Reviews in Review – Joaby’s Reviews of 2022

Christmas time is a time for reflection. For looking back over the year and really jerking ourselves off over how brilliant we are. Or at least you’d be forgiven for thinking that if you finished watching the following video, where I review every review I wrote in 2022 and declare them all to be ‘good’.

Truthfully 2022 was a very hard year for me, and following a tragedy in September I came to the conclusion (with the help of my therapist) that I needed to do something to take a more active role in my fate. When I examined the elements that left me despairing and worked out which ones I could actually do something about, I was left with two choices. I could either solve death, which literature has told me never works out as intended, or I could at least attempt to increase the media literacy around game reviews.

Game reviews are on the ropes in 2022. If you work out the rate to do one, it’s so far below minimum wage that it’s eye-watering. If you look at the response even positive reviews get, it’s thankless in a way that beggars belief. If you analyse the traffic they bring to sites on the regular, it looks like a tough ask on every front.

The biggest problem is that the audience feel it isn’t being served by the critics anymore. That they can get better service elsewhere. They can bring up a youtube video and find out, or they can watch the game being played on twitch.

The idea behind Reviews in Review is to show that they can actually get what you need from written reviews, they just need to understand what they’re looking at. To realise that a lot of sites have different writers doing a lot of different reviews, that low scores aren’t inherently a bad thing, and that the analysis is there, if you know how to read the reviews.

So that’s what I’ve done. 8 videos so far, and more to come I think. But this week’s episode is about the reviews I’ve written. I think I’m pretty fair. But feel free to tell me I’m wrong.

Horizon: Forbidden West – Stevivor – 6.5/10
https://stevivor.com/reviews/horizon-forbidden-west-review-narrow-focus/

Elden Ring – AusGamers – 9.5/10
https://www.ausgamers.com/games/elden-ring/review/

Gran Turismo 7 – The GAPodcast – No Score
https://thegapodcast.com/2022/03/15/gran-turismo-7/

Neon White – The GAPodcast – No Score
https://thegapodcast.com/2022/07/05/neon-white/

Immortality – The GAPodcast – No Score
https://thegapodcast.com/2022/08/30/immortality/

NBA 2K23 – AusGamers – 5/10
https://www.ausgamers.com/games/nba-2k23/review/

Anyway have a merry christmas and happy holidays and stay safe.