What a wonderfully written blog post, I really love reading your blog, you put so much interesting stuff in your blog

blooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooog

ethanraiden

wow...it must be so cool to be so unnaffected. thanks for replying with a post that adds absolutely nothing to the conversation.....i wish i was so cool i could just be pointless.

i have to admit that the last couple days ive been pretty steamed about recent events.

but after listening to the " HOTSPOT" podcast...i started thinking, yah cancelling my subscription might make me feel like im sticking up for gerstmann....but what about the other guys?

it does suck that one of my favorite game journalist alltogether got fired, but im not going to let that
effect what all the other great reviewers and editors here have done over the last 8 years i've spent keeping up
w/ gamespot.

Alex Navarro, Andrew Park, Ryan Davis, Brad Shoemaker, Brian Ekberg, Jason Ocampo, Aaron Thomas, Justin Calvert, Ricardo Torres, Ryan Macdonald, Tor Thorsen, Brendan Sinclair and all the rest of the gang were also there at the E3's, the on the spots, the hotspots, the gaming events, the holiday events. they were also there and they helped make this a site that felt like a bunch of friends.

my reaction was knee jerk, and i actually canceled my subscription....a mistake i will take back.

i hope alot of other people think about whos left, whos still here....and what these guys have done for us over all the years.

it easy to take the cynical point of view and just dismiss this site. but if it goes away, what will we have left. 1UP is great and all. but they can never replace the gamespot crew! and i mean that.

once again your not being genuine

when the cube launched at 249.99
the ps2 was 299.99

thats only fifty dollars more...so to then try and apply that scenario to the Wii when its 150 dollars cheaper is a reach to say the least.

and my freind brought up a good point about supply constraints....someone raied the point that why would a company purposely limit their pipeline of product?

well think tickle me elmo. those scenes of mothers pulling eachothers hair out on the news got more sales than 2 million dollars in advertising.

i know
i know....

im gonna get flamed for this but, i have to be honest...and say that most people who speak on the Wii's success just arent being genuine and leve out alot of points that are worth discussing.

for one. i keep hearing about how well the wii has sold. its hit historic numbers in such a small period of time. but did anyone even think to ask why?

the 360 was and is 400 bucks
the PS3 was 500-600 and is now 400 bucks
and the wii has always been 250 bucks....

thats half the price of their closest competition. absolutely price is a concern. but nobody ever really comes out and says "well yeah....obviously the cheaper console is going to sell". the media keeps citing the "innovative controls" of the Wii as a reaon for its success. but i would bewilling to bet the largest motivation for those Wii's selling would be........its cheapness.

secondly, shortages.
is it really that hard to make Wii's? many in the industry know like the rest of us, that nintendo is purposely restraining supply to inflate the sense of a shortage which in turn creates a perception of demand. i am sure that "the REGG" is working hand in hand w/ allof the media outlets to get images of desperate moms searching endlessly through the city streets for a coveted Wii onto you local nightly news. fa la la la la

and as far as the media...lets not get into the many copycat "commercial" like pieces that have been springing up lately. alot of websites posting "their" take on the Wii which just happens to look eerily familiar with other sites takes on the Wii. i mean we can pretty much assume these sites are being paid to post canned articles provided by good ole' NOA, but nintendo has denied this allegation...and its not like anyone will actually investigate this so...ah well

and thirdly...the games.
yes, there has been some great games...like 3 of them. but if your gonna be honest....the wii has now earned the reputation of the system with the most shovelware. thanks to an absolutely absent developer Q&A department, the wii has 20 brainquiz games for every SMgalaxy or zelda....

i just think people need to start using some perspective......so now , let me have it. flame me for using total common sense....

The problem with the blu-ray vs DVD9 argument is tha the PS3's 2x blu-ray drive is not outright superior to the x360's 12x DVD drive. The BR drive's read speed is slower and game devs want the fastest access possible to their game code. That's why PC games are installed onto the PC's HDD.

In order to achieve all this "extra" stuff on the game the PS3's 2x blu-ray drive is capable of, the loading times would be atrocious. And let's not forget the extra development time for all this extra content.

LosDaddie

i like how you fail to mention that the dvd9 is faster only on single layer disks. once you make a move to dual layer disks the 360 takes a considerable hit in read time.

that brings up a great point. so what is so inadequate about a 9.5?
i see 9.5 im thinkg this game is prolly as good as it gets.

doesnt that illustrate a game that must be bought regardless of a few minor issues?

i just dont get why anyone would be for awarding a game with some minor flaws a perfect score when anything between the spectrum of a 9-10 would be appropriate....unless

unless its actually about bragging rights. mabye somehow, just knowing that SMGalaxy recieved a perfectscore adds an additional value to the game itself. that mabye if we can ignore some minor flaws and still see through to awarding it a perfect score....that will show just how powerful the mario/miyamoto brand is.

all jokes aside....

shu from egm did an entire interview on 1up about how game companies try to buy a score with guaranteed first reviews of games. in other words "well let you review our game weeks in advance of other sources, but you have to promise us a certain score"

first reviews of big games equals bigger readership and better ad revenue

and this is shu. hes an indistry vet...if hes telling tlaes of underhanded deals.....is he full of it too?

oh i see. so by saying that 10/10 means perfection im actually forcing a predetermined perception of valuethat doesnt actually belong .. becasue inherently...no score matters becasue its all up to personal interpretation... i see.

well then. we could argue all day about that.

but the larger point thats being missed here. is this isnt about one game that some didnt feel deserved a certain score..
this is about a year, when more perfect scores have been handed out, when more big franchise games and new blockbuster ip's have been released. this is the year when 2 new systems mark their first bday and another fights to hold onto first place. this a year when all three consoles have so much on the line and need the games, the games to sell their systems and cement their future.

trips are paid
ads are bought
and results are expected. the big story we need to look at is...why are so many reviewers willing to over look elements of a game and still reward the highest score. is it simply becuse 10/10 in an abastract idea?...or something else?

actually both star waqrs and jurrassic park were not considered perfect....not by a long shot. while jurassic was a box office hit, some critics panned it.

and star wars was not initially taken serious by alot of critics who wrote of the childish nature of the film. it was panned for writing, and bad acting on the part of harrison ford.

i find it so funny that so many expect people to accept "their" interpretation of a 10/10 rather than what it actually factually definitively means. i keep hearing thata 10/10 means "a great games that cannot be missed, but may have some minor issues" and yet it deserves a score than cannot be scored higher.....becasue there isnt a higher score to award.

imagine this..... a game comes out that is both single player and online...its good but the online portion is broken and frustrating. the reviewer doesnt see this as an issue so in light of all the other elements he loves...he awards the game a 10/10.

so now we have a 10/10. fast forward to a week later, a gamer sees this game.....sees that it got 10/10. now hes not much into single player...but he loves online shooters...and this games online, says it right there on the ad. it ot 10/10 right! thats a perfect score...cant go any higher than that! its not as if the game company added an asterik at the bottom that stated

" while we have recieved a 10/10 for this game we must warn you that the reviewers did mention that the online portion of this game is broken..but since the single player was so good they still felt it warranted a 10/10. so if your buying this game for online please ignore the perfect score above and adjust based on your own preference"

the reality is that 10/10 means perfect.
ads in game magazines use it to portray perfection
and reviewers are making it far to easy to accept flaws (whatever size they may be)

am i claiming that a game can achieve a level where nothing could be better? no but handing out 10/10's like chiclets doesnt make game studios try any harder.

its not like if your rocket got 2,000 miles close to the moon...it landed on the moon. you either landed on the moon or you didnt.