Hardcore Gamer

[Yoshi]

I want whatever is in the water in AZ. sleeve has been kicking ass lately.

I try to avoid covering ... stuff that I have no business reviewing

That's hard in a gaming magazine.

[AaronChance]

Also, how about giving final reviews using the preview copies? If you want your reviews to be borderline relevant timewise, jump the gun.

Some do when possible, sometimes when a preview version isn't finished it isn't possible because it's too unfinished, or in some cases buggy, to give it a fair shake. Even if it's just being localized, there's plenty that can change from early preview to the final copy.

The above one is shitty Jeremy-like bad videogame writing, and the bottom one is shitty fanboy-ish unprofessional bad videogame writing. Both are depressingly common.

Agreed. Probably why I very rarely read any sort of VG reviews anymore. Though even if you write something that's professional enough to pass for real journalism, far too few people are going to care anyway, so there's not really an incentive for any concentrated effort. The problem isn't the writing so much as the field itself is juvenile at the core.

I agree with you on that point as well. I try to avoid covering stuff I don't care about, or stuff that I have no business reviewing (like DMC 3, when I hadn't played any DMCs before). Reviewing or covering something you don't care about is a recipe for bad writing, if you have no emotional connection to what you're covering, why care about how you cover it? Way to take the high road, diff.

Way to tell a bad lie, Jeremy. I was there when you were given the assignment to cover DMC3 and know the real reason why you didn't cover it.

And it's total bullshit anyway. A decent writer should be able to cover anything, because he should be able to become interested in anything that's quality even if it's not in his field. Do you think reporters for newspapers get to freely pick and choose? Not the way it works.

You got to appreaciate things for what they are, out of their original context, so you're not slapping judgements upon them from your own little fanboy world. I find in general that the fanboyism causes people to give high scores to popular franchises in their favored genre, and slam other games that fall a little outside the norm (thereby writing some of the shittiest and most useless reviews known to man). Something they'd be unlikely to do if they were open-minded and covering a less familiar genre.

[Dolemite]

Way to tell a bad lie, Jeremy. I was there when you were given the assignment to cover DMC3 and know the real reason why you didn't cover it.

Jeremy, you lying bastard. Tell us the real reason.

And it's total bullshit anyway. A decent writer should be able to cover anything, because he should be able to become interested in anything that's quality even if it's not in his field. Do you think reporters for newspapers get to freely pick and choose? Not the way it works.

Eh, you're sorta half right, half wrong. I hate team sports games (baseball, football, etc.), mainly becasue I don't have much interest in team sports IRL. So, how could I gave a fair review on something I would never even consider playing normally? The main message of any review should be, is it fun to play? If you hate sports games you can't give one a fair shake.

While it's good to be versatile in what you cover it's also important to have writers that specialize in certain genres. Hell, everyone's beloved GameFan even had a seperate sports section with stand-alone sports editors.

[Ashen Victor]

Jeremy, you lying bastard. Tell us the real reason.

i bet the real reason is that the action was too fast paced for him, causing his eyes to uncontrollably wiggle and shoot out of his eye sockets, thus making him blind for reals.

[Dolemite]

i bet the real reason is that the action was too fast paced for him, causing his eyes to uncontrollably wiggle and shoot out of his eye sockets, thus making him blind for reals.

LOL

And I'm seriously LOLing here, I'm not just typing shit.

[bahn]

Way to tell a bad lie, Jeremy. I was there when you were given the assignment to cover DMC3 and know the real reason why you didn't cover it.

LOL... I knew it. Jeremy got pwned.

And it's total bullshit anyway. A decent writer should be able to cover anything, because he should be able to become interested in anything that's quality even if it's not in his field. Do you think reporters for newspapers get to freely pick and choose? Not the way it works.

You got to appreaciate things for what they are, out of their original context, so you're not slapping judgements upon them from your own little fanboy world. I find in general that the fanboyism causes people to give high scores to popular franchises in their favored genre, and slam other games that fall a little outside the norm (thereby writing some of the shittiest and most useless reviews known to man). Something they'd be unlikely to do if they were open-minded and covering a less familiar genre.

Hit it right on the head, solid insight, man. This is exactly why I love working with you.

[Ashen Victor]

i bet the real reason is that the action was too fast paced for him, causing his eyes to uncontrollably wiggle and shoot out of his eye sockets, thus making him blind for reals.

[AaronChance]

Jeremy, you lying bastard. Tell us the real reason.

Honestly, it's not important. It just struck me as rather stupid to build his whole point around an example that wasn't true.

Basically, he was given the assignment, said he was going to get the previous two games to play through them first... then delayed, delayed, and delayed just getting DMC1 and 2 (which I managed to do myself in all of an afternoon. Did you know EB and Gamestop carry used games of popular titles? It's astounding). It got to the point when his DMC3 review was way past due and had to be dropped. So long story short, he was given it to do and just didn't do it.

Oh, and I don't like sports games either, but I've covered them in the past, and will probably cover them in the future. And I haven't really had any trouble with giving them a fair shake, or even enjoying them while doing it. It's just a matter of clearing out preconceptions and realizing that in a very fundemental way, all games are the same. They're all puzzle boxes waiting to be solved. Some require mental ability, others hand-eye coordination, but it's all a matter of pushing buttons to achieve the expected result. Like Tony Hawk is a 'sports' game, but its as close to riding a real skateboard as playing PGR is flying down a highway at 100mph. The connection between the two depends at least on part on the user's imagination and ability to connect with the experience, whatever it may be.

[Josh]

UZUMAKI!

[Dolemite]

Basically, he was given the assignment, said he was going to get the previous two games to play through them first... then delayed, delayed, and delayed just getting DMC1 and 2 (which I managed to do myself in all of an afternoon. Did you know EB and Gamestop carry used games of popular titles? It's astounding). It got to the point when his DMC3 review was way past due and had to be dropped. So long story short, he was given it to do and just didn't do it.

Well, bucko, Jeremy must have been too busy with the many hours he spends working a real, actual job to have the time to go out and waste time buying games for his non-paying 'hobbie' job...oh, wait, he doesn't work. Nevermind.