Gaming World Forums
General Category => Entertainment and Media => Topic started by: Marcus on December 01, 2007, 11:37:02 pm
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First off, read this. It's pretty interesting. (http://kotaku.com/gaming/rumor/gamespot-editor-fired-over-kane--lynch-review-328244.php)
Now, those of you who frequent Gamespot for reviews probably know this guy as he usually rates "hyped" games with low scores like when he gave Twilight Princess an 8.8 and everyone on gamefaqs suddenly got bunched panties.
While him getting fired over the review itself is a rumor, it is fact that he was terminated AFTER the review itself.
So, the discussion is: did he get fired due to advertiser pressure? Or perhaps he knew that he was going to get let go so as final retribution, he unleashed an attack on an otherwise good game knowing full well that if gamespot took down his review, it would raise people's suspicions?
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(http://www.gamingw.net/pubaccess/25591/20071129.jpg)
Had to do this before anyone else :<
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If this is true, that he was fired for his review, then I agree that it sets a bad image for the validity of game reviews. If the companies behind the games can put the squeeze on writers then how objective will their reviews really be?
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Or perhaps he knew that he was going to get let go so as final retribution, he unleashed an attack on an otherwise good game knowing full well that if gamespot took down his review, it would raise people's suspicions?
Doubtful. Gamepro gave the game pretty much the same score (3/5) and Game Informer's(7/10) review wasn't much better. The game is only slightly better than average.
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I don't understand why so much weight is put on reviews when, in general, a review doesn't stop people from buying a game, or get people to buy the games. I mean, with the age of 360/PS3 demos, tons of internet coverage, I think a general interest in a game can be garnered well before a review comes out.
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Twilight Princess should have been an 11/10. :fogetangry:
He shouldn't have been fired over this. The metacritic score of this game is at about 65, which isn't far off from the score he gave. I think it's ridiculous that some people actually wanted him to be fired just because their beloved Zelda didn't get a high enough score. While I don't fully agree with most of his reviews, he still shouldn't have been fired over KANE & LYNCH.
Who had this game on their Christmas list anyway? Maybe I'm missing something.
I guess advertising has a bigger effect than I thought.
Edit: Now this is interesting.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/rumor/alleged-gamespot-employee-spills-guts-on-valleywag-328797.php
According to this RUMOR, he was fired over something of a larger scale. The review was made 2 weeks ago, long before he was fired....so maybe something else happened.
Just a rumor, though.
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Off topic but... Twilight Princess was boring shit. I was 4 hours in I still couldn't get into it. My Gamecube has been collecting dust since. The closed POINTATOPOINTB areas and the LOLITARGETSEVERYTHINGFORYOU aspect really killed the game for me.
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Jeff is an amazing reviewer, I like him more than any other reviewer, because while he calls it like it is, he also explains in thorough depth why he is calling it like it is, why he is giving it this score BROKEN DOWN. He explains himself.
Also, a bunch of other guys quit to....notice how the GameSpot frontpage hasn't been updated in any major way for like, the past couple days?
Yeah.
BTW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBD0cUeeEQc
^Jeff's last review.
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Wow, he tore that a part.
If he honestly got fired for this then that's pretty sad. If eidos can't handle their games being ripped up then maybe they should make better games???
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Even funnier news, Cnet was hacked and the gamefaqs poll was turned into something ridiculous. I have a screen capture somewhere around here...
EDIT: lol here we wo
(http://www.gamingw.net/pubaccess/26699/gamefaqspoll.jpg)
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Even funnier news, Cnet was hacked and the gamefaqs poll was turned into something ridiculous. I have a screen capture somewhere around here...
Yepyep :D
(http://www.gamingw.net/pubaccess/52136/gamefaqs-gerstmann-poll.jpg)
Also Jeff totally went easy on Kane & Lynch...
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I like the banner ad over at Destructoid (http://www.destructoid.com/).
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Off topic but... Twilight Princess was boring shit. I was 4 hours in I still couldn't get into it. My Gamecube has been collecting dust since. The closed POINTATOPOINTB areas and the LOLITARGETSEVERYTHINGFORYOU aspect really killed the game for me.
This!!
Also, I doubt he was fired for giving this game in particular a low score. I don't remember what the corporate world calls it, but I think it starts with "r" and is a synonym for "revenge". Anyway, it's illegal to fire someone for a reason like that.
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Him: You forget.
We have an International VgMAF1A. The VgMAF1A cuts away the dissenters like a fat aristocrat eats ham on rye with fancy Dijon mustard.
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I read about it yesterday over at IGN's I think and it's messed up. I've actually been considering picking up Kane & Lynch seeing as I love the Hitman series and I figured it couldn't be THAT bad since honestly speaking, Hitman games have ranged between 7 and 8 and I've had far more fun with those than a lot of the 8-9-10 games (for instance, Viva Pinata or GRAW or even Rainbow Six Vegas).
But fuck no, fuck this shit. I'm not getting that game. And I'll prolly pirate the next hitman instead of buying it. That's gay shit.
edit: No wait, I didn't read it at IGN but it wasn't here either... Can't remember where though :/
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It looked pretty cool, but if reviewers are getting fired over their opinions I think something is seriously messed up. Hopefully he goes to a good site like Gamecritics.com or something similar as I actually quite enjoyed his reviews. I didn't agree with all of them, but he always explained why he was giving that score.
Also, I'm usually not the biggest fan of PA, but that comic is fantastic.
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I read about it yesterday over at IGN's I think and it's messed up. I've actually been considering picking up Kane & Lynch seeing as I love the Hitman series and I figured it couldn't be THAT bad since honestly speaking, Hitman games have ranged between 7 and 8 and I've had far more fun with those than a lot of the 8-9-10 games (for instance, Viva Pinata or GRAW or even Rainbow Six Vegas).
But fuck no, fuck this shit. I'm not getting that game. And I'll prolly pirate the next hitman instead of buying it. That's gay shit.
edit: No wait, I didn't read it at IGN but it wasn't here either... Can't remember where though :/
yeah you know ratings are based on how good a GAME it is
if you like the genre youll more than likely like it regardless of how crappy it is (i know i like nearly (read: nearly) all fps games because i just like shooting gun's)
so yeah you really shouldnt get a game if its a 10 just cos its a 10 (why the fuck did you get viva pinata it seems like the sort of game only people who KNOW they'll like it would get)
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well generally i avoid games of genres i prolly wont like but viva pinata seemed pretty different from anything i'd tried, and i'm a fan of simulation/tycoon games which arent too far off but still didnt like it >8(
u so angry jester
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Anyway, for a more serious post.
Basically the general post seems to be LOL he got fired for a REVIEW, but what do you expect a reviewer to get fired for? We don't know the full story, there could be a very good reason for firing someone (you don't fire someone for having a different opinion etc).
But yeah, if it's true and gamespot is actually the SHOCKINGLY elitist nemesis as everyone is making it out to be, then that's pretty bad. But the theory of a reviewer/critic is getting pretty old now, considering everyone should be slowly figuring out that everyone has different opinions on things, and so relying on what one person tells you isn't the most reliable thing in the world. But that's for another time, I guess.
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Well, in truth I think Eidos is the bad guy here if it's true. Threatening to pull out funding for a bad review? That's bribery. Gamespot clearly didn't have to take it but Eidos shouldn't have put them in that position anyway.
If it's true.
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I watched the review and I have to say that a lot of the stuff that he brings up isn't that hard to believe.
If there's no two player online mode, then why the hell not?
if the cover mechanics are poorly developed, then Eidos should have turned around and patched the code that handles them (hell, the 360 is like patch city).
The online mode, like he said, does seem interesting, but if the story mode is crap, then you'll get nowhere... Unless you happen to be Halo 3 of course.
If he lost his job over the review, that's definitely a black mark on the Gamespot name, but who knows what else has happened to get him kicked out.
I rarely rely solely on reviews though as modern consoles can download demo versions (OK, so the Wii hasn't got this yet, but it's not far off (Japan has it)) and when I do use reviews, I tend to use those written by normal gamers rather than by one of the big sites.
P.S.
While I can't say Twilight Princess was an awful game (I have the Wii version), I'd say 8.8 is about right (if not more than I'd give it) due to some issues with how it plays (right, so I have to kill that with my bow while riding a horse, but I can't aim without my horse trying to run into a wall).
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To be honest, this really shouldn't be a big deal. But I can't help but be personally affected by this. I mean, sure we don't know why he was fired. But he was the reason why I visited GameSpot regularly. He gave that otherwise shit site some PERSONALITY and offered some unique VOICE. Ju st to hear him something funny....
JEFF GERSTMANN IS A HERO HE IS A TRUE PERSON A MAN WE ALL WANT TO BE DESPITE GENDER AGE WEIGHT AND SKIN COLOR.
WHETHER HE WAS FIRED DUE TO A POOR RATING OR NOT, HE LEFT AS A TRUE HERO AND I WISH THE BEST OF LUCK TO HIM
LETS SET UP A JEFF GERSTMANN TRUST FUND
This really had a significant impact on my current state of depression.
I think the following video really expresses my opinions on why I used to like gamespot so much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVNAipnLgkY
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Basically the general post seems to be LOL he got fired for a REVIEW, but what do you expect a reviewer to get fired for? We don't know the full story, there could be a very good reason for firing someone (you don't fire someone for having a different opinion etc).
But yeah, if it's true and gamespot is actually the SHOCKINGLY elitist nemesis as everyone is making it out to be, then that's pretty bad. But the theory of a reviewer/critic is getting pretty old now, considering everyone should be slowly figuring out that everyone has different opinions on things, and so relying on what one person tells you isn't the most reliable thing in the world. But that's for another time, I guess.
He wasn't fired because he didn't like Kate n Lynch, he was fired because he didn't like Kate n Lynch and they had about a million ads on it every goodamn where on the entire fucking site which Eidos paid a lot of money for. Eidos got pissed, told them to, basically fire the guy, or their business connection ends here. Business decision, nothing personal, you're just supposed to take our ad rotation into account when grading games, chap.
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Jeff and Greg Kasavi n were real american heroes. RIP
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Is he the same guy that scored Simpsons Hit & Run an 8? If so, good riddance.
Edit: It wasn't him. They should fire the other guy who did write it however since that game is sheit.
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Is he the same guy that scored Simpsons Hit & Run an 8? If so, good riddance.
This is exactly what all the hubub is about. Supposedly this fellow would review games lower than usual, or say actually have an independant opinion about high-profile games. Does this man truly deserve to lose his job (not to say that's what actually happened) because you are unimpressed with his review? The reason there's such a large number of review sites out there is so people can read several reviews and formulate draw their own conclusions. If the authors are afraid to be truthful when reviewing a hyped-up title, then what's the point of reading reviews? Why should we even care about the content of the next Halo or Mario game; why not just ASSUME it's a 10/10 because of the advertising campaign? It's a reviewers job (I would hope) to give actual insight into the game, not jerk off the developer without question or fear the wrath of angry fanboys.
But if he was having sex with the cleaning staff and got canned, then fuck him.
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I think the following video really expresses my opinions on why I used to like gamespot so much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVNAipnLgkY
Hahahha, that's awesome.
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Well, based on what that article stated about his reviews for games like Twilight Princess and Tony Hawk 3, I don't think I would agree with his reviews. But, if he was indeed fired for his opinions on games. That is absolute bullshit. Of course reviews of games, can give some good insight on whether or not to play or buy a game. But, deep down, isn't it all relative to what the individual gamer thinks, and wants out of a game? A little higher in the thread, Lars mentioned he's had more fun playing games ranked as 7 or 8s, rather than 10/10. So, as much as I'm not sure if I'd agree with his reviews on games. He should not be fired for those same reviews. If he was, I really hope that the people at X-Play are doing job hunting, on the side.
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I think the following video really expresses my opinions on why I used to like gamespot so much:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVNAipnLgkY
THAT's him? That guy was awesome :(
I liked watching the video reviews at GameSpot when he was reviewing.
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If he was, I really hope that the people at X-Play are doing job hunting, on the side.
Except almost everyone on G4 is either fired or decides to leave, and I seem to remember hearing (although it might just be a rumor) they are changing formats completely soon.
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Except almost everyone on G4 is either fired or decides to leave, and I seem to remember hearing (although it might just be a rumor) they are changing formats completely soon.
Even the hosts of X-play? Though for some reason, I'm under the suspicion that they just read off the reviews, and question them actually reviewing many of the games themselves. Awhile ago they had a top 10 of the best games they had reviewed. I wasn't too impressed with it.
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Except almost everyone on G4 is either fired or decides to leave, and I seem to remember hearing (although it might just be a rumor) they are changing formats completely soon.
I used to really like TechTV back when it was a technology channel. Its videogame content was limited to X-Play, which was good, because it is pretty much the worst show ever! After the G4 merger it seemed like the entire channel was a very long and even worse episode of X-Play and I'm not surprised that they're switching formats.
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I used to really like TechTV back when it was a technology channel. Its videogame content was limited to X-Play, which was good, because it is pretty much the worst show ever! After the G4 merger it seemed like the entire channel was a very long and even worse episode of X-Play and I'm not surprised that they're switching formats.
TechTV was the best, but G4....I don't see how anyone watches it. It pretty much has already shifted formats, but it'll supposedly be doing it officially soon. Sounds like it's going to be more syndicated stuff like Cops and Star Trek. Basically it is going to be Spike TV. My guess is that X-Play will be gone soon. I vaguely remember my brother telling me that Morgan Webb was leaving completely (unless she already has, it's not like I've watched it in years).
Luckily all the good stuff about TechTV is pretty much regrouped online now.
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Tech TV was so great back in the day; I remember my brother winning a free camera on one of those great shows they had.
Then G4 came, gutted the network, removed all of the good programming and replaced it with garbage like: game reviews by that colossal douche bag: Tommy Tallarico. COMPETITIVE GAMING MATCHES (OH FUCKING JOY!), "Attack of the show" which was essentially a bunch of high school drop outs gathered around a basement being idiots and finally Cheat: hosted by what's essentially a walking vagina: this dumb skank reads game cheats easily found online from a tele-prompter.
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You lost me when you insulted Kristin Holt.
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I'm surprised no one has cursed Beth Ostrosky yet for completely gutting The List. I miss that other host, whose name I forget, back when the show was a list, show about games or technology or something enjoyable. Anything Beth Ostrosky seems to talk about on those shows, can be found in those fucking celebrity magazines.
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Now I'm going to have to READ the first review ever since video reviews became the norm - to see what all the fuss is about.
Also, as a HUGE Zelda fan, I can assure you that Zelda didn't deserve anymore than 8.5. The game didn't move the series one bit and actually made me realize how good Wind Waker was. Nothing can touch Majora's Mask though.
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"Kane & Lynch Site Fibbing About Reviews, Scores" (http://kotaku.com/gaming/kane-%26-lynch/kane--lynch-site-fibbing-about-reviews-scores-329529.php)
further proof of this shit.
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There are fake 5 star reviews on every language of the site.
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"Kane & Lynch Site Fibbing About Reviews, Scores" (http://kotaku.com/gaming/kane-%26-lynch/kane--lynch-site-fibbing-about-reviews-scores-329529.php)
further proof of this shit.
Man, this is pretty fucking disgusting!
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Is there any news on what he's planning on doing now? I don't really read game reviews but I know my brother read his and I hope someone like a magazine gives him a job.
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Nope, but with his reputation of thorough, true reviews, this whole K&L deal, he has so much publicity right now he will most likely get snagged by someone very quickly.
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http://www.gamespot.com/news/6183603.html
Here's what gamespot has to say about it in their news section.
It's a pretty pathetic article, since it doesn't say anything about why the guy got fired. But now that the fake scores on Eidos' site have been exposed, you can't really believe anything anyone says. Two suspicious stories on the same game? I don't think that's a coincidence.
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Hahahha, reading the comments is hilarious. ARGH I AM DONE WITH GAMESPOT.
Even the few thousand people who leave isn't going to affect anything for gamespot. Even though I think what they did is terrible, I will continue visiting. Why? Because the only other site I know of that does the same thing well is IGN and I like IGN a lot less. Besides, reviews don't affect me. I just go to the site to watch videos and see if I might like a game.
jeff interview
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Jeff-Gertsmann-Speaks-The-Review-and-His-Future-72588.shtml
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I really like Gamespot because they are always up-to-date on everything related to games. You have to take some of their reviews with a grain of salt though because there are some flaws that pretty much result in a low score, like bugs in the game. It's understandable though, since games really should be released without as many problems as they usually have, but some games are real gems beneath all their flaws.
I think in general, they're pretty accurate with their reviews. Just keep in mind that anything above a 6.5 might be worth looking into.
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About the 5 stars thing. As long as they are not in the quotes, they can put whatever they want over it. It's awfully not honest but everyone does it, game sites, movies whatever.
And I think it just goes to prove a point. Don't get your reviews on one site only and try to diversify. Try looking at gamers blog or even here.
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thats great
except 99.9% of what they quote aren't from reviews either.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/eidos/kane--lynch-site-drops-five-star-reviews-329910.php
So they removed the stars, but kept the fake reviews...
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This is a hilarious story. I kind of think Eidos is scrambling right now in an attempt to redeem their name.
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http://www.gamespot.com/pages/features/hotspot/index.php?id=661&om_act=convert&om_clk=multimodule&tag=multimodule;picks;title;1
The guys talk about their shit.
Their point of view is a lot more interesting than anything I've heard the past week.
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You see all of the user reviews for the game after they learned that he was fired? All 1.0 haha... But man seriously, you look at the top 10 games and they're all above 9... Then at the #5 spot you got this game that got like a 6 rating in there... Doesn't fit and you can clearly see the bias...
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You see all of the user reviews for the game after they learned that he was fired? All 1.0 haha... But man seriously, you look at the top 10 games and they're all above 9... Then at the #5 spot you got this game that got like a 6 rating in there... Doesn't fit and you can clearly see the bias...
The top 10 list is generated from interest, not score. As in, the amounts of clicks on the game or an article related to the game.
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A recent Gamespot "On the Spot" episode is a 1 hour tribute to Gerstmann...
Jeff...we miss you...