Talk:Rare Replay/GA1

Latest comment: 8 years ago by AdrianGamer in topic GA Review

GA Review edit

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Reviewer: AdrianGamer (talk · contribs) 14:25, 1 September 2015 (UTC)Reply


And I thought this would be the grand finale of your good topic. AdrianGamer (talk) 14:25, 1 September 2015 (UTC)Reply

Me too! JAGUAR  18:15, 2 September 2015 (UTC)Reply
We all knew the grand finale would be Battletoads. But really, I ended up working through so many of the RR reviews for the child articles that it was just becoming duplicated work to read through them again later. It's fine by me if you want to sit on this for a bit so it can be the grand finale. Alternatively, we could take it to FA as the cherry on top... – czar 14:32, 5 September 2015 (UTC)Reply
I'm working on Battletoads at the moment, but if you want I could save it to last. Really I thought Nuts & Bolts would be the cherry on top, seeing as it's a Titanic article and it's the final instalment to both the game and topic. But I still need a real computer to work on something like that! FA would be something to consider for this. JAGUAR  20:28, 9 September 2015 (UTC)Reply
That was tongue-in-cheek—order doesn't particularly matter to me, but if you have a preference let me know (on our main thread). – czar 14:15, 10 September 2015 (UTC)Reply

Review edit

Gameplay edit

  • I personally do not like how the lead is structured. I personally think that the first paragraph of the lead should compose of the most basic information. The game's name, developer, publisher, genre and release dates. Then a new paragraph for gameplay, development and reception.
  • The first sentence is a bit too long. Remove from the ZX Spectrum to the Xbox 360. from it may sound a bit better.
  • How could Rare be inspired by "efforts to connect Rare's past and future"?
  • Normal readers may not know what 'rewind' means.
  • high-water mark for compilation releases - why a hyphen is needed here?
  • The 30 games span multiple genres, including fighting, first-person shooter, gardening, mining, 3D platforming, racing, skiing, and Western - Western is not really a genre. It is a theme.
  • Why we need to highlight the Kinect Sports series? The lead already said that they have to choose 30 games from their 120 games, missing some is normal. Unless they claim that they intentionally avoided that series or else I do not see the need of highlighting it.
  • Players can toggle the visual appearance of scanlines by clicking the right analog stick and pulling the controller's trigger - Don't think how players toggle the visual appearance is important enough to be mentioned.
  • such as collecting a set amount of points in a set amount of time in a set scenario, - Not sure whether this is intentionally written or not, but there is too much "Set" in this sentence
  • Rare also added an infinite lives cheat setting for some games - Which types of game they added the unlimited lives cheat? Older games, newer games, or just random?
  • Players and the player, choose one
  • releases (and re-releases) - All of them are re-released anyway.
  • I personally think that the second paragraph of the gameplay section is talking about the game's development instead of gameplay.
  • with ModNation Racers-style vehicle customization and Split/Second-style track alterations. - I do not really see the need of mentioning ModNation Racers and Split/Second. They are not even popular, and I do not think normal readers can see the differences between standard racing game and these two games.
  • Rare had also begun new intellectual properties such as survival, defense prototype Sundown and the airplane-based Tailwind. - Changed it to Rare had also worked on several new intellectual properties, such as survival, defense prototype Sundown and the airplane-based Tailwind. What is a "defense game" actually?

Development edit

  • Rare began work on Rare Replay in 2014 as a 30th anniversary celebration. - Rephrase it to "Rare began the development of Rare Replay in 2014."
  • the compilation was one of several celebration ideas, but once it was chose - would be great if the article mentions what these "ideas" are
  • While Rare Replay‍‍'​‍s designers made the final call, other team members and Rare veterans gave input and recollected old game development stories. - I personally think that "when" would be more appropriate. What 'other team members' means? Members that are not 'designers', or members that are not working on Rare Replay?
  • as their servers had gone offline - add "prior to the development of Rare Replay" after it
  • Rare tested the compilation internally. - Is this really necessary?
  • present the a musical history of the company's oeuvre - the a don't go together.
  • Should link to Electronic Entertainment Expo 2015 instead of simply Electronic Entertainment Expo
  • There are no plans for a Windows 10 release. - If there is no plan for a Window 10 release, why mention it?
  • While Rare's founders, the Stamper brothers, were not interviewed in the bonus features, Tim Stamper appeared in a Develop interview set to coincide with the compilation's release. - Not about the development of this game.

Reception edit

  • It reached the top of the United Kingdom all-format games charts, the first Xbox One exclusive to do so and Rare's first in 17 years (since Banjo-Kazooie in 1998) - Don't really like the use of bracket here. The Banjo Kazooie part is important.
  • Chris Plante (The Verge) praised Rare Replay, with its slight hardware improvements and added touches, as a viable response to retrogame piracy. - praised for, not praised with
  • but an inevitable absence due to licensing issues - Do not really think that it is necessary to be mentioned again.
  • Totilo's comments should go before the sentence Other reviewers were not as disappointed, and felt the package was fine without the - Flow may be better this way
  • Rare later announced plans to continue its Rare Revealed series with releases on YouTube. - It should go to the release part of the development section.
  • While some reviewers liked how the Spectrum emulated the graphical glitches of the original console - since you use "some", it should have at least two sources to support.

References edit

  • Source 10 is a bare url. It is a twitter source as well. Can it be replaced?

Outside the scope edit

  • I understand that the game's name is Rare Replay, and the developer is Rare, but the word 'rare' seems to have appeared too often in this article.
  • I sort of think that the article is a bit unbalanced, given that the reception section is way longer than other sections.
  • A screenshots would be great. (show some graphical difference or something like that, even though there is barely any significant improvement)
  • I do not really like the use of brackets. Personal taste I guess
  • Not sure whether IXCM.net, Rare Gamer, RareFanDaBase, Rectify Gaming are reliable sources or not. I know they are interviews, but would be great if they can be replaced with sources that are more reliable.

GA review – see WP:WIAGA for criteria

  1. Is it reasonably well written?
    A. Prose is "clear and concise", without copyvios, or spelling and grammar errors:  
    B. MoS compliance for lead, layout, words to watch, fiction, and list corporation:  
  2. Is it factually accurate and verifiable?
    A. Has an appropriate reference section:  
    B. Citation to reliable sources where necessary:  
    C. No original research:  
  3. Is it broad in its coverage?
    A. Major aspects:  
    B. Focused:  
  4. Is it neutral?
    Fair representation without bias:  
  5. Is it stable?
    No edit wars, etc:  
  6. Does it contain images to illustrate the topic?
    A. Images are tagged with their copyright status, and valid fair use rationales are provided for non-free content:  
    B. Images are provided if possible and are relevant to the topic, and have suitable captions:  
  7. Overall:
    Pass or Fail:  

It is a well-written and highly verifiable article. There are only some minor problems that need some small attention. Once these are fixed, the article should be good to go. AdrianGamer (talk) 13:02, 7 September 2015 (UTC)Reply

Thanks for the ping. I'll have more time for this over the weekend. – czar 14:15, 10 September 2015 (UTC)Reply
@AdrianGamer, all right! I think I got everything, if you'll take a look. I think the lede opening has everything necessary, ordered by importance. (It isn't important to standardize opening sentences across articles as long as they convey the basics.) "High-water mark" is how it's written in NOAD. Kinect Sports is mentioned to emphasize where the span ended (why 2008 to 2015 wasn't included). "(and re-releases)" is to signify that the Xbox 360 versions of Nintendo 64 games were included in that figure. The repetition of "set" was deliberate to emphasize the bounds of the segment. I think those interested in the other celebration ideas can follow the link—it would be trivia to include them. Windows ports are a common enough question that it's worth mentioning in the Development. The Stampers are related to the game's development, as they didn't participate while other Rare vets did, and many reviewers pointed out this difference. Reception had far more coverage than Development and Gameplay, so the weight should be appropriate. I didn't make several of the Reception changes, which were phrased/ordered as such to match the sources. The parentheses are my compromise from repeating "Tom Smith in Game Magazine" when fusing more than five reviewers' comments. (I'd prefer to just use the name of the publication, but other editors do not like to assume that the editor speaks for the publication... even though they typically write the publication's only opinion on the game and the publications do not disclaim association.) The interviews are not coming from reliable sources but they are acceptable as self-published sources for ordinary claims. Yes, I'd prefer a big name interview too but alas, none exist. Also I don't think a screenshot is necessary to depict the compilation's visual style, which is explained adequately through text alone (and there is no other gameplay apart from menus). Thanks for the review! – czar 19:55, 13 September 2015 (UTC)Reply
The article looks great now. Rare Replay promoted to  , Congratulations. AdrianGamer (talk) 10:09, 14 September 2015 (UTC)Reply