Good news...for Rock Band PS3 owners. Looks like Harmonix is making a patch to allow Guitar Hero 3 controllers to be used with Rock Band. Sure, Xbox 360 owners have been enjoying this luxury since day one, but better late than never, right?
Halo 3 DLC...certainly has a nice ring to it, so it's nice to see that it's being released next week. 1up.com has the goods on the three new multiplayers maps available for download from Xbox Live. Price for all three maps is set at 800 Microsoft Points, which according to MSPconverter.com is $10.
Sexual harrassment...charges against Ninja Gaiden creator and developer bad boy Tomonobu Itagaki have been resolved, and Itagaki declared innocent. I guess he can focus on making Ninja Gaiden 2 even bloodier and insulting his competition now that this is taken care of.
Don't forget...the new Grand Theft Auto 4 trailer, premiering tomorrow at 3pm EST. One could argue that we should be playing it right now instead of watching another trailer for it, but I for one am happy that I don't have yet another AAA title in my queue of games after this fall's onslaught of incredible titles.
Paradise...will be available for all on Dec. 13. That's when EA said a demo for Burnout Paradise, the latest entry in the acclaimed racing series, will be available for Playstation Network and Xbox Live. The full game, which features more open-ended online multiplayer and highly detailed graphics, is schedule for release on January 22, 2008.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
N'Gai's Article -- Don't Grade This Post
Don't count this entry as necessarily part of the assignment, but I just had to post this as an addendum to my previous post about conflict of interest, Jeff Gerstmann, Gamespot, etc.
This article is from N'Gai Croal and the Level Up blog which I tried to model my own blog after. His writeup of the Gerstmann situation and the larger relationship between publishers and the gaming enthusiast press is absolutely amazing...poetic and power...and is an excellent example of how powerful blogs can be. Yes, it's long, full of jargon, in-jokes, and references that you probably wouldn't get if you didn't follow gaming news, but it's incredibly insightful. And most of all, it's proof that N'Gai is an amazingly talented writer.
This article is from N'Gai Croal and the Level Up blog which I tried to model my own blog after. His writeup of the Gerstmann situation and the larger relationship between publishers and the gaming enthusiast press is absolutely amazing...poetic and power...and is an excellent example of how powerful blogs can be. Yes, it's long, full of jargon, in-jokes, and references that you probably wouldn't get if you didn't follow gaming news, but it's incredibly insightful. And most of all, it's proof that N'Gai is an amazingly talented writer.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Examining Gerstmann, Conflict of Interest, and the Nature of Review Scores
The Jeff Gerstmann situation is something that seemed sort of inevitable to me. This sort of advertising-vs.-game reviews confrontation has been bubbling under the surface for years now, and it seems that Gerstmann is finally the turning point. No stranger to controversial reviews after he gave widely praised Zelda: The Twilight Princess an 8.8/10, his 6.0 score of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men stirred the pot again. His video review certainly didn't make publisher Eidos any happier. According to a Gamespot tipster, Eidos threatened to withhold hundreds of thousands or future advertising for the site unless something was done about the review, and complained of Gerstmann's negative "tone".
This conflict of interest has been a focal point of complaints about game reviews on Gamespot and other gaming news sources for years. Comments on message boards and letters to gaming magazines are constantly questioning the objectivity and fairness of various sites, claiming sites favor one company or another (usually between Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo) or give high profile games with big advertising budgets better reviews. This controversy is sure to only add fuel to the fire. Whether or not Gerstmann was the fall guy in this situation, the timing is definitely suspicious.
The controversy brings to mind another complaint that readers have had with game reviewers recently: the scores of reviews for games. What's the difference between a 7.5/10 and an 8/10? Does the number mean anything? Apparently yes, because reviews without some sort of final number are unheard of in the reviews industry, gaming and otherwise. So what determines that number? In Gerstmann's case, if he had given Kane & Lynch a 7.0 or 8.0/10, would he have been fired? How much do the review numbers effect game sales?
I'd like to think that the game reviews I read every day aren't effected by advertiser pressure or sales figures, especially from a large, highly respected site like Gamespot.com...but the reality, it seems, might be just that.
This conflict of interest has been a focal point of complaints about game reviews on Gamespot and other gaming news sources for years. Comments on message boards and letters to gaming magazines are constantly questioning the objectivity and fairness of various sites, claiming sites favor one company or another (usually between Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo) or give high profile games with big advertising budgets better reviews. This controversy is sure to only add fuel to the fire. Whether or not Gerstmann was the fall guy in this situation, the timing is definitely suspicious.
The controversy brings to mind another complaint that readers have had with game reviewers recently: the scores of reviews for games. What's the difference between a 7.5/10 and an 8/10? Does the number mean anything? Apparently yes, because reviews without some sort of final number are unheard of in the reviews industry, gaming and otherwise. So what determines that number? In Gerstmann's case, if he had given Kane & Lynch a 7.0 or 8.0/10, would he have been fired? How much do the review numbers effect game sales?
I'd like to think that the game reviews I read every day aren't effected by advertiser pressure or sales figures, especially from a large, highly respected site like Gamespot.com...but the reality, it seems, might be just that.
Monday Power Ups
Together...shall Activision and Vivendi be, after their $18.9 billion merger. Vivendi owns Blizzard Entertainment, creators of 9 million-plus seller and pop culture wunderkind World of Warcraft, and Activision recently overtook Electronic Arts as the most profitable game publisher thanks to blockbuster franchises Guitar Hero, Call of Duty, and Tony Hawk. The newly created conglomerate, named Activision Blizzard, will become the largest game publishing company in the world. The stock market seems to be responding positively to the news, while others are saying this move will be bad for gamers.
Unsurprisingly...in the same press release, Activision confirms that Guitar Hero 4, Call of Duty 5, and Tony Hawk 11 are in the works. Yes, eleven.
Gerstmann-gate...continues, with the latest shot made my Gamestop, claiming that advertising pressure has nothing to do with Gerstmann's sudden and controversial firing. Gerstmann, the editorial director for game review site Gamespot until Thursday, was recently fired after his review of Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was published. An inside source at Gamespot claims that Gerstmann was fired "on the spot" due to advertising pressure from Eidos; at the time that the review was published, ads for the new literally covered the front page of the site. Many suspect Gerstmann's firing is a conflict of interests; a campaign to virtually boycott Gamespot and its host CNet has been started by angry gaming community members.
Nintendo...shows us how to make online friends in the upcoming Smash Bros. Brawl. Unfortunately it looks as unintuitive and inconvenient as most of Nintendo's online community services have been so far (contrast Nintendo's 12-digit Friend Codes unique to every game with Microsoft's streamlined Xbox Live service).
PS3 shows signs up life...after reportedly more than tripling sales during the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
Unsurprisingly...in the same press release, Activision confirms that Guitar Hero 4, Call of Duty 5, and Tony Hawk 11 are in the works. Yes, eleven.
Gerstmann-gate...continues, with the latest shot made my Gamestop, claiming that advertising pressure has nothing to do with Gerstmann's sudden and controversial firing. Gerstmann, the editorial director for game review site Gamespot until Thursday, was recently fired after his review of Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men was published. An inside source at Gamespot claims that Gerstmann was fired "on the spot" due to advertising pressure from Eidos; at the time that the review was published, ads for the new literally covered the front page of the site. Many suspect Gerstmann's firing is a conflict of interests; a campaign to virtually boycott Gamespot and its host CNet has been started by angry gaming community members.
Nintendo...shows us how to make online friends in the upcoming Smash Bros. Brawl. Unfortunately it looks as unintuitive and inconvenient as most of Nintendo's online community services have been so far (contrast Nintendo's 12-digit Friend Codes unique to every game with Microsoft's streamlined Xbox Live service).
PS3 shows signs up life...after reportedly more than tripling sales during the week of Thanksgiving and Black Friday.
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