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[Giant Bomb] Gerstmann Pens the End of the ‘Review’ in Review of Halo Infinite

Harts316

Member
"diehard content"?? like what? the big sites now are cranking out fortnite listicles, rewording press releases, and other zero effort garbage.
Those big sites are probably making a lot more money than Jeff’s site is. A zero effort Fortnite listicle still requires more effort to create than anything his site has produced in the past 2 years.
 
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BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
Those big sites are probably making a lot more money than Jeff’s site is. A zero effort Fortnite listicle still requires more effort to create than anything his site has produced in the past 2 years.

Modern GB sucks but in an entirely different way from those sites.

If you actually want in depth criticism youtubers are way more thorough than what any of these sites are doing.

GB used to be a bunch of fat bros shooting the shit about videogames and telling fart jokes, now it's just sad.
 

A.Romero

Member
Yes, produced and edited video is harder. Sitting down and recording a conversation or gameplay is not.
Maybe it seems trivial today but these guys were doing it since it was as easy as clicking on an icon.

At least to me it seems that operating that kind of stuff at that level requires some level of skill.

I can accept that I might be easily impressed.
 

ParaSeoul

Member
The hell is with the Giant Bomb and Jeff hate in this thread?

You'd swear he made fun of your dogs and kicked your kids by some of the responses.
You see this a lot in threads like this,just this intense amount of vitriol for someone seemingly out of nowhere
 

Fredrik

Member
I also think reviews need to change. After I watch a movie or play a game, I want a conversation. A more detailed opinion of the game than just a rudimentary analysis of the contents that make up the game. I want them to discuss the plot points in detail. Go deep into why the combat works. And most importantly whats lacking when comparing the game to its counterparts. I dont get that in todays reviews.

Oddly enough, the spoilercast thats done by Easy Allies is way better than the reviews they do which are by the numbers and frankly boring. id rather have three people discuss the games shortcomings over the course of a 15 minute 'discussion' than a long drawn out review that must touch on modes and 'content' to inform the viewer.
I want 1Up Yours, that was the best media content to ever appear on the internet, combined with 1Up Show, friends and fanboys talking unfiltered why they loved or hated a game or dev or thing, listening to Shane and Luke go at it will never be forgotten, no other podcast or video show has done it as well.

As for reviews I kinda don’t need it on the Xbox side of things anymore since I can try most games through Gamepass and make up my own mind. On Playstation I still need them though but then I wish they were less static and updated post-release to inform me how a game improves after patches. Reading a launch day review of a game I plan to buy after a couple monts is pointless, things complained about in the review might’ve already been fixed.
 
I want 1Up Yours, that was the best media content to ever appear on the internet, combined with 1Up Show, friends and fanboys talking unfiltered why they loved or hated a game or dev or thing, listening to Shane and Luke go at it will never be forgotten, no other podcast or video show has done it as well.

As for reviews I kinda don’t need it on the Xbox side of things anymore since I can try most games through Gamepass and make up my own mind. On Playstation I still need them though but then I wish they were less static and updated post-release to inform me how a game improves after patches. Reading a launch day review of a game I plan to buy after a couple monts is pointless, things complained about in the review might’ve already been fixed.

Lol 1up brings back lots of good memories. definitely miss it


pzOu7Gm.jpeg[
 

supernova8

Banned
What about time investment ?!
Better to read the review than waste 5 hours in order to recognize I hate the game. even if it's "free".
Besides, it's full price on steam still.
Idk how I feel about this. His reviews were not reliable anyway because of his extreme moods but without a "score" on the product, I want to know if it's even worth looking at.
So I want to know if it's a 5 game or a 9. So I might prioritize one free game over another... so I might try 4 or 5 game when I am out of 9 games.

He does actually touch on that in the "review".

When the games are free, we're not reviewing to help save you money. We're curating to help save you time.
 

SkylineRKR

Member
I wonder how many still read written reviews.

Its true, you just try games via GP or the odd one via Plus. Or I browse YT for some snippets of actual gameplay from the retail version. If it looks fun enough, I might buy it. And some franchises I blindly buy anyway.
 

Chukhopops

Member
I read the article and I agree that reviews are kinda useless for games available on GP since you can just try the game and delete it if you don’t like it (I also think written reviews are useless those days).

But until Phil’s master plan is accomplished and His Kingdom opens, you still need reviews for games you actually have to buy. And it really stings to drop 80 euros on a game only to find out you’ve been lied to and it’s awful.
 
The hell is with the Giant Bomb and Jeff hate in this thread?

You'd swear he made fun of your dogs and kicked your kids by some of the responses.

They where surrogate friends for a bunch of people on here, i dont think many of them handled the decline in quality well, and started hating gerstmann/giantbomb, there was a giantbomb mega thread that got closed also because it was just full of hatred all day long.
 
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Boss Mog

Member
It's a completely flawed conclusion since time is just as valuable a commodity as money, so even though games are available to me via a subscription service I still find reviews (ones I trust anyway) to be insightful in deciding if I should waste my time trying a game or not.
 

Clear

CliffyB's Cock Holster
So wait, reviews are "dead" because of MS' publishing decisions on a couple of titles?

Kinda shows how ludicrously partisan Gerstmann has been for a long, long, time.
 

BbMajor7th

Member
It's a completely flawed conclusion since time is just as valuable a commodity as money, so even though games are available to me via a subscription service I still find reviews (ones I trust anyway) to be insightful in deciding if I should waste my time trying a game or not.
Not to mention downloading 50GB+ of data just to find out if you like it - some folks have data caps and bandwidth bottlenecks to worry about. Jeff's like 'it's easy for me to download the whole game as a demo, so why can't everyone else?'

Also, what about Nintendo and PlayStation games, they're all still on the old model - or are Game Pass games the only ones worth reviewing now? If he wanted to make this argument, he might have said, 'we won't be reviewing GP day-one releases anymore or F2P, you're more than capable of trying them for yourself. The good news is, it means we more have time to focus on other releases."
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Odd take from JG. Honestly he was never my favorite of the GB cree, just overly serious compared to the outlets (and this was before the mask came off on the industry). GB was always about VINNY and his nassaly takes on things.

those how can't do, review

Poetic.
 

wOs

Member
Question. Back when Getttsman was with GameSpot did he like video games? I feel like almost every time I've seen him talk about videogamea since then he doesn't. Unless it's discjam.
 
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Question. Back when Getttsman was with GameSpot did he like video games? I feel like almost every time I've seen him talk about videogamea since then he doesn't. Unless it's discjam.
If you listen to him on the podcast or watch his Quick Looks you would know he likes plenty of video games. He just doesn't eat up all the garbage bullshit open world games like you trashcans do.
 

Inviusx

Member
Reviews were out of date the minute YouTube and streaming platforms arrived. I can learn more about if something is worth my time in 5 minutes of gameplay footage compared to the written opinion of someone who knows nothing about why I enjoy games.

And don't get me started on review scores...jesus christ.
 
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I think the main takeaway of the review is that for a major Gamepass title, the value of a review is decreasing. The grasp on exclusive access that reviewers held onto in years past that elevated their opinion over the average gamer almost doesn't exist now. They may play the game 2 weeks before you now, but that's it. They used to be the only ones to get games free, but now the consumer practically does as well. There's no actual barrier to trying it.

If the title is basically free for subscribers on day one, then obviously you should play it. In fact, it's actually better to play it yourself and just make up your own mind, because Jeff is saying your own ability to assess the game is equal to his ability. He's not better than you, and that's what this review is saying.

It's just kind of a commentary on the nature of his job changing, and how he has to find new ways to remain valuable to his audience.
 
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Ending your review with some meta commentary about how reviews are dead is probably one of the most pretentious things you could do. Written game reviews have increasingly become a place where the person writing the review tries to make it about themselves. Or use the review to push some barely connected political or social message. Someone clicking on a review of Halo wants to know if Halo is good or not, they don't care about your personal life problems or some meta-commentary on your career choices. If you want to talk about the changing landscape of gaming, how that effects games media, that's totally cool. Make a piece or video on that. But trying to shoehorn it into a review of a game is not only disrespectful to the reader, but to the creators of the game as well.
 

DragonNCM

Member
I want 1Up Yours, that was the best media content to ever appear on the internet, combined with 1Up Show, friends and fanboys talking unfiltered why they loved or hated a game or dev or thing, listening to Shane and Luke go at it will never be forgotten, no other podcast or video show has done it as well.

As for reviews I kinda don’t need it on the Xbox side of things anymore since I can try most games through Gamepass and make up my own mind. On Playstation I still need them though but then I wish they were less static and updated post-release to inform me how a game improves after patches. Reading a launch day review of a game I plan to buy after a couple monts is pointless, things complained about in the review might’ve already been fixed.
Old Game Trailers reviews was dm good...pity they quited.
 

wOs

Member
If you listen to him on the podcast or watch his Quick Looks you would know he likes plenty of video games. He just doesn't eat up all the garbage bullshit open world games like you trashcans do.

clearly I don't do either on a regular basis so just answering with out some passive aggressive bullshit would have been nice.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I think Geff is an absolute G, yes he doesnt lose his shit at every game release and scream likea girl about how the next big game is some tour de force in mangasm gaming but I wouldn't have him any other way. Some of the heat in this thread is weird.
 

Big-ass Ramp

hella bullets that's true
Games media is in such a weird state. It's certainly not in a growth state. More of like a combination of decline and confusion of how to move forward. Normally I'd be pessimistic and say that all review outlets will just become Kotaku, where the score is based on how many trans people there are in a game. However, since that hasn't happened yet, it probably won't happen because I think we are past the peak of that stuff.

If I had to guess, the future will be fewer games to review overall. Just a game platform with continual updates. How would you even review that? It only leaves stuff like Twitch and maybe Youtubers.
 
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