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One thing Atari does do well, which obviously does not include making great epic games, is teasing the press. Quite frankly, the press has no balls, and Atari's Enter the Matrix proved it once. EGM, for example, dedicated half of its magazine and cover to the game the month before it came out, with cautious but glowing language. Driver 3 proves the balllessness of the press once again. Driv3r isn't nearly the comedown that ETM was, but for a massively marketed game that's getting 5/10s and 60%s, it's as if these people had played an entirely different game before it came out.

EGM's, for example, doesn't say specifically, "this is a great game," but it comes as close as it can. Driver 3, EGM claims, is "high-revving hardly-a-GTA-clone that's peeling rubber to the PlayStation 2 and Xbox." The language used is as excited as it woul be in a 8 or 9/10 review. Yet, they're not even looking at the full game. I wouldn't doubt if a majority of the preview came from a designer just talking about great the game is, and the previewer transcribing it.

1up, the online media conglomerate for several print magazines, goes further. "Judging by the time we've spent so far with the near-final . . . it avoids the pitfalls that all the other GTA wannabes fell into. From a technical standpoint, DRIV3R is already something special."

CVG is as generous and used as many exclamation points as the editor probably allowed. "We haven't even had a chance to talk about how the top-notch storyline is shaping up, the amazing Hollywood voice cast, how cool the first-person viewpoint is and the way you can complete missions by going in with your guns blazin' or your wheels squealin'."

Gamepro, in a hands on preview, said the game "was looking very nice," "collision detection is already solid," and the "variety is sure to please anyone." Likewise, Gampro promises that "Driv3r is already shaping up into what looks like an incredibly fun title."

Of the quick survey I did of DRIV3R's previews, IGN's was sadly the most realistic. They list a few of its problems, but then reassure, "We know it'll be fixed." The rest of the preview sounds like a giddy school girl. Likewise, Gamespot admits that the graphics are rough, but "Driver 3 definitely looks promising." Then, like IGN, they seem to apologize for that nugget of truth with an entire paragraph on how great Driver 3 will be. It's as if they just insulted the game designers' mothers.

What's happening here is a symbiotic relationship between the press and the publishers. Like movies, music, or comic books, in most cases a game makes a majority of its sales during the first 2-4 weeks of its shelflife. There are exceptions, including GTA3, but the largest portion of games aren't GTA3s, but DRIV3Rs. With regards to print magazines, that renders the reviews almost useless. The people that buy after the first month probably don't read game magazines and sites nearly as much as those who do buy in the first month. Secondly, first day buyers often don't even have online reviews, let alone the print reviews which come out a full month or two after the game's release. That means that buyers are relying on previews almost exclusively.

And I think the publishers know it. What's going on here is simple, as demonstrated by the extremely apologetic and defensive Gamespot and IGN reviewers, is that if the previewers were honest, they'd lose their "exclusives" and

I wouldn't be surprised if that EGM article was a joke. Those kids talk like Dawson's Creek cast members.

Anyway, most of the games that they looked at really do suck by today's standards. The fact that they inspired the games that we have today is irrelevant. Just because Mario 64 is a great game doesn't mean that most people would enjoy playing SMB1 for more than a few minutes.

But the kids who bashed Tetris? They deserve to die.

Rob

Or maybe not, exactelly because it would not be that surprising - Takashi Iizuka said in a recent interview : "I promise that as long as I'm with Sega, I will create Nights again... the more I hear from the fans about their love for the game, the more reasons I have to consider it as my next project." But anyway, this certainly would be awesome news!

Except that if you follow the link to the "America's Sexiest Gamer" article and click on the image you'll get a HUGE (1200px) photo of her, cute as she is. Not sure why it's that large, maybe they want people to make desktop wallpaper, or maybe they're gluttons for punishment and want me to link it to Slashdot... ;)

The EGM article unambiguously exemplies the sexual objectification of women. What I find particularly disturbing are the invasive and almost abusive questions asked in the EGM America's Sexiest Gamer article. For example, in the article the interviewer asks "What's the best game to use as foreplay?", "What's your favorite position...to play games in?", and "Are vibrating controllers sexy?". Based on her asexual responses, I would be willing to argue that the sexual nature of the line of questioning was nonconsensual.

I submit that you are not prude, rather I believe you are simply taking offense at the blatant objectification.

Michael.

some folks won't be happy until nintendo is out of the hardware business and makes mario games on the xbox where the princess wears skimpy outfits and has accurately modeled bouncing boobs and all of the folks in the mushroom kingdom carry bfg's and can perform bullet time.

btw, egm says on their frontpage "Could this be the most fun game of this year? Probably."

here's, their complete review (10, 10, 9.5).

some folks won't be happy until nintendo is out of the hardware business and makes mario games on the xbox where the princess wears skimpy outfits and has accurately modeled bouncing boobs and all of the folks in the mushroom kingdom carry bfg's and can perform bullet time.

btw, egm says on their frontpage "Could this be the most fun game of this year? Probably."

here's, their complete review (10, 10, 9.5).

You're confusing this with VII and VIII. Amano returned for IX. Read here. Nomura worked on FFVII and FFVIII, as shown here.