• 2Dec 07

  Jeff Gerstmann....so long friend. So long gamespot, for now.

  So Gerstmann is gone under unknown circumstances. Yeah, we'veall heard the rumors as to why and I am very suspicious. While I'm not willing to completely vilify Gamespot as of yet, it doesn't look good. I'm sure plenty of you read the following post attributed to an unknown Gamespot editor:

  "If there was a problem with his reviews, then it would've been a problem with the entire team. Firing him without telling anyone implies that anyone else on this team can be fired at the drop of a hat as well, because none of us are writing any differently or meaner or less professionally than we were two years ago before the management changed. I'm sure management wants to spin this as the G-Man being unprofessional to take away from the egg on their face that results after a ten-year employee gets locked out of his office and told to leave the premises and then no one communicates anything to us about it until the next day.

  This management team has shown what they're willing to do. Jeff had ten years in and was f*****g locked out of his office and told to leave the building.

  What you might not be aware of is that GS is well known for appealing mostly to hardcore gamers. The mucky-mucks have been doing a lot of "brand research" over the last year or so and indicating that they want to reach out to more casual gamers. Our last executive editor, Greg Kasavin, left to go to EA, and he was replaced by a suit, Josh Larson, who had no editorial experience and was only involved on the business side of things. Over the last year there has been an increasing amount of pressure to allow the advertising teams to have more of a say in the editorial process; we've started having to give our sales team heads-ups when a game is getting a low score, for instance, so that they can let the advertisers know that before a review goes up. Other publishers have started giving us notes involving when our reviews can go up; if a game's getting a 9 or above, it can go up early; if not, it'll have to wait until after the game is on the shelves.

  I was in the meeting where Josh Larson was trying to explain this firing and the guy had absolutely no response to any of the criticisms we were sending his way. He kept dodging the question, saying that there were "multiple instances of tone" in the reviews that he hadn't been happy about, but that wasn't Jeff's problem since we all vet every review. He also implied that "AAA" titles deserved more attention when they were being reviewed, which sounded to all of us that he was implying that they should get higher scores, especially since those titles are usually more highly advertised on our site.

  I know that it's all about the money, and hey, I like money. I like advertising because it pays my salary. Unfortunately after Kasavin left the church-and-state separation between the sales teams and the editorial team has cracked, and with Jeff's firing I think it's clear that the management now has no interest at all in integrity and are instead looking for an editorial team that will be nicer to the advertisers.

  When companies make games as downright contemptible as Kane and Lynch, they deserve to be called on it. I guess you'll have to go to Onion or a smaller site for objective reviews now, because everyone at GS now thinks that if they give a low score to a high-profile game, they'll be s***canned. Everyone's f*****g scared and we're all hoping to get Josh Larson removed from his position because no one trusts him anymore. If that doesn't happen then look for every game to be Game of the Year material at GameSpot."

  Of course, I don't know who wrote this. It may not even have been an editor from Gamespot, but something about it rings true to me. Now I am no judge or jury, but I have cancelled my subscription to Total Access until I get a response from CNET or Gamespot that satisfies me and can pass the smell test. (I have a good nose for BS). Beyond that, I've written some comments that were censored, which I believed to be completely benign and I was punished for it (XP loss for RANK / loss of an ability to post). This site, over the past year or so seems to not be interested in free thought, provocative speech or the truth.

  Check your Six,

  Lancer VI

  P.S. Watch, I'll get punished for this post.

  • Posted Dec 2, 2007 12:06 pm GMT
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• 21Sep 07

  Welcome back Kotter......errrrrr.....Sony PS3

  So after all of my ramblings about the PS3 "failing" and not being a "good game machine"; I went back out and purchased one......again.

  Yeah, Yeah...I know. What did it for me was the price drop and that fact that the 60GB models with the Emotion hardware are being phased out. So I went and got me one. I then purchased Ninja Gaiden Sigma, which I love. I had played and beat the game on my Xbox and loved it, even though it was a brutally hard game to defeat. I missed out on Ninja Gaiden Black and figured Sigma would be a worthy addition to the library. It's about the only game I play on my PS3 besides GranTurismo HD and Tekken.

  Another reason I got the PS3 is because it looks like Blu-Ray may actually pull off the win. I know it's still early and believe me, I was hoping for an HD-DVD victory because of price, but with Blockbuster and now Target going exclusively BLu-Ray, or more shelf space in Target's instance, Blu-Ray is in a strong position to win this fight. I think this holiday season will provide a much clearer picture on what the dominate format is, but it looks like it is leaning Blu-Ray's way. So now, I rent blu-ray movies from netflix and enjoy my Sony as a movie machine, directly contradicting my previous blog post. Oh well. Conflict in the market between competing companies is always a good thing.

  Speaking of Conflict, have you checked out World in Conflict?? That is a great game. Usually, I am turned off by RTS' as they become a resource gathering, zerg battle with no real strategy on the battlefield. Only the Total War series, in my opinion, has provided a realistic "RTS" experience. Well, now it's two. World in Conflict is awesome. The graphics are great, the sound and voice actingare superb, but the gameplay. WOW. NO resource management (in the traditional RTS sense) just request units, take strategic positions on the map and conduct glorious Red Dawn scenario, set piece engagements at the height of the cold war. Maneuver, Fire support and tactics win the day here. I've owned it for less than 12 hours and MAN, is this game good. The multi-player is outstanding as well. You jump into MP games like you would a FPS and join multiple players and assist them in completing mission objectives. It is the most MP fun I've had in YEARS. You really should check this game out.

  As for my console gaming, I'm still playing Zelda Twilight Princess on my Wii, still haven't finished it yet. And for my Xbox360, I'm playing Madden 08. The first worthy next-gen football game out and I'm enjoying every minute of it. If you're a football nut like me, definitely pick this up.

  Anyway, until next time, good gaming all.

  Until that day........

  Check your Six,

  Lancer VI

  • Posted Sep 21, 2007 11:29 am GMT
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• 10Jul 07

  10th of July, My sister's Birthday

  Happy birthday Jamila. I hope you have a great day.

  So here we are, E3 is ramping up, starting with Microsoft's press conference tonight. As I'll be working, I'll have to catch it tomorrow. This is truly an exciting time for gamers, but I can't help but feel that E3 this year is going to suck. I know that they wanted to change the format, reduce the carnival type atmosphere, but I must say, I loved the extravagence. I looked forward to e3 every year, but this time, not so much. I just hope that some good information comes out of it and we will get a closer look at some of the great titles coming down the pipe.

  How bout Sony's price cut? I'm glad to see that they've done it. Though $500 is still expensive, it is relatively cheap for blu-ray player, which is exactly why I think PS3 will fail. Yes, Fail. Now failure here does not necessarily mean that the console will disappear or that Sony will fold, but that it is and will take a back seat position compared to it's leadership of the video games world of the 90's and early 00's. Blu-Ray has not gained broad consumer acceptance, is too expensive to manufacture and the movies just cost to damn much. Now HDDVD still hasn't garnered broad based acceptance either, but with it being cheaper and easier to produce, I think it is only a matter of time. Remember BLu-ray fans, Betamax was the better technology too. Anyway, back to PS3 failure, which brings me to my point. I WANT A VIDEO GAME SYSTEM, NOT A MOVIE PLAYER. Being able to watch movies on a game system is a cool feature, but in the end, I want my console to have kick ass games. I want options. I feel that blu-ray is forced. Now it would be different if Blu-ray had already won the format war and was the widely accepted standard, but because it has not and may not, I don't want it crammed into my already expensive console. Let me add it on like MS does, but don't force it.

  Damnit, I have to run. I will finish this another time.

  Until that day,

  Check your six,

  Lancer VI

  • Posted Jul 10, 2007 12:00 pm GMT
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