G4- Who gets it and what do you think?
First of all, apologies if there was a topic about this before.
Okay, I'm flipping through the channels yesterday and OH MY GOD there's G4. Our cable company NEVER gets channels so soon after they launch (it took them 3 years to pick up Cartoon Network, and the channel is BASED in my city), so I was caught quite off guard.
So, anyway, onto the impressions. Obviously, since the channel is like 2 months old, so they don't have new content around the clock, but for a channel in that kind of infancy, the selection is impressive. Here's the shows that I've watched (or seen parts of):
Starcade: Yep, rebroadcasting the 80's game show; the retroness is sublime.
Icons: Each show takes a look at the history of an industry icon, be they a character, a programmer, or a company. Informative and entertaining.
Judgement Day: A review show hosted by Tony Tallarico and Victor Lucas. Pretty cool, and these two seem to know what they're talking about for the most part. The point-counterpoint format is great for reviews, and the hosts don't seem to be particularly biased.
Sweat: A show devoted to sports games, so this doesn't hold all that much appeal to me personally. The host is cool, but the show suffers from Halverson Preview Disease; i.e. EVERYTHING is spectaular.
Cheat!: A show devoted to tricks and codes. HORRIBLE. The show I watched, the host was at E3 and was playing CvS2 against a Gameshark employee; the GS guy said what they were playing, and the host goes "Capcom versus S...N... what?" GRRAR!
G4TV.com: Kind of a radio call-in show type thing. Pretty bad. From what I saw, 3 very casual gamers shooting the bull for half an hour, knowing next to nothing about what callers are talking about.
Filter: A Top 10 show... Topics like "top 10 games that should be made into movies" and whatnot, according to polls on their website. Would be better were it a little faster paced, maybe 2 lists per show rather than one. Not a train wreck, though, and the host is hot, so it's watchable. :D
Pulse: A news show. Very cool. Seeing previews in action is leagues better than seeing a few screenshots (saw Steel Batallion and Blinx, pretty sweet), and the hosts are likeable. The show I saw, they took a trip the the Classic Gaming Expo, which was quite a treat.
And of course, the network's best feature by far: The commercials. Oh my god, G4's station identification commercials are bloody brilliant. Highlights include a Tempest ship moving around a level that forms the G4 logo, an animated fighting game parody, Oddworld characters putting up the G4 logo, a Super Magnetic Neo-ish 2D platforming romp, and humorous jabs at gaming geeks.
All in all, I think the nework is off to a great start. They have the best aesthetic look and eye-catching design elements I have EVER seen on a TV network. Uninformed moron hosts aside, I would heartily recommend giving it a look.
