misfit119

I have a serious problem with the "Sonic isn't for adults" mentality. I know people who never played the older Mario or Zelda games but love the newer ones. Maybe this argument works for horrible aspects of the games like the storyline, voice acting or human/animal beastiality love story but not for the gameplay. In the older days of gaming there wasn't really a story and, well let's face it, Sonic Team doesn't know how to tell a good story to save its life. That's fine, we can easily see how that works.

But the gameplay? It's freaking horrible! These games belong in a shovelware bargain bin. The older games were so good because they were so simple. Run from point A to point B, platform and dodge/defeat enemies as you go. Pick Sonic if you want speed, Tails if you want flight or Knucles for... wall climbing I guess and then off you go. No insipid story, horrible fetch quests, wanna-be E-rated God of War segments or hedgehogs with guns. Just pure platforming goodness. And sure, kids are a lot more forgiving and will enjoy even absolutely horrendous games simply because it clicks with them (or its based on a cartoon they watch) but that doesn't make it a good game nor something Sega should be proud of.

If Sega would just release a Sonic game that focused on some speed, some platforming and dealing with the enemies then they'd be fine. The last game they released that had that (Sonic 2006) they rushed out the door and it's destroyed by a million and one glitches and bugs. The problem is they don't learn from their gameplay mistakes. They keep trying to throw down gimmick after gimmick (likely because it's what Mario games do - ie. Mario with a water spray! or Mario in Space!) but they fail time and time again.

Frankly I'm all for Sonic Team being dismantled and someone else getting their hands on Sonic. After the original Sonic Team went away it's all been downhill. They've torn apart Sonic, released a pretty bad NiGHTS sequel and released one good Phantasy Star game before it all went to hell there too. The best Sonic games released in recent years (due to going back to simplicity) weren't even developed by them. Thank you Backbone for making decent handheld Sonic games at least!

It's actually kinda funny (read: sad) that those reviewers and game guide writers who do so for non-pay sites are the only ones with any real job security at this point. This economy is just horrible and the way that big businesses handle even a slight shift in profit is really just terrible. Freaking commercialism.

Of course it's romanticized by us twits on these messageboards. Most of us only think "paid to play games, zomg!!!!!!1 sign me up!" when in reality it is pretty hellish. It's easy to love what you do while working a job like that but even freelancing it, from the comfort of my home on a sometimes loose schedule, is still very hectic. It's multitasking in the extreme, doing a crazy amount of stuff at once while trying to do your job. It feels good in the end but it isn't what most people would hope.

That said this really saddens me. Between the losses they've suffered this year, including Matthew Rorie (my idol in the area of game guide writing) and all the previously mentioned ones, this site is really killing itself for me. Which is really annoying as it's been my homepage for well over three years. I like Kevin Van Ord and Shaun McGinnis but the rest of the new blood doesn't really do it for me. I feel bad for those being fired AND those left behind. Losing a job this close to Christmas is a horrendous thing which CBS should be ashamed of itself for (at least wait until the New Year people) and I can't imagine the feeling of seeing the people you're working with, even longtimers, being shed like itchy clothing.

*sigh* It's a shame too. The site has been slowing down in the stuff being posted, the rapid-fire days of old are starting to grind down. Blogs are less frequent too. I wonder how bad it's getting for those left behind... Good luck guys! I hope you don't need it.

"As Queen of TalkRadar, i have to say to all of you: Get a Life. Who cares what drunk men say? If you don't like it, don't listen to it. this BS happens every time someone puts up a questionable review, and then comes the articles about how we can only trust reviews from *Enter site here*.

To sum it all up, WHO CARES WHAT CHRIS,BRETT, AND MIKEL SAY?

"

I'll say the same thing on both forum threads just to make it so that my message is clear. I love GiantBomb, I like the way user created content is managed. I love GamesRadar and would love to work with those guys there someday.

However this is exactly the sort of crap that starts internet drama. It's also why I firmly believe in the fact that people who work for one gaming site need to really keep their gobs shut when it comes to directly naming other websites or reviewers. Even if they mean it as a joke the fans aren't always as bright nor does the situation look very good at times. Like this.

But let's look at the situation as it stands.

Jeff seems to be totally enamored with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe, a situation I don't understand at all. But he gave the game a really high score while almost nobody agrees with it. The site stays the same as its normal self and the world moves on.

GamesRadar gives the game a near perfect score, something very few other reviewers seem to agree with. Something I personally don't agree with at all. However the site is fully skinned with Tomb Raider Underworld everywhere.

Now let's see, which of these two sounds a bit more fishy? Of course it's easily broken down to a matter of opinions but if you're going to be a smarta$$ don't laugh at someone for pissing in the wind while crapping on your own shoes. Sure, it's a joke and meant to be poking fun at something. But when Eidos is obviously giving you money to pimp their game and you give it a very high score, that isn't the time to directly address another reviewer for giving a game an abnormally high score. It could easily be pointed out that the whole Jeff situation at GS was due to an oddly low score while it was skinned by Eidos, the exact same company from this situation. A smarmy person could easily accuse the GamesRadar stuff of pimping the game so as to avoid any... incidents.

Personally I don't care. Neither game appeals to me in the slightest, small play time with both left me with a bad taste in my mouth. But this drama is really overblown.