Player2Reviews Turns One! Here is our Year in Review

Here We Are One Year Later

One fateful spring break just over a year ago would to us hypothesizing a concept. We loved playing games together, good or bad, and wanted to express that online some how. After streaming for the first time ever, the talks grew stronger, and thus came Player2Reviews. Other names were discussed, but this was the one that stuck. We new it would be a long and arduous road to becoming anything remotely popular and reputable in a field where so many were already established. So rightly so, we were the "Player 2's" in the field so to speak, the underdogs, the second choice in someone else's home court. After one year though, here we are, still pumping out material, making new relationships, and growing the brand. This is for all our friends and followers that helped us get here.

Top 3 Games Reviewed By Edwin and Lee

Edwin's Top 3

#1- Rocket League [10/10]

Rocket League is the mish-mash of genres I never knew I needed. After hours and hours of matches, I am still thoroughly invested in this awesome game. It was an honor to grant this game with the perfect 10, the first ever for the site, because of how good and fun the formula is. Review Here

#2- Rise of the Tomb Raider [9/10]

What a hell of a sequel! I was ecstatic when Microsoft and Square Enix gave me the opprotunity to work with high profile title, and boy was it a great experience. Top notch visuals, a mysterious story, and tight gameplay made for an game every Xbox One owner should be aware of. Crystal Dynamics has a promising series ahead of them.
Review Here

#3- Batman Arkham Knight [9/10]

The end of era came last summer when Batman Arkham Knight hit shelves. Bringing together the best looking and playing game in the series to current gen only, Rocksteady impressed as they had done time and time again before. I am so deeply devoted to the series and was sad to see it end, but now that it is over a new franchise can bloom, which excites all the same. Review Here

Lee's Top 3

#1-Fortified! [8.5/10]

Fortified I think was my favorite indy game this year for the Xbox One. It used a simple idea of a tower defense game and transformed it to not only a great 3rd person shooter but also incorporated 50's era alien movie themes. It changed the normal tower defense where you build and sit and watch the enemies’ attack and instead got you involved on the ground fight. Review Here

#2- Hitman Episode 1 [8/10]

This a bigger title that I had the privilege to work on and this game is just great considering the first episode that has been released. The endless possibilities on ways to assassinate your targets to the customization being added makes this a great game. Recently I’ve been playing using community created mission objectives which adds a new twist! Review Here

#3- Farming Simulator 15 [8/10]

​YEE HAW this title I bought just as something to kill time living at school and working over the summer, but I fell in love with game. I have logged more hours than I would ever admit (couple hundred…). The game is just very addicting and I find it interesting and better than any other simulators out or that I’ve played over the years. SUPER EXCITED about FARM SIM 17 that’s dropping the end of this year. Review Here

Biggest Disappointment: Halo 5 Guardians

Lee- I’m still mad, I had so much hope for this game. I even got all my assignments that were due the week of the game release done early in preparation and called off of work, but instead should have avoided it till it went on sale. The campaign was dry and very repetitive and a big disappointment. Multiplayer helped it get the score it did but even it with the whole buying cards for in game power ups was annoying. I have not played it since it came out so there may have been updates and the free DLC might be dope but I won’t know for a while or ever. (If anyone knows if it has gotten better let me know and maybe we can reevaluate it )

Edwin- I agree with Lee. I was supremely let down by the campaign. After all the hype and build up of this exciting chase, what you get is a drowned out, misguided story. With repetitive boss fights, and very few exciting moments in between, the campaign defines the term lackluster. Hell, I forced myself to beat it just last month and honestly can not remember how it ended. Multiplayer is still a blast as was expected, but with so much emphasis on the campaign, its hard not to focus on that.

Accomplishments

Edwin- This list makes me proud to make. Not only have we become a dot com this year, we also hit 1000 followers which had long been a goal to achieve within a first year. We are honored to have made so many friends a long the way, and with the continued support we have reviewed 16 press copies! It has been awesome to also build solid professional relationships with developers and publishers alike. Having expanded recently to Facebook and Instagram, we are already seeing solid showings on those sites as well.

Lee- I'd say just how much we have grown in such a short time is a big accomplishment. I really enjoy tweeting and trying to come up with more content for the site and social media. I really love seeing you guys talking with us agreeing with the games or just chatting about games in general. I would really like to play more games with the ones who are always tweeting at us or viewing the websites and our poopy streams. (All of you are free to add me on xbox one and my personal twitter and just say lets play!!!)

What We have Learned

Lee- I’ve learned that my grammar and writing is god awful lol (Edwin and Nadine aka editors of all my posts). I know how shitty some of it comes in and sounds but they help shape it to what it needs to be. Say things that were kind of hard was gaining motivation to actually make some posts and finding time to sit down play and write about the games is hard for me personally (school, working and social). Now I'm finding more time for it because seeing that you guys and gals actually click on some of the links and comment makes it worth it! It was also harder to see how my reviews sounded compared to reading the big name IGN and Game Informer reviews. My personal writing style I like to stick with is that I want to sound like the guy in the party chat who has the new game and is describing the new game to you. Trying to stick with this and writing a full personal review for me came difficult at first but as we’ve been going its working out for the better (Hope you all like how I do my reviews compared to Edwin’s). I also enjoy seeing that we (I think at least) have a unique concept where we both have different gaming interests and so you all get different reviews and two different writing styles.

Edwin- I have learned so much on this incredible journey that I may not be able to list it all. For starters, managing multiple projects has been a key aspect that I have grown from. I handle most of the day to day objectives from blog updates, editing, and managing the emails. With all this at once, sometimes its hard to keep track of everything. I have also learned a lot about finding and contacting press contacts. There are a lot of great people that have helped us find our footing by just replying to our emails. Conceptualizing ideas for the site has also been a process we have refined over time. We like to seek user feedback because thats what matters most, as well as putting our personal spin on ideas. It's great to have someone like Lee to bounce and polish ideas around with. I truly have learned so much in such a small amount of time which has been a refreshing experience, one that has advanced me more in a single field than school has in long time.

Thank You!

Lee-  I would like to thank Edwin for pushing me and constantly reminding me to work on some of this stuff but not being a dick about it which what I was a little afraid of when we decided to go on this endeavor. He's been super supportive and helped me develop further for this website and I think we work great together. Hopefully one day we could just do this full time (Very wishful thinking) but until than I just enjoy doing this as a side hobby with my best friend. Also gotta thank Nadine for supporting us both and putting up with both of us nerding out about things when I come back to town (In addition to editing everything I come up with.) But want to thank all of you guys who think we have something interesting to say and like hearing what we have to say about games, movies, tv shows and whatever else we talk about. Thank you all!!!

Edwin- Thank you everyone who continues to support us. Special thanks to Lee, I could not imagine doing this with anyone else. He always comes through when I need him too, and we continue to push and drive each other to do better. Thank you to my loving fiancee Nadine for supporting both of us with the site. Whether it is letting me work to hit deadlines, editing our writing, or just giving feedback, she is always there to lend a hand and we appreciate her. Thank you to all the friends and fans. Whether you found us interesting or found us through a giveaway, we thank you all the same. To the developers and publishers who have given us the time of day, and entrusted us with press copies, we sincerely thank you. We hope you all enjoy what we do and we continue to strive and be better. Here is to hopefully many more years of Player2Reviews! 
 
Thanks! Love ya guys !

Lee Marcussen
Co-founder Player2reviews.com
@leemakesmepee – Twitter – IG – Snapchat
Ayc Makezmepee – XBL 

Edwin Velez
Co-Founder and Managing Editor
@MrVelezbian -Twitter/Instagram
Mr Velezbian -XBL
Gucci_Batmane - Nintendo ID