Tom McShea is back???

Seriously, score was way too high.

WHAT? Bite your tongue you...you, LIAR!! :P

I loved that game!

One of the worst reviewers ever.

@Heil68: Dude, the game was horrrrrible haha.

So boring and I usually enjoy those types

I (gulp) agree with Heil, I also loved that game, out of curiosity what did he score it???

Gamespot is saved.

I'mm tellin ya, he gets so BH every time I post something good about L.O. he has this incessant need to tell me how wrong I am when in reality he's just got very poor taste in games. lolol :P

Back in the days GS used to do .5 increments..It got a 7.5

@SecretPolice: Whenever I see LO or Skyrim (sucks ass) mentioned, I have to comment. Its in my blood.

I'll say this, LO is better than Skyrim!

@Chutebox: Lol, I hear ya man. We are in agreement on LO >> Skyrim since I got my character to about level 7 or 8 on that one and quit feeling like I've been there done that all before in Oblivion.

In hindsight, McShea was right to give some of the controversial scores that he did, whether it was 7.5 for Skyward Sword or 8 for The Last of Us.

@Jag85: He was right about Zelda.

Dead wrong on TLOU. His excuses for why he gave it an 8/10 were laughable. I still remember that video review he did. He didn’t understand anything about the game.

I question if he actually played it.

The two negatives he mentioned in the summary ("Supporting characters are rarely sympathetic" and "Combat contains too many immersion-breaking exploits") are both true.

Damn, then he low balled it. It was a definite 9 for me.

MS needs to fund the sequel ASAP.

I agree. Let's cut his tongue off!

People laugh at me, but I think it's the best 360 game. The only part I didn't do was that challenge maze area after you finished the game. Love it. Maxed both White/Black magic with lots of grinding and End boss was laughable,

Psh, bring it bitches!

We're coming for ya! :P

Considering his profile says member and not Staff, ya I think that is a good bet that he did a freelancer.

In b4 reinstatement of the SW Meta Game.

I don't really respect his reviews to be honest, he gave Skyward Sword a 7.5... It's most certainly not a 7.5 game.

No, seriously what am I supposed to feel? Angry? Happy? Hungry?

You know, this what I always think about you whenever you talk about Nintendo games. Except, I know for certain you never played them.

Then again, that is to be expected from corporate slaves.

It's a sad thing for Gamespot that a reviewer like him actually improves their reviews.

You mean the dungeon DLC where you had to kill the boss in 3 turns or you're toast???

It wasn't the DLC. It was the Temple of Enlightenment.

".Be sure this is your last stop when you're running around doing side quests, else you'll see the game over screen a few times too often than you'll want. You'll be here a long time, several hours, even if you follow our steps and don't get lost. The benefit of course is the fact that your party will gain levels quickly here, perhaps even breaking 70 by the time you're done.

I didn't want to follow a guide to get through it and from what I read it's insane to do it without guide. I was satisfied with game, truly remarkable gaming experience, story, characters and art.

All I remember from him is that he complained about things in games he reviewed that were factually not issues. He some how didn't know that you could heal your health by draining energy in inFAMOUS 2, he didn't realize how the bow controls worked in Skyward Sword and he didn't understand the camera in a certain version of Prince of Persia.

He better actually pay more attention to what he's playing if he's back.

I concur. I gave it a 6 and that was below Spirit Tracks!

people acting like an 8 out of 10 is a bad thing. WTF is wrong with you people?

Agreed. Now, if it was Kevin Van Ord or Danny O'Dwyer, that'd be another thing...

Yep. It's a 6.0 game.

All this ^

And? It's his review and his personal reaction to it. It is so much more interesting than just consumer advice, which normally results in telling gamers what they want to hear.

@biggest_loser: Except his personal reaction wasnt interesting it was predictable.

Yes! Have no idea who the bland reviewers of GS- nowadays even are. Tom was anything but bland. Need him to review the new God of War!

Except his personal reaction wasnt interesting it was predictable.

No one predicted that Skyward Sword review :)

Guy was an embarrassment and I hope this is a fleeting visit.

@JustPlainLucas:

what did you not like about the game?

Lots of things. For one, I hated the world design. A massive land to explore with only three accessible areas under the clouds that you could access, which were then revisited. I hate games that do that. I also didn't like the controls that much. The first encounter with Ghirhim was maddeningly frustrating as the game always registered my backswing as a swing can cause me to strike when I didn't want to. You could also break the bird's controls by waggling too much causing him to fly out of control. There was the nonstop handholding and patronizing instructions every time you picked up something of which you've picked up numerous times before. It was the worst in any Zelda game I played. Also didn't like the those trials where you had to pick up those stones or whatever. They were fun for a couple rounds, but they became tedious later on and I did not look forward to doing them. It honestly just wasn't as exceptional as everyone was making it out to be and I love Zelda games.

Well, the first shouldn't be a negative. They aren't meant to be sympathetic and there's no reason they need to be. Then there's the whole text of his review. Right at the beginning of the game, the main character gets home late and he makes the illogical jump that he must be a criminal drug dealer, making him not like the character and instantly start looking for flaws in the game. He then goes on about the brutality of combat, when it's not supposed to be pleasant and sanitized like normal shooters.

I still don't quite get the hate Skyward Sword gets here. Felt like a solid 8.5 to me. Only issues I had with SS were its learning curve for its controls (I'll admit, it took damn near 18 hours for me to master), Fi constantly trying to one up Navi on the annoying scale and treating Link like he's an idiot with her constant hand holding, and probably the lack of utilization out of its Sky World which felt nearly as empty as Wind Wakers seas. Beyond that, I definitely enjoyed the gameplay and story...

If it's a cinematic game, then it should be judged on its narrative merits. If a film has shallow supporting characters, that would be treated as a negative by film critics. There's no reason why cinematic games should get a free pass for things that films would be criticized for.

The review only says "works questionable jobs". To interpret that as "must be a criminal drug dealer" is an illogical jump. His dislike of Joel mainly comes down to his brutal behavior, not what his job may have been.

Tom actually clarified it in one of the round table discussion videos that GS had a little after the game released. He said that Joel was a drug dealer, and everyone else was like, "what?". And he doesn't say they are shallow characters, he said unsympathetic, not the same thing. There's no rule that says everyone, or even the protagonist, must have a heart of gold. His leap to Joel as a criminal, instead of as a single father working long hours and trying to raise his daughter, clearly colored the rest of his views on the game in a negative light. He stopped caring about the protagonist, which made him not care to really think about the supporting cast, that may not blatantly exude hope and optimism, to even try to sympathise.

@asylumni: Do you have a link to where McShea called him a drug dealer?

I think this might be it, but I'm at work on a cell & haven't had a chance to confirm.