The Most Embarrassing Moments in Gaming Journalism

Gaming journalism is barely taken seriously these days, because of how often they seem to screw it up. Here are a few of my favorite moments of Game Journalists failing at their job.
00:00 Intro
1:47 God Hand Review
5:45 Smash Bros Ultimate's Disability Slur
9:00 Bayonetta 2 Review
11:35 Playstation Vita is Set to Succeed
14:20 Alien Resurrection Review
17:00 Kane & Lynch Review
19:31 Outro

[@magicmush1998]

A little heads up: The sound mixing on the God Hand gameplay is a bit screwed up, so its louder than the rest of the video, I have no clue what happened there, so be warned. I will be acquiring a new mic for my next video to hopefully sound way better than I do now.

[@siamajuegogenchinimpa]

I thought that the mixing was part of the joke cause it fits really well tbh

[@JimmehRulez]

God's mic

[@novaleader7305]

You cannot silence the God Hand!

[@britnibrid]

heres a mixing tip turn your speakers down as much as you can to faintly hear your voice. that way you can be sure the levels of your voice and music are on point

[@itsyaboi-od6kj]

It's not that bad tho the video is too good I didn't notice it lol

[@taktika4764]

There was also a moment when dmc 5 got reviewed by some journalist, where the guy basically said that the battle music sucks and lacks significant drops. Except he didn't know that music is dynamic in dmc 5 and it changes based on your style rank, so the journalist basically admitted that he sucks at the game

[@realpatty]

love this

[@ethanhernandez3663]

OOOOOOOOFFFF!!!

[@BlazeSLK]

Imagine telling on yourself that hard

[@PetitTasdeBoue]

Aha that's a good one

[@AnakinTheWeird]

The best part was the developer responding and telling him to git gud

[@SwaggyG_2102]

Gaming journalism, it's like writing an essay on a book that your class spent most of the semester reading, yet you've never even gotten past the first three pages.

[@seereebee]

That's literally what it is. Many journalists just rush through the games as fast as possible so they can get their reviews up quickly.

[@radiokunio3738]

My thing is most colleges require you take some English course, you don't have a choice. If you want a degree to programming, you have to write some essay about the cultural influences of Oedipus ( I wish I joking ). So why would you choose to write for something you don't care about, when it's your choice to write about literally anything else? Your miserable writing it and your readers will be miserable reading it.

[@Thornbloom]

​@@seereebee I've read some Q&A a long time ago where a journalist said that they would get maybe two to three hours total with a game sometimes, that they then had to write a review on, because they had like a queue of ten or so to write articles for and it really cut in to how much they could actually experience. Which if you're reviewing a JRPG....yeah.

[@moosesues8887]

@@radiokunio3738 lmao u gotta write a essay on a irrelevant ass mf for a degree?

[@TWLSpark]

​​@@Thornbloom companies thinks that "getting to the review first" is going to set them for success. Surely nothing videogame related ever went wrong because people decided to rush things, right? Sega: 💀

[@Mr0901]

Can't spell ignorance without IGN

[@Reggieeeeeeee322]

Nor can you spell genius

[@Colinjo6]

Gonna be honest I don’t know where else to put this comment but I found it kinda weird that the Bayonetta Franchise was made purely for Anime Level Fanservice. Like, I’m not trying to say that it’s sexist, but I thought so many people liked it for the difficulty or combat?

[@sporeham1674]

​@@Reggieeeeeeee322gni

[@mr_red3]

@@Reggieeeeeeee322 you have to rearrange the letters for that

[@Reggieeeeeeee322]

@@mr_red3 correct. Hence one cannot spell the word with out the letter. you added nothing to the conversation....

[@PhattyBolger]

The "ableist slur" turned out to be "Let's go, let's wait, *retaliate* "

[@ravenID429]

Oh my god for real🤣

[@solar104.6]

In Japanese Ls and Rs are pronounced pretty similarly

[@codeine69]

@@solar104.6 They're morphed into the same sound they don't have a distinction i believe

[@cosmicspacething3474]

I thought it was “Restart it”

[@toddwatkins5011]

"Abelist slur"......let's be honest for a second. Everyone called stupid people retarded. It was clearly one of those retards that push for canceling the word. I say we bring it back.

[@aedwynn6474]

A very old-school embarrassing moment - The original Doom was criticised by one reviewer in Edge Magazine back in 1994 because you couldn't try talking it out peacefully with the demons. Not a joke.

[@edoardobrunomazzitelli717]

A precursor to the Pizza Tower "does this game have a pacifist route???!!?!" clip

[@youtubeneedstochange4414]

21 years before Undertale too, wow.

[@plasticflower]

It's his opinion, that's what reviews are for, aren't they? Admittedly it's a bit odd to say "I wish this game was a different genre of game", but hey.

[@ImTheGuy]

That guy must have been beaming when he heard about Undertale

[@MK_ULTRA420]

@@plasticflower No, the reviews are for telling us if the game is worth buying or not.

[@toyotatacoma1616]

Honestly that fucked up polygon doom gameplay is like therapy to me. No matter how bad I am at video games, I’m not that bad.

[@darkjapan]

It's how my four year old who hasn't mastered dual analog plays. It's that amateur. I wonder if there was some strange controller set up or something. Edit: She can play much better than this now. Just took a bit of practice.

[@kebm1388]

I have to think the controller he got for that video was fucked up

[@Silverfirefly1]

I bought Boltgun and I don't know what's going on but I just shoot all around enemies like I'm a circus act. I'm going to have to try trying to miss.

[@gimmeyourrights8292]

I was pretty bad at Doom 2016 but thank God I wasn't that bad.

[@HypotheticallyHuxley]

You don’t understand, he’s such a big DooM fan that he still plays with keyboard aim in 2016.

[@MetalLazer1980]

i will never forget pewdiepies playthrough of cuphead where he gives the ign reviewer the benifit of the doubt and then does the dash perfectly first, second and third try

[@cosmicspacething3474]

Damn

[@murilosampaio1264]

The game is incredibly responsive, there is no way in hell you can mess it up unless you either are trying to be bad or you have the motorskills of a newborn child

[@sudanemamimikiki1527]

​@@murilosampaio1264or you just never played games before

[@pandavelli8176]

@@sudanemamimikiki1527. A games journalist that never played games before, who could even imagine such a thing! 😆

[@sudanemamimikiki1527]

@@pandavelli8176 its actually pretty darn common... games journalism is considered the lowest form of journalism among journalist. many of the games journalist are made out of two categories. those who failed to become "proper" journalist and are now games journalist because they have no other choices and those who are just hoping to build up their name and then move on to "proper" journalism. vanishingly few games journalist from back in the day were games journalist because they loved gaming.

[@Dairunt1]

2:42. The meme even got to official Pokemon games. When you take a picture in Sun & Moon, one of the comments you could get from an NPC is "7.8/10 too much water"

[@shawnscouten5184]

Wow, that’s hilarious. Not much of a fan of game freak and I didn’t really like sun/moon, but that is one of the best things they have ever done if so.

[@user-lh7mt7zo7l]

Was this in the Japanese version too?

[@an_annoying_cat]

⁠@@user-lh7mt7zo7lprobably not, assuming that pokemon localizers have a bit of a history of adding little references, like the guy that looks like moistcritical saying "this is what youve all been waiting for"

[@Heavysweating]

Funnily enough, I think IGN is right on that one, 3rd gen pokemon did have too much of water in it. The last gyms are a slog to go through due to all the surfing and diving you need to do.

[@kohakustella]

Gotta say, that's the meme-loving English adapters. Nothing of the sort happens, for example, in the Italian version which is lifted straight 1:1 from japanese. Anyhow, that review still sucks.

[@evilartise8912]

I remember seeing an article about some gaming journalist being mad that Chun-Li wasn't in the mortal kombat movie.

[@hiddenflare6169]

... OH it took me a min to realize you said Mortal Combat and not Street Fighter XD. Dang guess Im as smart as that journalist.

[@Sorrelhas]

Kombat

[@ab-gail]

LOL that was an instant classic.

[@isucc724]

that was super crystal clear clickbait and everyone took it HARD, in the end the guy got what he wanted

[@c1oudsky]

it was a joke

[@canniechan1321]

The Persona lyrics thing is even more embarrassing when you think that the reviewer could've just, you know, googled the lyrics before writing a whole ass article about said lyrics. But I'm just spitballing here

[@ab-gail]

Imagine doing research as a journalist. Crazy!

[@DaTanMan01]

Actually, the article mentions that the official lyrics don’t mention “the word”, which means they looked it up, and then decided to write the article anyway🎉

[@canniechan1321]

@@DaTanMan01 wow, my expectations were low but I'm still incredibly disappointed

[@tykamen5588]

A games journalist doing research on the game that they're talking about? Inconceivable!

[@tykamen5588]

​@@DaTanMan01 you're saying that they did look up the lyrics but still went ahead and publish the article? It amazes me that Kotaku is still in business to this day.

[@snoookie456]

Bless that dude from Gamespot. He risked his career for honesty. His fall shed light on how bad things really are. I wish he's doing well now.

[@JamesEnsor]

He's doing pretty good, I'd say. He ran Giant Bomb for about ten or fifteen years, I think. Now he's doing his own thing on YT/Twitch and has his own podcast, the Jeff Gerstmann Show.

[@null-Oh-6666]

Gamespot is like Reddit with their fanboys, their only truth is what the media tells them and anyone having a different opinion is a bigoted conspiracionist

[@FilmAcolyteReturns]

Gamespot is lucky he didn’t report them to the FTC for improper disclosure in influencer advertising. That was a big deal back then too. The government started to get wise with websites taking kickbacks from publishers and developers, but not disclosing said relationships.

[@Irochi]

Gamespot used to be good until 10 years ago or something, when they decided they wanted to be like kotaku (woke and clickbaity) They are garbage now.

[@thedogmaticdirector]

Honestly, at the time, other FPS games on the PS1 had bizzare controls. Medal of Honor comes to mind.

[@seanrrr]

A hilarious moment the other way: earlier this year, a game reviewer posted a review with gameplay prior to the release of Redfall. A lot of people shat on his review, saying it was biased since the reviewer was so terrible at video games. In the gameplay, he could barely hit the enemies and kept dying, so people made fun of him for it. Once the game released however... turns out the reviewer wasn't bad at gaming, Redfall was just that shitty and difficult to control.

[@thefiresworddragon927]

He probably was also terrible. It definitely didn't help

[@ZachH1233]

Not even close redfall sucked donkey dick

[@mmd3585]

​@@thefiresworddragon927lol at your response. "He was PROBABLY terrible" you didn't even fucking watch the thing and is supposing shit

[@vangoghsseveredear]

The biggest mystery of this video and its extended universe is how the hell Kotaku is still in business

[@thechugg4372]

Is it that mysterious? People are dumb, they keep watching kotaku because they like it, and its the people who dont care about gaming where all the money comes from

[@DakotaofRaptors]

Didn't Kotaku also downplay some Hogwarts Legacy harrassment?

[@Relativity404]

Probably just Jason Schreier. Each time he comes out with an article, it reminds people "oh yeah, this thing exists"

[@CYAN_TOP_HAT]

i know some people that look at kotaku because it’s so bad that it becomes good.

[@user-fe8gx3ie5v]

Kotaku and all other game journos lost a ton of money and will likely be sold for dirt cheap.

[@RisingRevengeance]

That cuphead clip is never going away. It alone represents game journalism.

[@projectpems8304]

It was uploaded as a self deprecating joke on the journalist’s part but everyone grabbed ahold of it and use it as “proof” that gaming journalists don’t know what they’re talking about while also using it to incessantly mock the original uploader. It’s why I think criticism of game journalism veers into irrational territory

[@oompalumpus699]

@@projectpems8304 Found the simp. Source?

[@minihalkoja590]

​@@projectpems8304Calm down mr. Takahashi.

[@RaynaDJ]

@@projectpems8304 That's a less believable conspiracy theory than flat earth lmao

[@negative6442]

​@@oompalumpus699 it's been a while since I've seen it but I do remember reading that the journo who posted the video was making fun of himself

[@stoptheterrorist333]

You cannot have this list without the Gamespot's spongebob battle for bikini bottom review. That whole bowling puzzle dive they did was beyond embarrassing.

[@the2401]

while ign (at least I think it was ign) complained that it was too easy and kid friendly

[@chee.rah.monurB]

Explain???

[@Pc_98_Fan]

​​@@chee.rah.monurB from what I remember the journalist had to stand on a button and throw the ball, but instead of doing that he either stepped out of the button or tried to hit it close without pressing said button, remaining stuck.

[@ORiOh4582]

@Pc_98_Fan A little more specificity just because I loved the original as a kid. the ability you use to hit the button moves you forward slightly while it's winding up, he kept sliding off the button because he kept starting on the very edge. Instead if ya know, taking a step back first to line everything up

[@OodldoodlNoodlesocks]

Someone once said "If game journalists were real journalists, they wouldn't be doing game journalism."

[@nehehehgraylois]

In fairness journalism as a whole has been a complete joke

[@Ninjaananas]

​@@nehehehgraylois If that was the case, you would know far less about the world than you do now.

[@nehehehgraylois]

does he know

[@NikoNicodemus010]

​@@NinjaananasHow do we tell him? *insert mr crab face*

[@Ninjaananas]

@@NikoNicodemus010 Just tell him that most of what he knows about the outside world has been gleaned by journalists. He has no concept of how much of his knowledge is from journalism.

[@catpissandvinegar]

I remember Laura Dale, the persona 5 slur writer, had a Kiwi Farms page that went over all her controversies over the years. One of the stand out ones was when her and her friend doxxed, harassed, and stalked a 15 year old online because he insulted her or whatever, and then got him expelled from his school and bragged about it on twitter. She's a genuinely awful person.

[@Shyguy5104]

oh so she's a kiwifarms user too, how awful

[@luanvieira6892]

Qrd?

[@DoctorEviloply]

Are you saying the delusional man who can't even groom himself or look in the mirror is a bad person? Say it isn't so. It's almost like catering to their delusions gives them a sense of power that they then use to bully others.

[@hypnotised-clover]

​@@DoctorEviloply Based.

[@GarrulousHerald]

People who do things like that should not be able to leave their houses and feel safe.

[@billyboleson2830]

I don’t think younger people understand the magnitude of the Kane and lynch fiasco. Nowadays calling a critic paid off is normal but back then that’s when the magic died, when the realization that the Easter bunny or Santa weren’t real and when gamers took notice that journalists can be easily paid for

[@TheT3rr0rMask]

Those old Gamespot reviews are so chill today. Felt like everyday guys who enjoyed games as much as we did talking about whether a games worth getting or not. Was a more innocent time, and games could just be enjoyed. Now reviewers try to sound like we'll versed artistic experts and scream about non-gameplay related things while the gameplay takes backstage.

[@ShadowSumac]

@@TheT3rr0rMask For some reasons video game journos decided they are some kind of literary geniuses, few minutes away from a Pulitzer and can talk about problems of the world, instead of games or using game reviews as a vehicle for their ill-thought ramblings. The problem is: game reviews are neither a time or a place for this crap. I want to read about what make good or bad, not thoughts of a guy who failed to qualify as a weather newscaster for CNN 20 years ago, about Feminism or Colonialism. It doesn't help that when they do it, their thoughts is not even original or smart. Gladly, nowadays, thanks to the rise of influencers and streaming they are mostly irrelevant.

[@qty1315]

@@TheT3rr0rMask Uhhhhhh, no... game journalism was never like that, at all. Even in the 90s most game reviews were like "Super Mario Bros. 3 is... magical, a truly transcendent experience the likes of which we'll never see again. It's simultaneously the greatest game ever made, but also... the worse. It represents everything good and everything bad about gaming as a whole, which is what makes it such an extraordinary achievement, and far more important than Doom could ever hope to be. Games like this showcase why console gamers are the superior gamers."

[@shirleymaemattthews4862]

BUT SNATA AMD THE EASTER RABBIT IS REAL!!! WHAT NEXT? JESUS ISNT REAL?!?

[@heikkint]

Indeed they don't. My earliest memories of ANY kind of bs in the industry is probably from the 90's hardcore Pelit magazine in finland that took jabs at eurogamer or some other major euro* something magazine abroad like that, and their jabs were of the kind: 'these guys take money and provide the biggest multi page reviews of the games and it's so obvious'. So basically a precursor to what was to come when money really did start to matter in the scene. From that it was still a long way to what happened in 2014. Not to mention how stiff things are right now: Trust is gone and will not come back.

[@user-cd3zd9yu5w]

Who can forget the legendary "Who forgot to invite Chun-Li to The Mortal Kombat"?

[@rykehuss3435]

that was trolling

[@Kirbicle]

This reminded me of Gamespot’s review of Mario Party Superstars where they gave it a 6/10 with their reasoning basically being “my son said it isn’t Super Mario Party”.

[@chee.rah.monurB]

...Maybe because it was an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT GAME?

[@Salithin]

I hate Mario because it isn’t crash bandicoot

[@Teratomaz]

Honorable mention is that one review of Shin Megami Tensei V calling it 'Persona's Edgier Younger Brother' despite Persona itself being a spinoff franchise of SMT itself

[@anidiot192]

As well as the rest of the review amounting to "It's not this completely different game, so it's garbage"

[@SomeBlokeOrWhatever]

Yah Persona is the well-behaved younger brother to SMT, not the other way around.

[@user-tw3rh9po4t]

Didn’t SMT come first?

[@chinsaw2727]

@@user-tw3rh9po4t If you go by the definition of “spin-off”, then yes, SMT came before Persona

[@timmyreobed5043]

​@@user-tw3rh9po4t Megami Tensei predates _Pokemon._ it's a way older franchise than most realize.

[@Nerdtendo6366]

“The highest honor a journalist can receive isn’t a reward or medal, it’s to get killed by the CIA” - Someone I Don’t Remember

[@hisupwassup]

sounds like something a Max0r could say, and i think i recall him doing it

[@CasuallyShadow]

Its simply a common saying really

[@conormullins4900]

@@hisupwassupthanks for putting that mental image in my head

[@purpleneons]

@@hisupwassup could also be DJ Peach Cobbler

[@ArariaKAgelessTraveller]

"The three hardest deed are Patient when angry, generous when poor, and Telling the truth to the ones who fear it"

[@perryfrost4911]

Bayonetta is SO evenly appealing to both the male and female gaze that it actually makes her one of the best character designs ever. i'm not surprised that it took 2 whole genders to create her lmaoo

[@oreopug7986]

Bayonetta truly is the female power fantasy

[@xWhackoJacko]

People do seem to forget that women like sexy women just as much as we dudes do. Look at kpop as a glaring example of this. More female fans swoon over the female idols than they do for the male ones, lmao. And you will hear CONSISTENTLY from female gamers (not the phone playing ones, the real ones) that they like sexy female designs.

[@25Leprechaun]

I've played WoW for 15 years and in that time I have never met a woman who didn't either play a human, blood elf, or another "sexy" race. They have things like dwarves and orcs but the joke in the community is " female dwarves/orcs they don't exist" because no one plays them. @@xWhackoJacko

[@youtubebannedme]

​@@25Leprechauni thought you were gonna stop at "i have never met a woman" after saying you played WoW 😂

[@Meleedropped]

​@@xWhackoJackowdym "real ones"? Im a phone player, i think bayonettas hot, do you think everyones iust able to afford consoles and laptops??

[@juro7854]

I will never forget how upset the Persona 5 voice actors were when that Kotaku article came out

[@BluSteel_]

The smash slur thing baffles me beyond belief. Mass Destruction from Persona 3 was literally censored so that the song doesn't have the word damn in it. So why in the hell would Nintendo allow a slur if they don't even allow damn

[@TusksTheAxew]

Because people are too goofy to realise accents and speech quirks exist, apparently. Or even that total coincidences exist sometimes (see Bowser supposedly saying a certain offensive word that starts with N). Yes, MAYBE if you're not listening properly, maybe it sounds bad. But why would they use a word like that for no reason whatsoever...? Especially if it doesn't even make sense with context clues?

[@TheUltimateRey]

You could say.. she was a little slow..

[@SkylineFTW97]

Nintendo has been looser with it's censors over the past few years (I would argue it's a welcome change). Otherwise, no way games like Bayonetta or Xenoblade 2 would've been allowed. It's not like when I was a kid during the 2000s and them releasing Shadow the Hedgehog on GameCube was considered edgy for them.

[@skootergirl22]

I know the word spaz isn't considered a slur in America, but in the uk, apparently nintendo did use that word in a Mario game once that got censored by their European team. I'm Aware f*g and fa**ot is a gay slur in America, but it's just slang for cigarettes and a strange meatball sausage thing in a can. Yes, I censored those last two words because youtube is an American company

[@SkylineFTW97]

@@skootergirl22 I no longer care what is and isn't a slur anywhere. This shit is getting downright retarded (and yes, I know that's considered a slur by some here, but stupid is as stupid does).

[@DialgoPrima]

I remember when Gamespot gave the Ducktales remaster a 4.5/10 because the bosses, levels, and music were the same as the original 😂

[@ciphergacha9100]

Breaking news: a remaster is a remaster, Gaming journalists shocked

[@RushWheeler]

Imagine how they feel about RE4 remake

[@alex99x99x]

It’s like ign’s battle for bikini bottom rehydrated review. Where the reviewer states that the game is the exact same, and is TOO EASY, for a game that is targeted towards children/people who used to play it when they were a child.

[@thiccfett238]

@@alex99x99xand in the same review displayed multiple failures to do the basic bubble bowling ability to progress

[@insensitive919]

But... the bosses, levels, and music are what made OG Ducktales such a classic. Boy, remember when Disney knew how to hire/license to some really good studios? Damn.

[@Chernobog2]

I remember Gamespot taking points off Metroid Prime 3 because the controls were perfectly responsive which made the game "too easy" Speaking of Metroid, remember that time Kotaku decided to tell people to pirate Metroid Dread because it ran well enough on emulators? And then Nintendo got after them so they had to edit the article to say they don't actually condone piracy?

[@TheInhumanBeatdown]

And then they got butt hurt that Nintendo won't send them free stuff anymore lol

[@poemsbypoetry]

Damn I didn't know Kotaku was so based, fuck Nintendo

[@user-fn2mx6dd5k]

Pirate nintendo? Don't mind if l do

[@yeafu1924]

​@@user-fn2mx6dd5kMetroid is one of the few nintendo series you SHOULDN'T pirate

[@giga_chad9]

@@TheInhumanBeatdownthey’re liberals, all they want is free shit lol

[@SaintSC05]

Gaming journalism should have quotation marks around both gaming and journalism.

[@southofheck]

The reason why real gamers aren’t hired as games journalists is because then they’d be honest about video games. We wouldn’t want to upset those sponsors, now would we?

[@comixproviderftw_02]

It’s all about the money

[@georgegeorge25812g]

gamers are honest about video games??? we all just regurgitate what everyone else says

[@dissraps]

Yea thats the reason, because there's nothing more objective than an autistic fanboy

[@st.haborym]

@@georgegeorge25812g Speak for yourself sheep

[@georgegeorge25812g]

@@st.haborym am i wrong though everyone on the internet has the exact same thoughts and opinions. everyone "hates" assassins creed games that they have never played, and everyone sucks on gta 4's dick. every single person on the internet just sucks everyone else off to fit in

[@EliteLoserZR]

I'm sad "X is the Dark Souls of Y" wasn't brought up but it's a bit of a broad subject. Any time a slightly difficult game was making rounds you'll see at least one journalist go "It's the dark souls of this genre" or something goofy along those lines.

[@PB-ie8cj]

To this day, you can still find people in steam using the cringe template to review a game that has "dark souls" as the max difficulty

[@marukuanfuni]

its more kinda annoying than meets the embarrassing standard of this video. plus that's not that bad because the dark souls example is like something to measure games by, cause games like Dark souls or even castlevania SOTN set a high standard for similar games to follow for the time!

[@SergyMilitaryRankings]

​@@marukuanfuni wouldn't exactly call cheap camera angles, crappy mechanics and the most extreme trial and error gameplay as setting the standard, but each to their own, I suppose.

[@Shiirow]

you also having people on the other side of the aisle complaining that if a game has a difficulty lower than "dark souls", they are 'dumbing the game down' and ruining their experience knowing less skilled players are drinking their kool aid. Video games have had multiple difficulty settings for several decades, not every game needs to be ball busting hard, not all players find enjoyment in that.

[@Walamonga1313]

I always laugh when people have Dark souls as max difficulty, when shit like Ninja Gaiden exists. And I'm someone who's no life'd Souls since Demon's lol

[@Lorentz_Driver]

To be fair Pokemon Gen 3 had an over-reliance on water sections. There were more water routes than land routes, which wouldn't be a problem if they weren't visually similar and didn't have the same 'mons.

[@brendan5260]

Yeah that’s because Hoenn is a fuckin island. You gonna complain Unova had too many cities? It’s New York.

[@genericname2747]

​@@brendan5260Doesn't make the water sections any better. They're the weakest part of Pokémon

[@Lorentz_Driver]

@@brendan5260 We really gonna throw away good game design for realism? It's Pokémon.

[@mechadeka]

​@@brendan5260Wow almost like they designed a bad region.

[@jtflightlesswallow2930]

I'd complain too but I feel like moving around on water still feels really similar to land in these games. The only real difference is you can't sprint or take out your bike and it feels way too simple and everything looks the goddamned sa- okay never mind it does suck. Edit: I may be wrong about the sprinting, going off of memory here.

[@franzpattison]

Honestly the whole R word fiasco is as much the fault of the editor as the journalist. Any competent editor should have questioned the shit out of that and grilled the journalist about it before publishing. I know this because I've been a journalist for about a decade and my editor would never let me get away with something like that. So whoever that editor is should have moved on to their "personal projects" too.

[@h.m.friendly]

I know this, because Tyler knows this.

[@Wallace-Amadeus]

That "journalist" is retarded and so is her editor if she even has one

[@Rotwold]

I'm not surprised, I have two friends who were journalists. One stopped due to the pressure to publish first, often leading to factual errors and a lack of moral judgment. When #metoo led to a public figure committing suicide after being wrongly accused of heinous crimes, that's when the other decided to leave the industry. One became a social worker and the other is working for a publishing house.

[@Birds_In_Crime]

kotaku is infamous for having editors who dont care. this person is essentially their own editor

[@blueishgreen76]

If you pause and read the writers response the editor removed all the weasel language and published before getting a response from the studio without the writers knowledge. Now, the weasel language would have made for terrible writing, but giving the studio a heads up that "players reported hearing the R word in the game, and if you've d like to deny it and tell us what was actually said we'll include your response" would have been fair game. It also sounded like the response time was one of those cases or requesting it at COB on Friday and publishing on Monday morning.

[@AustinFire]

Fun fact: Pokemon acknowledged the "too much water" review as a comment in Sun & Moon's photo mode.

[@Scp--pg7fg]

Its an area based on hawaii what were they expecting💀

[@shockthetoast]

​@@Scp--pg7fgthe "Too Much Water" review was about the Gen 3 remake games which took place in Hoenn, which was based on the Kyushu region of Japan. They just made a joking reference to it in Sun & Moon, which took place in a region based on Hawaii (Alola).

[@caolanochearnaigh9804]

IGN is a front for Team Magma!

[@borismuller86]

@@shockthetoastas someone who lives in Kyushu, I can confirm that there’s still too much water here.

[@captaineli2461]

You should’ve mentioned IGN and Gamespot’s reviews for the SpongeBob bfbb remake, one of the complaints was that the game was TOO KID FRIENDLY! What were they expecting, Squidward committing genocide?!

[@doomslayerobama]

For a kid friendly game, they sure suck at it.

[@not_funni353]

Sounds like the type of idiot who thought Squidward suicide or any creepypasta in general was real

[@revolvingworld2676]

We know he would if he could

[@theMyRadiowasTaken]

​@@gregoryford2532WAIT REALLY

[@yellow_x522]

Wait a minute, aren't IGN the same people who had a segment of journalists crying over the violence in COD MW 2019?

[@majoraslayer64]

The world would be a better place if everyone realized the rest of monetized journalism is exactly the same way, but it's easier to just ignore that and believe what they tell you as long as the reporter claims to agree with your opinions.

[@MiggyBird]

I was introduced to Bayonetta by a woman I dated, who was a huge fan of the character. We watched the animated adaptation together, so before I even got my hands on the original game I started to understand the character and why my girlfriend loved her so much. Bayo is beautiful and sexy, poised and perfect, but also the most dangerous and powerful fighter and the most capable and in-control person in the room at all times. The pinnacle of well-deserved confidence, to an honestly hilarious degree when she’s no-selling a tornado while shit-talking an angelic colossus, and with a gorgeous and unique personal style that is all glamour, glory, mystery and darkness. All this is to say, fans don’t love Bayo because “boobs and action.” We love her because she’s *fucking awesome.*

[@bysigmarareyouseriously156]

Boobs and ass make a part in that too

[@MrVariant]

Whole lot of rationalization similar to these journalists, similar to how vid drags. Just enjoy your crotch spreading gunfu and hump suplexes and skip the dialogue.

[@cthulhurage5598]

Also most ppl don't even realize Bayonetta was created by a women.

[@MrVariant]

@cthulhurage5598 Hideki Kamiya is a guy who left platinum games, with many sources like pc gamer saying he created Bayonetta. What woman are you referring to?

[@cthulhurage5598]

@@MrVariant Mari Shimazaki. I should have specified she was designed not created my bad

[@Tarkus_H]

Just a reminder that a few weeks ago, a Kotaku journalist posted a violent tweet directed at Nintendo workers for blacklisting Kotaku from getting a review copy of Tears Of The Kingdom after they posted leaks about it.

[@chee.rah.monurB]

What the hell was he expecting?

[@lukaszzylik4437]

Just a reminder that sucking Nintendos corporate dick won't stop them from using terror tactics on you if you play their games the wrong way.

[@ravensblade]

Wasn't the blacklist because they basically instead of reviewing the Metroid Dread, said that it's best to play on emulators, and explained how to emulate the game with links included? At the time of the game premiere? It wasn't becouse of some leak incident, but conscious action.

[@revolvingworld2676]

@@ravensblade You are right, in fact I’m pretty sure the leak is actually a spiteful response to the blacklist or Nintendo in general. Id expect this from a normal youtube channel or indie reviewer but not from a “professional” journalist company

[@privateinformation2960]

Unemployable morons are morons.

[@liamcampbell3721]

The sad thing is that there's always that one journalist who takes their job seriously but nobody talks about them.

[@victoralexandervinkenes9193]

It's probably because if they were, they would be fired for not shutting up and taking the money.

[@madeliner1682]

Yahtzee?

[@liamcampbell3721]

@@madeliner1682 Huh?

[@madeliner1682]

@@liamcampbell3721 I believe Yahtzee takes his job seriously

[@ukaznipsigururuk8685]

Like any corporation, if you just work in complete honesty, you will never climb the ladder

[@1337foxs]

The mishearing a song lyric one is hilarious because she whined about a disability slur while basically putting the singer on blast for being ESL.

[@soulhunter91]

I knew gaming journalism was bad when I read an article that said the Wii isn't family friendly because it had access to the internet.

[@MalachiCo0]

One of my favourite game reviews as a Nintendo fan was how (I believe) GameSpot gave Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn, a Tatical RPG set in a fantasy world where you tell your units to attack people on an almost Chess-like board, a negative review because the game didn't include motion controls or Miis. No seriously.

[@espurrseyes42]

Who in their right mind wants MORE motion controls? Especially in a game that doesn't need it?

[@Lucifronz]

I fucking hate motion controls and miis. It's why I despised the Wii so much. Miitopia made Miis less annoying with some cute-ish voices, and the Switch port with new face stuff went a long way towards making them less shit, but outside of that, I *genuinely* despise Miis. Nintendo has so many IPs they could have pulled from (Animal Crossing being a great one) and they chose to make these ugly little Fisher-Price looking motherfuckers... And motion controls? I don't want to clear space and wave my fucking hands like an idiot all day. People injected motion controls into every element with no alternative, it made that era of Nintendo *hell* and outside of the DS, thanks to Pokemon Platinum and SoulSilver, I avoided Nintendo like the plague. Didn't come back until late in the 3DS' lifecycle to start playing X/Y, and eventually Omega Ruby and Sun when it released. Ugh... I think I blew a gasket. The 3DS was a great system, though. Gyroscopic controls were hamfisted into stuff too, but they were less annoying overall at least, and usually had a purpose. Wish when they continued it for Switch they didn't force it into the puzzles for Breath of the Wild, especially since the gyroscopic controls on the joy-cons kinda sucked, but what can you do?

[@EchoGulch64]

​​@@Lucifronzthe wii was genuinely an *awful* time in retrospect. There were so many games that were weighed down by a gimmick that ended up making it so much more unfun and tiring on my arms, there were some that I can't even play without the risk of potentially *popping off the joint of my leg.* Overall, I think the focus on making gimmick consoles is what's holding Nintendo back in the modern era, sure it saved their ass back when the GameCube flopped and was revolutionary for the time, but hindsight is 2023 and I think they should finally take off those training wheels and finally make an actually high quality console.

[@TheMisterManGuy]

@@Lucifronz Motion controls can be great when done correctly. Most Splatoon players swear by gyro aiming, and there have been games like Ring Fit Adventure and ARMS, or VR that utilize them in fun and creative ways. Of course, that's good motion controls. Far too many people played one game with bad motion controls and swore off them for good, which is pretty unfair. ​ @EchoGulch64 With the Switch being as successful as it is, that's not happening anytime soon.

[@SuperM789]

@@Lucifronz sneethe

[@LordofSadFac]

You should have included the recent Blacklisting of Kotaku from reviewing Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, one of the most awaited games of the year and how Kotaku threw a hissyfit over it.

[@Gatorade69]

Wait, what happened ? Who blacklisted them and why ?

[@LordofSadFac]

@@Gatorade69 Nintendo itself Blacklisted Kotaku's entirely from making a review of the new Zelda game. Cant remember why, but i beleave its due to their awful reputation and wanted to avoid any kind of toxic negativity from them.

[@Gatorade69]

@@LordofSadFac I find that incredibly funny.

[@robertoazuaje9279]

Supposedly it's because they published an article describing how to play Metroid Dread on emulator when it first came out

[@callumohare]

Nobody knows the reason why - not even Kotaku - but it's generally assumed it was the Metroid Dread Already Running Great In Emulators.

[@MUGENanaya]

Oh shoutouts to that one Hot Dog Horseshoes and Hand Grenades review where the review staff saw this gun simulator game and went "Hey, let's get the guy with ACTUAL GUN RELATED TRAUMA to review this game"

[@mechadeka]

And he didn't even actually talk about the game lol

[@KasbashPlays]

I know this one’s tepid in comparison to the other ones featured on your video but I think Kotaku’s infamous “Sekiro could do with an easy mode” article deserves an honourable mention. The comments and replies on that article were glorious.

[@hola-gy8te]

kotaku: why are we blacklisted from making official nintendo articles??? also kotaku: *shows how to pirate metroid dread and totk ahead of release date*

[@GBDupree]

Another Metroid related one that I never see people mention was when all the news sites published a fake interview with Sakamoto that made him look like a psychotic misogynist and never acknowledged it was fake (well 1 of them did iirc). For the (long) context, there was a parody website called P4RGaming that touted itself as "The Onion of gaming" that is now defunct. At the time it was fairly popular for making fun of different things including games journalism, and people who were in on the joke would have fun in the comments section seeing how many people fell for it. When Other M came out, the news media decided in unison to use the game as the scapegoat to push their narrative against sexism in gaming (the precursor to whatever the whole gamergate debacle was about). They went so hard against it, even though the game wasn't even sexist (they never talked about specifics of the story, just a "trust me bro" about Adam and Samus' interactions). P4R decided to parody this sentiment by making a fake interview where "Sakamoto" acted exactly like they framed him to be, but so cartoonishly that it should be obvious it was fake. Despite all the context clues about the article and the website itself showing it to be fake, it was still picked up by multiple websites and published as a real article (often not even sourcing the original to appear more genuine). Without the proper context these websites convince tons of people that it was real. It got so bad that P4R took down the original and posted an apology as he never intended it to actively affect the public perception of Sakamoto, but without the full context people were now believing and attacking him as a sexist. But of course none of the games journalism websites redacted the articles they made or published an apology and since most of the sources for the page were to the other websites sourcing themselves, most people were completely unaware that it was fake and still often cite it as true. The person running P4R would eventually give up (or died?) Because the website eventually stopped updating and then the domain reset or went for sale so none of it exists there anymore (but Wayback Machine should have some of it). The cruel irony of this is that all reasons the journalists claimed it to be sexist for was discovered to be active changes made by the translators that don't exist in the Japanese original. So they destroyed his reputation for something he never did, and the fans took that anger out on him by applying even more lies to him. Luckily most of those were dispelled with the newest games both having references to the Prime series and having Samus flanderized as a badass. So most people have lightened up on him, but there are still some that hate him to this day.

[@davimbecil]

Actually based

[@Silentguy_]

All of their other flaws aside, that’s pretty based though.

[@harrietr.5073]

Link please?

[@funkymachine]

That's pretty cool ngl

[@hilotakenaka]

Fun fact: IIRC Laura Kate Dale, who wrote in the story at 5:45, had written articles and tweets in the past attacking other games made by Atlus. So I don't think that this was an honest mistake, I think she was genuinely trying to write a hit piece and she got caught in the act.

[@ViVi-ev2cn]

Laura gives me vibes of the person who made the art supplies shoplift comic

[@comyuse9103]

i don't knwo much about her personally, i know better than to troll through game journo bullshit (usually), but she does have a reputation of being a shitheel that is yellow through and through.

[@FelicMer]

@@ViVi-ev2cn Do you have any info on the artist of the comic? I tried finding it but couldn't.

[@ViVi-ev2cn]

@@FelicMer unfortunately no

[@boxingmaster2663]

arent they man

[@TheRoboKitty]

You forgot the best part of the Alien Resurrection review: where he tells you to "wait for Aliens: Colonial Marines instead"

[@darthgamer9861]

ah, hilarious in hindsight

[@JoeyJ0J0]

God Hand is a masterpiece, One of the best beat em ups ever and Bayonetta 2 was fantastic, I loved it

[@_Paul_N]

Bayonetta 2 is flawed, yet amazing. God Hand is flat out legendary 😎

[@BongoThe]

@@_Paul_Ndamn fucking right!

[@Anijah2001]

I've never seen people be less qualified for a job more than game journalists

[@dingus_maximus]

Don't know much about politics, do you?

[@Gatorade69]

You don't pay attention to politics, do you ?

[@Gatorade69]

@@dingus_maximus Lol. I saw this comment and instantly commented. Now reading the comments I realize my comment is basically the same as yours including the "do you ?" Haha.

[@jasperfizzelle-halloran4867]

​@@dingus_maximus The hell are you talking about, when did politics even get mentioned?

[@superplayerex2431]

@@jasperfizzelle-halloran4867 They weren't, it's simply a comparison he made. Which is also quite correct, if you ask me...

[@mqfii8992]

Another ironic thing about the Bayonetta bit Is that, for the most part, women LOVE Cereza. She gathered the reputation of "sexualization done right".

[@ethannorman7537]

That's cause she sexy for her own sake, for the most part anyway. There's a few scenes which are just fan service, but mostly she's sexy because SHE wants to be (which is weird I know, she's a video game character with no will)

[@apersonwhomayormaynotexist9868]

There's a great video on this by hbomberguy. She's a good example of this because she's a strong female character for whom her sexuality is empowering. The problem is that this is the only kind of strong female characters a certain subset of gamers will allow to exist in their games, while male characters who would be sexualized the same way aren't allowed to exist in their games. Like, Kratos barely wears a top and is less sexualized than her, could you imagine if they leaned into kratos being sexy? I think we all know who would be whining like babies about it

[@KamOffline]

@@apersonwhomayormaynotexist9868 "could you imagine if they leaned into kratos being sexy" They don't need to...He's already as sexy as he is... also it would be weird if they made a game where we were just killing gods and being a good father to softcore bara lol

[@Waskomsause]

@@apersonwhomayormaynotexist9868 "The only kind that gamers allow to exist in their games" I call bullshit. We've gone past that era once we had "The Last of Us" and modern "Tomb Raider" games as well as the "Resident Evil" titles. The problem is basically nobody TRIES to make a character interesting if they think "strong female character" they try and make a "GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR GGIRL POWER!" character that comes off as cocky, smug, and most of the time seems like an asshole, because any male character around her has to be a moronic useless prick. Hell, not to mention, the number of times men get sexualized isn't all that low, people just get told "get over it" when someone points it out. Good example is people wondering why male armour in a lot of games that comes off as "barbarian" armour in modern games has women with a top, pants, skirt over the pants and sometimes a jacket, but with men it's 90% loincloth and wrist guards with boots.

[@QDRG64]

@@apersonwhomayormaynotexist9868 Being a good father is sexy af tho.

[@Stewart.george]

They shouldn't of scored aliens low for poor controls but instead being nearly impossible without cheats. Holy shit the face huggers being an insta kill was brutal.

[@Scarecrow2140]

Colin’s take is easily the least egregious, but it’s funny to hear him talk about it more recently. He really believed in the vita and still gets incredibly frustrated because people just didn’t buy it.

[@malman1080]

The Vita was awesome! It had every right to do just as good as Nintendo ended up doing but Sony dropped the ball. From the memory cards being incredibly expensive, to the marketing and eventual lack of support… Sony just decided to give up.

[@NorthStarBlue1]

@@malman1080 Though a lot of that also had to do with Sony still trying to use their proprietary minidisc form factor despite solid state cards with similar storage capacity becoming much cheaper to produce, and their assumption that since the Playstation was so popular any system they released would just sell itself by virtue of being a Sony device.

[@JohnOmniviz]

@@NorthStarBlue1 they where talking about the vita not the psp, the psp is what used the mini discs

[@PanagiotisPolitis-bl9xj]

To me the funniest part of the Omega Ruby Alpha Sapphire review is that the criticism is true, there are too many dull and samey ocean routes, but they chose the WORST possible way to phrase it.

[@ionkneva]

I loved omega ruby but do agree it had too much water but sun moon had too much

[@PregnantAdamSandler]

I remember playing that game and going "oh my god they were right. The water routes SUCK!"

[@calebcoulter2268]

Nah. Everyone knew exactly what was meant by Too Much Water, and even if someone disagreed they still got the sentiment.the blowback from it was entirely dishonest and just being mad at IGN for criticizing a beloved game

[@PanagiotisPolitis-bl9xj]

@@calebcoulter2268 it's not beloved at all from most of the Pokémon fandom

[@danang5]

​@@calebcoulter2268i think most people sees it for the first time out of context making fun of IGN,like me

[@OkMakuTree]

The funniest part about “Too much water” is that it’s an warranted criticism. The mandatory ocean routes are by far the least interesting parts of Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire (and the original games too). IGN’s reputation and the patent absurdity of “Too much water” out of context are what sealed their fate and made that review infamous.

[@darthgamer9861]

it definitely baffles me as to why people hate the “too much water” criticism. ANYONE who has played Gen 3 hates the abundance of water

[@JukaDominator]

@@darthgamer9861 Because he wrote that in the dumbest way possible.

[@woobgamer5210]

@@darthgamer9861 i mean here's the thing Fly exists you can skip the water routes as long as you go to a city once. this means this dude just didnt pick up Fly, and went by surfing every single time.

[@AwesomeMooseSmile]

@@darthgamer9861 the main issue is despite RSE having the same issue if not worse, it got a higher score

[@keelyhawthorn9721]

If you catch a sharpedo you can swim faster while using surf in Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Also using repels solves the problem of running into wild pokemon. So swimming in ORAS is a lot less tedious than the original Ruby and Sapphire.

[@buckrodgers1162]

I remember back in the day Adam Sessler gave a review for Mass Effect 2 on G4TV, saying that "the Inventory had been streamlined"; And I was just sitting there saying: "What the hell are you talking about!? The complete removal of an inventory is a far shoot from something being 'streamlined'."

[@spademagna2672]

Adam sessler could fill a whole video with his antics

[@2Siders]

8:55 I thought he was gonna say “Having become a punching bag and having your article deleted, then leaving the company a month later… That’s really ret……”

[@RUSTYCHEVYTRUCK]

Jeff is exactly what a journalist should be , honest and fair, a truly rare commodity in journalism in general, and was fired for it

[@michel0dy]

I have a close friend who got their masters degree talking about Bayonetta's character design, so it's so hilariously ridiculous to see someone saying "sexy=bad" for their work

[@theslyfox1580]

I’d love to read that thesis paper if you can link it!

[@luckystarplays1837]

What course were they taking?

[@codeine69]

@@luckystarplays1837 Sexology

[@The-jy3yq]

@@codeine69 doctor sex * MEDIC! plays *

[@conspiracypanda1200]

My 60yo Mum saw me play Bayonetta and got all nostalgic about how she used to read Vampirella. Unfortunately one of the nuns at her boarding school caught her reading one and ripped it in half, tossed it in the trash, gave her a lashing and made her scrape the wax out of the floorboards with a butter knife. We went into a comic shop much later and she wanted to see if it was still running. Turns out they did and the guy at the counter admitted he used to hide some of the issues under his bed as a teen lmao

[@jarreddean2094]

My favorite saying about games journalism is you can’t spell ignorant without IGN

[@DIOBrando-ij2bp]

I can’t seem to find it anymore, but Chris Roper used to have a blog where he’d review games and talk about stuff. Came across it while reading XCOM reviews. And one of the articles on there, and mind you this is years after the God Hand review, was him doubling down on his God Hand review and talking about how nobody in the office at the time liked the game either. You are missing one of the best ones. The Polygon preview event for Rock Band 4, where Colin Campbell writes an article about how he didn’t play the game he was sent their to play, how he doesn’t like rock music or crowds, drones on about random shit, and says all video games are stupid is a crowning moment in dumb video game article. The PS5 article is comparable in stupidity, but the PS5 guy also wasn’t sent to a big press event to not do his job.

[@Pc_98_Fan]

The Rockband 4 story haves the same weight as the guy who was supposed to review the newly released PS5, and instead said review became a really big political rambling over Trump and Biden. It was big at the time of release and was just more shit over gaming journalism.

[@ahmadmalaki8364]

4:30 fun fact the director or creator said that he hates power rangers so he add these guys as a boss so he could imagine players beating up power rangers

[@bucketbutters866]

Simultaneously a W and an L

[@kingdom1872]

The most annoying boss in the game 😅

[@illford6921]

The bayonetta thing is so funny because every woman I've met who has played or seen bayonetta loves the character for being a bad ass witch 🤣

[@user-dl8vp7qc2x]

and was literally designed by a woman but i guess everyone specifically chose to forget that

[@pineappleproductions1534]

Man, I'm a girl and I frickin love bayonetta! Like theres nothing wrong with having an sexy girl character if they are actually well written

[@azizalfa752]

@@pineappleproductions1534even they are not well writing don’t take away good looking characters

[@cattysplat]

Feminists unable to decide if revealing clothing is liberating to women's rights or puritanical evil because men like it.

[@godofsquirrels494]

Bad ass ass witch

[@robotmaster4515]

It's really crazy how Bayonetta has switched up completely to people. I saw a viral tweet a few weeks ago talking about how they couldn't get how men could like Bayonetta cause it was "built for the girlies". People went from complaining that bayo was a male fantasy game to a game for the girls and gays (both are valid statements). It's just funny how people went through such a switch up on bayo. At the end of the day Bayonetta shows that everyone loves the female body be you a straight or gay, man or girl, everybody can appreciate a good rack.

[@HoshitheLycanroc]

Which is incredibly ironic considering she was based on hideki kamiya's (her creator) type of woman.

[@RGC_animation]

"Bayonetta is a game for good boys and girls."

[@robotmaster4515]

@@RGC_animation amen

[@DoubleRainbows667]

​@@RGC_animationamen

[@HippieInHeart]

Yeah, that Kane&Lynch thing was definite proof that games journalism has devolved into games marketing.

[@therealthirst8099]

Gaming journalism is like old corporate news. Both are institutions which have been made irrelevant by the internet and the rise of independant reporting. We simply have better alternatives today.

[@Zebo12345678]

True, but game guides on game journalism websites are still relatively helpful, as they're generally pretty organized.

[@FunkyGhostHD]

​@@Zebo12345678Yeah, that's that. But given the fact that they've been doing it since the earliest time, even before internet times kinda makes it a thing which is almost impossible to mess up.

[@AttacMage]

@@Zebo12345678 I've honestly just given up on those and moved to either KZbin videos or specific forums for it. Nearly every time I look at an IGN or Fandom wiki page they're either missing info or incorrect, while I could spend two minutes getting better visual info from somewhere else.

[@Bomberthegreat]

@@FunkyGhostHD Before the time of the internet we pretty much had to take their word for it, which sucks now because you can only think of legit games that got shat on due to bad reviews from people who don't care for how good it actually is or not.

[@LordTepes81]

One of the biggest reasons why the Vita failed from the start was one of the most idiotic moves in gaming history, by Sony. Instead of being able to use any type of micro SD to save files on the Vita they decided to have Playstation "Only" micro SDs. Now this wouldn't have been a big deal, except for the fact that they jacked the prices on every micro SD. I think it was something like 3x the amount of a normal one. It was doomed to fail from the start because of (no surprise to anyone) corporate greed.

[@cattysplat]

Yep Sony thought they could do an Apple and believed it's customers were so loyal they'd put up with any bull. Nope, gamers are nowhere near as loyal as Apple drones. Especially when the PSP had been so open it was incredibly easy to hack and mod.

[@EmilyKimMartin]

​​@@cattysplatSony has been doing an Apple since the PS2 days and the consumers have been paying for it all this time. Can you blame them for thinking it'd work again?

[@pipebombpete.6861]

They also released almost no games for it.its only good if you know how to emulat.

[@axt2]

absolutely baffling move. The PSP was absolutely fantastic thanks to its modding no less

[@Yarsig]

@@cattysplat "Gamers are nowhere near as loyal as Apple drones." "Looks at the state of the gaming industry caused in large part because of gamer drones." Riiiiiight

[@ViddyOJames]

The thing is, I'm pretty sure the "too much water" bullet point was in reference to an imbalance in pokemon type availability, which is a perfectly legitimate criticism.

[@psychie8625]

It would be if that was made clear.

[@ViddyOJames]

@@psychie8625 If I remember right, it was. In the review that you are supposed to be reading. Did you think it was just the score and the bullet points?

[@psychie8625]

@@ViddyOJames Admittedly, I didn't read the original review, nor did I realize when I replied that the abundance of water led to slim pickings for a third of the game. Lack of context was what made this review such a meme in the first place.

[@nicosaurus1616]

so what im hearing is... if i fail at my dream job, just become a game journalist.

[@DawnofInfo]

The most embarrassing moment for me was a gaming journalist that decided to do a livestream for his 25th work anniversary. The audience decided for him to play a FPS and in the first minutes he was standing in front of a ladder and didn't know how to interact with it while "Press E to interact" was shown on screen....

[@luchalegend2185]

Hmmm…this reminds me. I’m not gonna go into other details but i’ll tell you this. Someone once tried to use an arcade machine and he tried pressing on the screen that said “press to start” he pressed a few times and then he walked away saying that the machine is broken. The camera then looks down a few inches and zooms in on a big red glowing button

[@chee.rah.monurB]

Video source?

[@chee.rah.monurB]

​@@luchalegend2185Sometimes,people are morons because of psychology things,like "Tunnel Vision" or "Thalassophobia" or such.Sometimes they are morons because they are smply unintelligent.

[@GBDupree]

The most bizarre one for me was the E3 demo for The Wonderful 101, a reviewer was playing the game and a character tosses a rose towards the screen and the reviewer instinctively tries to catch it. It wasn't played for laughs either, as I think he was unaware he was being filmed (it was a low quality phone camera footage). He must have been really high at the time.

[@anafu-sankanashi8933]

@@chee.rah.monurB thalassophobia is fear of the ocean......i dont think thats the right context.

[@BlindMango]

I love how even a child would do more research figuring out the Smash Bros thing than a “grown adult” games blogger did lmao

[@jacobmatthews7524]

child vs adult has nothing to do with intelligence, i was smarter as a child than every adult i knew

[@cool_bug_facts]

​@@jacobmatthews7524least fart huffing rightoid btw

[@pauls9034]

"That's what the Bayonetta series has always been." You mean the ONE game that existed at that point?

[@cherrypopscile3385]

Games Journalism is a microcosm of the issues with modern journalism (yes, including whatever indie journo who fights "the establishment" too) All that matters is the clicks, and the sponsors. That's why you have so many goofy take articles. Goofy articles get clicks

[@philipdale3129]

To be fair to the Alien reviewer being one of the first twin stick shooters the game probably had no aim assist and would also be a completely novel experience for most players. When Halo was released some time later it was lauded for its controls but was running at least three types of aim assist under the hood which was why it felt so much better than anything else at the time.

[@zebwiz1900]

Give a non-gamer a controller for a first person shooter and what he describes is exactly what happens. I've seen it happen so many times.

[@draculactica]

the persona 5 disability slur situation really lends credence to the view that western games journalism is really shitty toward japanese developed games. like imagine hearing a native japanese speaker singing a song and deciding "ah yes, they are purposefully using a slur in my native language. also, they *must* be fluent in my native language because the world is centered around me and my culture." i gotta shout out jason schreier though. people are weirdly hostile toward him, but dude is one of the few people doing actually legit journalism for the games industry. like he's one of the main reasons we know how much of a clusterfuck the development of anthem was, and he's broken tons of stories about poor labor practices in games studios. even if you don't like him personally, games journalism would be better if people tried to do actual journalism like that instead of writing articles about how samus needs to smile more.

[@elneco4654]

"Weirdly hostile", more like they remember what/how he was before. When Dragon's Crown came out, he whined about the Sorceress' design and called it a "lolicon fantasy" (which would be like calling a chocolate bar a vegetable), and the director of the game himself mocked him by saying "maybe this is more to your taste" and posting a picture of three scantily clad dwarf characters from it.

[@draculactica]

@@elneco4654 lol that's pretty funny. i guess i can understand being upset with him over that, but it doesn't seem like a big deal to me. But to each their own, im not gonna gatekeep disliking someone lol

[@Cinnaschticks]

Please tell me there's not actually a review about how Samus needs to smile more...

[@enthiegavoir5955]

Jason Schrier is interesting because on one hand he does sometimes get caught up in the mountain out of mole hills political BS that other journalists do. On the other hand, he is legitimately a fantastic journalist who has a glowing reputation in a space where people actually doing their job properly makes them exceptional. I kind of feel like the fact that people respect him makes them look at him more critically in some cases, because he's shown to do great work most of the time.

[@draculactica]

@@Cinnaschticks yeah there's a rough kotaku article that essentially says "samus doesn't have to be a badass all the time, she can smile and be joyful" A bunch of people pointed out, rightfully imo, that no one is saying that about like the doomslayer lol

[@AstroTibs]

Mishearing a song lyric, having become the punching bag for a week and having an article you wrote get deleted, and then leaving the company a month later... That's really ret---

[@TheTrueChuster]

You... brought back Spoony's BETRAYAL clip. Thank you.

[@HoggyThePig]

I forgot where I heard this but gaming journalists use cheats to make deadlines. They dont actually play games. Its why the games that have more story tend to grt rated higher.

[@HoggyThePig]

Ik it was a ytber who said this

[@LonelyGamer4]

@@HoggyThePig the most reliable of sources

[@ab-gail]

I don’t know about cheats but them enjoying story heavy games for that reason make a lot of sense to me.

[@YodielandInhabitant710]

Upper echelon

[@amentco8445]

@@LonelyGamer4 Look it up. The sources were ripped from the journos themselves. The big pin in this is their treatment of MGS5.

[@Vyse1984]

One of my favorite Polygon fails was their preview of Rock Band 4, where the writer would rather talk about anything other than the game he was not interested in. It is best known as the “politics in the Philippines” article.

[@oz_jones]

😂 sounds wild. Need to read that

[@genericname2747]

You know what, props to him for just writing literally whatever. That's funny

[@Spacemongerr]

That's not a fail, the reviewer obviously did it on purpose and it's kinda funny: "I'm supposed to be focusing my attention on Rock Band 4, but there's more chance of Ferdinand Marcos leaping onto that stage than there is of me mounting the boards, swinging a guitar strap around my neck and yelling "whooooooo." I don't care about rock music. [..] Look, sometimes in this job you gotta cover games you don't really give a stuff about. I played some Guitar Hero ten years ago and I thought it was kinda stupid." 😄

[@chee.rah.monurB]

Jesus fuck.

[@Vyse1984]

@Spacemongerr Still felt disingenuous to send someone who doesn't care about a particular game or genre to cover said game/genre and allow him/her to write their disdain. Imagine if a big publication did that on a fighting game or a JRPG, and that was your main preview or review.

[@PsyDin_]

Worth mentioning that when GiantBomb was purchased and acquired by Gamespot, they had to admit, and did admit, Jeff's firing was due to not giving Kane and Lynch a high enough score. We all knew it, but official confirmation that the entire industry is corrupt came and went with barely any fanfare. They kept it hidden, barely anyone reported on it.

[@offbrandbiscuit]

Yeah I recall Pyrocynical mentioned that in his Kane and Lynch 2 video. The guy gave it like a 6 or 7 btw which is really not that bad for all its issues

[@Wbfuhn]

The best reviews are from honest people. People like let'sgameitout, Markiplier and other youtubers who play the game through and/or test the capabilities and limitations of a game.

[@Entinu94]

I get frustrated by Mark and his friend group just because their playstyle is counter-intuitive to how I play. Nothing against them as people, but I can't watch other people play games I enjoy. I got so annoyed (read: p.o.'ed) back when Inquisition first came out, and some idiot was jumping into a mountain in his "guide." It was some guy who did silent playthroughs for their channel, but I can't remember who it was. It just annoyed the hell out of me.

[@tykamen5588]

There's a reasons why Nintendo and other game companies blacklisted Kotaku, I'm not saying that the Smash Bros ultimate article was the sole reason just one of many reasons.

[@wolfekupo5651]

I mean Kotaku literally was advertising and made a guide on how to emulate and pirate Metroid Dread not even a month after the game came out, if any company deserves to blacklist Kotaku it is Nintendo for that

[@asuraofwrath]

@@user-qv5sm5dw1v old games yes new games or games that haven't released yet no

[@azizalfa752]

@@wolfekupo5651and kotaku abd other destroying anime games with good looking anime waifus thats even sader its a liberal left based agenda journalist team with blue hair😂

[@azizalfa752]

Deserved

[@agisuru]

I remember reading Kotaku's review of Triangle Strategy, where the author complains about the "silly" spellings of words like domain as demesne or jail as gaol. This same person also reviewed Bloodborne. There is literal proof that he should know better and that this is just old english. He also talked about how characters "guilt tripped" him for the choices he made. Weighing the cost and benefit of a choice and knowing some characters may not agree and wondering if there may have been a better way is the literal entire point of the game. He also complained about the game's difficulty while doing things like leaving his healers fully exposed to get annihilated by enemies. Like he complains about needing strategy in a strategy game. The game has strategy in its name. C'mon now.

[@theleftfootedsultan]

If only the game allowed you to change difficulty settings at any time, and even included a “Very Easy” setting where it becomes borderline impossible to lose unless you actively try to. That would be so convenient.

[@ThoraeJenkins]

They're still called gaol in Australia too. A lot of us media consumption means that most of the public uses jail, but that's sadly just the way things go.

[@shawnscouten5184]

To be fair, some of the choices in the game do feel a tad contrived for characters in the game, particularly at the end, it felt like they were trying to force an idealogical choice that didn’t quite make sense, like the kings son, Roland I think, being so obsessed with defeating the red empire that he wants to join a religious dictatorship with a literal race of s*laves (sorry for the dumb censorship, but I prefer my comment undeleted) but to top it off, he has the gall to be one at the end of that ending going “ohh, the s*aves might be free but they are still treated poorly” like dude, if you had your way, they would still be s*aves and the game tries to hammer home this weird point by having the protag make a near out of character declaration regarding punishment of those people, I get its not the perfect True Ending™️ but it really feels kinda forced, with the negative consequences not coming as a result of your actions, but as a result of the MC just deciding to be a d*uchebag to the people he just freed for no clear reason. Not sure if guilt tripping is the best word, but I can see where he is coming from.

[@ghlorp9690]

Surprised to see that the doom eternal incident isn’t here

[@ToniaGlitched]

fun fact: I once got stuck for a few seconds on Cuphead tutorial, noticed my keyboard's button that should be used to dash wasn't working, changed it on the pause menu, and finished it... that's all I wanted to say. my laptop's keyboard is fully broken now because one of my sisters have threw detergent on it btw

[@terminator572]

It's "has thrown", not "have threw", if you are only talking about one person performing the acfion

[@Gatorade69]

@@terminator572 English may not be their native tongue.

[@terminator572]

@@Gatorade69 it isn't mine either.

[@pillowmint4622]

throw detergent on your sister.

[@SchizophrenixTheGaul3478]

Who tf throws detergent on their elecrical devices

[@blondesummer7980]

God Hand is like Sifu's wacky Japanese big brother. They share a lot of similar elements from dodging with analog stick, punishing difficulty, how special moves works, and even some enemies reviving and becoming stronger. Really underrated action game, check it out if you enjoyed Sifu.

[@thechugg4372]

Yes, sifu is already s spiritual successor to Absolver, which itself was heavily inspired by god hand!

[@blondesummer7980]

@@thechugg4372 I'm actually interested in trying Absolver, but I heard it's mostly a PvP game, right? There's not much single player content in it.

[@ascended8174]

​@@blondesummer7980Get a friend to play it with, enjoyed it a lot beating friends with stagger style

[@tumultoustortellini]

@@thechugg4372 I was just about to mention absolver! Honestly, that game was so fun but such wasted potential. The drunken master meta got boring real fast

[@tumultoustortellini]

@@blondesummer7980 It has some hours of single player content. Worth a buy for sure

[@KHJohan]

Bayonettas sex appeal is used well to give her an attitude of “I’m so great, I can beat your ass and look good doing it”. She is in a way mocking her opponent.

[@huntforbigfloptober1333]

Remember that time a game reviewer played Devil May Cry (I think it was 5?) and they said there wasn’t much music If you don’t know, DMC games amp up the music based on your performance. Boxo unintentionally outed their ineptitude 😂

[@espurrseyes42]

I think that was DmC. The reboot.

[@izuko5857]

@@espurrseyes42 Nah that's where you're wrong. Game journos love DmC. It was most definitely 5 because it's the only game with music that ramps up with your rank

[@espurrseyes42]

@@izuko5857 No, DmC did that before 5. Maybe not in the same way, but it introduced Dynamic music to the franchise. And "loving" the game doesn't mean they're good at it.

[@yourlocalmilkman916]

Dude. They reviewed txr d2 they wonder why their front wheel drive car cant drift. Like no shit. The front wheel is the one that spins

[@chee.rah.monurB]

Automatic su1cide.

[@minecraftworks41]

God being reminded of the Doom 2016 review, you’d think someone watched the video before it got released and saw the person playing clearly struggling, but I guess not. Frankly I’m glad it’s around as it’s a spectacle to watch, for anyone who has tried to get a non-gaming family member or friend try out a game you like.

[@jorda8915]

If I remember correctly the guy who played it actually tried his damn hardest to get better at it too after the video came out lol

[@nikguimont8546]

I remember watching it and thinking “ is he trying to hide content from us “ like was he asked to not show off other guns or do headshots for some reason but no he was just bad

[@coffeemug1012]

my guess is that he was primarily a controller player and was asked to play mouse and keyboard for the gameplay

[@CasuallyShadow]

​@@coffeemug1012 That would honestly make a lot of sense, thats why it reminds me of how I play games on computer (I do actually play computer games a lot its just, not first person shooter games, so I'm really bad on computer when it comes to that)

[@Icemario87]

@@coffeemug1012 But mouseclicking is like 10 million times easier than using a joystick. I was a diehard console gamer until I got a PC when I was almost 20. Using a mouse is like suddenly being able to walk after being wheelchair-bound.

[@augustcederberg5904]

I think the Alien Resurection guy was right tbh, you're kind of glossing over the fact that the reason the control scheme works in newer titles is because of aim assist without it, it's quite an obnoxious way to aim...

[@NorthStarBlue1]

That and modern controllers have vastly more precise analog sticks than before along with in-game sensitivity adjustment options, which make a huge amount of difference. Also programmers now have decades of experience in how to make them work effectively, which many people just didn't back in 2000.

[@Ratich]

I find it weird that too much water became a meme because it was a complaint about a Pokémon game in which the majority took part in watery areas making Water types abundant and it got boring after a while

[@tb3411]

MangaKamen made a video defending the complaint. He made great points.

[@mechadeka]

Because NPCs just repeat meme without knowing what they mean.

[@lvl5Vaporeon]

Anything with Dean Takahashi will be comedy gold.

[@HalfOtaku]

Did you know?

[@Nyrus13]

You can never bring up gaming journalism without this man lol 😂

[@BeNice2005]

@@HalfOtaku that in terms of

[@brightblackhole2442]

@@BeNice2005 w

[@LoliconSamalik]

@@Nyrus13 The irony is that he's not even a gaming journalist. He's a tech journalist first

[@Narrator1]

If you do a sequel, I have a recommendation: The Independent's review of Astral Chain, made by Platinum Games (company founded by many of the same people behind God Hand). Gave it a 1 out of 5 and called it a brainless button masher, while their own screenshots gave away the fact that they were playing on a difficulty too low to be scored by the game's own in-game rating system.

[@DevilboyScooby]

This is why I only truly trust print games journalism - in the UK at least, there an obligation to play through the entirety of a game where possible (I think something like 20-50 hours if it's multiplayer), so you don't get silly reviews based on 1 hour of struggling, rushed out for when the embargo lifts.

[@crocs_n_socks]

One of the key features that makes God Hand so good and beloved is that it was not afraid to cater to hardcore gamers with its relatively intricate controls and mechanics. And it sucks that it's in due part because of these clowns that we can't have challenging and deep games outside of niche stuff.

[@scottsymonds5649]

Tbf, Imagine: Party Babyz executed its concept perfectly. The cover promises that you will imagine partying babies, and you get exactly that.

[@alaeriia01]

In defense of the alien Resurrection review, when a few quake players started using the now-ubiquitous WASD and mouse control scheme, they were mocked for it. People just don't like change.

[@thenonexistinghero]

A lot of people still hate on gyro stupidly enough as well. I can't even play fps games with just dual-sticks anymore. I never thought it was an amazing scheme, but it was doable when there was nothing else to make fps on consoles properly playable. But now gyro makes it possible to be almost as good as PC mouse + keyboard players with aiming and most people are still latching on to dual-stick only like crazy. It's a shame MS hasn't included it on their Xbox controllers. Basically the only reason it's still not included in all fps games as a standard scheme because pretty much every other controller does have gyro included.

[@MooseCastle]

​@@thenonexistingheroDisliking motion controls isn't stupid, it's perfectly normal. I like pressing buttons and moving sticks, not waggling my controller about, and I don't care how many people say it's "superior" when I can just use a mouse instead.

[@thenonexistinghero]

@@MooseCastle You don't need to waggle your controller about, just shows you don't know anything. And it's objectively superior to dual analog. You also can't just use a mouse for consoles. And using a mouse for gaming is also pretty awful if your want to sit on your couch and play on your TV. Mouse only works properly on a desk.

[@resyntax]

​@@MooseCastleif you say "waggling" you have no idea what youre talking about.

[@DrLynch2009]

The funniest part of the Jeff Gerstmann "honest game reviewer" story is that years later he would not review or event allow the mention of Kingdom Come Deliverance on Giantbomb becouse he didn't like Daniel Vavra, the game director and gamergate supporter.

[@noone12748]

You either die a hero or live long enough to become a villain

[@The13thRonin]

To be fair... If you're a games journalist your assumption that people would call you tarded is pretty valid.

[@Fanimati0n]

Only respect for Jeff Gertsmann. Man stood his ground & spoke the TRUTH even though it cost him his job. Godspeed, Jeff. The only games journalist o7

[@goldenfiberwheat238]

Journalist fired for doing journalism. Sounds like an onion article

[@chee.rah.monurB]

Elaborate?

[@GrugGangGrugGang]

@@chee.rah.monurB He got fired from Gamespot for giving Kane and Lynch a bad review.

[@donovanlocust1106]

​@@GrugGangGrugGangi heard it got mixed reviews

[@LaBarata12]

So basically, here’s what happened: There was a game called Kane and Lynch. It was bad. It was REAL bad. Seriously, this thing was awful. Terrible plot, awful characters and wretched gameplay. However, several big companies like Gamespot had already signed enormous ad contracts with the publisher, guaranteeing them everything from constant advertisements on every square inch of the site (buttons and banners and BUY KANE AND LYNCH NOW on every single page) to the most sumptuous of review blowjobs. However, Jeff refused to play ball. The game was garbage and he refused to say otherwise, because this was back when at least some folks left had journalistic integrity. He stood up and gave an honest, unbiased review of that dumpster fire and in retaliation he was fired from GameStop.