So, I have not posted anything here in about five years, and I figured I should let people know what I am up to, and maybe where things have gone.

If people are aware, I left here some time ago, because of the whole Jeff Gerstmann fiasco, as did many others. We still keep in contact on our own forum board, www.thevirtualunderground.net. Its a great place for old VU alumnai to hang out and shoot the breeze with one another.

As for myself, I was writing for a game blog some time ago, www.aeropause.com, but since about August 2011, I have transitioned to a new location, www.ggsgamer.com. I am doing reviews, editorial, news content and more, but the big thing is that I am setting up a US presence for the site, as it was primarily a UK site until last year. As with prior years, I am making sure that we get a lot of content, review items and what not, and I would love for all of my friends to come and check it out.

Also, I have been podcasting a storm, just starting up a new podcast about three months ago called, You Like the Worst Stuff. While it does have a focus on gaming, we also dive into movies, televisions, books and other items that are geek culture related. You can check it out and let us know what you think over at www.ggsgamer.com/podcasts/yltwsfeed.xml

I might come and visit a bit more often to the Gamespot site, now that it seems there has been a mea culpa of sorts between Gerstmann and the current Gamespot site, especially since Giant Bomb has been purchased by Gamespot parent, CBS Media. Hope you will all come and check out what I am doing and I will try to update a little more regularly. I am upset about losing my Top 100 reviewer badge, but since I am now reviewing semi-professionally (I have freelanced for a few Fox affiliates, YAY!), I cannot write them here. But you can check them out at the abovementioned sites.

Joe

If anyone is interested in reading my journal/blog from this point forward, point your browser to:
http://www.thevirtualunderground.net/mclazyj/blog/

Don't forget that we also have a nicely growing community of former Gamespot posters at:
www.thevirtualunderground.net/forums

Well, folks, I have been here for about four years, but that tenure has come to an end. I know that Gamespot is saying that it has nothing to do with the review and yadda, yadda, yadda, but I just don't feel the same about this site now. My membership has been cancelled, and I am going to fade away from this site. I may come back some day, but Gamespot has a long way to go to gain back my trust. I am sure that Gamespot will survive and will live on without me. Corporate machines tend to do that.

A few things before I go. I will leaveup my reviews and journal entries. They are part of my existence on this site, so I will leave them there.

If you want to see future reviews from me or writings, you can see me on Aeropause.com, which can be found at www.aeropause.com. We have forums and lots of good writers. We also have a great podcast and are looking to grow. Yeah, I am pimping the site I write for, but I feel we are good enough to do that.

If you just want a plain jane forum to post on that has a lot of the regulars, go to www.thevirtualunderground.net. It is a great site and we are slowly turning it into something. I hope more GS regulars can come and join us.

Also want to send a shout out to all the guys and gals from the VU here on Gamespot. We are legion and we will continue at thevirtualunderground.net. I also want to say hey to EvilTab and DevliHuntress. You two have become good friends of mine on this site and I look forward to continuing the conversation in the future.

If you want to get ahold of me outside of here, my email is tballfst (at) gmail (dot) com. If you have some gaming news you want to get posted, you can send me stuff at joseph (at) aeropause (dot) com. My MSN messenger id is the same as my tballfst email address. My user name on Steam and Xfire and Xbox Live is mclazyj.

See you in the ether.

Looks as if Gamespot cannot take the heat and have picked up their ball and gone home. The scathing words from the community seem to have taken a toll and now Gamespot has shut down the forum to all posters due to "technical reasons". I find that hard to believe. Anyone else think it might have something to do with all the rally cries behind Jeff and all the "I am cancelling my subscriptioin" posts. Hell, even the mods have revolted at this point.

The offer still stands to Jeff Gerstmann to join the Aeropause crew and vent on our podcast, anytime. And score one to the guys at Games for Windows, including my editorial hero Jeff Green who has stood up time and time again, denoucing the pay for review system. He has put his support behind Jeff and that means a lot. I am sure I will get modded at some point for these posts, but it will be worth it. Besides, I am going to cancel my membership anyways.

For over three years, I have been coming to this site for reviews, videos, content and the ever thriving community. It has always been a source of information and fun. Talking it up with fellow people in the VU has been one the best parts of this site. And all the people I have met through there, including DJLae, Oilers99, princesszelda, scomer, JonathanL, BionicDrunken and so many more I have not mentioned have made it a great place to continue. I would probably never be able to sever myself from the community.

All that being said, I cannot find myself trusting another review, preview or other item from this site in the forseeable future. How can I have trust in a site that would fire an employee for sticking to his moral integrity. Jeff felt that a game deserved a 6.0 rating. If the advertiser did not like that, tell them to pound sand and get another advertiser. Tell the community about why Eidos backed out of the agreement. That would have gained so much user goodwill that there would have been an immediate spike in subscribers, knowing where the integrity of the site was at.

Instead, we get an editor in chief fired because an advertiser wanted a better rating. Gamespot pulled the video review. And the man that worked for this site for 10 years recieves the boot for standing up to the corporate greed steamroller. I support him 100%. His decision has made me realize what it means to stand behind your words.

Gamespot, I have lost all faith in you. You mean nothing to me at this point. I will download patches, and I will stick with the community if it does not wither away and die after this travesty of a decision. I would hope that all the words of shame that are directed at you will make you realize that Jeff needs to be brought back. And an apology should be afforded him. And when the truth comes out about how you let him go for money and greed, I will cancel my subscription and take it somewhere else. Because I cannot subscribe to any site that would stifle the creative word of a tenured employee like Jeff Gerstmann, or would take money over honest words.

In parting, I would also like to extend an avenue for Jeff to speak his mind. Feel free to contact me or anyone else that runs a site here on Gamespot. Let your story be told, without the fear or reprocussions from Gamespot. You deserve that from us after all the fun we have had either bashing your reviews or laughing at your video antics. Good luck Jeff and I have always respected you even when I have totally disagreed with you. You deserved so much better than this.

I want to play this game, badly. But every time I go to launch it on the PC, it just bombs at the entry into the first mission. I have tried different resolutions, drivers, but to no avail. I have written Eidos support, but looking at the PC Kane and Lynch forum here, I am not the only one having a problem.

Our website, Aeropause.com,was nominated for the best Gamer Blog of the year by Godfree and crew at GamerTag Radio. It is days like this where it makes working on a game site so rewarding.

After 15 episodes and decent growth, I feel comfortable promoting our Aeropodcast to my friends, enemies and unclassified beings on Gamespot. I would love to get some feedback, commentary on the episodes and whether you like it or not.

The podcast feed is located here, or on iTunes, and you can Digg us if you think it is any good.

Thanks for reading and this is the end of the shameless plug.

Ho-lee Crap this game is amazing. I have just been floored by this game. Excellent work by Crytek. I am now more anxious to find an 8800GT as fast as humanly possible. I will have a full review in the near future. I have so many reviews that I have to write for the site I write for that I will have no time to write here it seems. I hope to have a lot of time after the holidays when the great game race of 07 passes.

I have now played through Portal for the third time and I now realize that I was crazy. Portal is absolutely awesome. I am not sure why I was not impressed the first time around, but as I have played it more and more, I am amazed at what it can do and how fun it can be to find new ways around the challenges. It is a great game and should be played by all. I even say that it could be Game of the Year material.