Re-Introducing Andre's GameReviewPad: What to Expect (Soft Relaunch)
A longer welcome and introduction to Andre's GameReviewPad!
Welcome
Welcome to Andre’s GameReviewPad newsletter. You can sign up free to receive Andre’s Gaming Odds & Ends newsletter covering video games, including indie games other subjects. This is both an informational and opinion newsletter.
Relaunch Information (March 22, 2023)
Previously I committed to publishing two different types of newsletter, Andre’s Indie Game Chosen Ones and Andre’s Gaming Odds & Ends. I’ve decided for workflow purposes to stick with Andre’s Gaming Odds & Ends as the only newsletter and combine both indie game coverage and everything else together. This will make writing the newsletter much easier for me and a bit less fractured.
Frequency
The frequency will generally be when I have opinions to share, but potentially every week.
Please read the About Me section for a complete breakdown of what to expect in each newsletter.
Origin
In 2013, I created GameReviewPad.com with the concept of “Reviews in Context” because I wanted to try a new system that didn’t use number ratings. I feel a ‘review in context’ is needed to make a review have better framing for the readers. A first time reader doesn’t know the gaming history of the reviewer. The perspective and experience of someone who is new to a particular franchise can be totally different and legitimate compared to a seasoned veteran of a franchise or genre. While running GameReviewPad I developed a strong interest in independent games and now I’m totally consumed by them.
My Basic Review Philosophy
I’m a strong believer that all games should be held to the same standard in reviews. For example, a buggy and/or bland AAA game with over a hundred developers should be reviewed just as harshly as an indie game with a few developers. I try my best to set aside my personal preferences and biases of things I want to be changed in a game that aren’t necessary, as opposed to things in a game that NEED to be changed or fixed for the game to be minimally enjoyable. Nitpicking minor things is something I try to avoid. When reviewing a game I take notes and write down a list of all the minor and major pros and cons of a game. I use that as a roadmap for all of my reviews. When my game experience is over, I decide if all the cons in my review notes really impacted my experience enough for it to be mentioned, and/or if it was just my personal preference bias kicking in.
The technical state of a game should never be ignored, even if you know or think the issues will be fixed in the future. A lot of gamers get hung up on the resolution of games, but I prefer high frames per second over high resolution. For example, I will always take a 60 FPS/720p gaming experience over a 30FPS/1080p experience.
Most Coverage Will Be Recent or Upcoming Games
Expect that a good portion of the video game coverage here will be games released within the current year. This also may include remasters, remakes, and collections of older games. A section called Andre’s Gaming Bucket List will be featured from time to time in the that will naturally include older games.
Coverage born out of PR provided press keys will be cross-posted here and GameReviewPad.com until this newsletter is more established with a lot of sign ups.
Unpopular Opinions? Yea, That’s Me!
I’m not afraid to express my opinion, even if it’s unpopular. For example, I find the high praise of God of War (2018) a bit over the top and nauseating given its shortcomings that other games would not get away with. I did enjoy the combat and it was one of my favorite games of 2018 for that reason alone. You also won’t find me engage in ridiculous Nintendo bashing, although they do deserve criticism sometimes for their hardware and technical decisions. There seems to be a hip trend of people who like to trash Nintendo and pretend to be shocked and surprised when they constantly churn out games featuring the Super Mario Bros. universe. That’s what they do! Don’t like it? Don’t play it! Nintendo will always have their own niche gaming universe and some people have a hard time accepting that.
So Many Indie Games, So Little Time
One of the things that I hope gets across in this newsletter is the large quantity of independent games available to play these days. There are so many games that I would like to play that I don’t have the time to play all of them, especially from beginning to end. One of the lessons I’ve learned over the years is that I have to really value my time when deciding what games to play and what games to set aside that I may never get to. That’s why you can expect shorter reviews (Mini-Reviews), as well as full length reviews. Not every game deserves a 1000 word review.
Housekeeping
Theme & Links
If you’re reading this on the web, please let me know if you like the theme, otherwise I can change it to a color theme.
This is also a heads up that all text you read that is underlined in your e-mail version or on the web is a clickable link. Links won’t be a different color.
Minimal Media Embeds
Expect a selective amount of embedded video and large pictures (screenshots) as possible to help make reading and loading the newsletter on phones a lot easier.
Potential Spam Filter Issues
If you aren’t seeing the newsletter in your inbox, it may be in your spam folder or promotions folder. Marking it as ‘not spam’ and moving it to your inbox folder will help.
You can whitelist gamereviewpad@substack.com to avoid this altogether.
Thanks for checking out Andre’s GameReviewPad newsletter!
Don’t forget to sign up so you don’t miss an issue of Andre’s Gaming Odds & Ends!
~Andre