The same flaws pointed out in the review could easily be said about The Godfather-a film which 41 years after release is still regarded as a classic. A high watermark in the medium of cinema. While i am opposed to sexism, I strongly feel that if the same reviewer looked at The Godfather, those same negative points that blinker her objectivity would come up.
In short, since Johnny is so fond of taking a moment to reflect, i would ask him to take 3 minutes to think wether he or the majority of other reviewers on this site would've brought up those same critisicms had they reviewed the game.
I also take umbridge with that endpoint about how games should be elevating us and aspiring to be better. While there are certainly games which show a lack of maturity and often include overtly sexist and morally ambiguious tones, GTA isn't one that i would include...it's a social satire and is almost certainly 'winking' at the gamer throughout. When you try to make something that appeals to everyone the end result is usually that it appeals to almost no-one.
A huge amount of talented people have put GTA5 together and, it seems to me that they have released the game EXACTLY as they wanted to. To critisize the story for not having enough strong female protagonists is insulting to the creative team who worked to bring us this game. The viewpoints of the individual reviewer do not reflect the vast majority of your readership.
I'd be surprised if we get a Feedbackula on this. That would mean having to confront a subject matter that is obviously very sensitive to the Gamespot management.
The various debates about sexism and misogyny in videogames posted on this very site by one staff member is troubling and often feels totally out of place and incredibly indulgent when placed amongst the news and reviews and topics that interest the majority of gamers.
To raise an eyebrow at the vocal majority on this message board would require them to defend the reviewer's viewpoints and I just can't see that happening.
Even before the video started, i noted who was reviewing it and was already betting on the word 'misogynist' being mentioned. It's terrible that GS allow the personal issues of one reviewer to speak for the rest of us.
Would Mario get a 9 simply because Princess Peach isn't a playable character I wonder.
This is GTA, a long standing series with a tradition of dark humour and male dominated anti heroes. I certainly wont get to the end of the story and think less of women simply because of the broad-stroke stereotypical characters in a videogame. It's not an issue. Really.
Sorry to say that i found this article pretty insincere. The title suggests a look at what's possible -perhaps something that will really change the gaming experience but what we actually have is four developers telling us about their forthcoming games just a couple of months away from release.
Sure, they mention a few technical improvements but there's nothing particularly inspiring or evolutionary here. This seems to be an advertisement masquerading as journalism.
@PeejayYeh He does have a ridiculous accent and a winning smile but he wouldn't look half as good as Jess in a latex nurse outfit so i'm not convinced.
@HowlPendragon is there any reason to indicate that he did? I certainly didn't and neither did the vast majority of my friends. Not everyone on the internet is the same age or shares the same background as you.
@picho86 @GetafixOz @DudleyDawson101 Pretty sure most programmers get into the business for the money -they aren't cancer here. His early games showed a great deal of innovation and he was a pioneer of the 'god-game' genre.
Whatever you may think of him these days there's no doubting that, he was an entrepreneur and an astute businessman.
So we flatten land, use divine powers to summon weather effects, require more and more devoted followers to increase our powers and occasionally send in champions in to show off our godlike presence...isn't this Populous 2 Peter?
Don't get me wrong, i'd probably spend some time with this because it looks sorta fun but let's not fool ourselves into thinking this is revolutionary stuff, eh?
@Chrypt22 Thank you for referring to me as a mindless drone based on absolutely nothing whatsoever.
I currently own both a PS3 and an XBox 360. I have no strong allegiance to either company. I consider myself a gamer and will go where the best games are. I have, however, become rather jaded with Microsoft during the recent months due to their arrogant attitude towards their customer base.
Being told to 'deal with it' and then backtracking on their original statements time and time again have not exactly inspired a lot of confidence for me and many other consumers.
To answer your original question, what aren't they giving me? Well right now they aren't giving me a personal choice on wether i have a webcam in my house. They aren't giving me the confidence to buy a product that the company itself appears to have no faith in -those constant reversals on policy show nothing but weakness and, at present, they don't appear to be offering me a solid piece of hardware with games as a priority.
I'm not interested in the social media aspects of the console, the ability to record my gameplay or even the ability to speak to it. I just want to see some originality and a better gaming experience on a machine that is more interested in gaming than in pushing an advertisement at me.
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