Feature: Winners & Losers Subscribe to this RSS feed
Every Thursday, we present the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of the gaming universe. This week:
The Winners--Eurogamer, Nintendo, Mercenaries 2
The Losers--Gamespot, IGN, Game Daily
Like you, we browse scores of gaming-related stories every day. Some of them get our head nodding. Others get our blood boiling. Consequently, we decided to share those experiences with you, given that the Games.net mission of bringing you the very best and worst the gaming universe has to offer. Every Thursday, our hackneyed crew of web monkeys will mete out the sordid stories that made us laugh, cry, and blow snot bubbles in agony.
Our criteria for a winner: lasting effects of intellectual engagement, profound thoughtfulness, and funky humor. Everyone else: a loser. And then there's the pwned, which is another story entirely.
And now on with the W&L!THE WINNERS
Europeans always get the best interviews
Eurogamer TV does a consistently solid job with its editing and production of its webcasts. This week in particular, the exclusive interviews with game industry luminaries (shot during E3) have been done well. Juicy information and honest answers come out of each interviewee, which says a lot about the seriousness of the reporter. The Lara Croft episode in particular is funny. Now if only Eurogamer can produce more exclusive interviews and forget about the usual preview trailers, then I'd watch this TV all day.
Mario certainly has reason to be happy
While Sony is currently in a PR head-spin with multiple rumors and negative outlooks about the PS3, Nintendo has been carefully crafting each step of its Wii coverage. The system's price point and launch window was just released, and the much-respected Shigeru Miyamoto has been recently spreading the Nintendo gospel on an interview circuit with major online publications. This week in particular, Nintendo has been a winner in disseminating its overall game plan, including the timely launch of its Podcasts that cover the New Super Mario Bros. game and the upcoming release of the DS Lite. The era of Nintendo continues strong.
I fear not real mercenaries. Virtual mercenaries on the other hand...
It's not everyday where a country's leader expresses anger with one specific video game. But for outspoken Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Mercenaries 2 boiled him to red hot anger--and the game isn't even done yet. Chavez's ire stems from the game's premise: use mercenaries to battle in a war-torn Venezuela where a tyrant screws around with the oil supply, thus sparking an invasion from outside interests. Although President Chavez is clearly a loser in this instance, Mercenaries 2 is the winner. Why? Public exposure to a game that is still looking for a publisher is always good. It so happens that the game's public exposure is also a funny story fed by a wacky dictator.
THE LOSERS
Raise your hands if you think we're overdoing E3 coverage
GameSpot was doing so well with its E3 coverage. But now this. It's been two weeks since E3, and GameSpot is still highlighting its Editors' Choice E3 feature on the front page. Seriously, do we really care about E3 anymore? Now if you spun your story in a different way, but still include all those wonderful games showcased at E3, then you wouldn't be such a loser this week.
Ohhhh...another page to this IGN story?
I can say ditto for this story. But beyond the irrelevance of E3 coverage, note the posting date of this IGN story, as well as the topic. My point: Why discuss "The Final Word on PlayStation" two weeks after E3? This story should have been written and published a day after Sony's press conference. Oh, right--it takes a while to write five enormous pages of worthless rants. Haven't you learned already? A multi-page article with just text doesn't read very well online. Jazz up the piece with pulled quotes and more screenshots with cheeky captions, and then this piece wouldn't be such a snoozer.
Come on, a picture of me wouldn't have hurt your story
It just sucks when a feature story feels rushed. Such is the case with this Game Daily story about video game licenses gone bad. Good idea, but poor execution. This is a nice ever-green story that could have covered many more games--past, present, and future. And in following the IGN style, there isn't one single visual to engage the reader. Not one. You started off well with the site redesign, Game Daily. Now redesign your feature stories, and you'll be money.
THE PWNED
Eat this, Microsoft!
Let's be realistic, the Xbox 360's only chance to survive these next years is by the quality of its games. And Microsoft is banking on one particular shooter, Gears of War, to be the Xbox 360 savior this year. The game looked and played awesome at E3; using the skin-tearing buzz-saw attached to the gun was perhaps the highlight for anyone who was lucky enough to play the game. But did you know that Microsoft was opposed to the buzz-saw? In last week's MTV special, Gears of War: The Race to E3, it was expressed by the head Microsoft producers as well as Peter Moore that the saw should be left out of the game. Developer Epic stood its ground and convinced Microsoft to leave the weapon in. The moral: believe in the developer's vision more. You've been pwned, Microsoft!
