Some of the first Tidalis reviews are in, and the game is getting top marks!

[x4000]

"Tidalis is a match-3 game that doesn’t feel tired or repetitive: I actually want to play it, which says something considering how many puzzle games I’ve reviewed. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Tidalis is one of  the best puzzle game I’ve ever played. Simply put, if you like puzzle games (and even if you usually don’t), you need to get Tidalis. Right now. Go!"
James Allen, Out of Eight PC Game Reviews (8/8 score)

"Overall, this is the most robust and interesting casual game I have seen in some time. There is so much to do and so many ways to play I don't even know that casual actually suits it. Yes the gameplay is casual but this is a highly developed, well-rounded, offering from Arcen Games that puts many games of higher price to shame. It's got numerous ways to play and very successfully takes an old genre, turns it on its head, and shows you just what can be done when you think outside of the box."
Christophor Rick, Gamers Daily News (GDN Gold Award, 9/10 Score)

[kout]

And very well deserved indeed!  I bought the game yesterday and I haven't been able to stop playing. I've played so much time and it feels there's still so many things to try. The amount of modes the game offers is amazing, mixing them can make very interesting puzzles. You guys did a great job in this game!

[x4000]

Many thanks!  We're really thrilled to see how well the game is being received overall.  This is such a more accessible game compared to AI War, it's very interesting seeing the differences.  We still love and plan to continuously support both of them, though.

[garion333]

Bought the game 5 minutes after I read James' review over at Out of Eight. He has yet to steer me wrong, but honestly I love AI War so much that I'd buy this even if he was luke warm about the game.

[x4000]

Many thanks for your support!  After months of hard work, it's almost a little overwhelming how people are reacting.  I hope you have a blast with the game.

[Spikey00]

I don't see reason for why this game would be receiving the opposite reviews.

[JaguarUSF]

He has yet to steer me wrong,

Then you obviously haven't read this review of mine

[x4000]

He has yet to steer me wrong,

Then you obviously haven't read this review of mine

Well, reviewing is a subjective business through and through. I wasn't there at the time, but I can't imagine you didn't act on the best knowledge you had at the time.

[eRe4s3r]

He has yet to steer me wrong,

Then you obviously haven't read this review of mine

Well you probably had one of these days Personally the Section 8 Review buggered me more because while I agreed that the *idea* was great - the execution was not (imo).

But that said - i also don't understand why metacritic doesn't list your scores - have you buggered them about it? Your review track record is about as large as many others they included, with the exception that people actually care about your scores... particularly on bluesnews and other hardcorish locations ;P

And more importantly, you review Indy games. 

Only reason why metacritic could refuse is that 8/8 is really not so well transferable to a 0-100 scale.

[JaguarUSF]

Personally the Section 8 Review buggered me more

I really liked Section 8 (obviously, 8/8), except for stupid Games for Windows LIVE. I don't want to stray too far off topic about a totally different game, but I am curious as to what you feel was lacking in the execution of the game. The combination of ideas was, I thought, fantastic.

But that said - i also don't understand why metacritic doesn't list your scores - have you buggered them about it?

Yeah, and actually a couple of publishers have as well. Never received a response. Metacritic is owned by the same company that owns Gamespot, so they lose all credibility with me. I don't think they consider reviews by a blogger to be true journalism, despite variable levels of quality. Which is funny because I can point to reviews from their own site that clearly don't have any journalistic integrity (he clearly played this game for five minutes and wrote the review, evident to anyone who actually played the game who can note his inaccuracies describing terrain and mission structure).

/off soapbox

[x4000]

I've talked to one fellow at MetaCritic, and he seemed nice enough, but also really overburdened.  I get the feeling that they started out as an independent company and then sold that company or something (not that I really have any idea), but at any rate there certainly seems to be a relatively small staff at MetaCritic proper.  I think that the sort of service that they provide is a really valuable one, but it does seem like the list of publications that they consider is... well, aging, frankly.  Seems like it was once easier to get in, and now not so much, but again I'm guessing here.

I went ahead and just sent my contact there an email about Out of Eight suggesting that it be considered for inclusion; we'll see what they say, if anything.  Personally even if the parent company is the same I don't think there's much of a link between anything MetaCritic does and what GameSpot does (the same is certainly true of IGN-the-reviews-site and Direct2Drive-the-service, which are separate companies-within-the-IGN-parent-company), but again I couldn't say.  I really do prefer how MetaCritic handles things compared to RottenTomatoes, though, and that's saying something as I'm a big fan of RottenTomatoes for movies.  My only real complaint is that they don't include certain reviewers that I think very much deserve to be included, Out of Eight included.