[WeatherOp]

I have now lost all respect, I mean down to the micro level, for the review industry.

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/grandtheftauto4/review.html

Firstly, I'm not saying that it is a bad game, it might be a very good game, but good grief a 10 nearly across the board for for something with obvious watered down shooting and driving controls is absolutely insane. I think Halo has just been relieved of it's title.

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/827005/grand-theft-auto-4/videos/gta4_review_042508.html

Or in the paraphrased words of the IGN reviewer...

Like OMIGOSH!! You can like duck behind everything!!

[achtung]

I've never listened to "professional" reviews and I never intend to.

[CP5670]

Welcome to 2004. I think that was when this trend really started.

[NGTM-1R]

Have we actually played it to see? Y'know, with the inherently subjective nature of reviews and schiznit like that.

[WeatherOp]

I've never listened to "professional" reviews and I never intend to.

I never did either, but it was nice when the consensus would actually give you at least a feel on the game. All gone the way of the dodo.

[Galemp]

I can sum it all up for you in one article:



We've heard an unsettling rumor today from an anonymous tipster that longtime game reviewer Jeff Gerstmann from Gamespot has been let go. That wouldn't necessarily be newsworthy, but the conditions under which he was allegedly dismissed were. According to the source, Gerstmann was fired "on the spot" due to advertiser pressure for his review of Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. A visit to Gamespot shows that the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game has taken over the site very prominently, with backgrounds and multiple banner ads all pitching Kane & Lynch. Allegedly, publisher Eidos "took issue with the review and threatened to pull its ad campaign."

Jeff's review was certainly less than glowing. He assigned the game a 6.0, otherwise known as "Fair" on the Gamespot scale. The game is currently enjoying a Metacritic score in the 65 to 69 range, which the site describes as "mixed or average reviews." According to our tipster, it wasn't necessarily the score that was reason for Gerstmann's rumored axing, but the "tone" of the review.

Gerstmann has been no stranger to controversial reviews, as his scores of 10 for Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 and 8.8 for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess had sensitive internet users up in arms. It's now possible that many bitter fanboys may have had their wishes for his firing granted.

As our tipster points out, if the rumor is true, it could point to a distressing precedent at Gamespot and parent company CNet. "As writers of what is supposed to be objective content, this is our worst nightmare coming to life," wrote the tipster.

Our efforts to confirm the story with Gamespot haven't proved successful. Our current requests with PR, Gerstmann and other CNet contacts have either gone unanswered or yielded a "no comment."

Update: We did get confirmation that Mr. Gerstmann is no longer with Gamespot. The circumstances in which he was terminated or left of his own accord, however, were not disclosed.

[CP5670]

Everyone knows about that game just because of that incident. I wouldn't have heard of it at all otherwise.

[Thor]

I like reviews, as their good ways to gather opinions on games, movies etc...  but mutliple reviews must be used!

As for Jeff Gerstmann, he is alive and well, working on a way to blow up his old employer, with http://www.giantbomb.com/  so far just a blog, but sometime this summer should be a fully functional news / review site.

[Polpolion]

The ability to stick close to walls, parked cars, and the like at the touch of a button makes GTAIV's gunplay a huge improvement over that in previous games, and, in tandem with the new targeting system, it also makes it a lot easier. Enemies are rarely smart enough to get to you while you're in cover, and given that you can lock your targeting reticle on to them even when they're hidden, all you have to do is wait for them to poke their heads out and then pick them off with a minimum of effort.

This man is a master of language. He has managed to make poor AI and targeting systems look like a good thing.



EDIT: TBH, I believe that, among other things, GTA is a major contributor to the worlds (primarily the US's) "stupid culture".

[Ashrak]

silly games.

[Rand al Thor]

Yeah I don't 'get' those games at all really. My brother bought GTA3 and though he's not a gamer anymore really and was never as hardcore a nerd as me, he played it for just a few weeks of shooting as many people as possible and having a bit of a war with the police, army, etc. He never once played the actual game plotline. That's pretty damning in itself I think. I actually tried to play the game and just found it goddamned boring.

But to be fair I have a fairly coped on mate who's a pretty big console gamer, who gets seriously addicted to the games.

Each to his own. I don't like em though.

[Roanoke]

That's probably one of GTAs big selling points. So called "down time". Where the player can just mess about in between big missions without expending any effort. I've wasted almost entire days in GTA SA without any meaningful "progress".

You'll probably laugh  but in San Andreas I liked to drive the big trucks about the place. I'd usually get bored ofcourse and bait the rozzers into a huge chase.

[achtung]

I spent most of my time in the GTA:  VC and SA flying.  Dogfighting in SA-MP was great fun, as was air-lifting your teammates, via chopper, right on top of the other team's spawn point in Team Deathmatch.

Personally, I enjoy the GTA games.  I never took them seriously, mind you, but ****ing around in them for an hour or so was great fun.  Especially in the multiplayer mods for the PC versions.

[Akalabeth Angel]

        I remember the days when no game ever got a perfect score.
        As for the quote above, yeah . . . game's got ****ty AI and it scores a 10? It's not perfect, but I'll give it a perfect score. 1337 game, huzzah . . . blah blah.


 
       Personally I was the complete opposite with GTA, I'd play for the story . . thing is the story sucked so it wasn't very interesting. Especially Vice City where you spend days just getting enough cash to buy some buildings which in the end means frak all. The only thing I liked really doing besides the storyline was the Vigilante missions. I mean, if the bad guys would try to take you down when you're not on a mission that'd be cool . ..  have some gang that hates you randomnly attack you while you're doing your thing. Instead of just having them shoot at you when you're in their hood. Running around doing very little gets uninteresting in a while . . . but then again isn't that what WoW is and look how many people play that?

[Scuddie]

I spent most of my time in the GTA:  VC and SA flying.  Dogfighting in SA-MP was great fun, as was air-lifting your teammates, via chopper, right on top of the other team's spawn point in Team Deathmatch.

You stayed connected long enough in SA-MP to get a rustler?...  No wait, hold that thought.  You successfully flew dogfights in SA-MP?

Anyway, whenever I was bored, I would just spend hours (well, not really hours) driving the back roads in San Andreas.  Couldn't really do that in GTA3 or VC however .

I picked up 5 stars maybe twice in my entire GTA playing history.  I just thought that to be boring and pointless.

[achtung]

I spent most of my time in the GTA:  VC and SA flying.  Dogfighting in SA-MP was great fun, as was air-lifting your teammates, via chopper, right on top of the other team's spawn point in Team Deathmatch.

You stayed connected long enough in SA-MP to get a rustler?...  No wait, hold that thought.  You successfully flew dogfights in SA-MP?

Anyway, whenever I was bored, I would just spend hours (well, not really hours) driving the back roads in San Andreas.  Couldn't really do that in GTA3 or VC however .

I picked up 5 stars maybe twice in my entire GTA playing history.  I just thought that to be boring and pointless.

I never had any connection issues, even on 0.1.  Dogfighting in Rustlers was really hard, but with a joystick and a little patience, it was really fun.  I think I only got shot down once, but I scored several kills. 

Of course, I have to say, screwing around in a Hunter was much more fun.

[Roanoke]

That's the other thing I liked to spend much time one. I could generate huge money just playing the Brown-Thunder vigilante missions. The way the chopper handled was far more fun than I ever expected with a real feeeling of momentum.

[Colonol Dekker]

WeatherOp, . . .
Your first post said "I've NO lost respect" did you wanna change that ?

[WeatherOp]

WeatherOp, . . .
Your first post said "I've NO lost respect" did you wanna change that ?

Interestingly enough, I thought I went back and added that "w".

[Colonol Dekker]

But ya didn't