Heart of the OHR Contest 2014

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 2:28 am

Pepsi Ranger wrote:Anyone out there still need extra time to vote? Willy? Fnrrf? TMC? Bueller?

If so, about how much more do you need?

If possible, I'd like to compile the scores this weekend. Let me know.

I'll send in all my reviews by Saturday morning. I'll play tonight, tomorrow, and Friday night. Is that okay?

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Thu Jan 22, 2015 3:51 am

Okedoke! La Leyenda Mexicana 9/10

I play for 1.5 hours and reached Wrongside. I had a good time playing this and will probably finish it once the contest is over. Beneath the juvenile humor is a pretty fun game.

The RPG mechanics are simple, but they work well. The maps are interesting to explore and have lots of chests in out of the way places. The characters feel mostly balanced. The battles are fast but challenging.

I especially like that there sometimes is multiple paths to the same objective. I enjoy having some choice about how I play the game.

The Mexican theme is original and well-utilized.

Notes:

The game should pause on all battle menus. With 3 characters, the action gets frantic. Especially in battles like the Mighty Morphin' Border Patrol.

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 1:47 am

Zero: Pasts Collide 4/10

Zero does a lot of cool things. The writing is good. There many scripted scenes that go far to establish the characters and setting. Even the ripped graphics are utilized pretty well.

Unfortunately, the whole experience is rather boring. While I'm certainly not the target audience for this, I found the pacing exhausting. I played for about an hour and felt like I was in a prologue the whole time. I kept waiting for me to be able to make some choices of my own, but it never happened.

Also, Zero borrows its theme and presentation from Final Fantasy. Also using Final Fantasy graphics makes it seem very generic. While Zero is fine, why wouldn't I just play Final Fantasy, which is even better.

Pepsi Ranger · Post by **Pepsi Ranger** » Fri Jan 23, 2015 6:33 pm

Willy Elektrix wrote:I'll send in all my reviews by Saturday morning. I'll play tonight, tomorrow, and Friday night. Is that okay?

Sure. I've got a bit of a busy weekend, and I won't be getting to the votes before Sunday. So, feel free to take all of Saturday if you need it.

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Sat Jan 24, 2015 4:24 am

And I'm done with all my reviews...

Batman: 6/10

Like RMZ's other game, Batman feels very playable. I like its Megaman-like structure and the abbreviated pacing. However, there are some mechanical shortcomings that keep it from being a really polished.

For instance, there are a plethora of battle attacks, but many are redundant or useless (pretty much all of the Utility Belt ones). Likewise, since you can't dump points into your BatStr stat, but you can increase Power, any of the special attacks that don't use Power are useless (i.e. Batman's Hard Punch).

Also, where are the sound effects? Usually this doesn't bug me, but the presentation of this game is really great. Sound effects seem absolutely necessary.

Pepsi Ranger · Post by **Pepsi Ranger** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 12:16 am

TMC, I'm putting the votes together tonight. Do you have any to add before I finalize it?

In fact, do any of you have any votes to add? Let me know now. Otherwise, forever hold your peace.

TMC, I will give you a chance to respond before I lock these in. Nothing's final until I get a host to post the results anyway. Well, I'd like to make them final tonight, but I've messaged Meatballsub about hosting, and I have no idea when he'll respond. I'm giving him a week before I place an open call for anyone else to host the results.

I am putting a freeze on changed votes, though. Also, if you add any votes between now and the official winners announcement, please do so after this post. I've already scoured the rest of this thread, so I won't be going back through it.

Pepsi Ranger · Post by **Pepsi Ranger** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 2:35 am

MAJOR UPDATE:

I've just compiled the existing scores, and the voter turnout is officially terrible!

Two games actually have only three votes each, and that includes the votes I gave them today! That is too low. Any game that has fewer than five votes will get thrown out of the contest. I can't justify scoring averages when the diversity of opinion is this limited. Yeah, I could add in the row of fives to satisfy the 2/3rds rule, but that would actually bring one of the games up, not down. Not exactly fair to the other entries.

I can't justify closing the voting period on these numbers. If you haven't voted yet, please do.

I'm extending the voting period by at least another week. Please, if you've played these games, vote. I don't care if you've released a game for the contest or not. Most of the contestants haven't voted themselves. Just vote. I've given you guys five weeks to play these games (30 minutes each is all I require), and I'm still below the minimum required for me to close the contest.

Seriously. Vote. I'm not closing the polls until the majority of games has at least eight votes. As of now, only 2 out of 12 have eight or more, and one of those games is the only game that two of my voters has voted on.

That's bad.

Also, if you've participated in the 2014 in Review contest, and you've posted a review on any of the games represented here, then that means you've played them, and I would really appreciate you giving a vote so I can close this contest.

Please. The only thing more pathetic than this year's voter turnout is me having to beg for votes. Seriously. It's not difficult to think of a number from 1 to 10 to represent your feelings about a game you've played.

If you need help, here's a guide:

10 - Flawless; impossible to improve
9 - Nearly flawless; might have a spelling mistake or two, but otherwise excellent
8 - Flawed, but you loved it anyway
7 - Not necessarily your favorite, but still pretty great
6 - Competent in some areas, but the flaws keep it from being great
5 - Neither awesome nor terrible. Just kinda fun. Its pros balance out the cons.
4 - Not terrible, but it definitely needs some work in key areas. Just entertaining enough to keep it from being truly bad.
3 - Needs to go back to the drawing board. Competent as a game, but severely flawed, with major areas in need of revision or polishing.
2 - Terrible game; ugly, unpolished, probably untested, lame story, etc. Probably should be rewritten from scratch.
1 - Incompetent on every level; so bad that it should be scrapped entirely and erased from the public's consciousness. The very mention of its name would incinerate entire nations.

Hope that helps.

Thanks.

Post by **TMC** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:34 am

Sorry. Moving house has been an ordeal. It's taken me 5 days just to find the time to set up my computer again. So I only have scores for 4 games so far. Since you're extending the deadline again I guess I really will have time to play some of the other games afterall.

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 11:39 am

Pepsi Ranger wrote: 1 - Incompetent on every level; so bad that it should be scrapped entirely and erased from the public's consciousness. The very mention of its name would incinerate entire nations.

I would love to see an example of this. Anyone planning to enter next time has something to shoot for.

marionline · Post by **marionline** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 12:57 pm

@ Giz:

I would love to see an example of this. Anyone planning to enter next time has something to shoot for.

I'll ty to do my best ... or worst?!

Urkelbot666 · Post by **Urkelbot666** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 3:47 pm

I've played a few of these games, I'll try to bang through 30-60 minutes of the rest of em' as quickly as I can. How many total entries are there now?

Willy Elektrix · Post by **Willy Elektrix** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:02 pm

It might be a good idea to post a complete list of all the contenders. I know its buried somewhere in this thread, but maybe you could post it right here so we could all reference it.

I know there were some non-mandatory ones that I did not review.

RMZ · Post by **RMZ** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:05 pm

Yeah, or update the 1st page of this thread. I thought I had played them all, but I guess I missed a few. It'd be nice to have links and stuff to them. Everything is kind of buried and not nearly as accessible feeling. Maybe in the future we could make a new thread for voting and have the 1st page of that be with all of the links to keep things streamlined?

Post by **Bob the Hamster** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:08 pm

I am pretty sure this list:

http://rpg.hamsterrepublic.com/ohrrpgce ... e_OHR_2014

<s>is not complete. I meant to update it with any additional entries, but I got busy and don't remember now which ones I missed.</s>

EDIT: The list is complete now!

Gizmog · Post by **Gizmog** » Mon Jan 26, 2015 5:17 pm

He posted a duplicate thread on CastleParadox and because no one replied to it, it's way easier to read.