So, I just got finished watching the new "leveled up" format of X-Play and I'm less than impressed. Okay, it's shiney and looks like it's being done from a real set now...and they've proved that with this new professional and expensive looking set, that they can get some of the heavy hitters of the game industry to look at them now (like Shane Kim: Corporate Vice President of Microsoft Game Studios), but wasn't the "looks like it was produced in someone's basement" look to X-Play the fun of it? It made Adam and Morgan feel like they were truly one of us who happened to luck up and fall into their dream job of reviewing games for a living. Now, they feel like a couple of game industry stiffs. Oh yeah and while we are on the subject of reviewing, they didn't actually review anything. They previewed a few games...and even dropped the names of a few others that they were looking forward to in 2008 but there were no sharp, funny, edgy reviews like they are known and watched for. Go figure.
I can tell already that I'm going to miss the humor of X-Play the most...especially when the message that they hadn't lost it came in the form of a bad skit that mixed The Office and Mass Effect. I'm the queen of offbeat humor and even I didn't get it and somehow I don't think I was the only one.
I guess I should reiterate that this was the season premiere of the show in it's new format and that it could get better in the coming episodes. Especially in a few months when the hype for MGS4 increases. Interview with Hideo Kojima? I guess we'll just have to see.
G4, please don't let X-Play, the only video game review show that matters, become the only video game review show that used to matter. It would be a crime of epic proportions.
