The Whole Gamespot Fiasco

So Jeff Gertsmann *formerly* of Gamespot has finally spoken about his recent firing. An article on joystiq talks about it, and informs you what he's been thinking about. Here it is Gertsmann Speaks.

So if you haven't been trolling any gaming news site or blog (meaning for some reason this is your only source of gaming news *gasp*) and you haven't heard about the whole Gamespot and CNET deal, here's a quick rundown. Basically rumors have been flying around that Jeff Gertsmann, a long-time editor of Gamespot (one of the more trusted gaming website for news and reviews), was fired apparently over a poor review he gave the game Kane and Lynch. Gamespot had been running ads like crazy prior to this review, and people are suspecting foul play, that the higher-ups at CNET (company that owns Gamespot) were unhappy with Gertsmann's review and thus fired him.

Now I'm not completely clueless about journalistic integrity, and something like this obviously opposes the values that journalists hold. Being payed to put up a good review? Blasphemy. While I do agree it's virtually impossible to put up a truly objective review of game (after all, you need to score it and give your impressions), one can manage an objective light in terms of relativity to other games. I've never played Kane and Lynch, and I don't plan to, but I really haven't heard anything that astounding from it. IGN gave it a dismayal 7/10, stating it wasn't that it was hyped up to be. If all of this controversy about Gertsmann being fired over his review (which I've seen, you can find it on youtube) is true, then I fully support Gertsmann. Gamespot itself has been under riot too, the reader reviews for Kane and Lynch was bombarded with 1.0s, forcing them to disable score submitting from readers. Even the forums were getting spammed with protests and uses wanting their accounts disabled. The poor innocent forum moderators had to clean it up as best as they could too.

This brings me to the whole idea of the miracles the internet can bring. It can start digital revolutions and reveal lies and deceit. Anonymity and ease of use provide a very compelling platform for an average Joe to suddenly become Captain Revolution. Take for example the whole HD-DVD key thing that happened over Digg, where users kept flooding the news with the HD-DVD code. Kevin Rose, under pressure from those that sponsor his site, tried to contain the code at first. In the end resistance was futile, he had to give in as it was obvious the Digg users wanted the code revealed, stating "freedom of speech" and other loosely used rights. There's also the internet phenomenon Ron Paul (I have no say, I don't follow politics and don't really plan to). He's apparently gained a huge following over the internet, where apparently it is one of the only places he can spread his ideas and messages as the mainstream media is cutting his time short and making him look bad. The internet contains so much information, and allows anyone to add or access this information, that it cannot be simply censored by some organization or government.

Enough of that though. I'd thought I might give you some news on an upcoming Wii game that I think looks pretty damn awesome. No More Heroes is a game from Ubisoft that looks like it could be a sick game. I'm sure it'll obtain a cult following at the very least. You play as an assassin aiming to kill every assassin better than you and become number one. Not much of a story line, but the gameplay looks like it could incorporate the Wiimote very well. While the graphics on the Wii are obviously subpar to the other 2 consolers, Ubisoft tried to stylize the game instead and make it look good that way. The style itself looks good, but overall the graphics don't look as good as they could. It's still a bit plain and seems to lack too much detail. Mind you, this is all based off of screenshots and video footage, which you can find at IGN.com. If you've got a Wii, I think you should watch out for No More Heroes. Here's a screenshot of the main character for your viewing pleasure. As you can tell I borrowed it from 1up.com