Welcome to the Sandbox!

I came up with the idea for the Sandbox because I live on the beach and I'm a gamer that likes to think outside the box. I also wanted to create a gaming blog that wasn't biased one way or the other. I am personally fed up with sites around the web that review games but are obviously getting paid to hype a game, even when that game is garbage. I'm not going to name any names right now, but if you are a gamer I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. One site in particular will ban anyone that uses its forums to give an honest opinion of a game that they are promoting. To me this is bullying and terrible journalism, if that's what you want to call it.

Nothing is worse than shelling out $60 for a game and getting it home and finding out the game is worthless right out of the box. Copyright laws make returning games impossible, even if said game is completely broken. At that point, your only options are to cut your losses and sell the game for much less than you paid for it or use it as a coaster for your coffee table.

You do have a few tools to avoid getting burned. You could rent the game first. The only problem is that new games are nearly impossible to rent right away. Gamefly isn't a great option for renting games. If you can find a Blockbuster, good luck renting a new release. If it's a really popular game you won't have a snowball's chance in hell of renting it within the first few months of its release.

Another option is to buy the game used at Gamestop or online. But like renting, a new release is going to be nearly impossible to find used unless it really sucks. Your third option is to hope that a friend buys the game so you can try before you buy.

This is why honest game reviews are so important. It's your only real tool that you can use to avoid getting burned. I think a great game reviewer needs to be objective and open-minded. That being said, I hope you enjoy my reviews and my occasional ramblings about video games and other technology. Please feel free to leave comments. All I ask is that be respectful here.

-Sandboxer617