I have just posted the tenth review on my video game review blog, The First Hour (a review site that reviews only the first hour of a game), The Curse of Monkey Island. The Curse of Monkey Island was released by Lucasarts on the PC and my personal favorite in this classic adventure series. I scored it an 8 out of 10 and I recommend it to everyone with a sense of humor.

Enjoy.

The Curse of Monkey Island

This Labor Day morning I posted my ninth review on The First Hour blog (a review site that reviews only the first hour of a game), Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Symphony of the Night was released by Konami on the Playstation and is known as the definitive Castlevania game by fans. I scored it a 7 out of 10 and I recommend it to fans of the Castlevania series, if they somehow haven't played it yet.

Enjoy. Next week, along with the 10th review will be a special editorial.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

This afternoon I posted my eighth review on The First Hour blog (a review site that reviews only the first hour of a game), Bully. Bully was released by Rockstar on the Playstation 2 and is essentially a Grand Theft Auto game based in a private school in the eastern United States. Bully's first hour is excellent and offers a large variety of gameplay. I scored it a 9 out of 10 and I recommend it to fans of Grand Theft Auto, the Harry Potter series, or other sandbox games. Bully is far less violent than Grand Theft Auto, but offers a lot more humor, much of it based off the cliques in the school.

Enjoy.

Bully

Yesterday I posted my seventh review on The First Hour blog (a review site that reviews only the first hour of a game), Diddy Kong Racing. Diddy Kong Racing was released by Rare on the Nintendo 64 and was a kart racer inspired (or copied) by the extremely popular Mario Kart 64. Diddy Kong Racing's first hour is decent but not too noteworthy. I score it a 6 out of 10 and I recommend it to those who are still playing Mario Kart 64 and are looking for something a little different... well, actually, it really has absolutely no appropriate fan base today. Unless of course, you're looking for the absolute origins of Banjo (from Banjo-Kazooie) and Conker (from Conker's Bad Fur Day).

Enjoy.

Diddy Kong Racing

A few weeks ago, I began a new video game review blog called, The First Hour. I'm generally not a fan of regular reviews, they're either too short, too long, or they ignore the questions I'm actually interested in: is this game actually worth playing? The goal of The First Hour is to review the first hour, and only the first hour of video games.

Over the past few years, I've found that my time available to video games has decreased quite a bit. This has forced me to be more careful about which games I actually play, as I don't really have the time to waste on a game that is truly awful, or even mediocre. I received the game God of War 2 as a gift in May, and about a month later, I finally had time to sit down and play it. As I was playing it, I was thinking about just how good the beginning of this game was. It threw me into the action right away, gave me just enough story to get started, and presented a solid hour's worth of fun. As I was falling asleep that night, I realized that this information was both interesting, and important to me.

I had tried starting blogs before, with little success. I had trouble finding topics to write about, and realized that no one would want to read about... nothing. But The First Hour presented me with a unique way to share my video game experiences, while informing gamers on which games have a great first hour (and thus maybe a great rest of the game).

For the last six weeks, I reviewed one game a week. In a standard review, I provide a little background on the game and any interesting trivia that I may dig up inside my head. As I'm playing, I write down basically all interesting (and equally uninteresting) things that are happening, and the blog is basically a minute by minute description of the first hour. At the end, I rate the game in the standard categories: Graphics, Gameplay, Story, and Fun Factor. I also note "Minutes to Action", essentially how long it takes for the game to take off.

The games I've reviewed so far are: God of War 2, Earthbound, Beyond Good and Evil, Indigo Prophecy, Half-Life 2, and Harvest Moon. If you're interested in an atypical review site, please check out The First Hour.