Pitchfork moving into Games Commentary

[the Dept of Science]

http://pitchfork.com/features/articles/7962-kill-screen/1/

I saw this on Pitchfork today (yes, ok, I read it, whatever) and it looks like they are in collaboration with the website Kill Screen. So far, they have just posted 3 articles from the website (1 fairly uninteresting thing where a non-gamer plays Angry Birds, 2 fairly interesting articles on Swords and Sorcery and LSD guru Timothy Leary's foray into the culture).

Details are a bit unclear, at the moment it just looks a bit out of place; at first I assumed it would be something about games music, but no, its just games commentary. I can't think of any real reason that they shouldn't have game commentary on Pitchfork. I mean, the Escapist has Moviebob, who seemed a bit out of place at first, but now I can't see him as anything else.

So, should Pitchfork keep there hands off gaming or is this an acceptable embrace of gaming culture?


ps. I hear Pitchfork named Gordon Freeman the greatest protagonist of all time... you probably haven't heard him yet
They also seem to really love Portal 2; its mostly underground.

 

[teknoarcanist]

"I loaded up my copy of Pokemon Black with, shall we say (and I think we shall) less-than-more-than-slightly-stellar expectations. Here was Pokemon, the same great franchise I knew and loved -- trying, ever so desperately, to look and feel like Pokemon. Call me a philistine, or maybe I just don't GET the property...but color me superficially and sufficiently impressed."

"If your only objective in playing Gears of War 3 is to play Gears of War 3, then Gears of War 3 will merely satisfy. If, however, you're looking for something more, it will not fail not to embrace you in its strong, meaty arms, pulling you deeper into a velvet womb of bombastic machismo from which there is no escape -- and thank god for that!"

"LA Noire is a wonderful mish-mash of retro-nostalgic post-post-post-modern surrealist cinematic wonderment; a scintillating hybrid, which might best be summarized as Serious Sam meets Mario Brothers meets Pac Man 3D meets Before Crisis meets Eternal Sonata, with a dash of Dragonball Z Budokai Tenkaichii 3 thrown in for good measure."

Damn dude, I could do this all day.

Spoiler

I wonder if pitchfork is hiring...

 

[SmashingTime]

I'm curious, who actually reads Kill Screen? Video games already have a pretty broad spectrum of serious and not-so-serious media outlets-- this Kill Screen thing just sort of sits off to the left, faffing about and not really contributing.

And their magazine covers are astonishingly bad retro nostalgia shit, bringing to mind Vice: http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0044/4202/products/Kill-Screen-4_Cover.jpg?100579

 

[DustyDrB]

Let them do whatever they want. I think they've fallen off in the last few years in regards to music reviews, but I still get the occasional good recommendation (they alerted me to Laura Marling, who is now among my favorites). The Onion's AV Club does a much better job, though their game reviews aren't that great.

Pitchfork doesn't go for the all-out hipster douchebag look anymore. I actually miss it. They had some trollish reviews that were a ton of fun to read. Or fun to try to decipher, if it was a review by someone who may or may not have been on drugs.

Oh well, I can always count on Christgau to be an elitist douche.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Pitchfork? Please, so mainstream. I was reviewing games before it was cool.

 

[SmashingTime]

Let them do whatever they want. I think they've fallen off in the last few years in regards to music reviews, but I still get the occasional good recommendation (they alerted me to Laura Marling, who is now among my favorites). The Onion's AV Club does a much better job, though their game reviews aren't that great.

Pitchfork doesn't go for the all-out hipster douchebag look anymore. I actually miss it. They had some trollish reviews that were a ton of fun to read. Or fun to try to decipher, if it was a review by someone who may or may not have been on drugs.

Oh well, I can always count on Christgau to be an elitist douche.

But they do have a disturbing monopoly on which bands will be playing the major festivals the following year. Pitchfork are also responsible for mediocre shit such as Girls becoming famous, when they should've died along with Gorilla vs Bear (which isn't really a blog anymore, but Pitchfork's right-hand arse licker).

Anyway, the "glory" days of Pitchfork were just as ridiculous if you go back and read the reviews, many of which have been removed from the website in an attempt to erase an embarrassing part of the site's history. Brent DiCrescenzo wrote a number of "classics" during this era, including this gem: http://web.archive.org/web/20001005152650/www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/k/kahimi-karie/kahimi-karie.shtml

 

[DustyDrB]

But they do have a disturbing monopoly on which bands will be playing the major festivals the following year. Pitchfork are also responsible for mediocre shit such as Girls becoming famous, when they should've died along with Gorilla vs Bear (which isn't really a blog anymore, but Pitchfork's right-hand arse licker).

Anyway, the "glory" days of Pitchfork were just as ridiculous if you go back and read the reviews, many of which have been removed from the website in an attempt to erase an embarrassing part of the site's history. Brent DiCrescenzo wrote a number of "classics" during this era, including this gem: http://web.archive.org/web/20001005152650/www.pitchforkmedia.com/record-reviews/k/kahimi-karie/kahimi-karie.shtml

I thought some of the old ones were entertaining to read. I don't hate Girls, either. I hate their production. It sounds like songs played over the loudspeaker of cell phones from six years ago