Lazy reviewers, Nintendo's next handheld and Carmack.

I was checking my sites I noticed something funny up on Gamesindustry.biz. The headline reads "Game reviewers are lazy" so that peaked my attention. Turns out that the president of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Science (AIAS) thinks that game journalists are lazy when it comes to reviewing games. He goes off on a rant about how game reviewers are lazy and don't spend enough time with the games, here's a quote:"How can you review a game, how can you give a comment about a game like Grand Theft Auto IV, that has 40-plus hours or more of gameplay, if you've only spent 2 and a half to 3 hours playing it?" What? Who reviews GTAIV and only plays it for 3 hours max? Where is this getting his information? I think that this guy has a real disconnect dealing with this part of the industry. When someone is assigned to review a game, the general agreement that the game is completed and played to the point of which a review can be formed around it. From a 6 hour movie tie in to a never ending MMO, we are not lazy and we play the hell out of these games when reviewing them. Some game journalists review 20+ games in some months (thanks November) and that's anything but lazy! Maybe he saw this video and thought that's how all people review games, no, no they don't.



Nintendo has found great success with the Wii and DS. It seems that they are getting more and more rich with NPD numbers that rival the holiday season month in month out for both devices. This will eventually end and we all know that the next generation of consoles is imminent. Michael Pachter, everyones favorite Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst, thinks that Nintendo is readying their next console for release before the end of this year. Pachter credits this with support that the DS has been declining in sales in Japan (go Monster Hunter 2ndG go) and a new handheld will help boost them back to the top. The DS is still selling like nuts everywhere else in the world so I don't really think Micheal's got this one in the bag yet, where's that Wii II anyway? Aside from handhelds, the next wave of home consoles might be a ways off still. THQ's CEO Brian Farrell says new systems just aren't needed yet. Epic Games President Mike Capps seems to agree saying that no new consoles are expected until 2012 at the earliest and 2018 at the latest. I hope their right, it's way too soon to spend hundreds of dollars on the next home console incarnation anyway.

QuakeCon 08 is in full swing and industry Icon John Carmack was there promoting Rage along with the new installments in the Doom and Wolfenstien games. 1up got a chance to get a interview with the man himself and it's a no PR bullshit interview. John talks about the strengths and weaknesses with the Xbox360 and Playstation 3. Know more about each console then you ever wanted too, he also touches on his views on the direction of the next generation of consoles and memory constraints around them. It's a lengthy interview full of tech jibba jabba and industry insight, check it out at 1up.com along with all their up to date QuakeCon 08 coverage.