One of the first things I learned about reviewing videogames was the importance of always reviewing the game I played, rather than the game I would have liked to have played. Every now and then, this is harder to do than it sounds. Sometimes a game is very close to being good, close enough that it almost seems like a tragedy that the developers didn't go the extra mile to make the game just a little bit better—in those cases it becomes nearly impossible to judge the game on its own terms.