Wii

Guybrush Threepwood, Mighty Pirate-at-Law

HIGH The Harry Potter-esque way that the plotline connects back to Chapter 1.

LOW The gameplay connects back to Chapter 1 (i.e. the jungle) as well.

WTF Morgan?! Nooooooo!

I wrote the headline to this story not really thinking—and only now does it dawn on me that "gets a street date" make it sound like Silent Hill: Shattered Memories went out and picked up a hooker…

That's not what happened, though. Instead, Konami has announced the release date for the title (or, the date the game will "hit the streets"). Wii owners can experience an updated version of one of Survival Horror's most revered titles on December 8th. PlayStation 2 and PlayStation Portable owners will have to wait longer as no date has been set for either of those platforms.

Early demos for the game have been impressive and I'm excited to check out the Wii version of the game—if for no other reason than because it will actually give me an excuse to turn on my Wii…

Jump past the break for a character breakdown from Konami's press release.

Super Heroes? More Like Pretty-okay Heroes...

HIGH Going multi with Luke Cage and Iron Fist, together again.

LOW Generally poor selection of heroes from Marvel's vast universe.

WTF What happened to the QA process?

We continue debunking The Myths of Game Criticism in the second half of our two-part series. Do we live in constant fear of Twitter putting us out of business? Are games so spectacular now that the average score really is 8 out of 10? Do publishers send strike teams to our homes and force us to change scores? We set the record straight. With Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim "Five Point Scale" Spaeth.

Download: Right click here and select "Save Target As..."
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Read: Transcript

For your reference, the eight myths we discuss are:

1. Critics should be required to finish games before writing a review.
2. The goal of a "proper" game review should be to inform the reader as to whether they should or should not buy a game.
3. Those who write about games are not journalists, rather, should be considered "enthusiast press" or simply "games writer."
4. There is no difference between a "review" and a "critique".
5. The explosion of blogs, podcasts, and Twitter has rendered formal game reviews obsolete.
6. Individual game critics and review sites are under constant, unrelenting pressure from publishers to change scores.
7. Game scores are often purposefully tweaked to either generate controversy or avoid it.
8. A reader should not need to be familiar with the author of a review in order to derive value from it.
9. NINE? There's a ninth myth?! Listen and find out!!

Topic and Game References:

• Feedback from Brad's Drinking Coffeecola Blog
• Feedback from GC Forums
• Borderlands Review
• GTA 3 Second Opinion
• Disaster Report Review
• FFFXI: Lu Shang's Fishing Rod
• WoW: Delicious Chocolate Cake Recipe
• GoldenEye 007: Invincibility Cheat

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

This week we challenge commonly held assumptions about criticism, writers, review scores, finishing games and much more. So much more, in fact, we had to split the episode in half. Plus, if you're a Borderlands fan, get ready to hate us. Our quick hit is less than flattering. Featuring Chi Kong Lui, Brad Gallaway, Mike Bracken, and Tim Spaeth.

Download: Right click here and select "Save Target As..."
Subscribe: iTunes | RSS
Read: Transcript

For your reference, the eight myths we discuss are:

1. Critics should be required to finish games before writing a review.
2. The goal of a "proper" game review should be to inform the reader as to whether they should or should not buy a game.
3. Those who write about games are not journalists, rather, should be considered "enthusiast press" or simply "games writer."
4. There is no difference between a "review" and a "critique".
5. The explosion of blogs, podcasts, and Twitter has rendered formal game reviews obsolete.
6. Individual game critics and review sites are under constant, unrelenting pressure from publishers to change scores.
7. Game scores are often purposefully tweaked to either generate controversy or avoid it.
8. A reader should not need to be familiar with the author of a review in order to derive value from it.

Topic and Game References:

• Borderlands Review
• Red Faction: Guerrilla
• Diablo II
• God of War
• Muramasa: The Demon Blade Review
• Bionic Commando Review

X-Play's Guitar Hero: Smash Hits review explanation:

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.