Thanks for your blog post and the review on Bioshock Infinite! I'll definitely have to pick it up in the near future :) As for a critique, I wanted to point out your use of commas. Here's one sentence I wanted to look at:
It has many wonderful plot points that never go anywhere, disappointing, underutilized characters, horrible non-plot related NPCs, muddy textures, and a disjointed narrative, but what is done well, is done very well, as the narrative is still pretty good, and epic, despite its flaws, and there are a few good characters, including Booker, who is one of my favorite video game protagonists in a good while; and some pretty good, fun, strategic, if slightly weightless, gameplay, and an amazing, diverse gamespace that, sadly, never reaches its full potential.
First of all, that's a HUGE sentence. I noticed you wrote this sentence as if you were speaking it, and you use commas as if you were pausing to take a breath, rather than using them to distinguish between people, places, ideas, and things. If I were to rewrite this sentence, it might look something like this:
Along with many wonderful plot points that, unfortunately, never go anywhere, there are disappointing and underutilized characters, horrible NPCs unrelated to the plot, muddy textures, and (sometimes) a disjointed narrative. But what is done well is done very well, and the narrative remains relatively good--even epic at times despite obvious flaws. Also, there are a handful of memorable characters, including Booker who has become one of my more recent favourite video game protagonistst. In addition, the gameplay is fun and strategic, though slightly weightless at times, and includes an amazing diverse gamespace that, sadly, never seems to reach its full potenial.
I've broken your sentence into a paragraph of four sentences. Now there's lots of ways to rewrite this, but the important thing is clarity. And usually, clarity is best achieved through short, concise sentences. An excess of commas can lead to the creation of rambling sentences, which risk losing their point and threaten to leave the reader wondering what was the point in the first place? My advice is to work on separating your speaking voice from your writing voice. Punctuation is the way, the truth, and the light.
All in all, it was a really good review; I enjoyed it, and found it very informative. Also, the balance you struck between reviewing and sharing personal insight was excellent.
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