Gold-Plated Games

Tomorrow I’ll be posting another first for Gold-Plated Games, a hands-on preview of an unreleased game. Kalypso Media was kind enough to give me access to their upcoming Railway Empire, a new take on the railroad management sim genre popularized by Railroad Tycoon II so long ago. Writing a preview is a bit of an adjustment for me, since I’m used to just pouring out my thoughts about whatever I’m playing. It’s been fun though, both the game and writing about it, so I’ll try to make sure that comes out in the preview.

I bring this up ahead of time because it’s an important milestone in a few ways. You may have noticed I’ve been reviewing a lot more games directly from the developers or publishers lately. During Spooktober I started reaching out to companies to see if they were interested in cooperating with me, and the results have been very promising. In addition, I’ve been approached by more and more companies wanting me to review their games unprompted. And now I’ve been given access to a game prior to release, allowing me to highlight it for you in that critical pre-release period.

This all means I have access now to far more games than before, games that I otherwise might not have chosen for myself or would have passed on for budget reasons. I can also get a look at them closer to release than I usually do (or even before, in this case). Up until now my M.O. has been to review all the games in my Steam backlog, often years after their release. Now it seems I have the opportunity to review new and upcoming releases as well, and as I continue to grow the curation group and website this opportunity will grow alongside. As I explore this opportunity, feedback from you is going to be more important than ever.

Put simply, I want to know what you want to read. I’m looking to cover more current releases, and I’d love to get requests from my readers for games you want me to review for you. I also want to know how much you want me to continue covering classic and older releases. I’m not going to stop entirely, but your feedback may determine if future review series are more focused on newer or older games. Head over to the Contact page if you’ve got something to say and let me know what you think.

Just so you know, I’m pretty well set on reviews for the rest of the year. I’ve got stuff cooking for Wednesday and Friday of this coming week, of course. Then a week from tomorrow the third annual Roguemas celebration kicks off, timed to end right when the big Steam Winter Sale begins. I’m not sure what I’m going to do during the sale but don’t be surprised if I take a little vacation from writing during the festivities (don’t be surprised if I don’t either, I love words too much). January will be back to business as usual, so if there are any upcoming releases you want to know about in early 2018, those would be the ones to request. Especially platformers, since… you know what February is around here.

Keep an eye out tomorrow for that preview, and don’t be shy about letting me know what’s what! As always, thanks for reading and following along on this critical odyssey.