Jeff & Tim: What the flippin' hamburgers is going on?!
Shocking news as Jeff and Tim are removed from the staffing force of CNET's GameSpot website. Rumors are circling about the firings being because of the Kayne & Lynch reviews. If so, this is just a very horrible day in online reviews. There's been plenty of times I've said in the past that game companies pay for good reviews. I honestly think that's why games like Halo 3 get amazing reviews when the game isn't as astonishing as they'd want you to believe. Microsoft wouldn't have that. Aside from that, if this news is true, then this will basically prove that game reviews, mainly from the online community such as GameSpot, IGN, 1Up, are paid for advertisements from developers. With that in mind, I could honestly say that the only reason I'd ever come back to this website would be for the blog posting. The community is a major suckfest sometimes, and the reviews were sometimes at least worth reading. But many of you know, I have a big problem with ads in everything. Movies, games, television, magazines. I think advertising is retarded. For the people saying that in-game ads aren't bad, well, this is a sign that they are bad. Because, again, if this is true, this means that the review for the new Command & Conquer is brought to you by EA Games. It's a consistant flow of negative energy and a very, very horrible thing for gaming.
The weird thing is thinking: what if this isn't the reasoning? What if there's something else going on? I sure hope not. I didn't always agree with Jeff, mainly because of some of the reviews from the past (Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3 for PS2) and from the present (Halo 3), but that's just my opinion. I've agreed with him on a lot of other things, but that's just how we do things as humans. We agree and disagree, sometimes agreeing to disagree. I really just hope, for the sake of Jeff and Tim, that this is some sort of problem with CNET and not two guys personally. It's going to be very interesting as to how this plays out.
UPDATE: I just read this on Penny-Arcades blog...
"I will tell you the Gerstmann Story as we heard it. Management claimed to have spoken to Jeff about his "tone" before, and no doubt it was this tone that created tensions between their editorial content, the direction of the site, and the carefully crafted relationships that allowed Gamespot to act as an engine of revenue creation. After Gerstmann's savage flogging of Kane & Lynch, a game whose marketing investment on Gamespot alone reached into the hundreds of thousands, Eidos (we are told) pulled hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of future advertising from the site." See the rest here.
Claims are also going around Wired that it was because of continuously giving bad reviews. I dunno what to think. I've seen some of his reviews as 360 fanboyism. I've seen some as complete crap. Then again, I've seen some as greatness. What to believe...
-dryvby
