@Mersinary_Myth @Nminator_236 But that's the thing of a review, it's a personal opinion. He doesn't need to agree with other sites or enjoy the game because other people did. As for his familiarity with the genre/series, he reviewed the two previous FFXIII games and gave them pretty good reviews (7.5/8.5). I agree with your point about not assigning someone to a game that is totally out of sync with their tastes, but as the senior editor, I'd imagine that (a. he wouldn't take on something he felt out of his depth reviewing and (b. being the senior editor requires a fairly broad experience in gaming.
@Zarkhaine I actually saw a recent interview with Gerstmann about the whole thing. Apparently, at the time, Gamespot was under new management who was inexperienced with having an editorial staff and when eidos threatened to pull advertising, they panicked and fired him. That management has since left. I've seen more than a few instances where gamespot was plastered with ads for something they gave a less than stellar score to (Duke Nukem Forever comes to mind). I'm convinced that for gamespot, it was an isolated incident caused by poor, inexperienced management.
@mickey_mickey48 Oh my god. They're presenting us with two different views and asking us to think critically? How will our tiny minds ever make a decision?!?!
@pzb101 @TomMcShea But did it really have a place in the franchise to begin with? Thematically and aesthetically it didn't. It really might as well have been out of the franchise. Or maybe something that took up the "spiritual successor" mantle as bioshock did with systemshock. And being a spiritual successor in that it was a shooter with a unique point of view and relatively high concepts for games of that genre instead of, "look, I can shoot fire out of my hands!!!!!".
@JOTLD @YearoftheSnake5 @mkdms14 Have you, your brother or his friend ever considered that they don't get above an 8.0 because nintendo is more than happy to rest on their laurels and crank out new versions of the same game for years without creating new franchises or experiences? I love nintendo franchises, but the reason I only have Pokemon Blue and Silver is that there isn't really a point to buying the 10 other variations that have been released over the last 15 years because they're all essentially the same game.
While I don't necessarily agree with the numerical value of this review, he brings up solid points. Throughout Bioshock Infinite, I had an uneasy feeling about the whole thing. The plasmids felt shallow and boring and didn't have a real reason to be there in the first place. In the first Bioshock, plasmids are a metaphor for the failings of objectivism and the effects such a philosophy could have if it were put into practice in society. They represent supreme, individual power and unlimited freedom. However, because of the unlimited individual power presented to the citizens, society falls apart. In Infinite, they're just there because, someone decided that that's what Bioshock is about. And I'd have to agree that the philosophical ideas posed ultimately fall flat because a point is never really made out of them. The ideas are never really expanded upon and the final act of the game essentially neuters whatever point they're trying to make. It turns into "Racism, nationalism and religious/idealogical extremism is bad", rather than really saying anything interesting about those subjects. I enjoyed playing through the game, but it definitely feels shallow in comparison to the original.
@MasterTheHero I know. I really wish they took more aesthetic risks like this in the Zelda universe. I didn't play skyward sword, but it seems like most everything else has followed the classic look. I really loved Wind Waker. It had a sense of exploration and wonder that few other games could capture.
twentymooseman's comments