A lot of you said it would be good to make reviews that are 30 seconds or shorter. I have tried.
I did mumble a bit but hopfully you can understand me. I did speak as fast as i could.

This review is on Killzone 2. A s*** load of people love this game and rate it highly. But i didnt really think the same as you will see.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbS0T9Yk-bY

Cheers

Other than neglecting our suggestion to mention wife-beaters, VB or Swan St bridge, that was pretty awesome!

Idea has legs.

"If you're looking for a unique shooter game then this isn't the game for you."

"The story is confusing and rushed and the weapons suck balls."

"The lighting is so bright that I actually had a fit."

I actually lol'd.

My hat's off, sir - this is much improved!

Honestly, go with this style. My only criticisms now are your mic and that of a 30 sec review the intro was 8 sec which is too long. Maybe 3-4 is enough now.

Music selection, perfect.

A bit too yahtzee without yahtzee for me I am afraid

Like Zero Punctuation but without the funnies.

haha well i only spoke fast to fit more in. they speak fast cause they are under the influence of speed. But yea yahtzee is good.
The mic problem will be fixed when i get some cash. And i will make the start smaller to fit more in.

Your review was only 20 seconds - there were 10 seconds of your intro splash screen.

My suggestions:

- Make your reviews 2 minutes with an <5second splash intro. 2 Minutes should be just enough to have an insightful review without getting boring

- Only show gameplay footage and not any gameplay video/movies

- Make paragraph topics in your own head/script that you will discuss. That will improve the content and make it useful. Everything you say should be an answer to a question that a potential game buyer has, eg. "are the graphics good and do they run smoothly on a medium level pc?", "are the physics of the movement fun to play?" "is it a fast paced game?" "how many hours of gameplay will i get out of it?" "is it a challenging game for an experienced gamer?" etc etc.

Maybe if you write down your own questions about a game BEFORE you play it yourself, then answer them for yourself and use that as your script basis.

Keep at it, QGL is a tough crowd.

I would suggest you add bits of text to summarise what you're saying.

Story = crap etc

Why have a splash screen at all?
- It does not add anything useful
- You suck at photoshop
- Wastes time

At the end you could put your name/brand instead of 'fin'.

Voice is a bit unclear.

last edited by thermite at 17:06:20 29/Sep/09

Sounds like you're reading off something, could sound better if it was just from memory.

"The story is confusing and rushed and the weapons suck balls."

i laughed at this haha

lol you all contradict each other. Like this thread contradicts the other thread.
Im not making them longer then 30 seconds. Its been decided i am a 30 second game reviewer. I will make the intro and outro a little shorter to fit more in. And it wasnt photoshop. It took 2 seconds to make that intro+outro.

Rockitman next time i wont show anything but gameplay. Thankyou!

My other Reviews where 3-4mins and all the people on this forums seemed to think that 30 second reviews would be great.
Next time i will slow my voice down and speak more clear. And make it faster in editing. Hopfully that should work. But as logn as u can understand me thats good enough for now. =]

I think the 30 second concept is great, but yeah, I think it needs to be 30 seconds of actual review.

Much better than your other attempts.

I think given the reviews are only 30 seconds long you can try to keep your comments really interesting and witty.

pure aussie, i think it was funny. well done.

people are right saying that it is a bit yahtzee esque though.

ok well. what im planning to do in my next review. Is get rid of the intro keep the outro but shorten it. That way i have like 26 seconds of review. Which will be in a week or so. so ill let you all no with a new topic at the time.

Thing about this review is that the game killzone 2 really really f***ing pissed me off. Everyone seems to love the game but me, not sure why.
so yea im glad its better. And im aware that i can still get better. BUT thanks to you all im getting there. thankyou

Well if you are going to run with the 30 sec idea, you might want to I dunno, improve things a bit. In the vid you linked, you spoke way too fast and didn't say anything that made me care about your opinion of the game.

Yep fair enough. Reason i spoke fast was to hopfully cover more points. But now that you guys mention it i didnt really talk about the game values much. In my next review i will try to improve on this. Thanks mates

30 Seconds isn't long enough for the following reason: it only allow you to state your opinion but doesn't allow you to state your reasoning for it. ie. "the weapons suck balls" is your conclusion, but i wan't to know WHY they suck balls. Do they aim poorly, is the reload slow, lag on firing, not enough ammo? Why are they no good? You gotta back up the opinion to make it credible.

The above is based on you wanting to make an informative review, not a yahtzee esque review. Yahtzee is great and funny but only really good for watching for a laugh after you've already played the game i reckon.

lol you all contradict each other. Like this thread contradicts the other thread.

Everyone has different opinions. You're here asking for feedback and you're getting heaps (amazingly mostly constructive!), suck it up and quit bitching.

I will make the intro and outro a little shorter to fit more in.

You need to make this a LOT shorter. Have 1-2 seconds of your intro alone with the soundtrack and then fade it into the gameplay footage. Start talking as soon as the soundtrack is up.

In this one, after the intro music (0:03) there is a five second pause where nothing happens - that's an absolute waste. A 30 second review is f***ing tight - blowing 30 percent on the intro text and then mumbling through the rest in a rush makes no sense.

With a 30 second time frame you should be able to have a tight script with excellent timings. Keep it punchy and to the point - the script you had spread over 26-28 seconds instead of 21 would have been perfect (and you would avoid inevitable comparisons to another reviewer).

Oh, this was your best review yet. Well done.

Why do you even need an intro? Put the name of the game in the title and video description.

Kudos to you. Very good, I lolled.

"If you're looking for a unique shooter game then this isn't the game for you."

"The story is confusing and rushed and the weapons suck balls."

"The lighting is so bright that I actually had a fit."

I lol'd at these too.

Maybe add something at the end for a score out of 10? Use australianism's as your score, like VBs or something?

My other Reviews where 3-4mins and all the people on this forums seemed to think that 30 second reviews would be great.
Next time i will slow my voice down and speak more clear. And make it faster in editing. Hopfully that should work. But as logn as u can understand me thats good enough for now. =]

I liked the fast talking, didn't have much problem hearing you or understanding you and the mic quality was a bit better this time. I think you'll need to invest in a new mic at some stage though if you're serious. Something high quality.

The only Yahtzee thing about it was the fast talking, I think you can find your own audience with 30sec reviews and being brutally honest like that.

You should consider some sort of score in the outro for ppl to see.

watch tv commercials, they are a great example of fitting a lot of information into 15 or 30 seconds. Pay attention to the duration of different shots, how long it takes for a voiceover to say something, and how long they flash the logo or product shot up for. You'd be surprised at how brief some of these shots are - if that's all they need, it's all you need.

I think the format could work, but I echo the statements above. Needs much shorter intro/outro so you can rush a little less, and a better microphone for clarity.

review needs to be longer

Yahtzee is great and funny but only really good for watching for a laugh after you've already played the game i reckon.

His reviews are fairly useful, they pretty much summarize all the other reviews around the place. Saving you reading written reviews + giving some laughter = win

review was too long

hog father i have taken in everyones opinions in. I have been since i first posted here early this week. Just because i disagree with SOME of it dont mean i dont take it all in. Also good point about there being a 30% waste. Next time i will make it 1% waste. MAX

Carson that a f***ing great idea. At the end of the review ill rate the game out of kangaroos or somthing. 5 kangaroos out of 10. hahaha
Or fosters. Dunno is yanks/poms no bout VB i no they no alot bout fosters

And people i really dont wanna repeat the fact that in my next review there will be NO Intro and a very tiny quick outro or maybe NO outro.

Thermite. thats a good idea i will watch some adds to get some ideas hopfully.

Mic will be better soon. Lack of funds right now though.

Thanks Guys

Everyone seems to love the game but me, not sure why.

Because it's rad.

you really need to try and keep personal opinion out of your reviews

Yahtzee is great and funny but only really good for watching for a laugh after you've already played the game i reckon.

Agree 100%, you need to play the game to understand his jokes. I don't get much enjoyment if I watch without having played.

Nah, make it an opinion piece. If people want a balanced, impartial analysis they'll go elsewhere and spend 10 minutes on the review.

You have to be careful of Spook, he's usually pretty good but every now and then he's just totally wacky-wrong.

I used to watch gilmore girls and they talk really fast, some people said they talked too fast & they couldn't keep up but I found the show easy to keep up with.

Your review? I couldn't keep up with that, partly because you're fumbling the words. It's getting better but I think either learn how to talk more clearly at speed or slow down your speech a little. Who cares if your review then becomes 45 seconds, no point having it dead on 30 if no one can understand it. The new mic might help so I guess only time will tell.

well the thing is people who love the game say the bright lights and sunshine that blinds u is just good graphics. But yea i think its just distracting and bull s*** haha

Reviewers give opinions, it's what they do. Making it personal engages the viewer, they will come to appreciate your personal approach (assuming your personality is not bland).

30 secs is way too short imo, at least a minute is required. Games these days are quite complex so a review need to cover it adequately by justifying each statement with examples.

Because you are talking faster which is not in itself a bad thing be careful to:

- speak clearly (many things you said were unintelligible);
- use bullet points like a powerpoint;
- show different aspects of gameplay.

I like your philosophy for personal improvement though, keep at it!

Thanks for the feedback infi. But what do you mean bullet points?

brief single line of writing which summarises your statement as you say it. some people are audio, some people are visual :)

Ah ok ill try to include that in my next one Thanks infi

What if you're blind and deaf? I demand braille on this videos too.

You spent 1/3 of your video show casing your s***ty intro, cut it down to 5 seconds. remove the fin at the end.

I got one of these and it rocks, only 10 bucks!

been said and talked about over 10 times now thanks for your imput though =]

Since your review is only 30 seconds don't do any intro/outro. At the end stamp your brand and leave it at that. No more then 3 seconds long, 3 seconds is 10% of your review, think of it that way.

You could always make your review 30sec then add 1-5sec intro/outro for a 40sec total review or something.

I agree with whoever said you need to at least qualify, even a tiny bit, statements like "the weapons suck balls". You don't need to launch into a paragraph about why they suck, just like another half a sentence "The weapons suck balls, they're bland and uninteresting and the aiming is about as responsive as my drugged up grandmother."

I like the 30 second idea, but you can still cram a lot of info into 30 seconds. And yeah, keep it opinionated. Its not like you're going to be delivering an impartial essay on the game in 30 seconds, you're basically having a rant, so its going to be at its best when its opinionated, but it can still be informative.

You could even make "sucks balls" your line and end the review by rating the game a certain number of balls sacks, e.g. 5 out of 10 ball sacks and then showing the number of ball sacks on screen in a sequential pop up like motion, just for kicks.

http://www.oddballs.co.uk/images/oddballs-sand-filled-hacky-sacks-14-panel-squary.jpg

but um.. yeah.. that was pretty random but whatever you get my drift.. basically brand yourself, a bit like rotten tomatoes.



last edited by MatchFixa at 00:13:27 30/Sep/09

out of 10 is too long, rate it out of 5 to save time.

good point skythra

Hey that wasn't actually all that bad, Just needs a little more emphasis/oomph in your tone of voice.

Kinda yahtzee-ish but didn't seem like a complete rip-off, I think you just have a similar sounding voice (but without the oomph in this vid).

Thanks mephz =]