G4: Gaming TV

Recently my local cable provider switched around a bunch of channels which forced me to reconfigure which I wanted to block and which I wanted to keep. One new, or at least new to me, channel has me confused. Now I know G4’s been around for a while because I’ve heard folks talking about it here but does anyone really watch it? 9/10ths of the reviews are about games I’m not interested in, you can’t pick and chose what reviews and news you get like on the 'net or even in a magazine, and the humor’s corny at best. It’s like your buddy had a rich dad and said “Hey, let’s have a cable channel about videogames and we’ll hire hot chicks to come on with us.”

Am I missing something? Are there better and worse shows? Does the goofiness grow on you or just make you dumber?

It’s more reliable than most rating sites to tell you when a game sucks. The humor is juvenile, and yes, that is the point.

It should be lower brow than it is sometimes, for instance; g4 was the only channel to have accurate, reasonable coverage of the hot coffee mod.

I love Icons and Filter (only because Diane Mizota is freaking hot).

Anime Unleashed can be okay, depends on what series they’re showing.

XPlay and Cinematec are very hit or miss, and the rest is pretty much crap. I miss the old Screensavers, the new Attack of The Show stuff with guest spots just isn’t the same.

FYI Leo is coming back with Call for Help and several other older TechTV shows are returning as well next month.

Xplay is the only thing I consider a good show on G4 - Cinematech and Icons are good on occasion though.

Icons is good, a few are watchable (Xplay), the rest is UTTER GARBAGE

XPlay and Judgement Day are the only two shows that my TIVO keeps track of for me on G4. If nothing else, they give you a chance to look at a good bit of actual video of a game before you head to the store.

He’s also doing a podcast now, called TWiT. You can find it at http://www.thisweekintech.com. Pretty good stuff, particularly for a long commute.

X-Play is probably the only thing worth watching; some of it is crap, but the recent Splinter Cell co-op Theater thing is pretty funny. Navy Seals!

Judgement Day is crap.

— Alan

I like the Icons shows sometimes, the one that shows the history of whatever. A lot of times its fluff, but it still can be interesting.

I dont like Xplay because I cant stand either of the hosts. I like the 2 guys on Judgement day better.

I also cant stand the chick that does the countdown show.

olaf

X-Play is awesome. I love the show’s dorky humor and the hot, hot Morgan Webb. They’re good about keeping current too. Sometimes they make too many jokes about a game instead of actually reviewing it, but I suppose it’s still the best review show around.

Judgment Day is crap. I find Tommy Tallarico obnoxious and prone to give a game a bad score for no real reason. Though I do owe him credit for making the soundtrack to Cool Spot on the SNES.

Just in case you missed it, X-Play is great, Judgment Day is crap. G4 is one of those channels I have running in the background while I’m playing games. Though it is sharing some of that time with Google Current these days.

XPlay can be fun, but I don’t go out of my way to watch, being the Tivo-less luddite I am.

The humor with Adam and the cheesecake factor with Morgan I can take or leave, but watching gameplay footage with a bit of voiceover description is really an effective way to check out a game. It’s superior to a print preview or review in many ways.

Not getting into the morgan hot or mutant discussion, although I do tend to be on the mutant side.

My tivo records xplay as a suggestion, still hasn’t made it to a season pass. I generally skip past all of the hosts’ “witty” banter and just watch the reviews. That way I can get through a 30 minute episode in roughly 10 minutes.

Everything else on g4 is unwatchable schiesse.

I hate tommy with a passion.

I enjoy X-Play. Both hosts have some talent. They should spend more time on reviews, though, and less on skits. Adam and Morgan talking about a game is a lot more interesting than than French-Canadian Guy and Drunken Link.

Cinematech is good background entertainment, something to have on while you’re doing other things. I’ve bought games because of footage seen there.

Icons is very good.

Everything else is garbage. Judgment Day is the worst of the lot, solely because of Tommy Tallarico. He’s terrible at reviewing games, smug and unlikeable. If they offered an edited version, solely with Victor’s opinions, I might watch that. Attack of the Show has its moments, and even a bit of “We’re doing this in our basement live” amateurish charm, but overall, it’s too unpolished. I feel like half their comments are inside jokes that only they get.

I did catch the last 10 minutes of some show on G4 that was a history of Star Trek games. All it did was show footage of games in a timeline - there was no voiceover that I recall. It was kind of cool.

I actually find Tommy to be a pretty personable guy. Sure he’s strongly-opinionated and doesn’t shy away from sharing his opinions. He’s slammed a number of games that I like a lot, and it really didn’t affect my personal opinion of him. He’s definitely not the first person I’d look to for information on a game that I was interested in, but I enjoy his reviews nonetheless. Obviously the guy has a lot of fun when he’s working on the show and I don’t think you should take some of his negativity towards certain games very seriously.

I actually find Tommy to be a pretty personable guy. Sure he’s strongly-opinionated and doesn’t shy away from sharing his opinions. He’s slammed a number of games that I like a lot, and it really didn’t affect my personal opinion of him. He’s definitely not the first person I’d look to for information on a game that I was interested in, but I enjoy his reviews nonetheless. Obviously the guy has a lot of fun when he’s working on the show and I don’t think you should take some of his negativity towards certain games very seriously.[/quote]

The problem with Tommy is he does absolutely ridiculous stuff like knock Forza because he “couldn’t turn”. That’s about the least valid complaint of a racing sim I can think of, and destroys any future credibility he may have for knowing jack shit about gaming.

I’m not really following you here. Surely if he couldn’t turn in a racing game, that would be a valid complaint. What is meant here by “turn”?

Anyway, I don’t always agree with his reviews, but that doesn’t make him unlikeable to me.

The problem is that Forza is a racing sim. It’s clearly billed as a realistic game. You can turn, but you have to brake properly. A front wheel drive car will understeer, etc.

It’s SUPPOSED to be hard to turn some of the cars, that’s the whole point of the game.