(IGN.com)

[Lu]

Or Zero Suit anything? One of the things that I love about Samus is how un-sexualized she is, but really Team Ninja (in my experience of about half the game) has shown more restraint than Nintendo has in recent years. When you see her face in flashbacks, she's in military casual clothes. The only zero suit stuff is that when she dies, for whatever reason, her suit evaporates as she collapses. Unless you're dying a tonne, you almost never see it. In-game, sometimes it will cut away and show her face, but that is just her helmet coming off, suit stays on. A bunch of what Team Ninja has done over the years is repulsive and a big part of what's wrong with gaming culture, but it's unfair to throw that at their work with Other M. As for the whole "she won't act without authorization from her MALE friend" thing, he's her superior officer and they're in a military situation. I'd still rather they not tack on any of that, but she never seems subservient to him and certainly is never lacking in personal motivation to kick some ass. It's done far better than I ever expected it to be. That said, the story is still crap. I'm fairly sensitive to sexism issues in games, with a lot of what's out there being pretty disgusting to me, but Other M never stood out as anything particularly objectionable.

Yea, I agree with that. I felt that the story they put out for her in Other M was a very forced way of trying to humanize her as a character.

They use the story to explain past game mechanic conventions, which I have a problem with. There is this strong sense of control through story, which I don't think is a very interesting direction for Metroid to go in. It even seems counter opposite to what Metroid stands for. I think it's a result of Team Ninja's Japanese roots in game storytelling that's at fault here.

[Snooglebum]

"There are a few beams of light that shine through the cave of round butts and big boobs." -- IGN.com

This is in an article that purports to criticize game developers for oversexualizing female characters. An article featuring many visual examples of what they're criticizing. IGN has turned a new leaf. Never again will they pander to the horny, straight, teenage male demographic!

This being IGN, my expectations were pretty low. But then I actually read the article, and was pleasantly surprised; it was honest, and dead-on. Well played, IGN.

[Sully907]

Yes there is. Imagine Valve giving crowbar carrying scientist a voice in HL3.

A Christmas present changes when you open it.

Gordon freeman is also not a good character. He's just a proxy, or a cypher, or whatever the right word is.

[Thompson]

This being IGN, my expectations were pretty low. But then I actually read the article, and was pleasantly surprised; it was honest, and dead-on. Well played, IGN.

It was certainly written with an admirable intention, which I agree with, however it was a little preachy.

I dream of a world where there aren't "gamer girls", those precious few who have ignored the impediments that gaming has set up for their gender. There are just gamers, united by a love of a medium accessible by all and discriminating against none.

Thanks MLK, without your iconic speech the video games industry would never have grown out of it's current state of development.

[mikemariano]

"People saying 'Amazing' a lot!"

-- IGN.com

"You'll have to work harder for love from your kitten."

-- IGN.com

[Snooglebum]

The Babeology articles on IGN really, really disgust me.

[Hermie]

"But I have lots of favorite parts to Dead Space 2." (IGN.com)

The entire review is as if written by a 12-year old.

[mikemariano]

The entire review is as if written by a 12-year old.

Holy cow those comments are brutal.

The review is credited to one Greg Miller, a journalism school graduate and longtime editor at IGN.

There's really no excuse for his terrible, terrible review.

[Lu]

They're all talking about journalism, but is a review even journalism?

Maybe it's a case of a reviewer writing for its intended audience.

[Noyb]

Wow, that is the worst-written review I have read on IGN in a while.

"[Dead Space 2 features] sound that's so well done I'd find myself trying to figure out if it was a monster making its move or my dog rummaging in the living room." --IGN.com

Fake Edit: Oh man, the author responded: http://www.ign.com/blogs/Greggy-IGN/2011/01/24/well-now-i-know-what-reddit-is/

"I hate typos and things that make the site look bad." -- IGN.com

[Thompson]

What a douche.

Guy writes a poorly thought out and constructed article, says "What the fuck is Reddit?", complains about the internet doing what the internet always has and will do and then tells people to get in on the "ground floor" of Reddit. (Reddit was launched in 2005)

[CaptainFish]

Yea, this is a bummer. I'm not a huge review reader, with the way games are covered now I usually know what I'm getting into. I do really like Brad Shoemaker's reviews over at GB. Even if I disagree with him I know I'm in for a well written review. Comparatively it's like the populist version of university level discourse compared to this IGN guy's middle school level discourse.

[pabosher]

In his response, he says that his aim is to write about how the game made him feel - that's cool, I do too. But sometimes you have to wonder if there aren't better ways of expressing it.

[DanJW]

Honestly, things like this actually give me hope. It makes me able to appreciate my own writing, meaning I'm more likely to write frequently and actually promote it. Iif this guy can get a job writing for a living, why can't I?

I've been noticing my rising irritation with bad writing in reviews of all types lately - games, films, plays. I'm thinking of starting a blog that reviews, um reviews. Would that be churlish?

[Lu]

In his response, he says that his aim is to write about how the game made him feel - that's cool, I do too.

That was the smoothest plug of ones own stuff I have ever seen!

[JonCole]

Maybe my response comes more out of the fact that I just kinda like the guy, but it seems to me that while this review is pretty bad it nowhere near deserves the dumping upon that it got from Reddit.

While many of Greg's sentiments stem from simple pleasures that don't translate well into a critical review, I can't help but think how much better the article would be if the grammatical errors and whatnot were caught by a copy editor. I personally don't have a problem with reviews written from a first-person perspective nor do I think passive voice is egregious as most people spell it out to be.

I don't really know where I'm going with this... I guess it just seems to me that people are more anti-IGN than anti-bad reviews and this review just gave them an ammunition of excuses to shit all over a mainstream publication.

That said, I couldn't give two shits about most of what's posted on IGN, unless it's from the Rebel FM guys or on one of their podcasts.

[pabosher]

That was the smoothest plug of ones own stuff I have ever seen!

Thank you, I do try!

[Thompson]

I don't really know where I'm going with this... I guess it just seems to me that people are more anti-IGN than anti-bad reviews and this review just gave them an ammunition of excuses to shit all over a mainstream publication.

That said, I couldn't give two shits about most of what's posted on IGN, unless it's from the Rebel FM guys or on one of their podcasts.

The only publication i'm against is Gamespot. IGN has good stuff, it's just that this particular review was pretty bad and the writer's response was that of a petulant child.

Don't get me started on Rebel FM.

[JonCole]

The only publication i'm against is Gamespot. IGN has good stuff, it's just that this particular review was pretty bad and the writer's response was that of a petulant child.

Don't get me started on Rebel FM.

I honestly don't get the negative feedback on his response, either. For the most part, it seemed like he earnestly wanted people to give him some constructive criticism on his work. If the term "sourpusses" is somehow hideously offensive, let me know.

Specifically on Reddit... I really don't think it's so ridiculous that he said "What the fuck is Reddit?" to himself. To tell you the truth, Reddit isn't that huge of a site that it should be some marker of internet savviness. While Reddit is certainly pimping big numbers nowadays (8 million uniques, by their count), it's still far from a household name as that number was mostly bolstered by such an amount due to double digit percentage increases post-Diggpocalypse. Additionally, I feel like his "getting in on the ground floor" comment was obviously facetious. Juxtaposed by his Xonglebongle.com aside, Greg's general sense of humor would suggest that he was joking.

[mikemariano]

For the most part, it seemed like he earnestly wanted people to give him some constructive criticism on his work.

You are being incredibly generous, JonCole; there were many measured, reasoned responses to his review and reaction, but he'd rather wallow in his hurt feelings. He doesn't apply any critical thinking in his role as a critic, and he doesn't seem to want to.

I am wholeheartedly glad that this review generated a backlash. Superficial reviews are worthless as criticism. It's past time that readers demanded more!

I much prefer long-form, broader-scope criticism. One insane example is the Final Fantasy XIII review on Action Button. The review goes into fanatical detail about the battle system---the only novel thing about FFXIII, and therefore, the only thing worth talking about.

Miller doesn't care about detail. He says thinks like, "Isaac talks now, but it works." Can you tell us why it works, Greg? Take your lumps, do your homework, and bring across some meaning in your writing!

[JonCole]

You are being incredibly generous, JonCole; there were many measured, reasoned responses to his review and reaction, but he'd rather wallow in his hurt feelings. He doesn't apply any critical thinking in his role as a critic, and he doesn't seem to want to.

I am wholeheartedly glad that this review generated a backlash. Superficial reviews are worthless as criticism. It's past time that readers demanded more!

I much prefer long-form, broader-scope criticism. One insane example is the Final Fantasy XIII review on Action Button. The review goes into fanatical detail about the battle system---the only novel thing about FFXIII, and therefore, the only thing worth talking about.

Miller doesn't care about detail. He says thinks like, "Isaac talks now, but it works." Can you tell us why it works, Greg? Take your lumps, do your homework, and bring across some meaning in your writing!

I totally agree with you. I probably come off as completely overapologetic, but I honestly can't help it given the shitstorm this gave rise to. There were plenty of positive comments being thrown around, giving serious advice that he should take. But for every "maybe you should be more specific with your pronouns or mention the antecedents more often", there was five or six "fuck you with a shovel covered with blood from an AIDS patient". Again, I totally agree that the review was badly written, I just think that this guy is getting crucified for way more than he deserves.

[CaptainFish]

"He was crucified for your reviews!" -IGN.com

[Lu]

I hope we all learned today that gam writ is super serias business.

[Patters]

I fucking love bandwagons.

[CaptainFish]

Seriously the best part of this whole thing can be summed up in two images.

This first one...

...And this response.