The Oscars have them. March Madness has them. But, numerous outlets start announcing their year-end picks, I’m wondering if anyone does Game of the Year betting pools? More »
Over at the CBS/Gamespot offices they’ve been having a lot of fun with post-its, putting together this lovely window-spanning mural of classic 8-bit video game characters. The video above depicts them working through the night in what must have been a very enjoyable reason to forgo sleep. More »
Hispanic gamers are more likely to buy console video games, less influenced by price points in their choices, and consider themselves gaming novices, according to a survey by Univision, which will team with GameSpot to produce a Spanish-language games portal. More »
EA has launched the multiplayer open beta for Command & Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight, and all you have to do is sign into your free GameSpot account and wait. More »
Generally, we would suspect that any unfavourable review of one’s video game creation would be quite the bum out. In the case of IO Interactive’s Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, however, team members say that GameSpot’s damning review of the Eidos published crime epic knocked the wind out of them and that being caught up in the “conspiracy theory” brouhaha that surrounded the review was “surreal”.
Jens Peter Kurup, Director of Kane & Lynch at IO, tells GamesRadar that “there was something in the tone of that review that was tough on people, and on me”.
Calling the GameSpot thrashing of Kane & Lynch — a nasty 6.0, when many reviews range from 7.0 to 10 — “a review that I would like to forget”, Kurup is surprisingly honest in his feelings about the judgement.
James Yu over at GameSpot has just posted an excellent hands-on comparison of the old Sony PSP 2000 model and the shiny new PSP 3000, announced just last week at the Games Convention in Leipzig. While we’ve already posted the comparison that showed up on Famitsu, the GameSpot article has a few things going for it. More comparison photos of the screen, which looks to be where the biggest noticeable differences lie, and the fact that James writes in easy-to-understand English, always appreciated by us English-exclusive humans like myself. Hit the link below for the full skinny on what has changed in obsessive detail, right down to the surface textures of the plastic.
Sony PSP 3000 Hands-On [GameSpot]
In-game ad company Double Fusion announced a promotion and two new management hires today: Double Fine’s own Julie Shumaker will now oversee the company’s newly formed Core Games Group as general manager and former VP of games at CNET Joshua Larson has been brought on as Vice President of Business Development, and former GameTrust CFO and COO Glen Sussman is now Double’s Fusion’s CFO.
Joshua Larson, Joshua Larson, Josh Larson? That’s right, at CNET he was involved in GameSpot business strategy, and he was apparently involved in the site’s “Gerstmann-gate” brouhaha. This controversy supposedly lead to the controversial firing of long-time staffer Jeff Gerstmann (pictured0. After that incident, other senior GameSpotters like Frank Provo, Brad Shoemaker, Ryan Davis and Jason Ocampo all left the site. Josh Larson was sacked last April. According to an anonymous “gamespot” commented at sister site Valleywag, Larson was “a suit [...]who had no editorial experience and was only involved on the business side of things”.
And now Joshua Larson is working in advertising. In-game advertising. Why was he ever working in editorial?
GameSpot’s ‘Gerstmann-gate’ VP Heads to Double Fusion [GameDaily][Pic]
Want to get in on the ground floor of an upcoming post-apocalyptic MMOG? Fallen Earth is going into alpha testing this Thursday the 14th, and Icarus Studios want to give you a chance to help them test out their game. Sign ups are being handled via a rather primitive GameSpot page, meaning you’ll have to have signed up for a free subscription in order to participate, and then you’ll have to meet their criteria in order to actually be selected, but nothing worthwhile is ever easy.
Fallen Earth Project Manager Colin Dwan said, “During the Alpha test phase, testers will be focused into specific towns so we can have miniature stress tests each week. They will be able to experience all of our game systems including missions, combat, crafting, scavenging, economy, and vehicles. We are extremely excited to move from general content creation to game balance and bug fixing.”
Incidentally the game date is 2145 and their apocalypse of choice is a plague named Shiva that wiped out 99% of the population. Always good to know which post-apocalyptic scenario we are working with. Hit the jump for full details on the alpha sign ups.
