My thoughts on the state of the industry.

• 4Mar 08

  What I have been ^ 2

  What I have been up to.

  Wow. It has been a while. I have gone through a job transition and have been through a LOT of other stuff this past year. Unfortunately GameSpot is blocked so I can't blog during my lunch hour anymore.

  I have been blogging on an extremely limited basis here. I haven't been as active on the forums or in your blogs and I am truly sorry. It has been a very exciting last few months during which I would have loved to take part in the discussions that I'm sure were very exciting.

  The site pales in comparison to the original ButtonSmashing but at least it is free to me so I don't have to reserve a spot for Google adsense. Feel free to give it a look and let me know what I can do to make it better.

  • Posted Mar 4, 2008 9:17 pm GMT
  • Category: Writing
  • 2 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 30Nov 07

  Gerstmann in retro-Perspective

  

  Let me start off by saying that I have been a reader of Jeff Gerstmann's work for years. I read his reviews, I watched his videos, I even listened to his Midnight Brown music, which if you haven't heard it yet you really should. So when I first heard the rumor I stopped what I was doing and did my best to find the truth.

  I want to put things into perspective in a realistic manner with my experience in a professional environment. The boards are full of justifiably angry Gerstmann groupies. Truth is Jeff Gerstmann was synonymous with the GameSpot name, so GameSpot without Jeff is going to be difficult for a lot of us old veterans to accept, especially given the severe implications of the reasons behind his departure.

  Quick witted and intelligent, his laid back manner and ability to speak on the same levelas many young gamers is what most people found appealing and highly entertaining. His high level of energy is what made On the Spot and The Hotspot so popular.

  So, let's look at things the way they are.

  I have noticed, and have always asked about, how it is possible that Jeff Gerstmann could find so much time to do all he does. The videos, the reviews, the music, maintaining his Gamerscore, the Gamerscore Points Report videos, etc. Then it started slowing down. Where before it seemed like Jeff was reviewing all of the top games himself, other reviewers like VanOrd started popping up more regularly. What did this mean? Was he tired? Was he involved in other projects? Was he lacking motivation?

  It was inevitable that at some point Jeff was going to move on. It is the nature of the business. You can't sit stagnant in the same, high pressure, high stress position for too long without feeling like a failure. As Editor-in-Chief the only place he could be promoted to was a suit position at CNet. No fun at all. I think it just came as a surprise to everyone that it wasn't his choice. That and that it was possibly as a result of pressure from a third party over his mediocre review of Kane & Lynch.

  The quality of the video review, while still pretty professional, had a tense and hurried look about it. One could imagine that this video was done as a last hurrah, a big F-U to the bigwigs. Watch it and listen to his voice. The audio seems like it wasn't coming through especially well almost like he produced it in a very rushed manner. Its highly possible that this firing was a long time coming. We may never truly know the whole story. If Jeff was tired of the job, why would he admit it? If Eidos pressured GameSpot to fire him for posting the video review, why would they admit it? If GameSpot caved under said pressure, why would they admit it?

  I first heard the news from Kotaku, NeoGaf made it believable, but to me, the off-schedule Penny-Arcade comicmade it official. Then the horrible, horrible results at the Eidos forums inspired me to write this blog.

  Jeff will be ok. He is one of the most well known names in the industry and will have no problem finding a job in the same industry if he is interested. He has a legion of fans that would LOVE to have him working with the 1up group, myself included. 1up seems to allow its writers much more freedom. Something that I can fully picture Jeff doing. He has always seemed to me like he was bottling a lot of that energy and censoring himself. Without Luke Smith they could use a great persona like Jeff.

  Or Jeff could start something new, something independent. He has the know-how, the credibility and the following. How many of his co-workers would follow I wonder?

  Way to go Jeff! Go out with a bang! You will be missed and if you continue to do what you do so well, I will watch very closely.

  "..how can you kill a man without a heart?"

  

  Oh and people, don't punish GameSpot for the acts of CNet. Think about what you are doing. Assuming your petitions and cancellations do any monitary damage to GameSpot, you are just going to cost the hard working employees more jobs.

  It might not be up for long but here is the video in review. "Ugly ugly game"

  • Posted Nov 30, 2007 12:04 am GMT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 30 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
• 30Jul 07

  Top 10 Worst Action Game Quirks

  

  1 Platform Jumping Camera - God of War, arguably one of the best action platformers ever created, also happened to be riddled with some of the most frustrating and cheap camera position problems. In one of the Hades levels you are jumping from platform to platform (literally) but the camera is facing behind you. So many times you are jumping nearly blindly. It just so happens that there are moving, spinning spikes of death that happen to be just out of view until you jump right into their path. Zoom out ladies and gentlemen, zoom out.

  2 Convoluted Combos - Although they look really cool sometimes, again I have God of War in mind here, sometimes they don't add much to the game play.

  3 Off-Camera Enemies - This has got to stop. If you can't see them and you have no control of the camera to look at them. They shouldn't be able to hit you.

  4 Ammo Conservation - Does anyone really enjoy this? Is this really a necessary "strategy" concern in an action game? In RTS titles or games like Counter-Strike running out of ammo makes sense and I'm ok with that but not when it is so hard to come by. I stopped playing most of the Resident Evil games because I would run out of ammo and I refused to read a strategy guide for secrets and hints that are necessary to complete the game with a fair level of difficulty. Stabbing people with a dull knife gets old real quick when the bastards keep re-spawning and your ammo doesn't.

  5 Pointless Quick Time Events - They are enjoyable to a certain degree, but they were overdone in God of War and Tomb Raider. Sometimes I would honestly rather watch a cut scene then play through those repetitive events. Some of those kills in G.O.W. looked cool to watch but I had to zone them out so I wouldn't miss the button prompts.

  6 Cheap Hits - When you are fighting an enemy and it automatically locks on to them as your target, the enemies around you shouldn't be able to stun you with their attacks. Then you sit there and take a beating because your character gets stunned repeatedly and continuously. Eventually you get out of it but it is unnecessary damage that we could do without.

  7 Ridiculous Enemies - I have always admired the Minotaur designs in both movies and cartoons but God of War destroyed that. A Minotaur with armor wasn't as cool as it could be. Most of the game catered to the ancient tales and the videos on the disc even emphasized the importance of simplicity and brutality so I figured the same would apply to the enemies. To the most part it did. The final boss looked ****c, the serpent in the beginning looked great but then a Robocop imitating Minotaur? I figure they wanted some visible way to show the player that they were succeeding in killing the beast but perhaps they could've just used flesh and bone? That would've been crazy. Samus Aran did it in that ****c battle against Kraid in Super Metroid.

  8 Sexy Furries - What in the world are they thinking? Sex sells? Sure, I agree if they're talking about Lara Croft but what the hell is wrong with those developers drawing little animals with tube tops and big breasts in a game that caters to children? It's repulsive and a little scary.

  9 Out of Context Level Design - In 1993 Nintendo began a resurgence of the mine-cart level design which has now become a staple of the action game. Ok it can be fun but it just does NOT belong in some games. Gears of War did NOT need a mine cart level. In an otherwise serious "ass kicking" attitude game, watching a big hulky guy with giant armor rolling around in a steel cradle felt awkward and silly. I imagine that's why they had that silly accident flip with Dom. Slapstick humor in a level they probably didn't take seriously either. I think it would've been more fun to run around in the background controlling the tracks and killing enemies so that your compadres make it safe down the track.

  10 Swivel Cam Fall of Death - Super Mario 64 introduced this fantastic "feature." You are walking across a very thin path over a perilous drop. You are moving in 3D space moving your analog stick in the direction you want to go. Then as you progress across this tightrope of death, the camera quickly swings around and therefore changing the direction you were pointing. In God of War this continues and even swivels violently back and forth depending on which way you are looking.

  As a sidenote, as fantastic as I think God of War was it managed to combine many of the problems listed in my collection here sometimes in a single scene. Hanging from a tightrope with guys shooting arrows at you, guys hitting you from the left and the right and the normally cool but complex combos become a repetitive kick kick kick fest.

  What are your thoughts? Can you add more?

  

  • Posted Jul 30, 2007 11:10 pm GMT
  • Category: Editorial
  • 61 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg

See Previous Blog Posts