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I love it when I’m right.

On Area5’s first CO-OP episode, I saw the parade of ex-EGM/1UP employees marching up the stairs and thought, “Hey, James Mielke isn’t there. They must really hate the bastard.” After all, he was the last EIC at EGM, the one that was supposed to lead the magazine back to the promised land.

And you know what? Well, let’s just say I told ya so.

Being an outsider, and by that I mean someone outside of the games journalism circles, I can very specifically define the type of person James Mielke is. He craves attention, most likely stemming from personal issues regarding him being adopted as a young child. He was abandoned once, by the people who should have loved him most, and even though he was found by a seemingly wonderful family, he’ll always seek acceptance by anyone and everyone or risk being abandoned once more. Everything he did at 1UP wasn’t about how much he loved videogames, it was about how cool James Mielke was. Every interview was to show the world not that he was a fantastic journalist, it was to show off who he knew on a personal level. He didn’t DJ because he loved the music, it was so people would accept him for the music to which he listened.

His personal blog posts are an ego trip spewing details of his synergistic relationship with New York City, brushing aside the tens of millions of people who have called The Big Apple home. Coming from someone who did, I can certainly say no New Yorker would profess their love for the city by saying they love it more than the next guy. True New Yorkers brandish their time in the city like a tattoo – beneath layers of clothing, to show only when asked, and to keep the true story to themselves – yet it permeates their soul, defines their character. They don’t have to tell people, “Hey! I’m from New York!” because they are from New York. James does the complete opposite, and every self-respecting New Yorker wouldn’t give him the time of day because of it.

And I think that’s exactly what happened during the 1UP aftermath. 1UP folks banded together to create new business ventures, or to reflect on the past. But James was not found in any of it. He was cast out of the fraternity by its own brethren. Whether he was invited to that Area5 video or not, he wasn’t there. He previously worked for Gamespot, but when the Giant Bomb guys wanted to bring in someone to talk about the sale, it wasn’t him. And I’m sure if you ask anyone close to him, of the people whom he calls his friends, the feeling isn’t nearly as mutual.

Now he’s back at 1UP/UGO, but it wasn’t purely because he needed, or wanted, the job; nor was it because his relationship with Sam Kennedy. It was so that he could once again be in the spotlight, to stand on the world’s stage that is the Internet and speak to all who will listen.

The entire world has already Dugg it, and thousands have seen it on YouTube, so it might sound like I’m a little late to the party, but I just wanted to congratulate Ryan O’Donnell and gang at Area5.tv for putting together the first episode of CO-OP, from the ashes of The 1UP Show.

Admittedly, I tuned out of The 1UP Show months ago because I was growing tired of the talking heads at 1UP. But the first episode of CO-OP, undoubtedly limited (but subconsciously benefited) by budget, gave me exactly what I want out of a show about videogames – passionate and intelligent conversation. It was a welcomed change from the fluff and ego which permeated the subtext of The 1UP Show, so I hope Area5 continues paving their own road creatively going forward.

The graphics, the editing, the music and the direction, which bled from every frame in that video, elevated the episode to a professional level of quality not seen from the majority of internet video productions. But what is most commendable is that technically those guys didn’t drop a beat from The 1UP Show, even without the financial backing from a company like Ziff Davis. In other words, these guys put together this show with their own equipment, from their own homes. That statement really makes it evident the level of talent the Area5 staff has, and exemplifies just how much of a missed opportunity this was for UGO, and Ziff Davis before them.

So thanks for bouncing back in a big way, boys. Here’s to a long and successful career!

Welcome one and all to the first Page Flippin’ of 2009. Only one more year to go until the spaceship Alexei Leonov reaches Saturn, but I digress…

I received the February 2009 issue of Game Informer yesterday. GI continues to impress me with its editorial decisions. Not one page in this magazine feels like filler. And for all the credit the EGM and 1UP staff gets got for its memorable personalities, GI trumps them all with their Gamercard-like bios on the “GI Staff” page (p. 2) and the “GI Spy” regular column, showing just a bunch of regular Minnesota folk working their asses off on one heck of a magazine. No attitudes, no fraternity. GI is all about gamers who love games. Period. Here are some more highlights from the issue:

• “Afterwords” with Clint Hocking, Creative Director for Far Cry 2. The readers came up with the tough questions, but kudos to GI for actually letting them through. Questions like, “Why did you decide on such a wonky mission structure?” and, “Why did neither faction care that I was helping the other?” allow Clint to defend and explain such decisions, and gives great insight on the design process. Information like this is commonplace to Game Developer and Gamasutra, but seldom seen in a mass-market magazine.
• The “Where Have You Been” feature focuses on announced titles which have been quiet for too long. Conspicuously absent: Alan Wake, and pretty much all of Microsoft’s and Sony’s 2009 lineup. Either they are all embargoed or 2009 is in for tough times (as expected).
• “Loose Talk” says GTA V is expected in 2009; recent Internet buzz says otherwise. Who to believe?
• “The Top 50 Games of 2008″ is a welcomed departure from the Game of the Year and top 10 lists everyone else publishes. GI has been doing this for years, and it’s a fair and balanced look at the past year, in order of release. The staff provides their top 10 lists at the end of the end of the article, but it’s nice to see such a wide range of mentionable games all on one stage. Some interesting statistics: November released the most games on the list at nine; would you expect to see February with five games? What are they? Read the article…
• For all the credit 1UP and EGM get for their Japanese coverage, I haven’t seen them do anything as cool as the Actraiser feature in this month’s “Classic GI”, complete with an interview with Square Enix’s Shinji Futami on the story behind Actraiser 1 and 2. Sidebars include profiles on both games for newbies, and where to find the soundrack (hint: iTunes). This type of article is what made pre-Ziff Davis EGM so memorable, so it’s nice to see GI carry on the torch.
• Honorable mention goes to the “Sound Check” and “Impulse” regular columns, but the “MMO Report” is conspicuously absent here. Hey Andy, where are all those new features for 2009 you were talking about?

The February 2009 issue checks in at 96 pages, a testament to the difficulties of finding adverising in this economy. Still, the editorial content rages on. Great job, boys!

I might sound a little selfish here, but is anyone as annoyed as I am at the alarming trend of ex-1UPpers panhandling their audiences lately? Sure, they just lost their jobs. I need to stay sympathetic, I keep telling myself.

So the folks at RebelFM get a free pass, because it was an immediate reaction from the community who wanted those guys to land on their feet. $12,000 though? Well, they got it, so more power to ‘em. Then TalkingOrange, or Area5 as they are known now (free link boys, and good job!), have enough donations to have PayPal question them. And now, those who voluntarily quit their jobs are looking for community bailout funds. That’s where I draw the line.

Dan “Shoe” Hsu posted on his Sore Thumbs blog that he has this great new idea for a website. It’s so great that he’s asking for money from his audience to fund his new venture. Not for a stake in it mind you, just some good old-fashioned free money. Forget videogames, he should go into a more profitable career in the banking or automotive industries. I think they really need his moxie right now!

The problem I have with these donations is in most cases these kids who would follow any former 1UP staffer blindly, are coughing up their hard earned cash without realizing that it’s pretty much like throwing their money away. They aren’t getting any software or services for it, they are only funding someone else’s project from which they will never see any reward other than being able to read a few blog posts a week about something that was probably not only written about on countless other websites, but aggregated to death across the Web. All for free. These are the same kids who probably got their EGM subscriptions over the past few years for free, too, by the way.

And the sick thing about all of this? These kids are pissing away not only their money, but their parents’ as well. And that money, especially in this economy, could go to things like food, education, mortgage. Oh, but Dan Hsu wants to build a website, let’s give him money. Did John Davison, after he voluntarily quit his job, ask his readers for donations so he could start What They Play? No, he created a business plan, peddled it to venture capitalists and investors – you know, the people with money who in return purchase a stake in a business venture. What would have happened if he couldn’t find someone to help back his business? He’d either have to dip into his own pockets or give up the dream.

What Hsu is doing here is reprehensible. He’s not selling a subscription, he’s stealing money from kids.

Magazines are not dead, contrary to popular belief.

People think this because EGM died a tragic, horrible, unexpected death, but that’s just not the case. In fact, it was a sick old publication that had seen better days and suffered for years before the official, certified date from the coroner. It’s no secret I was never a fan of what Ziff Davis, or more like 1UP, did to the once great gaming rag, and indeed they ran it into the ground. Literally. Six feet under.

For all those NeoGAFers crying foul and marching downtown to UGO’s offices with torches in hand, just wait a second. 1UP might have had some entertaining podcasts and video shows, but do you really think the failure of our beloved EGM had any less to do with the people in San Francisco running it?

Over two years ago, when downloads of demos and game add-ons were first made available through Xbox Live, I suggested how Official Xbox Magazine could change their strategy to move away from providing said content to readers for a premium, and instead produce original video content in DVD format, much like the Japanese magazine Famitsu Wave.

Saying all of that, it seems like the OXM disc has become obsolete, but I have an idea of how it can be relevant again. Future needs to hire a production team to create exclusive programming and content for the disc, much in the same way Enterbrain does for Famitsu Wave. Start providing more making-of, documentary-style content and entertaining segments with OXM personalities – borrowing a bit from Ziff Davis’ own 1UP Show. And make it more enticing for Xbox owners to have the disc, aside from a couple of inconsequential gamer pictures. Avoid Xbox 360 content at all costs – Microsoft wants it all to themselves so they can sell on the Marketplace. Instead, make it DVD-based so they can watch not just on their Xbox, but on any DVD player they choose. This might even sway non-Xbox owners to pick up an interesting-looking issue to sample for themselves, and even push them toward buying an Xbox.

See anything interesting there? 1UP attracted a devoted fan base because of their original video and audio programming. They were on to something, and yet never capitalized on the popularity of their shows to benefit the ailing magazine. EGM needed a fresh new business plan, something along the lines of what I suggested for OXM. And they had all the parts, too – a video department cranking out weekly 30 minute episodes of The 1UP Show, along with all the side video projects like Not The 1UP Show; and a growing schedule of weekly podcasts covering a range of topics. The problem was they desperately needed a reboot, and management sat by idle and let the train wreck happen.

It probably didn’t help there was such turmoil going on in those offices for so long. The EGM staff were tasked to put out a monthly magazine with a revolving skeleton crew that was increasingly lacking in experience to do so, and obviously quality took a beatdown by the sinking morale that was infecting the eighth floor offices at 101 2nd Street. After enduring such a prolonged and public exodus, management just didn’t have any passion left. They just wanted the pain to end.

As tough as those last couple of years were for the magazine, nothing can erase the indelible mark it left on all of us gamers today. We grew up with the fond memories of EGM’s supersized, 300 page behemoth issues, the secrecy of Quarterman and Sushi-X, and all that awesome Japanese game coverage in an era where the web simply didn’t exist. It wasn’t a magazine, it was a toy; just as much as the game cartridges that frequently lay upon it on the coffee table. Some could argue it never successfully made the transition to the pivotal 32-bit era of gaming, which incidentally happened during the handover from Sendai to Ziff Davis, and only regained footing once Next Generation folded.

But I digress. This wasn’t meant to be a eulogy – that’s been done to death already. Rather, this is a painful example of how poor management and a lack of proper planning caused a gaming icon to disappear. The current economic climate is a tough one, but it alone is not to blame. With that said, not only to I expect to see my favorite magazines continue to exist for years to come, but I look forward to the day EGM rises from the ashes of its own doing and returns to the glory as we all remember it.

For those who say, “print is dead,” I reply:

“…really?”

Just because Ziff-Davis is shuttering its remaining publications like CGW and PC Magazine, and the once-great Electronic Gaming Monthly, or EGM to you young-ins, is anemic to the point of flatlining, doesn’t mean it’s all doom-and-gloom for the rest. Page Flippin’ is going to be a somewhat-regular column of all that is good in the gaming mags.

In recent months, new EGM EIC James Meilke has taken the magazine in a direction we all wished it went ten years ago – a decidedly Japan-centric, fanboy slant – and proved that was the wrong idea for its general audience. The coverage, although it has been more niche-focused, seems only skin deep and lacks the depth the material requires. Perhaps its because of the never-ending bloodletting of the 1UP staff – almost every major article was penned by Meilke himself, a tall order for someone whose full-time job is to actually run the magazine.

But where EGM is failing, others are succeeding. Take for instance the awesome Rare profile OXM did a couple of issues back. Or Game Informer’s clever preview of Left 4 Dead, weaved within a multi-page, comprehensive overview of Valve Studios. These are two examples of excellent and creative writing which satisfies both the “hardcore” and general audiences. It’s also evidence that these magazines and, to an extent their publishers, respect and encourage traditional and fundamental journalism.

So how do these magazines follow up such standout features, and more important, can they?

Let’s start with the January 2009 issue of Game Informer, of which EIC Andy McNamara introduces MMO Report, the first of many new regular features for the magazine. Where EGM has unsuccessfully tried to shove PC gaming coverage into a page or two, GI has consistently covered PC and console gaming for years. The MMO Report shows their continued dedication to covering all aspects of gaming. Here are some other standouts from the issue:

• Afterwords with Lionhead Studios Design Director Dene Carter fields tough questions from the magazine’s readers about the critically and commercially acclaimed Fable II, like “Was there ever a point in development that the game had a more comprehensive property management system?” or “Why did you add co-op functionality on the game if we could not bring our characters into the other player’s game?”
• Achievement Dos and Don’ts, like “[do] chart the player’s progress toward unlocking achievements”, or “[don't] make multiplayer achievements if multiplayer is an afterthought”. What would normally be a page-filler in any other magazine is a thorough critique on the implementation of achievements in Xbox Live games.
• Continued exclusive reveals, such as Uncharted 2: Among Thieves and Guitar Hero: Metallica. Among the wealth of news, some inadvertent (or maybe not) disclosure why Lars Ulrich is such a dick: “at my house, we didn’t have any video games allowed…so when Guitar hero III came out I broke my own rule and I asked our friends at Activision if it was possible to get one of these since there was a Metallica song on there.”

Now on to the January 2009 issue of OXM:

• Independents Day covers the top XNA Community Games, thankfully profiling the creators of the games themselves and not the totally annoying community manager (and ex-1UP alumni, go figure) Kathleen Sanders. And if you still haven’t played Weapon of Choice, you now have no excuse.
• Dead On Live,  a rundown of some older XBL titles and what you would find if you tried to play online. It was interesting to see Shadowrun still had a dedicated audience, while GTA IV was “flatlined”, although this clearly was written before the recent uptick in XBL stats.
• Based on how all other outlets were holding onto their Riddick news, it’s clear OXM had the exclusive on the Assault on Dark Athena information. Too bad the embargo was broken before this hit newsstands, but embargoes are bad anyway.
• The whole identity theft issue with Xbox Live has been covered to death over the past year, but Get Your Hands off My Gamertag! seems to recap the information in one concise and complete package, while updating with current trends and providing valuable tips on how users can protect themselves. It’s reminiscent of the DRM article Dan Americh put up a few issues back, where he guided readers through the process by doing it himself and documenting his findings. I applaud OXM by continually putting themselves in the readers’ shoes in order to provide the most accurate information.

So there you have it. Those of you brave enough to step away from your RSS readers and head to the newsstands will be awarded, or at least surprised, at what you’ll find.

Here’s another hypothetical review:

Bill: I’ve really been looking forward to Mass Effect 2 for a long time, and now that it’s finally here I feel a little bit underwhelmed. The first game had its share of problems with the dialog options, despite trying something different from the typical branching conversations found in other RPGs. That said, there’s not much more they could do to improve on here and it shows. The combat was another big issue I had with the original, and here they’ve dumbed it down a tad to make it more KOTOR-like and manageable; that said, I was really looking forward to something along the lines of GRAW, but that just didn’t happen.

Jonas: I couldn’t agree more. Through my thirty hours of playtime my experience with the game was not substantially different than the first, and that is a letdown. Sure, the beautiful graphics have improved with better film filters, less texture pop-in and more realistic facial animations, and I loved the additional character customization options. But the real problem was the story, or lack thereof. The first game set up such a huge and wondrous universe full of potential, but here it feels like the developers cut costs by retreading familiar worlds and environments from the first game.

Ninja-Z: Guys, what game were you playing? I loved the addition of the fourth party member for combat, and the ability to play with the first game’s twitchy mechanic. The story is pretty grand, although we are only seeing a sliver of it here. The backstory can be filled in with codex entries (and I suggest reading the three novels to get the full experience) and there’s the prospect of a third game based on the game’s shocking ending (SPOILER!).  Sure, some of it might feel familiar, but here familiar is so good. There isn’t a better RPG available on any system this year.

Okay, how would a developer who spent tens of millions of dollars and years of work to craft such a product feel when their game is relegated to 500 words? The point I’m trying to make here is how can anyone find such a reflection on a playthrough that took thirty hours anything less than insulting?

Game reviews are frequently compared to film reviews. Although they are different media, they are both products in the same vein, offering both a sensory and emotional experience. So why then do game reviewers rarely relay that type of individual experience felt by critics in a typical film review?

A few good examples of game criticism do exist. Game discussion at length is a good exercise. 1UP FM’s recent backlog playthrough of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. provided some excellent group insight and personal experience that seldom makes it to the written word. The Giant Bomb guys, in talking about Street Fighter, showed that such intelligent conversation can occur about the technical aspects of a game as well. And of course, the GFW guys’ frequent tangents always proved more engaging than anything put to print (sans Greenspeak, of course).

Could it be the journalists who review games are well qualified to critique them, yet lack the requisite skill necessary to communicate their thoughts effectively through their writings? Shawn Elliott was accepted as the industry champion for better journalism, and his frequent rants on the subject indicated he was qualified as such. For some reason, however, that same passion never made it to print. Does that mean he was merely a better student, or were the confines of 1UP to blame for his aspirations never taking flight? And why is talking about good game journalism more celebrated than actually doing it? I guess we’ll never know – after moving on to 2K Boston, he has become to journalism as Bam Margera is to television, with his Internet Wall of Shame daily updates on Twitter.

On a recent Player One Podcast, former game journalist and current Sega producer Ethan Einhorn suggested writing is all about the personalities, and that someone like Elliott should have been “thrown a couple hundred thousand dollars” to keep him. Ah, $200k for what amounts to stories of juvenile disobedience and ongoing episodes of online griefing? No thanks, I’d rather spend that money for a real journalist.

What if all movie reviews were like this?

After nearly 20 years of anticipation, George Lucas finally whets the appetite of millions of fanboys worldwide with the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace to theaters everywhere. Although this latest installment has it’s share of issues, it proves absence makes the heart grows fonder and is not D.O.A. at the cineplex.

Screenplay

After the movie opens with its signature Star Wars crawl, it follows the exploits of a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (Trainspotting’s Ewan McGregor) and his Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn played by venerable actor Liam Neeson, approximately 40 years before the events of Episode IV (you know, the original Star Wars). Sent by the Jedi Council to investigate some political goings-on that just don’t seem right to the Republic, they encounter resistance with the Trade Federation and a new species of aliens called the Nemoidians; from which they are gassed, chased by cool roly-poly transforming Battle Droids, and subsequently escape as stowaways on a Trade Federation ship headed to the planet of Naboo.

Naboo and, for all intents and purposes, Coruscant, are beautiful new worlds to the Star Wars universe. The movie does a lot of backtracking to familiar surroundings, such as Tatooine, but through the magic of special effects these worlds seem new again. Especially one sequence which involves young Anakin racing for his life in a futuristic motorsport known as “pod racing”. Another memorable aspect of the movie involves basically every scene staring the franchise’s new bad guy, Darth Maul.

As the movie progresses, Obi-Wan’s party grows with the addition of Naboo’s queen, an amphibious alien known as Jar-Jar, the aforementioned young Anakin. The movie’s mechanic does a great job of growing the central characters Obi-Wan and Anakin with each encounter, with the other characters providing ample support and comic relief through quality dialog options. Of the 130 minutes it took to complete this film, it is well-paced and avoids any substantial lulls.

Graphics

Stunning, absolutely stunning. As mentioned above, the familiar Tatooine looks brand-new thanks to a facelift of galactic proportions. Alien races are all modeled particularly well and varied, and every world visited looks much different from the last. The framerate, especially during the pod racing sequence and the final boss battle, is consistent. Depth in scenery is far and shows off the environments as they were intended.

One thing of note is the sometimes awkward animations of the supporting character, Jar-Jar. Most of the time they are convincingly integrated with the live-action counterparts, but there are times where the animations look out of place. This does not deter from the overall experience and is but a blemish in an otherwise gorgeous movie.

Sound

Lucas does it again, and this is where his movies really shine. A Star Wars movie is instantaneously identifiable by its sound effects, and TPM is no different. From the lightsaber sounds to the spaceship engines, every sound is unique to the Star Wars world. Again, the pod racing sequence is especially gratifying and sounds just like a Formula One race from “A galaxy far far away…” should.

John Williams’ music is pretty much par for the course here. He’s had such a great career with other movies and raised the bar so high, this one has a hard time of beating anything else he’s done. Still, the music sounds great regardless of whether it is coming from a 5.1 surround system or a set of headphones.

Multiplayer

There is no multiplayer options to speak of with TPM, but the journey is so much fun it wouldn’t hurt to have a couple of friends watch it with you!

Overall

TPM is not a perfect movie. Still, its issues are minor and it still delivers a qualiity and substantial experience that stands among the best of the year.

Score: 9.7 (not an average)

Okay, so does that not sound ridiculous to you? Why then does game “journalism” settle with such modest aspirations? And how is it that an industry with yearly revenue in the tens of billions of dollars depend on coverage by twenty-something English majors fresh out of college who got their first jobs at a game magazine by using a personal blog as a portfolio? I’m generalizing, and I apologize to the handful of truly worthwhile game journalists who can call themselves as such. But still, it’s a problem when investigative journalism takes a distant seat to what is dominated by product reviews. If that were pertinent to other industries like music, film and television, then why isn’t Consumer Reports the de facto source of information on these media?

I’ve always wondered why the games industry has never been covered like Silicon Valley during the dot com era. There are so many crazy stories to be told, but most outlets are afraid of breaking a story in fear they’ll be cut off from their future review copies. Instead they keep what they hear during industry pub crawls to themselves and go back to their offices to write crap that doesn’t do justice to the craft of making video games.

I’ve been inspired by recent gaming podcasts and magazines. Why is it that in 2008, what may very well be the best year for video games, coverage is relegated to amateurs? Why when a year releases like Mirror’s Edge, Too Human, and Little Big Planet have such a polarizing effect on their players, that this doesn’t inspire individuals to manifest such emotion into their writings?

This only has to be insulting to the people involved in making a game – from the developers to the publishers to the marketers to the PR groups. It’s all just a game.

And it shouldn’t be that way.

I admit I’ve been hard on 1UP in the past. And let’s face it – when your magazines are anemic to the risk of becoming pamphlets, your site loads ten percent of the time, your employees are foul-mouthed, attention-grabbing alcoholics, and you cheat legitimate prize winners out of their copy of Thrillville (really); well, you can’t help but earn those stripes.

So I took a break from visiting the cesspool of no-talent, and upon returning from my hiatus a funny thing happened: I started to actually enjoy 1UP.

Crazy, yes. Kinda like world peace happening, right? Well, there is a catch – in a word: moderation.

See, I stopped reading the staff blogs, limiting myself from prolonged exposure to James Mielke’s vacation photos and cries for attention. I didn’t have to worry about the poor site design because I let my podcatcher do the work for me, never having to venture to the land of the HTTP 404 errors again. I figure if there was something on the site worth reading, I’d catch up with one of the many aggregators out there like Joystiq, NeoGAF or CheapAssGamer.

And about those podcasts – a funny thing happened on the way to 1UP Yours: lukems was gone. Hopefully silenced forever, and bringing with him weeks (read: not months or years) of professionalism in the gaming press and years of perfecting adolescent humor (read: not humorous). With his absence, the 1UP Yours podcast became a happy place for witty, intelligent and insightful discussion on video games. Sure, Garnett still says things every week that make me wonder just how stupid do you have to be to get a job there, but at least Luke’s overt sexual references and subsequent giggle which would usually follow are a thing of the past. And Garnett seems to be sober more than not, probably a good idea since drinking on the job is generally not allowed; although the man clearly has an alcohol problem when left unchecked.

The GFW crew is better than ever, although I’m starting to grow tired of Shawn Elliot’s over-produced openings. In a weird balance of fate, I am now more interested in PC games more and more while they talk about them less and less, mixing their podcasts with one part PC games, four parts non-gaming randomness; yet I’m still oddly drawn in. The EGM podcast is hit-or-miss. One episode they’re making waves by giving a forum to Dennis Dyack’s mad ramblings; the next they regress into a sea of assorted disinterest, usually led by Crispin “I want to be like Seanbaby” Boyer’s annoying interjections. Yes, I know they have a magazine to run, but so does Jeff Green and the gang, and they still pull it off.

And about those magazines: one of the exciting things about PC game development is that it is uninhibited. There are thousands of tiny developers with great ideas and even equally great execution, but are lost in the PR avalanche from the majors. Yet coverage of these lesser-known games are relegated to a sidebar in GFW Magazine. I don’t know if this is a conscious effort to keep page count down, but I think it’s a disservice to the magazine’s audience, let alone to some of the guys on the staff who generally love PC gaming. Equally disconcerting is EGM, a shadow of its former self, with not a lot to say about an industry that increasingly has a lot to say about itself. I have a respect for guys like Dan Hsu, Brian Intihar, and even Shane Bettenhausen now that he’s come back to Earth since the PS3 has failed to capture anyone’s interest; and I know those guys could do a lot of good given the chance. Perhaps in both cases, the magazines are made to suffer while Ziff decides what to do with the business, stifling their staff in the process.

So there you have it – an apology of sorts, for being so critical of the 1UP crew during the past year. There have been some positive changes at site recently, and as long as I take it in small, digestible bits, I might be able to stomach them yet.

UPDATE: Apparently bad news doesn’t come in fives, they come in threes x 2. Kudos to 1UP for going forward with a story that started out as a potential gag on NeoGAF. The story involves “Da Man” Jeff Bell, Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business at Microsoft (let me repeat that for emphasis: Corporate Vice President of Global Marketing, Interactive Entertainment Business) pulling a Kramer and responding via Private Message to a heckler on the NeoGAF forums. Good job Jeff, way to go stir up the bee hive.

And I ask – what the hell is going on over at Microsoft?

Bad news comes in threes. So what do you say when it comes in “five”s? Or is it just another trilogy of horror? In this case, Microsoft has their hands full of bad news, the first time this generation where they’ve gotten used to Sony’s PR follies over the past two years. Even still, when all major news outlets have caught on to the PS3 “price cut” for what it really is, Microsoft’s avalanche of atrocities keeps on rollin’.

First and foremost is the dissention of Peter Moore. Here is someone poised as the figurehead of the second most popular gaming console worldwide, at a critical moment of its lifecycle, who decides to jump ship. Granted, his compensation at EA, including his $1.5MM signing bonus, was probably hard to resist. What we all don’t know is how long this deal was in the works. Perhaps his evident lack of enthusiasm during the E3 press event was because he had already “checked-out”.

His post-event interviews seemed off as well. I thought it was just because he was having a bad week. After all, having to answer to a $1 billion charge to repair defective consoles isn’t an easy thing to do. Or maybe he was just disappointed by the event’s critical reception. But now we all know, don’t we?

If he still had his head in the game, maybe he would have planned the event to make a bigger splash. Maybe he would have gone that extra mile to broker that next big exclusive deal. Or maybe he just would have hit pause about two times less than he now infamously did.

Does he know something we don’t about the future of the Xbox? Is the writing on the wall that it will be nothing but an unprofitable business venture for Microsoft? Does he hear the sound of Sony on his heels? Jumping ship at such a critical time, having arguably the strongest holiday lineup of any console this year, why leave when success is so close? Only time will tell, but I have a suspicion there are some good stories trapped in that head of his.

But with Microsoft’s billion dollar hit (bad news #1), the poor showing at E3 (bad news #2), and Moore’s departure (bad news #3); things could only get better, right? Wrong.

Let me introduce you to bad news #4 – Halo 3 will ship without cooperative play over Xbox Live. Before you start screaming, “fanboy!”, let me break it down. First, Gears of War set the next-gen standard with online co-op. Once something like that is done, it’s difficult for any title to go back – the bar is now raised. So for a showcase title like Halo 3 to exclude that, it tells me it’s nothing more than a rezzed-up version of Halo 2. Second, it gives Sony and Nintendo ammunition to shoot down the mighty juggernaut with words (”the Xbox 360 is technically deficient to handle online cooperative play”, “a pay service like Xbox Live doesn’t have the infrastructure to handle it, while PSN does”) and actions (watch for an announcement for Killzone 2 to have online co-op – Sony would be stupid not to make it work).

But the biggest problem, which may tie into Moore’s decision, is, “is this as good as it gets for the Xbox 360?” Will it be all downhill from here? For a first-party like Bungie to miss an opportunity like this may be the catalyst that turned the tides in the console war. Sure Halo 3 will still sell a gazillion units, but it doesn’t ensure that there won’t be a better console experience available on a competing platform three to six months after Halo 3’s release – a major departure from expectations and everyone’s experience with the unstoppable machine that was Halo 2.

But the bad news doesn’t stop there – Aaron Greenberg has stated there will be no X07. That means, not only did we not see what was coming in 2008 at E3, but there will be no big unveiling of 2008-and-beyond announcements and exclusives. That also means, for example, if Microsoft were to broker a big deal with Capcom, there would be no outlet for them to trumpet the partnership. That means, the word doesn’t get out to the major news outlets, at least without the pomp and circumstance usually required to garner their attention. Which means, Capcom loses out. Which means, why do an exclusive deal if it’s not going to make waves?

So while consumers scramble to buy a Wii on potential, and the PS3 gains momentum with a bright 2008 outlook, Microsoft is left to salvage their management team and scrape the bottom of the barrel of its remaining good news to counter the barrage of disappointment that is seemingly on the way.