge.

Do it

Deus Ex was fantastic.

Same here

Had a read of that article yesterday myself. Being honest I found a lot of it hard to follow but from what I've been able to understand the Fukushima reactor and the Chernobyl reactors are very different beasties.

As for the whole nuclear debate, is *now* really the right time, when people are risking their lives trying to bring the reactors under control?

Interesting theory yoy have there

So, if I happened to take exception to what you had written, hit the "Report" button under your post and got you banned for 72 hours, you'd be alright with that...?

Wait....

the Jobs Distortion Field now affects time as well? Does this mean the man is now a walking black hole?

Something I only just found out

I had a look on Google maps for the location of Fukushima - people do know these things were built on the coastline right? I'd like to see any building survive a 9.0 megaquake *and* a 33ft tsunami and escape without massive damage. It's also worth remembering that these reactors were of a much older design than some of the ones we have in the UK and that retooling a full installed and functioning reactor with the latest safety features is not an undertaking to be done quickly.

The title is a fictional invention

Oh do lighten up, please. It's friday o'clock, I have a really long clinic ahead of me and anything that is good for a brief smile or a laugh helps time travel more quickly.

Now if I could just find a memory erasing device that can erase the last 2 minutes I've wasted reading and replying to your post, that'd be swell.

f)

Good to see them going back to their roots.

We didn't

I remember following an Ordinance Survey map and thinking "Gosh, I really wish I had a celebrity to tell me how to get to my destination instead of all these carefully laid out roads landmarks."

Good news everyone!

A recent study* has determined that casual games can restore hair lost through male pattern baldness *AND* cure erectile dysfunction.

*Study funded by Popcap Games, not subject to peer review.

Well said

Been a long time since the Photographer Menace was brought to justice.

Unlike KFC

Some things are still finger lickin' good.