Where do you go when you want to read a game review? The internet is filled with plenty of blogs, and websites all offering you coverage on video games. Two of the most popular sites on the web for gamers are Gamespot and IGN, but those sites are just names, and it doesn’t really matter what they are called if they don’t have the journalist’s to give the reader something good to read. Gamers want to read reviews by gamers for gamers. So out of the two Goliath’s of gaming journalism: who gives the gamer the best journalists? Let the fight begin!

In the left corner, we have Gamespot who is known for their quality gaming news, coverage, and podcasts but how much can the average gamer really trust their owner’s integrity? Over a year ago, a game called “Kane & Lynch: Dead Men” was released and unfortunately for the game it received a 6.0 out of 10 from Gamespot. The man behind the review was Jeff Gertsmann, then Editorial Director for Gamespot, who felt the game had weak A.I., average gun mechanics, and a story that does “everything in it’s power to drive you away from the game.” What did Gamespot do after this review? They fired Gertsmann. A gamer must be wondering, “Why fire a guy for giving a bad review?”. That’s because some of the higher-ups at Gamespot did something no news organization should do. They let advertising affect their news staff. Eidos, the developers behind “Kane and Lynch”, ran enormous amounts of advertising on the site prior to the release. The whole site was basically covered in “Kane and Lynch” ads and after the review Eidos put an extreme amount of pressure on Gamespot to fire Gertsmann; and unfortunately they listened.

Now don’t think that Gertsmann was fired for posting an extremely low review of the game that people could consider biased or that he was against the game. Many reviewers agreed with this score including our very own HipHopGamer:

Now as a gamer how can you trust a site that fire’s one of its best journalist’s because of pressure from advertising? A person can’t trust that. Many well respected journalist’s actually left Gamespot after this due to the fact that they couldn’t work for a company that didn’t let them do their job. Who do you want reviewing your game? A gamer or an advertising exec?

Luckily for gamers, Gertsmann landed on his feet and is currently running Giant Bomb which many consider to be one of the best gaming sites in the business. He’s a good journalist, with a good head on his shoulders who follows his journalist code of ethic’s because ,“If you stand for nothing you’ll fall for anything.”

Now in the right corner, we have IGN who many consider to be the king of gaming journalism. These guys are all over the place bringing people quality news, reviews, and such but they have had their fair share of mistakes in the past. An example of this actually comes from one of their most renown editors, Greg Miller, and a respected game, “F.E.A.R”. When the original “F.E.A.R” came out back on the Xbox 360 and PS3, instead of having one reviewer play both versions of the game, they had two different people play each copy. The results for both games were quiet different. The Xbox 360 version received a 9.1 overall and a 9.1 in graphics, while the PS3, Greg Miller, version of the game received an 8.1 overall and a 5.5 in graphics! This doesn’t add up because if you look at both games and play both games you can see the difference isn’t that big.

Can you see that big of a difference?

PS3:

360:

The problem with IGN and this review is that you can’t have two different people playing the same game for different consoles. There needs to be some type of consistency when making game reviews. Different gamers have different tastes and maybe Greg Miller didn’t like what “F.E.A.R” brought to the table, but the other guy did. Although to the reader this reads like the PS3 version of the game looks awful and isn’t nearly as good, while the 360 version is amazing. There needs to be consistency in journalism.

Both journalists should have at least worked together to have their reviews make sense. Both games are on current-gen consoles yet one version is nearly four points lower when it comes to graphics? While Gamespot made their mistakes from the higher-ups, the IGN issue stems to the journalist. Journalist’s need to work together when doing a game like “F.E.A.R”. They need to make sure that when both games look exactly the same that we don’t have a huge difference in scores. It is unfair to people who only own one console and the company releasing the game.

Well after looking at both sites and the major journalist’s behind the sites you gotta give the edge to Gertsmann for his journalistic integrity. While Miller is a great writer, on a great site, you need to be 100% fair to the public when making a review like that. Maybe it was an over thought, but he really needs to look at the other reviews on his site of the same game. Gertsmann on the other hand held his ground, wrote from the heart, and got a bad deal. Luckily for gamers he is now doing his thing at Giant Bomb. Gertsmann got the knock out, but we feel like Miller is coming for a rematch real soon!