Resource Pack or Texture Pack? That is the question!

Resource Packs were introduced in Minecraft 1.6. If you’re reviewing anything intended to work for MC 1.6 and above its a Resource Pack. Anything for MC 1.5 and lower is a Texture Pack and doesn’t have additional functionality like replacing sounds and animations or even splashes (it can only manipulate textures). There’s also another point of view: if the pack changes only textures and does not touch sounds, language files, text or animations you can safely assume it’s a texture pack.


It’s a bad pack. It doesn’t have any textures for Minecraft 1.42!

Well… Maybe it’s not intended for that version! Minecraft has many version. Some packs will be compatible with older ones, and some with newer ones. It’s important to check this, otherwise you can make a fool of yourself. It won’t be about a sloppy and incomplete pack, it will be about a sloppy review.


Improvisation? Sounds like a plan!

One thing you must remember: there is no such thing as improvisation. Every improvised video review or a text written very fast is a poor draft. You need to plan every remark, every joke, every word… only then you can master the art of real improvisation, which will eventually come. If you think you can do an improvised review with none or little experience you’re either a natural born talent, a genius or to full of yourself. You can take this advice for many more life activities, like public speaking, creative writing, selling things or even cooking.


The .zip! it contains nothing!

Actually it does. before commencing with the review try to unzip the pack. It’s very common that authors leave a readme file or a changelog inside. Sometimes you’ll find out that the site which you downloaded from is not a legitimate download. Authors usually leave a link to official downloads and forum posts in the archive. Dig through the archive. Maybe you’ll find an Easter egg? A letter form the author or something even more interesting that nobody knows? This could make your review much better and give it the gem that it needs to really shine.


Why bother to stay updated?

Always download the latest version of the pack that you’re reviewing. Keep in mind that that annoying bug could be fixed a long time ago and the misaligned texture blends in well because it was updated a week ago. Always mention what version of the pack you’re reviewing and it’s MC compatibility. Hint: packs with “0.” in their version number are usually incomplete or in alpha/beta.


OptiWhat?!

Optifine and MCPatcher provide pack creators with additional scripting features, the most basic and well known being CTM. Double check if the pack supports one of them or even both. If it doesn’t then why? Was the author deliberately uninterested in the features provided by them or will add the support in the future?

I’m not into science. I don’t do research!

Well then, in that case you’re not doing any reviews! You’re just talking about something that you actually don’t know anything about. Doesn’t sound very professional, does it? Check some links, other reviews of that particular pack and even gather some opinions from PMC, Reddit, and forums. It’s not only about the respect for the author and your reader/viewer. It’s about the respect for your own work as a reviewer.


It’s so awful I love it! It’s so beautiful I hate it!

We all know the bucketfill, nostalgia and OCD expy packs. They are all awful and new ones are still emerging. Don’t bother reviewing them and don’t waste your time. If you know that you’re going to bash the whole thing and find nothing new or interesting in the pack don’t review it. You’ll say nothing new and the whole review will go to waste. On the other hand if you find a pack worthy of mentioning point out the good and bad things. Say what you like about it and what could be done better. Share your thoughts, these are the basics.


A splash of sanity

Remember that custom splashes reload only after clicking a button in the main menu or after restarting the game. If you don’t restart Minecraft and record right away after applying the pack you might miss custom splashes. It’s also a good idea to talk about the font. Does it cover Unicode or ASCII only? Is it complete? Is it readable and consistent? Think!

And just before posting… rewatch or reread the review. If you’re satisfied with it then publish or give it a little more polish. But... If it sounds stupid it is stupid.