The purpose of a Firstlook is to provide some level of insight into a game. The review should contain more information than someone could divulge by reading the back of the box and seeing a few screenshots. Don't go overboard with details, though-the average FL length should be no more than a few paragraphs per section

The introduction of your review doesn't have to be incredibly long. Good uses of the introduction are describing any impressions of the game you may have had before you even installed it, briefly describing the game's premise, or summing up the whole of your review in a few sentances. The folowing are three examples of great introductions:

From Filarion's review of Clive Barker's Undying:

The first time I saw the trailer for this game I was skeptical, after all the Horror FPS genre is getting a bit old and there weren't a lot of innovations recently. Well, Clive Barker (the guy who did Hellraiser for you kids too young to know him), author of awesome horror novels and director wrote the story for this game and participated actively in the creation (he did some voiceacting too). Now, this could either lead to disaster or result in a title that will become an instant classic.

From mandarin's review of Hitman

Hitman is a fine example of using the mechanics of a first-person shooter for something besides just shooting things. In Hitman the player plays the roles of—you guessed it—a hitman. Each mission in the game involves a hit, although there are additional goals in many of the stages to add variety.

From mandarin's review of Invictus: The Shadow Of Olympus:

After playing Invictus, I pulled out my sharpe and wrote "POOP" on both CDs. Here’s why:

Lastly, the tagline for your review should contain both your opinion of the game and the game's genre. Good examples are

• Don't waste your time on this poorly done tactical fantasy game.
• Agharta- "The Hollow World" is an empty shell of an adventure game.
• Be a God, Raise a Creature, Slowly, Tediously (?) Grow Your Influence
• Great if you like slow paced - actionless driving in the countryside....
• If you’re bored of the FPS genre, this ”thinking man's” shooter might be just what you need.
• An action oriented third person romp through the Norse mythos.

When judging a game's graphics, try to keep your opinion relative to the technology of the game, whenever possible. By this I mean judge whether or not the graphics have succeeded in their purpose. If the game is set in a feudal Japan, do the graphics reflect this? Or are they out of place? If you're reviewing a FPS horror game, do the graphics add to the feeling of terror in scary moments? Essentially, try to judge if the game's graphics add or subtract from the suspension of disbelief.

Don't ignore the technology itself, however. Give it a brief mention; specifically, is the technology behind the times, or groundbreaking? (oftentimes mentioning the technology behind the game--Q3, UT, etc--is enough information) This ties in with the requirements of a game; if a game has beautiful graphics but requires hefty hardware to run well, mention this. Just don't get caught up in the technicality of the graphics. Fewer polygons done well usually looks better than more polys and textures with crap design.

Screenshots can say a lot about a game. As such, custom screenshots are a requirement for the review. If you don't add any on your first submission, you will be asked by an editor to add some before the review goes live. Scale down the screenshots to 800x600 or so and save with medium JPEG quality to reduce the file size--try to keep the combined size of your screenshots below 200k. If you feel the game deserves a larger screenshot to show off its graphics, you might need to trim back from four screenshots to three. Variety is important, too. Four screenshots from the first level of a game aren't very useful to the reader.

Hypersnap-DX is a useful screenshot utility that allows you to take multiple screenshots without having to switch back and forth between your game for each shot. http://www.hyperionics.com/ has a trial version for download.

Your comments on audio should follow the same principle as the comments for graphics. Does the audio enhance or detract from the game and the suspension of disbelief? If the audio detracts from it, discuss why (poor production, misplaced orinconsistent use of sounds, etc). Be sure to differentiate the audio's production quality and the use of sounds. Sound effects and music should both be touched upon seperately.

Gameplay is a broad term, but basically you should discuss what it is you do in the game in this section. Genre and innovatings on genre should be mentioned. If you are reviewing a FPS, be sure to mention any innovations it has over the genre. And if it doesn't, talk about that.

You should briefly describe the gameplay and also give your opinions on it--if the game is boring, frustrating, difficult, engrossing, fascinating etc. A reader should understand what they will be doing in the game if they were to sit down and play it for a few hours, and also if they would enjoy doing it. With this in mind, try to discuss gameplay as objectively as possible. If you hate puzzles in a FPS and you're review a game with a lot of puzzles, mention that's why you dislike it, instead of merely ragging on it. This way a gamer who enjoys puzzles may decide to give it a shot.

Concluding Thoughts is given 20 points to the total score to allow the reviewer to address other issues not covered by the other three sections, as well as give their final opinion. The score for concluding thoughts does not neccesarily have to match an average of the other three. If a game has great graphics, audio, and innovative gameplay but just wasn't fun for you, discuss why here (and give the game a lower Concluding Thoughts score).

Scoring should be fairly self-explanatory. However, one item deserves to mentioned: resist the urge to pad scoring. If the audio for a game you're reviewing flat-out suck--you've never heard worst--give it a 0. A lot of traditional review sources treat 70% as a poor score, which is ridiculous. Try to keep in mind that an average game should get 5s. Lastly, try to keep a relative view on things. Innovation should be important--obviously a game that would score 9s and 10s three years ago has probably fallen compared to today's crop. A genre game (just another FPS, RTS, whatever) without any innovations and only average production should receive average scores.