I think whilst hyperbolic at times, it does seem that Schiesel's reviews seem to eloquently writen have the confidence which much games journalism seems to be missing. There is a critical distinction to be made, I believe, between hyperbole and lying. Schiesel's rhetoric strikes me as similar to "quality" film reviews and aside from the comments on Nier and MLB '10, whilst he sounds like he's gushing ever so slightly, I don't believe the hyperbole is unjustified. Over all I'd say that this kind of journalism has its place and will only help gaming so long as it isn't overdone. Whilst Schiesel's remarks are also quite a nice counter-balance to Eberts, even if they are polarising.

Character: AntiHiro ID: JZBZRV USB: Yes WiiSpeak: Nope I'm still very much a rookie on this at the moment, HR5 at the moment. Based in Europe though, so I won't be able to join with you guys state side :( It's alright though, us European Brainy Gamers (who don't know what MLB is :p) can still slay some monsters together!

When's the friend code swapping taking place? I'm new to the Wii's online service... friendless (sadface).

I've noticed similar issues with SiD, I've played several games as controller and would like to be on the player end of a game. I have begun to plan my Crime and Punishment adaptation on SiD though (quick plug), its still very much in early stages at the moment though. http://rr0d.wordpress.com/2010/04/18/adapting-crime-and-punishment-a-preamble/ I began to plan a LBP level, sketched out a few scenarios, however the whole thing never became anything more than a few horribly mishapen structures and some lava pits which were too large, they weren't actually passable... I believe with a few more days I'd have something more workable, but the whole process felt extremely ungratifying. I think you hit the nail on the head with Spore though, it was very easy to produce your own creatures, buildings, space ships, cars etc etc. However there was no real point, not beyond the basic strategy of the first few stages anyway. By my second play through I was also so uninterested in creating my own buildings and vehicles I used the pre-set ones, thus rendering the whole thing pretty pointless. I am looking forward to your next post though! Chris Green

It is something I'm very keen on doing, I've recently re-read the novel because I was very interested in seeing what elements (if any) could sucessfully be transferred from the page to a game and I think SiD is the first step towards this. I'm sure I'll blog my progress on RRoD. Will keep you posted. (kudos on all the comment replies too, you're a rare find in the blogging world!)

I think the most magical element of SiD is how it encourages a considerably meaningful method of intereaction between players, something which I believe multi-player games have struggled to do for years. It doesn't matter if you're recreating Dostoyevsky or producing a screw-ball comedy, providing both the player and controller have a certain amount of awareness of what consitutes a compelling SiD experience the game is likely to be a resounding success. Sadly though, the freedom which this game permits is also its downfall. If you're unable to deal with improvisation under pressure the game can seem unforgiving and actually rather limited. I guess the ideal behind SiD is similar (at least to a point) to Little Big Planet, and that if there is a creative and active community the game will continue to grow and only get better. This is a bit ask though really, but I guess only time will tell to see if it continues at the standard it has seemed to start on. I am planning to try and make a loose adaptation of the opening of Crime and Punishment on it when I get back from my honeymoon. Will be interesting to see what people make of trying to adaptat literary texts within the game. I've studied adaptations heavily and it appears that you need to make consessions not only for the change in medium from literature to gaming, but also within the nature of SiD as a game (which is quite different to the rest of gaming today). Chris Green