What I take from it: since the voters were so keen on Pathfinder (which I don't particularly like), and the other non-PF winners are obviously enjoyed by these same PF fans, I'm unlikely to enjoy the other winners much myself. :P
I know that when I was in high school (right around the time of the current reviews), about half of my group was obsessed with ninjas and Oriental Adventures stuff. We shoehorned the OA stuff into our 2nd Edition games, and it was a bit... crazy.
That's pretty much how I feel about the subject too.
Interestingly, I'm finding that as your series goes on, the articles I'm most interested in are the game reviews (RPGs and PCs) and novel reviews. I wasn't expecting that; I was expecting to pleasantly remember articles and such.
It's weird.
I'm the world's biggest D&D/4E fan,, but I went through the whole article, and all I could think was "this isn't news, it's an advertisement".
This is another article that I remember "using". We didn't ever use the rules in an actual game, I think, but we did design and redesign castles and keeps during lunch hour at school in the way that only obsessed high-school kids with no other interests can manage.
Few.
Upgrade "probably" (which evokes probabilities in the 51% to 75% range to me) to "almost certainly" (to me means 76% to 95%) and I'll change my choice to most.
Upgrade "almost certainly" to "definitely" (96% plus) and I'll change to all.
I flipped through the kit at my FLGS (Myth Games in Calgary AB Canada) today, and the only thing that caught my eye was that the Elf (Castri) has a speed of 8.
And we had a good chuckle over the koozies.
(Oh, also the condition cards are the same out-dated ones. For instance, "Restrained"...
Longer answer: No, but make sure that the effects you are considering are both marks. Things like Hunter's Quarry and Warlock's Curse are not marks. A Paladin's Divine Challenge includes a mark in it's description, so it is a mark (similar to a swordmage's aegis).
"A damaging attack will always do at least 1 point of damage (before resistances)."
Is this printed in a 4E book somewhere? Every single member of my local club knows that this is a rule, but nobody can point it out. I know that this was true in 3E, and I sort of remember at least playing...
I flipped through a friend's copy. It was very entertaining (especially the artwork), but not the sort of thing I'd buy if on a budget (as I am these days).
It's only ever been a theoretical thing for me - has never come up in 20+ years, on either side of the screen, in any of the 5 cities I've lived in or the countless groups I've played with.