Thanks for coming in. Have a seat. We’re gonna be here for a bit, so, Jeff, why don’t you get our guest a drink? Take one for yourself, too. Okay, two. Three… fine, Jeff, take the whole 12 pack. Lush.
We’re here to talk games, movies and, hell, anything else that crosses our pretty little Critical minds. The primary goal of Critically Sane is to discuss games and movies in a smart, funny and honest way. This means we’ll play, watch, review, analyze, podcast, livestream and anything else we can do to interact with you (Tony… put down the taser… that’s not what we meant). Oh yeah, and we’ll buy you a drink. Assuming there are any left.
We’re only a small group, but we stand behind what we’ve put together and what we say (and behind Don’s epic beard). We hold our integrity high, and work hard to give our readers, listeners and watchers the best product we can. We’re here, not to make the big bucks, but to tell you what we think, and to hear what you have to say. If you think Chris’ hatred of condiments is weird, then by God, we want to give you a forum to share.
So this is our place: Critically Sane. Yes, we’re a little crazy, but we’re good people, talking about the things we love with each other and with you. We’re glad you stopped by.
The guiding principles under which we operate:
- Our mission is to provide an intelligent, compelling and humorous voice in the entertainment industry specifically for adults.
- We will continue to excel as one of the longest running and most consistent independent gaming podcasts.
- We will focus on our community by developing new, quality-driven and high-value services catered to them via personality driven media created for the internet.
- Transparency – What you see is what you get. We don’t hide our relationships from our readers. If we get a game early or see a movie on a PR team’s dime, we will let you know.
- Personality – We don’t regurgitate info. We give our unique insights as fans and critics but also as professionals with unique backgrounds in finance, retail and corporate America.
- Passion – We can’t cover everything so what we do cover we are passionate about. This passion will seep into our content both positively and negatively but always honestly.
- Community – We know that none of our success, past, present or future, comes from anyone but our community. We recognize your dedication and loyalty and try to reward that with strong dedication and commitment to excellence.
- Quality – We consistently deliver excellent standards of personal, quality content that speaks to our community.
- Teamwork – We share our local knowledge and expertise so that we can operate as one team, strengthened by our diverse personalities.
- Integrity – We deliver on our commitments in a responsible and principled way to earn the trust of our community.
Here at Critically Sane, we like to write about games and films. We like to do it freely, allowing the nature of the experience to develop organically from our thoughts on a subject. This is instead of attempting to box feelings into a particular scoring rubric. A writer should be free to write, not find themselves shackled to a particular arbitrary convention.
That said, we know how readers feel about scores. They are useful to get a high-level picture of a title, while the text of the review lays out the specifics. Given these two competing philosophies, we’ve decided to score things the Critically Sane way.
After playing a title to completion or watching a movie, our reviewer will write up their thoughts. This review will be edited, and then submitted to the board, consisting of the members of our team who didn’t review the game. That is to say, the score will be derived from the text of the review, and will not be a direct numerical representation of a reviewer’s thoughts. Reviewers, indeed, will not have any say in the number that gets assigned to represent their review, no matter how much they whine, cry, cajole, bribe, and offer sexual favors to the other editors.
All games and movie will be rated on a basis of zero to five stars.
Five Stars– Best of the best. A clear game/movie of the year candidate.
Four Stars– A very good title, one which would generally satisfy anyone.
Three Stars– An average effort, one which satisfies genre fans, but other players will perhaps not find compelling.
Two Stars– Below average, one with perhaps good ideas held back by serious mechanical, script or design issues.
One Star– A terrible attrocity. An effort with no redeeming value.
Zero Stars– Lights your console on fire. Don’t play it. Don’t watch it. No. Put it down and slowly back away.