Dark & Eerie Games Thread

I'm not familiar with Double Games. I just looked at their site and looks like you have to register before you can see any "reviews" as all I see is an overall rating. Can you also buy games through them or are you directed to Big Fish for example cause I don't see any prices on the games. Just a download here for PC or download here for MAC. What an odd set up!  

From memory, yup, they're a portal for both Big Fish, and Game House. I just think you have to register for their membership newsletter, no money down or anything, and then you can write reviews, and read them when they've got them, but mostly the members just vote rather than review. They tried to get some incentives going a while back, where you free games for so many reviews.

I used to use them mostly for walkthroughs before I knew about big fish, but I also used to go there to check out upcoming games.

No, the walkthroughs were Gamezebo, another site that has starred ratings and reviews

In regards to the helpful/unhelpful well that wouldn't bother me at all if it was truly based on helpful/unhelpful but I know for a fact it's not and for several reasons. One people have voted for themselves as one person told me privately that she did cause she was aggravated by the system. NO ONE should be able to vote for them self. I would never think of doing such a thing. Two just the tone I've read from some in the forum. How dare you not like what they like. Third reason when I've seen several reviews on the main page: I have not played this game but love everything else by this developer (ERS) and one review had as many as 17 "helpful" votes. Oh sure they'd have unhelpful votes but 17 for not even downloading and playing as much as the demo??  And I also know that some mark unhelpful just to keep themselves relevant on the main page especially that top reviewer but I haven't seen them review for months.

If it was a more honest system I wouldn't mind it at all. Helpful votes are nice to see but that isn't the reason I write reviews. That reason isn't even on my list of why I write reviews.

The helpful/unhelpfuls are a joke. I have never taken them seriously. For all the reasons you've just given, even long before the new ratings sort. So I don't sweat that at all. I write reviews for my own satisfaction and I'm just happy people like to read them. That's enough.

Oh yes I thought it was a joke as well WAY before the new ratings sort came into play. I see some have got sucked into that though especially pennmom that was mentioned earlier here cause I've noticed she rates about everything 5 stars.

She's currently working her way through big fish' games list alphabetically - check out her profile!   

And I thought I was nuts, trying to review my own games alphabetically.

Gotta go, the day is dawning and I am a yawning. All vampires must sleep eventually.

  

Well there is no need for me to sign up for the Double Games if I'm just going to be directed back to Big Fish. I'm looking for a site that has both the star rating and I can buy games directly from them. I've thought about GameZebo but that directs me back to Big Fish so might as well stay where I'm at.

Oh and the reason for reviewing at Big Fish is because I know some of the developers visit there but with this highest rating first now I can't help but wonder if anything not rated 5 stars even gets passed on to the developer or they just happen to see it if they visit Big Fish.

RenaissanceMom wrote:

genkicoll wrote:I have some sad news.  Sportygal has deleted all of her reviews here, and I'm guessing that she's done the same at Big Fish (haven't checked.)  I'm thinking that the jerk who was copying her reviews and posting them as his/her own at Big Fish was the last straw.  I messaged her about it, but she hasn't answered.  I'm sad that she felt the need to remove her reviews even here, but I understand why she did it.

Sportygal, I hope that you see this message and know that we'd love for you to stay around and post, even if you never play a casual game again!

Crap, that's so nasty!!!!    Sorry and big (((hugs))) to Sportygal. I agree with Genki, please stay and post here, among friends!

TBH I only go to Big Fish a couple of times a week now, and quickly look over the recent release titles. So many of the reviews are gushingly positive over everything; they seem fake to me. I've noticed a number of key contributors, one in particular named pennmom36 (but there are others) who virtually always give 5-star reviews, to everything. And I don't get that -- assuming 5 stars is the highest rating and reserved for "the best", how can *every* game be the best??  Hmm...

It's beyond me why anyone would steal a review, or how s/he could think to get away with it. What is to be gained, other than false credit? Sad behavior, indeed, as well as maddening.

Thanks for the hugs plus I've just been going through A LOT of personal stuff in my life right now. Yes and I totally agree with the 5 stars as I always thought that was reserved for the best. That's why I can't relate to 5 stars on the demo There is one in Big Fish forum that just about every game is a 10/10 and again based on the demo. My favorite is best game of the year. Well if it's THAT good I'd want to tell everyone all about it.  I'm with you. I just find it misleading to people who depend on reviews and even the developers as I've known of a couple when it comes to a CE well they chop off the ending of the main game and you need the bonus chapter to get the rest of the story. I know there are some who are on fixed income and can't afford to purchase a lot especially CE games.

JustTheFacts wrote:The helpful/unhelpfuls are a joke. I have never taken them seriously. For all the reasons you've just given, even long before the new ratings sort. So I don't sweat that at all. I write reviews for my own satisfaction and I'm just happy people like to read them. That's enough.

Interesting. You said  on another thread that you use to do reviews on completed games but one day it occurred to you that they weren't getting read so you "sold out" and went chasing after "helpful votes" on the main page.  


Well now I'm going back to face book and play some more on farmville 2 as I also have to keep up on my sister in law's farm since she will be needing shoulder surgery been in a lot of pain lately.

Good to see you, Sportygal! And thanks for clearing things up. I read your Reviews all the time, I would read them at BF, only I don't go to the Official Reviews.
When BF decided to start this official reviewing, I had a look & the one-liners offered me no useful info at all.
My thinking was, if it's going to be "official" or "starred" then there should be more to it. Not "I loved it" or "I didn't like it."
I don't mean to intentionally criticize, but if these reviews are going to be on the actual game's page, there should be more information. Since I was very disappointed in this new rating system, I stayed in the forum reviews & I still go there.
And all that pettiness about being the first to post a review was kind of childish (IMO & just sayin'). 

I never ventured out of the D&E thread much because it wasn't worth it to me to fight in a forum. The written word can be misinterpreted so easily & there you go, people take offense. The back & forth squabbling starts and I'd just shake my head.
Us D&Eers have defended our love for the darker games many, many times (over there). I think we did it tastefully. I know we got sick & tired of it, maybe would mention it in "our" thread, but I don't recall any of us insulting anybody...ever.

Anyways, I hope your sister-in-law recovers from her shoulder surgery soon, Sportygal. I hope to see you around & I do read your Reviews.  

Hi Sportygal, so sorry to hear life's been extra challenging for you at the moment.   

I am a fan of finished game reviews myself, as demos don't tell the entire story by a long shot, but I don't mind a demo review as long as it's stated clearly right upfront. But this nonsense about the starred review page is a puzzle to me. All honest opinions are valid, aren't they? There is room enough for differing points of view -- why turn it into some sort of petty favor-currying competition? BFG has certainly turned into a different kind of site from the one we first got to know, hasn't it.  

Anyway I hope things start looking up for you soon and best wishes to your SIL.

Sportygal2009 wrote:

JustTheFacts wrote:The helpful/unhelpfuls are a joke. I have never taken them seriously. For all the reasons you've just given, even long before the new ratings sort. So I don't sweat that at all. I write reviews for my own satisfaction and I'm just happy people like to read them. That's enough.

Interesting. You said  on another thread that you use to do reviews on completed games but one day it occurred to you that they weren't getting read so you "sold out" and went chasing after "helpful votes" on the main page.  

*sigh* I was joking. I'm tired of defending my choices. I hope the rest of you are happy to just let me do my thing in peace.

djrum wrote:Good to see you, Sportygal! And thanks for clearing things up. I read your Reviews all the time, I would read them at BF, only I don't go to the Official Reviews.
When BF decided to start this official reviewing, I had a look & the one-liners offered me no useful info at all.
My thinking was, if it's going to be "official" or "starred" then there should be more to it. Not "I loved it" or "I didn't like it."
I don't mean to intentionally criticize, but if these reviews are going to be on the actual game's page, there should be more information. Since I was very disappointed in this new rating system, I stayed in the forum reviews & I still go there.
And all that pettiness about being the first to post a review was kind of childish (IMO & just sayin'). 

I never ventured out of the D&E thread much because it wasn't worth it to me to fight in a forum. The written word can be misinterpreted so easily & there you go, people take offense. The back & forth squabbling starts and I'd just shake my head.
Us D&Eers have defended our love for the darker games many, many times (over there). I think we did it tastefully. I know we got sick & tired of it, maybe would mention it in "our" thread, but I don't recall any of us insulting anybody...ever.

Anyways, I hope your sister-in-law recovers from her shoulder surgery soon, Sportygal. I hope to see you around & I do read your Reviews.  

Hi drum: Good to see you too!    Yes I agree with the main page the star rating reviews especially when Big Fish first rolled this out and making a big deal on how these reviews were going to be screened and taking 24 to 72 hours to show up on the main page and seeing a bunch of one liners telling absolutely nothing about the game and I've came across quite a few as I mentioned earlier not even playing the game and having "helpful" votes on them. Someone is definitely asleep at the approval button.  Also as R Mom said all the gushing over some games as they also appear to be fake to me as well especially the 10/10 and the best game of the year. Well sorry but no game can rate THAT high based on an hour or sometimes even less of game play!  I've always felt more comfortable on the main page though cause as I said I do like giving star ratings to the games plus I could post my opinion freely without the back & forth squabble you mentioned but I thought I would try the forum since the chat has closed and have just been turned off by it all especially the so called "forum rules" as it's now suppose to be for tech issues, reviews and any threads that are started are suppose to be for game help but I've seen quite a few get started that aren't asking for help. Just like anything in life it depends who you are well after I received the shitty PM from one of the mods I told them they could stick their forum and so called rules as I reported several that were off clearly off topic. Yes I realize they can't be everywhere but I'm talking about game forum threads that one of the mods had been to after the clearly off topic posts and threads had been started. I noticed they removed some and kept others. Plus they don't even set up the review and tech threads anymore as those are done by the game players. They come in hours later and sticky the threads. I don't understand why Flounder can't set that up as he is the one who sets up the forum for the games.  Oh well I don't have to worry about it anymore since I've removed my reviews from there and won't be going back to it.

My sister in law hasn't had surgery yet. She's in the process of getting that set up! The weather hasn't been good here at all where I live. It's now starting to warm up a bit. Last week one day the temp was as low as MINUS 15.

RenaissanceMom wrote:Hi Sportygal, so sorry to hear life's been extra challenging for you at the moment.   

I am a fan of finished game reviews myself, as demos don't tell the entire story by a long shot, but I don't mind a demo review as long as it's stated clearly right upfront. But this nonsense about the starred review page is a puzzle to me. All honest opinions are valid, aren't they? There is room enough for differing points of view -- why turn it into some sort of petty favor-currying competition? BFG has certainly turned into a different kind of site from the one we first got to know, hasn't it.  

Anyway I hope things start looking up for you soon and best wishes to your SIL.

Hi R Mom  

Yes all honest opinions are valid but I don't find a 5 star, 10/10 and especially best game of the year honest and valid based on the demo because as you said earlier the 5 star which is the highest you can rate a game on Big Fish is suppose to be reserved for the best and how can that be if the game hasn't been completed?    And yes I do think demos have a place and that is if the game isn't liked and giving reasons why as this lets the developer know why the game hasn't been purchased as I feel it's up to the developer to have the game players attention during the demo and an hour is plenty of time to do that. If not well too bad so sad as I know I'm not going to buy a game just to see if it gets better or not.

Oh and thanks for best wishes to my SIL.

Sportygal2009 wrote:

RenaissanceMom wrote:All honest opinions are valid, aren't they?

Yes all honest opinions are valid but I don't find a 5 star, 10/10 and especially best game of the year honest and valid based on the demo because as you said earlier the 5 star which is the highest you can rate a game on Big Fish is suppose to be reserved for the best and how can that be if the game hasn't been completed?   

Yeah, well that's the point I was making too.    A track record of unconditionally rave stellar reviews (esp based on demos) doesn't exactly strike me as 'honest'. There's some kind of favor currying or scrambling for points (or whatever) going on...

Oh and I used to post the odd comment here and there on individual game forums but it seems whenever I had a super polite but really contrary point of view I'd get a PM from a mod as well: "We had to remove your post because..."   Once this happened a few too many times I stopped posting and just stayed in our safe little D&E hole- I mean home. I think the mods were happy to ignore us there.

Well so much for it warming up as it's MINUS 3 degrees here right now but it's suppose to hit a whopping 17 degrees today.

RenaissanceMom wrote:Oh and I used to post the odd comment here and there on individual game forums but it seems whenever I had a super polite but really contrary point of view I'd get a PM from a mod as well: "We had to remove your post because..."   Once this happened a few too many times I stopped posting and just stayed in our safe little D&E hole- I mean home. I think the mods were happy to ignore us there.

 The bold part here hit my funny bone.   

Oh and yes I definitely agree I think there is some scrambling for points going on as well.  I'm not saying I'll never rate a game 5 stars ever again but as I told them they will have to work A LOT harder to get it and they probably think I mean high tech graphics and the "fluffy" stuff such as achievements, collectibles and morphs. Well that did appeal to me at one time but I've moved away from that now. I just want a game that goes into wide screen, a great story that has a proper ending to main game if it's a CE, excellent voice overs, character interaction, let me think for myself with no sparkles/black bar tips (just provide the hint button and I'll decide if I need it or not), game play that serves purpose in moving forward in the game. I don't mind some HOS especially if there are a variety of different ways of findings the items. The puzzles they can skip those or put a skip button that charges really quick just in case I find them too tedious, boring, or frustrating. I'm just not a puzzle person. My tolerance for them depends on the game and more important my mood. There have been some I found fun but not many. NO animal helpers. No visiting the same scene twice for the HOS. Oh and if I get at least 4 hours of game play for a CE which i usually get beyond that well I'm a happy camper.

Here's a D&E beta, for frodo  

Bad Omen (Beta)

And here's a link genki set up for a video of the first 10 mins or so. Bad Omen Video

Sadly, because it has been on the shelf for longer than anything else, I suspect they've sidelined it. But we can hope!  

Ah, I realize my mistake, Sportygal, let me rephrase. I hope your sister-in-law's surgery goes well and she makes a speedy recovery. Thank goodness, you are helping her out.

Bad Omen looks like it would be a very spooky game from the trailer & I read your beta review, JustTheFacts. I can't wait!

Well, we're buried under snow. It started yesterday evening and continued all through the night. So far, it's around 8 inches deep with another snow storm expected tomorrow.
And after last week's subzero temps...I am so ready for warmer weather & NO SNOW!

@ drum: I'm with you. I'm ready for warmer weather myself. I'm sick to death of this already especially as cold as it's been these minus temps.  Looks like another winter storm is expected to hit my way as well. Enough already!  I'm SO READY for Spring.

JustTheFacts wrote:Here's a D&E beta, for frodo  

Bad Omen (Beta)

And here's a link genki set up for a video of the first 10 mins or so. Bad Omen Video

Sadly, because it has been on the shelf for longer than anything else, I suspect they've sidelined it. But we can hope!  

YIPPEEEEEE!    
Thanks JustTheFacts.  Downloading beta\reading your review right now.     
Really hope they haven't sidelined it though.  I'll be a sad little hobbit if they have.     


DJRum & Sortygal, hope it gets warmer for you soon.   


EDIT:  Wonderful review, JustTheFacts.  Thanks for that.   

Hi all.  They say misery loves company, but i'm Not happy to know so many others have been going thru this miserable cold & snow.  Ya know it's been rough when it hits 12 degrees above zero outside & people are saying "hey, it's not so bad today!"   Now that it's 20's to 30 we've got winter storm warnings.  Oh joy.  I hope everyone's safe & warm wherever you are.  Just catching up here & wanted to say i'm sorry to hear about the whole review-thieving stuff & the obvious upset it's caused.  Sportygal, just want to let you know that your reviews have always been appreciated by this gamer.  I read reviews to get any/all opinions, whether good/bad/or ugly, & it's useful & interesting for me.  Speaking just for myself, one thing i never do is mark at the end of a review that it wasn't helpful.  If it isn't, i just don't mark anything cause i don't want to make anyone feel bad. Which is probably weird, but so am i.  I've never been quite sure why it isn't one question: 'was this helpful', & leave it at that.  Anyway, i hope folks who have something to say & the ability to say it keep writing - imho, most folks appreciate the diversity of opinions whether they voice it or not.  
So i finished Cognition part I.  What a blast!  The others better go on sale soon, or i'm gonna go over game budget.  Again.  also did the beta for Bad Omen & hope it comes out soon, as well as the beta for a new Shiver: Siren.  JTF, i pm'd you about sending it to you 'cause i'm apparently a little slow on the uptake & can't figure out how dj got the address of a beta to come up.  For me it was ok... i didn't feel the love for this one like i did the 1st, or even 2nd.  Haven't played the 3rd yet tho' i own it.  Hey, there's an idea - play a game I've had for months & never looked at     Ok, i better can it for now.  Y'all be well, & happy gaming