Craig Harris leaves IGN, Donkey Kong Country Returns is his last review

[MaxwellGT2000]

Umos-Cmos said:

I really do love VGChartz.  Even though I've only been a member of the community here for a little while I followed this site for years.  You guys seem more like regular gamers than most outlets and that's what I want in my previews, news and reviews.

It's a sad state of affairs in the gaming media community.  I agree with what you said regarding IGN.  I would say the same thing happened to GI years ago.  I used to subscribe to that magazine, but I don't find a whole lot worthwhile in there any more.  I find it hard to believe that it's so difficult to find someone that actually likes Nintendo to run the Nintendo channel(s).  When the review focuses more on the "limited Wii hardware" and not the game itself it's hard to take the editor seriously.  Shouldn't we judge a game by it's content and not by the hardware it happens to be running on?  We all know the Wii has inferior specs.  We expect that.  So does the DS, and yet they don't compare it to the PSP and expect PSP-like experiences.

Sorry, that turned into a little rant.  I guess I'm just a little sad to see gaming media changing.  Idk whether it's internal pressures to make more money and generate hits or external pressures from developers and publishers to get exclusives or what.  But it's a changed ballgame and I'm not a big fan.  VGChartz, keep up the good work and don't get too big for your own britches (spelling?).  Make all the money you want, but I hope you can stay as fair and impartial as you've been so far.

Yeah the whole limited hardware thing gets rather old quickly I agree, Craig fell into that issue a few times, but I chalk it up to transitioning from handhelds back to console reviews.  Matt and Mark would count off on Wii games for things they've seen other developers do with the system so they know its capable, Craig rated NSMB Wii lower cause online co-op is standard, and everyone went what the hell are you talking about?  I don't think he'll do that again with Donkey Kong Country Returns.

So I agree with your rant completely, though I come from the idea that graphics only matter when they radically change the game play for the better, transition into 3D is a example of that, but when you see games like Call of Duty done on Wii and its the exact same game, you know all graphics are doing is making it look nicer, it's not making your games play better, though I feel most people are blinded by the shiny objects to be honest.

Why has third party games become more polished than they ever were in the past?  Well they have to take 3 years to develop a game, with that much time they will go over the gameplay to make sure they'll get a return on their hefty investment, simple as that, could they do that on their Wii games they develop?  Of course but they're given a year and a small budget for those games and so they turn out badly, which stems a lot of preconceived notions about the little white box, it has no games, third parties don't support it, the games it has sucks, when really any developer could have polish similar to Nintendos polish given the time and budget with a team that wants to do it, IE Black Ops, No More Heroes, and Epic Mickey.

And I'm done with my rant