I’m really not sure how there’s belief that game journalists are incompetent…well, you know. Simon Parkin continues to elevate the bar in terms of what game writing can accomplish. Here’s but a small sample:

“Rare was always looking East at Japanese and Nintendo’s games in particular, with their open-hearted childlike vibrancy and playfulness,” explains Hollis. “Meanwhile, Microsoft had a US-centric style to its games, a flair of machismo and testosterone. For the first decade after the Microsoft sale the major problem for the creativity of the studio has been direction. Looking in from the outside it felt as if neither Microsoft or Rare could work out where it was headed.”

Parkin, Simon. “Who Killed Rare?” (Eurogamer: February 8, 2012) <http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-02-08-who-killed-rare>.