Should box sets be reviewed together or separately?

[DaHeckIzDat]

I checked out the Critic's review of The Orange Box today, and I started to think... should box sets of multiple games all be reviewed together, or as one? Like, should he have written separate reviews for Half Life 2, Portal, and Team Fortress 2, or is it okay that all three games are lumped together into a single one-paragraph review? What about other box titles? If someone in the RPG crew wanted to review the Kingdom Hearts HD Collection, would he need to review all three games at once, or could they post one review for KH1, one for Chain of Memories, and then possibly one for 358/2 Days?

[Stalvern]

The games in The Orange Box never had separate physical console releases. That's why they're reviewed together. There isn't a review of the 360 version of Team Fortress 2 on its own because the game doesn't exist on its own. It would be like giving Action 52 52 distinct reviews.

When Dave reviews compilations of games that were released individually, it's because they're the only way to play the games on the hardware in question; the original Sonic games all have their own reviews, but the collected releases on systems like the Saturn and GameCube are reviewed as the single purchases that they necessarily are. I believe that your example of Kingdom Hearts HD falls under that category, so the answer would be yes in that case.

[DaHeckIzDat]

Even so, I would think Portal deserves it's own review instead of being lumped together with a quick description of Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2.

[Stalvern]

It definitely deserves a better review, one that doesn't treat it as a bonus extra for Half-Life 2, but the only way to treat the game as its own release is to review the PC version or the XBLA download, neither of which this site (a buyer's guide with a strong collecting bent) has a place for. That's just how it is. You're asking Dave to purchase a download of a game that he already owns - or to pretend that Portal was released for the 360 in a form that doesn't exist - solely to schematize his reviews more favorably toward it.

Should Portal have a more substantial treatment here? Sure. But unless you take over the site, there's no place for an individual review. Maybe this isn't ideal for your purposes (just like how it wasn't ideal for mine that Wipeout HD went nearly a decade without a review at all until The Omega Collection), but it perfectly suits Dave's, and it's his purposes that matter on his website.

[DaHeckIzDat]

You're asking Dave to purchase a download of a game that he already owns - or to pretend that Portal was released for the 360 in a form that doesn't exist

Not necessarily. He could label the review "Portal (The Orange Box)" or "The Orange Box: Portal," along with a disclaimer somewhere in the review that "This game is part of The Orange Box collection, packaged with Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2."

[lynchie137]

I say a separate review for each game in a box set. People who write reviews about music tend to do this when they review box set/anthologies for bands. So why not apply the same treatment for games as well? Plus, by doing a individual review for each game gives a reader who hasn't played the games some idea as to how good or bad they are before they make the choice to spend their hard earned money on whatever box set is being reviewed at any given time.

[Sut]

I think review both as a whole package plus individually. Sometimes compilations are the easiest way to access certain games.

[Retro STrife]

My thought is that a game should be reviewed as it stands -- meaning, if it's a compilation then it should be reviewed as a compilation, rather than reviewed on its individual parts. This is how every other review site does it as well. I agree, however, that Portal is a great game that could have gotten a more thorough focus in the Orange Box review. Still, that's a very rare exception, and shouldn't be reason to change the current way of doing it.

[ptdebate]

We could solve all of this by adding a PC Games section to the site. Yeah, there won't be very many games at first, but gotta start somewhere...

Then we could have a proper Portal review. Written by the eloquent Stalvern.

[Stalvern]

I'm flattered, but I'm probably not the best person to review that game. If anybody, it would be DaHeckIzDat, who's already contributed reviews to the site.