Gamespot rumored to have fired Jeff Gerstmann over a review?
Thursday, November 29th, 2007 - 10:19pm
Penny-Arcade's new comic is about Jeff Gerstmann getting fired over Kane & Lynch, and it seems like a joke. But Kotaku just posted this, claiming to have a source confirming it as true. I know they're not the most accurate of sites, but Jeff also didn't podcast this week and their video podcast didn't go up today either.
Does anyone think this could be true?
I'm thinking this will all probably be revealed as a joke tomorrow and I'll look pretty dumb for half-believing it.
Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto
I don't know, the thread over at Penny Arcade has Gabe talking incredibly serious about it, and it certainly would explain putting a comic up when they usually wouldn't get around to it until Friday afternoon.
EDIT: This is still kind of speculative, but if even an iota of this is true I'll be pissed. Other than 1up's GFW reviews, Jeff (and formely Kasavin) were the only mainstream website reviewers I gave a damn about. I actually have evidence of his integrity myself. I sent him an email a few weeks out pointing out a factual error in the review for The Witcher, he responded an hour later saying he would look into it, and shortly after it was changed. I did the same for an IGN review a while back and I never even got a response.
Your favourite game is over-rated.
Maybe that's part of the marketing campaign to bring more curiosity to the game.
XBox Live: MaxShrek .... "I forgave him, however, since shortly thereafter he lost his life in an accident." HR Giger 1970-something
If it is true, that's a pretty scary precedent for games journalism, since most sources already skate pretty close to the line on conflicts of interest.
Homo sum, humani nil a me alienum puto
Wow.
Just wow.
*Legion* wrote:
Wired News has picked up the story too.
I'm leaning toward this is true. Time to write a vitriolic letter.
The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!
http://isisless.deviantart.com/
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Gamespot.com isn't covered in Kane & Lynch images anymore and the review has been removed from the site. Seems true to me. Very messed up.
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His printed review was fairly tame, but his video review was...a little more harsh.
What kills me is that Gerstmann gets verbally raked over the coals for giving "Good but not Great" scores to high-profile, seemingly untouchable games/franchises (8.8 for Zelda: Twilight Princess, for example), but he seems to be one of the few journalists in the industry with the guts to do so.
Sometimes it would sting when he would take a jab at one of my anticipated releases, but on the other hand, when I game I was looking forward to got high praise from him it really meant something to me. Hell, I'd respect a solid 8 - 8.5 from Gerstmann WAY more than many 9+ scores from various IGN/1up/GameSpy reviewers.
If this rumor is true it's really a shame to see a dissenter brought down like this. Maybe game journalists should just do what rabid fans have been clamoring for all along anyway and just have an 8 to 10 review scale.
I'm still getting the K&L images, and can find the review.
Side note: anyone know the contact info for Gamespot or its parent company, Cnet? Like where to send a letter or an email to express your disgust?
The brain you stole, Fritz. Think of it. The brain of a dead man waiting to live again in a body I made with my own hands!
http://isisless.deviantart.com/
XBOX LIVE: AtomicVideoHead
The first few years of Gamespot's existence were full of great reviews for crappy games, which must have been due to advertiser pressure since there's no other reason for it (we are not talking a mere difference of opinion here). As they acquired clout I thought they had gotten better about reviewing games on the merits, but maybe they're not completely over their original strategy yet.
You can't make somebody love you, but you can buy a bigger television.
Ah, I was wrong about the review. But I don't see any of the images. The background of the site is black for me.
The video review was harsh but it doesn't looked like he exaggerated. From what was shown, the game doesn't look good. If you go to gamerankings or metacritic, other sites are giving it about the same score too.
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The video review has been taken down now. You can still access it through the direct link posted above but you can't access it normally.
Your favourite game is over-rated.
Kane & Lynch are splashed all over the site for me, had to dig a little for the review, it is not on the front page.
Prederick wrote:
I've played through most of Kane & Lynch. I like the story a bit more than he did, but otherwise I agree with the video review. This sucks..
Somebody should pour one out on the curb of the web.
Well, I don't like to toot my own horn, but I'm a pretty good amateur rectal photographer. Would you like to see my portfolio?
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Well, my problem is a Firefox issue as the images load in Internet Explorer. I've never had this problem before since gamespot and gamefaqs images have loaded for me in the past. Interesting.
So yeah, there goes my conspiracy theory.
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Hmm...I used Firefox to visit Gamespot to test your theory Violet. Must be something wrong with your firefox, mine is showing the ugly Kane & Lynch stuff just fine.
Prederick wrote:
Here's a screen-cap.
It's adblock plus. I disabled it and I now see the ugly.
Going to enable it again in 5... 4... 3...
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I think my AdBlock Plus is stopping the K&L stuff from loading.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
Adblock?
edit...WAY too slow.
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baggachipz: Who cares about Japan, let them have their silly pointless dog games and countless re-hashes of anime-based dragon princess super lucky crapitty crap.
I think those ads have been up for some time now.
XBox Live: MaxShrek .... "I forgave him, however, since shortly thereafter he lost his life in an accident." HR Giger 1970-something
http://digg.com/gaming_news/Rumor_Gamespot_Editor_Fired_Over_Negative_Ka...
Digg link if you want to help get this travesty some mainstream exposure.
My days of not taking you seriously have certainly come to a middle.
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My Gamercard
To quote the precog chick from the Minority Report movie: Do you see?
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
"If ads put your sanity to the test
come on down to Rat Boy's nest!
light up a stogie, and soon you'll see
how rock can be commercial-free!
'I'd hit it!'" - HP Lovesauce
Wow, I followed the link to the PA forum. I made the mistake of trying to read past Gabe's post. I may have suffered permanent damage from reading some of those posts. I have to bathe in the healing light of GWJ for a while.
I like the Penny Arcade comics and I love the news posts but those forums are horrifying.
Edit: Lawl - http://www.cnetnetworks.com/editorial/disclosure.html
Prederick wrote:
Oh lordy they're in for a round of virtual hate.
*Legion* wrote:
Team by team reporters baffled, trumped, tethered cropped.
Look at that low playing! Fine, then.
Uh oh, overflow, population, common food, but it'll do.
Save yourself, serve yourself.
World serves its own needs, listen to your heart bleed dummy with the rapture and the revered and the right, right.
You vitriolic, patriotic, slam, fight, bright light, feeling pretty psyched.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it.
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
"Men like sex, thus boobies! Oogaba!" - dejanzie
"If ads put your sanity to the test
come on down to Rat Boy's nest!
light up a stogie, and soon you'll see
how rock can be commercial-free!
'I'd hit it!'" - HP Lovesauce
Mods on GameSpot are saying they cannot confirm it since they could lose their jobs, but a lot of them seem pretty upset.
It looks legit to me, and if so CNET/Gamespot is in for a lot of canceled subscriptions.
Oogaba.
Gerstmann is one of the few (maybe a half-dozen) game reviewers with a name. He'll find a new home, or perhaps move on from games journalism entirely. I'm not too worried about him, he'll do fine.
However, GameSpot surprises me, with this. Ah well, we'll get the full story as the next couple of days go by.
My drama-tized brain does come up with some interesting scenarios for how this could have gone down, though.
In the second scenario, I imagine I can see a glint in his eye in that video review. What is it... sadness? Triumph? We may never know...
"PEACE ON EARTH. GOOD WILL TO MEN. PUBLIC SHELTER. ADMISSION 50¢"
I seriously wouldn't doubt this is true. I always thought Jeff Gerstmann's review were good but other than that, I've never really liked Gamespot.
Whatever you do, stay away from the Eidos forums. The place is being destroyed. It's full of goatse images among other things. :/
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