The purpose of any review should be to give gamers enough information to make intelligent buying decisions about whether or not a game is right for them. There’s no such thing as a game someone doesn’t love and someone else hates. Keeping that in mind, here is what a review for ArmchairGeneral.com should include.

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Title. Publisher. Board game or PC game. Designer if known. Suggested Retail Price (not the discounted one on Amazon or similar sites). This information should be given at the top of every review, in the order shown.

Passed Inspection: Best features.

Failed Basic: Worst/Most annoying features or limitations.

EXAMPLE:
Kharkov: Disaster on the Donets. PC Game. Developed by Strategic Studies Group. Published by Matrix Games. $59.95.

Passed Inspection: The best operational wargame this reviewer has played this year. (NOTE: In most cases, this will reflect a specific element or two of the game rather than comparing to other games; that’s done elsewhere in the review.)

Failed Basic: Replay value is not what it could be. Editor hobbled by lack of AI documentation.

Introductory paragraph that gives readers some idea of your overall impression of the game.

Summary of component parts (for board games).

Summary of play (how combat works, any mechanics unique to the system and any that are similar to other games)

Summary of best features

Summary of worst features

As noted in summary of play section, a comparison to one or two other games, where applicable, helps. For example, a given mechanic might be similar to Game X, while the overall feel of the game is more like that of Game Z.

Close with a summary of your opinion and what type of gamer this product would most appeal to (i.e., fans of real-time strategy, gamers looking for historical depth over playability, gamers looking for an easy-to-learn, quick-playing game, etc.)

If you find the game is unplayable or just really bad, let us know; in all likelihood, we’ll simply ignore the game rather than wasting readers’ time reading about something unplayable.

FORMAT:

Approximately 1,000 words

Do not indent.

Double space between paragraphs

Word doc preferred

Supply 3 or more screenshots (PC game) or photographs (board game) to show game screens/component parts. No captions will be used on these, so you do not need to provide any. Naming each according to what it represents is helpful, however. Generally speaking, 6-10 is a good number of screenshots/photos to provide.

A shot of the cover is helpful IF it is a straight-ahead shot of the front of the box like those you see in our other reviews. Otherwise, we’ll ask the manufacturer for a cover shot.

At end of review (for PC games only), add Armchair General Rating, on a scale of 0 – 100. The score should be a general consensus of the reviewer’s overall opinion of the game. The final score should also reflect the comments made in the review. A game in which a reviewer found several significant problems but which receives a numerical score of, say, 91% appears to contradict itself. Generally, editors will not question the score of a game but be prepared to defend your decision if an obvious discrepancy exists. Generally speaking, anything below 70% is probably not worth reviewing; certainly, that is true for anything below 60%; 70 – 79% is good, but better options probably exist; 80 – 89% is an excellent example of its genre; 90 – 100% is the rare, exceptional game that sets standards other games should aspire to.

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