Incredible Disappearing Sessler's Soapbox. Episode not available on iTunes.

Possibly Best Video Review EVER!

500th POST! Zero Punctuation is still around, holy ?&*^&*?

I did in fact, like this game slightly more than he did :)

Escapist Magazine's Zero Punctuation Reveiws Zack and Wiki

What Every Gamer Should Know about the Reviews They Read

If you ever had any doubt that N'Gai Croal is one of the best writers out there; let this piece on the Level Up Blog dismiss them. N'Gai hits game journalism and the review process with the hard sledgehammer of reality. The problems that exist in video game journalism are those that I'm trying to avoid by being independent. I hope it becomes profitable someday.

Kotaku, you rumor mongers!

Kotaku is reporting some rumors about massive resignations coming over at Gamespot after all the hoopla over the firing of Jeff Gerstmann. I was wondering when this shoe would drop. But if it does, I certainly support these guys and what they are trying to do.
I just hope in trying to fix the huge gapping hole in CNET's ship they aren't just sinking it forever. As bad as Gamespot looks right now they are still one of the three biggest and most influential sites on the internet. Think hard about what you do young padowans.

More on Gertsmann's Firing

Hit the jump for the info in detail. I'm updating everything on the original post. I would just like to say that if this was the New York Times or the Washingtom Post firing a guy over a controversial story there would be people picketing the paper and writing angry letters to paper owners.
Secondly, I would love to know why the rest of the folks over at Gamespot haven't left. I know people have bills to pay but if it could happen to a veteran like Gerstmann it could happen to anyone.
-UPDATE- But wait there's more.... Most of your questions will be answered.

"Developments have slowed down a little bit over the weekend, but there is still plenty of chatter around the web about Gamespot's controversial firing of Jeff Gerstmann. Among the juicier bits from around the intertubes:

• In response to a Gamespot forum thread, the new Gamespot Manager of Community Development said he is "eagerly anticipating the official word to be released on Tuesday."
• Gamespot has halted user reviews of Kane & Lynch after a flood of 1.0 ratings lowered the game's user score to a 2.6/10.
  
• Destructoid has registered cashwh0re.com and changed their front page banner in support of Gerstmann.
• GameSpot employee Aaron Thomas explains why more employees aren't speaking up on the matter: "This isn't GameSpot suddenly clamping down on me or any of us here--this is how it is for anyone with a job."
• Gamespot freelancer Frank Provo: "Personally, my respect for CNet is shot, and writing for GameSpot is going to feel like a chore for quite some time going forward."
• GameSpot users are reportedly canceling paid subscriptions left and right, and planning boycotts of Gamespot and its advertisers.
• Rumor has it that Gamespot forum moderator have been told to squelch any discussion of the controversy. This seems unlikely, though, as the main discussion of the topic on the site has reached 11,110 posts as of this writing. UPDATE: Numerous Gamespot moderators have written in saying discussion on their forums isn't being stopped, but redirected to one of these two threads to maintain order.
  

One thing is clear: This story is not going away anytime soon.

[Thanks to all the tipsters who sent items in]"Joystiq....

1UP gives words to our affliction with their MOST HATED things in Games!

Check it out. This article gives voice to just about every gamers pain. I can't wait to see if they continue with this. I have mentioned many of these things in reviews and it's nice to see that I'm not alone. Thanks 1Up...

Some People don't like video games. Like Roger Ebert...

"The movie, directed by Xavier Gens, was inspired by a best-selling video game and serves as an excellent illustration of my conviction that video games will never become an art form -- never, at least, until they morph into something else or more."Roger Ebert...

This is from a recent movie review of Hitman: the movie. So how does this have anything to do with the video game? Except that they bear the same name sake. The main thrust of the game is to stealthily kill people. This wouldn't make the greatest movie, I would imagine. But is it the game's fault that the director of the movie couldn't come up with a more creative solution than what he did. Or even better, is it the game's fault that they made a second class movie about it? No...
Let's see, so is the fact that this movie is taken from a video game a reason to think it's any more shallow than Bad Boys 2 or some other popcorn summer blockbuster.
So Roger Ebert, I know that you know movies. But Roger, you know less about video games than I know about movies. Because man, I've seen A LOT of movies. How many video games have you played? Solitaire doesn't count....
-Point made...

Gametrailers Reviews Rock Band

Looney Tunes Acme Arsenal: Why do Licensed Games all most all ways SUCK?

Going into Looney Tunes Acme Arsenal I really hoped it would be a good game. In the demo there were a few sniggly problems with the camera and a few problems with jumping across this or that ledge. But on the whole the game was pretty good. Certainly not a 4 star, AAA title. But with multiplayer looking very fun and absent from the demo, everything was looking hopeful.
Alas, the finished product was actually no better than the demo. But over the course of the EXTREMELY long levels. The main thing the player is wondering is why this game wasn't finished. Yes, finished! Turning the crazy camera allows the player to look through walls, PS2 style. The enemies are repetitive to the point of nausea. The feeling of goofiness, looniness, or even the game being funny never really materializes. A few statements made by your in game persona are funny but nothing hysterical.
The arsenal part of the game is only evident from the weapons that are spread so thinly throughout that they are all most an afterthought. Your main weapon is a melee weapon that evolves with a Sonic the Hedgehog style collection system that makes your main weapon more powerful but if you are hit repeatedly you will lose some of that powerup and may end up with a much lower powered weapon. But this is one of the few situations where you would want to grab one of the "arsenal" weapons.
The biggest problem with the game though is that it is just annoyingly punishing. There too many enemies and the combos that your character does are usually too weak to really clear out the enemies in proper order. The platforming is easy and the puzzle solving is very easy as well. If this game is for children, it is unfair to make the game so punishing; if it is for adults the camera will probably make most sick to their stomach.
If the developers could have fixed the camera, I would still be playing this game. I might have even tried the multiplayer. Please don't buy this game! I give it a 4/10!

Halo 3 Reviewed!

Hey everyone, I just finished my Halo 3 review. It's not a 10 or a 9 so you might want to check it out.

The Story on Doug Perry and What it has to do with Anything...

Video Game Media Watch in reporting the recent story about Doug Perry's trying to get the exclusive review of Prey and possibly trying to influence a reviewer to do this. Video Game Media Watch while doing a descent job reporting the story did kind of go crazy slamming Perry for what seems to be a case of here say and not really founded in proof. All of this is bad but to further slander Doug Perry by saying,

“If his unethical practices continue, he will damage Gametap's review process.”

This rather unfair considering the most proof that Video Game Media Watch has is a insider “not to be named” source and a few emails from Doug Perry himself basically downplaying the whole situation.

Certainly if the source is to be believed Doug Perry made some mistakes in dealing with the review situation for Prey. The talking to a reviewer before he even plays the game and trying to get him to give a score range is wrong. Also negotiating with PR about whether a game will be an exclusive or cover story based on score is also wrong. All of this may seem important to show that the video game journalism industry as a whole is corrupt due to these elements and therefore could really keep people from people taking exclusives and cover story reviews seriously. The better questions and issues raised here are,

“Why did this happen and why does it matter?”

I think that in general people don't take individual reviews seriously. Not those that come from large media outlets. For example, most people listen to reviewers like Roger Ebert or Joshua Rich(Entertainment Weekly). People don't take individual video game reviews seriously, either. Hence why review meta sites like Metacritic and Gamerankings are so popular with press, developers, and publishers. These sites compile all the reviews from around the big game sites and magazines and put their scores in one place and average them out to get an overall score. But some people are slavishly devoted to some publications reviews and won't listen to anyone else. Like the people who love Nintendo or Sony to the point that they will defend them to the end.

The worst part of all this is that in the end it doesn't REALLY MATTER! Most anecdotally, Prey is a very forgettable game and just like with most games no one cares who had the first review or first cover story. More objectively, the public in general just doesn't care that much about review scores or where those scores come from. Do you know who really cares? Publishers, developers, and of course reviewers themselves. It's just ironic that these are the very people who are responsible for the situation to begin with.

The market itself seems to be self correcting using sites like Metacritic and Gamerankings. Therefore, one game site or magazine has no real influence in the first in that first 24 hours that is the difference between the exclusive and the non-exclusive review. People in general, will invariably read many sites and look at more than one magazine before making a decision about a game.

Why do people hate the big media outlets to the point that they won't listen to their reviews? Why does a review from EGM, Gamespot, or IGN holds less public currency than Destructoid or another less commercially run publication like Kotaku or Joystiq(not that I understand this either). Or people may just look at Metacritic or Gamerankings the way that publishers do in order to figure out what the press in general is thinking about a particular game.

In the end, these scores don't even really matter because when you look at Metacritic's or Gameranking's scores and the sales for games like 50 Cent Bulletproof, Spider-man 3, and Wii games in general. The reality of the situation seems to be seeping in around the edges, That reality being that people by and large don't read video game reviews. Why? That's a good question.

People in general believe that the media; whether they be the mainstream press or a game reviewer is biased if they work for a company that is, or is owned by a very large company. Which these days is just about every company out there that runs a decently sized magazine or website. This maybe to a lesser degree about Doug Perry and what he did or did not do. But with people in mainstream media making up news stories and plenty of magazines giving god awful games that, in that month were on the cover or recently on the cover getting incredibly inflated scores compared to ALL of their competitors. Perhaps it is preferable to see a magazine that professes to be a multiplatform publication having a brochure packed in written by, “the Staff At ****.” That basically is a PR brochure for a console that turns out to be the best selling hardware in their region that month and turns out to be not quite the machine of perfection everyone thought it would be. No, well then perhaps we should all be looking more closely at what we read and who is writing and who they work for and what motivates them.