This definitely reminds me a lot of how reviews used to be written on most sites. It was a lot of "I played it and this is what happened and how I felt" instead of digging deep into actual critique. I think gaming reviews, while still not great compared to how rich film criticism as a field is (they've had many more decades to get there), has definitely gotten more nuanced over the last few years, perhaps as games themselves have evolved and matured.

Greg himself, speaking as someone who's followed him for a while, always seemed like a hype man and personality more than an art critic, and his tone really hasn't changed with time. Luckily what he would later end up doing at IGN and then at KF better suited his skills, even if personally I don't think he does a very good at talking about media past surface level stuff. It's a good thing he isn't writing anymore, that's all I'll say.

Yes, pretty bad.

Doesn't even stick with a consistent tense.

Well said. Game journalism has certainly improved over the years, but, you're right, it's still a far cry from the richness of film criticism.

Stuff like this IGN review reads more like a fan post on GameFAQs than the work of a professional critic.

Can you provide some examples?

Well in all honesty our local Level gaming magz used to have one of the most nuanced reviews that I have ever read. They went bankrupt of course in 2010 I think. Nothing on the internet really comes close to the level of profesionalism that I have often read from them (not all the staff but there were some). I think the idea that everything is online and they can get hits from other content made gaming journalism a bit more shalow, as the risk of loosing readers just from reviews alone has dropped considerbaly.

I noticed how he put the name of the game three times in the first paragraph. I wonder if that is simply bad writing or done intentionally to make more gamers remember the name and buy the game.

If you include all online outlets, sure. But there are a lot of amateur critics and YouTube personalities that drag down the average.

If you look at more professional publications, though, I think you'll find the last 10-12 years have produced more thoughtful and more academic pieces compared to the 1980s and 90s.

Greg Miller is a serious journalist? First time I've ever heard of that. Him and that Colin Moriarity, two peas in a pod. The most infantile game journalists on a main video game site.

I mean there will always be contradictions to an overall trend, and I'm sure there were very good writers back then just as there are terrible writers now. But the major outlets have improved their performance, and produce much better, deeper critique. The death of magazine writers coincided with the rise of video reviews, and if you haven't seen any GameTrailers/EasyAllies reviews, you're missing out on some the best in the business.