The Replay Notebook
Second visits, written down
Every piece here follows a full replay of a game finished at least four years earlier, with notes from both playthroughs side by side.
The Replay Notebook
Second visits, written down
Every piece here follows a full replay of a game finished at least four years earlier, with notes from both playthroughs side by side.
Reading this notebook happens on the terms below. They cover what its comparisons claim, how the writing may be quoted, the position on spoilers, and the point at which responsibility stops.
Each piece records a comparison drawn under the conditions set out on the practice page. Where a piece attributes a changed impression to the player, the genre or the game itself, that attribution is an argument from the evidence available to me and not a finding of fact.
Playtimes describe my own play on both occasions and nothing broader. Nine hours against twenty means those two figures, on the settings recorded, on the machines I had at the time, with whatever attention each week allowed.
Where a piece quotes my own contemporaneous notes, the quotation is exact, including where those notes were mistaken. They were written privately and were never intended as criticism; they appear as evidence about a former reader rather than as claims about a game.
Pieces discuss structure and endings openly, because a replay of a game finished years earlier cannot be discussed otherwise. Everything covered is at least four years old, this is stated on the practice page and here, and no warnings appear within the pieces.
Nothing here is guidance about what to buy or replay. There are no storefront links anywhere on this site, deliberately, and a favourable conclusion is a description of an experience rather than a recommendation. What you play remains entirely your decision.
Brief quotation in articles, essays, videos and discussion is welcome where this notebook is credited and the quotation is not cut so as to reverse its sense. Republishing a complete piece, translating one without permission, or feeding this writing into commercial machine learning systems is not permitted.
Passages must not be used in advertising, on storefront pages or in promotional material. A sentence about a game holding up, lifted from a piece that also records its failures, misrepresents both the game and the writing.
Every photograph, illustration and the emblem were produced for this notebook and remain mine. None is a screenshot and none depicts an actual game; they accompany prose. Game and studio titles appear for identification and critical comment only, with no affiliation or endorsement implied in either direction.
This notebook sells nothing at all. There is no shop, subscription, membership, donation route or advertising inventory, so no order, payment, refund or delivery can arise between us. Any approach claiming to trade under this name is unconnected to the publication.
The site is offered as it stands. I make no commitment that it will remain reachable, that older pieces will stay published, or that internal links will survive a reorganisation. Pieces may be corrected, annotated, supplemented or removed at my discretion.
To the fullest extent applicable law permits, I accept no liability for loss or damage arising from reliance on anything published here, including any game bought, reinstalled, replayed or abandoned because of a piece. Criticism informs a reader; it decides nothing on their behalf.
Pieces sometimes reference writing hosted elsewhere. Those destinations lie outside my control, I make no representation about their accuracy or continued availability, and their own terms apply from the moment you leave this domain.
This page is revised as the notebook's practice develops. Whichever version is displayed when you load it is the version that applies, and continuing to read after a revision means proceeding on the current terms rather than any earlier ones.
Statutory consumer protections are unaffected by anything above. Where the law where you live grants rights that cannot be excluded by agreement, those rights apply in full, and every provision here operates only within the space that law leaves available.