Jeff Gerstmann
Jeff Gerstmann is a person that is credited in 1 games
Jeff Gerstmann is a co-founder of Giant Bomb and the former Editorial Director of GameSpot.com. Gerstmann is also one half of the semi-comedic musical duo Midnight Brown.
Overview
Jeff Gerstmann is a video game journalist from Petaluma, California. He is a co-founder of the videogame wiki and news site, Giant Bomb, along with Ryan Davis. Prior to co-founding Giant Bomb, Jeff worked at GameSpot for over eleven years before being terminated in a highly publicized and hotly debated event on November 28, 2007.Biography
After graduating out of Casa Grande High School in Petaluma in 1993, Jeff got his start in the world of video games media by working for GameSpot as an intern. During his eleven years at GameSpot, Jeff worked with many people who have gone on to work for high profile developers including Joe Fielder ( EA LA), Erik Wolpaw ( Valve), Amer Ajami ( EA LA), Bob Colayco ( Blizzard), Carrie Gouskos ( EA Mythic), Greg Kasavin ( 2k Games), Rich Gallup ( 38 Studios), Matt Rorie ( Obsidian Entertainment), and Alex Navarro ( Harmonix).When user-generated video content was introduced to GameSpot, Jeff created a semi-weekly video podcast titled, "Points Report," wherein he would give his Xbox 360 Gamerscore, talk about the games he had been playing, and whatever else was on his mind. Jeff was eventually appointed editorial director and was in charge of scheduling reviews.
Jeff enjoying cake
More likely, Jeff was let go not as a direct result of Eidos applying pressure to GameSpot, but as a result of business culture dispute within CNET - between editorial and sales. That is, that Jeff was let go by CNET as a preventative measure as a result of a perceived fear that he would lose advertising deals for the company - it was widely reported that Eidos had already canceled alleged future deals over the Kane and Lynch review. CNET, for its part, maintains that Jeff was not let go for commercial reasons, though he is legally forbidden from revealing the actual reason.
Jeff is ''The Styling-est'
In February of 2008, Jeff and Ryan started recording a podcast called Arrow Pointing Down, where they discussed videogames, beverages, and other news. In March, Jeff and Ryan started the blog form of Giant Bomb, where they posted gaming news and game reviews. The Arrow Pointing Down podcast became known as the Giant Bombcast. Brad Shoemaker and Vinny Caravella joined Giant Bomb in June. The full Giant Bomb site launched in beta on July 21, 2008.
Appearances in Mainstream Media
Considered an expert in the field of video games, Jeff has made appearances in national news. In September 1999, he appeared on ABC's Good Morning America to discuss the launch of the Dreamcast. In 2007, he was quoted in the New York Times regarding the Wii's success. He has also made appearances on TV and internet technology shows. He appeared on the October 1st edition of CNET Live to discuss the buzz around Halo 3. He also made an appearance on G4's X-Play show to discuss Japanese gaming and his departure from GameSpot. On August 3, 2009, Jeff again made an appearance on G4's X-Play to discuss recent games moving from released in 2009 to being released in 2010.On October 6th, 2008, Jeff made his debut appearance on Episode 27 of GameTrailers.com's "Bonus Round" where he joined Michael Pachter, Shane Satterfield, and Geoff Keighley to discuss the Q4 2008 release schedule.
Side Projects
- Jeff is currently part of band called Midnight Brown, which has released four albums, their most recent one being "Deadly Electric"
- Jeff is also currently working on a side project: being the Apocalypse for sandwiches.
Music Career
In December 1995, Jeff Gerstmann and Glenn Rubenstein formed the rap duo, Headboard in Petaluma, California. From that point forward, Rubenstein went under the moniker "G-Man" while Gerstmann adopted the moniker "US Pipe". The duo was joined with their "anti-hype man" Brendan Ducousso or "Gotti", who stood on stage commenting about the subject matter that G-Man and US Pipe rapped about. Two weeks after the band was formed, Headboard had their first gig, opening for band Skillit. The band had
Midnight Brown
Gerstmann and Ducousso would go on to form the rap group, Suburban All-Stars. The group was a throwback to Headboard's original sound. The group's lyrics were extremely obscene and mostly dealt with sex. One song, In the Can, was about having sex while on a toilet. Yeah. The group was soon joined by Ryan Davis and Alex Navarro, as the group slowly turned into more a joke band than anything. Nonetheless, Suburban All-Stars was fairly short-lived.
After the break-up of Suburban All-Stars, Gerstmann was not ready to give up his music career just yet and in 2003, he formed Midnight Brown, alongside his roommate Chris Henderson. The name came from a shoe color in an East Bay Catalog. The duo's backup name was "Emily's Favorite Sweater". In March 2004, Midnight Brown released their first album "17 Brown Lies", which was recorded mostly on Sundays. The band combined many different genres with electronic music, which the band described as "Post-Indiepop Eclectro". The album was self-released for free on the band's website.
Please see above
The band's fourth album, Deadly Electric, was released on January 17th, 2010. This is their first album in the Shoeblazer genre. The band has stated that this will be the last Midnight Brown album as such, and that they will instead release songs individually as they are completed.
Fun Facts Regarding Individual Tracks
The conversation between Jeff and Chris in "Call 'em Like You See 'em" was entirely improvised, and all of it was recorded in one take with very minimal editing.
"Baristacratic" and "go! go! vietnam" were based on a former room mate of the two.
The Japanese dialogue heard in "Kiss One More Time" is comprised of actual Japanese, though Jeff does not know what any of it means.
The titular Cop Knife
This clicking sound in Cop Knife is the opening of a knife. Gerstmann as stated that Cop Knife is not about cops or knives, but rather about ordering take out food.
Things Jeff Hates!
Jeff admits that he is a bit unreasonable, and nowhere is this more evident than in his beloved Hate. Jeff Gerstmann hates the following:- Avatar (the film and the game)
- Boxing
- Brawler-type games
- Bruce Campbell (though, not in the show "Burn Notice")
- Circuit Breakers
- Coconut flavor
- Comic book superheroes
- Coyote Ugly
- Crates
- Crysis
- Dragon Ball Z
- Far Cry 1
- FEAR
- Post-SNES Final Fantasy
- Friends (the show)
- Futurama
- Gin
- Grease (the movie)
- Halo 2
- Harry Potter
- Hippies
- Katt Williams
- Kingdom Hearts
- KoRn
- Master of Illusion Express: Funny Face
- Ninja Gaiden
- Resident Evil
- Rock Revolution
- Role Players
- Scorpions
- Seinfeld (the show and the man)
- Skull Candy headphones
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- Spiders
- Splinter Cell
- Star Trek (The Original Series)
- Star Wars
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time
- Terminator 2 and forward
- Tomb Raider
- Samurai Shodown games after II
- Split screen co-op
- Street Fighter III
- Super Metroid
- Watching movies with friends
- When his hands smell like metal
- Oversized gummi products
Miscellaneous Facts
- Jeff Gerstmann purchased a Sony Airboard Television from Japan to keep in his kitchen. Rich Gallup proceeded to call him "an idiot" for making the purchase. Because of the lag it is not possible to play video games on the TV. Jeff now considers it a waste of money.
- Appeared in a FUBU jersey and shorts on Good Morning America during the Dreamcast launch, marking the day people stopped wearing FUBU. Diane Sawyer touched his leg.
- Jeff is color blind.
- Went to Japan. Beat a guy in Street Fighter IV.
- Jeff wears a size 13 shoe.
- Wrote for a games magazine called Blaster. However, it only lasted 3 issues.
- First game console was a Fairchild Channel F.
- After it was ruined in a flood (The Fairchild), he bought an Atari home computer.
- Jeff has only finished Guitar Hero 3 on Easy.
- While unemployed, Jeff says he played many hours of Call of Duty 4 with Rich Gallup and animator Ben Coello.
- Apparently Jeff has also played Call of Duty 4 with rapper and actor Ice T.
- On the same podcast Jeff also stated that he agrees with Ice T and thinks Lil' Wayne is a bit weird.
- Used money his parents left him for food to buy a Turbografx and a shirt that said "Shut Up, Bitch!" on it.
- Purposely walked into English late wearing the above shirt (that said "Shut up, Bitch!") and was forced to turn it inside out.
- Used to go to chess club meetings in school because their line for chocolate milk was shorter than the line at the cafeteria. As a result, he
accidentally got into the chess club photo in his high school yearbook.
- Jeff's favorite soccer player is Kaka.
- Jeff has said as part of an April Fool's joke that RapeLay (a Japanese rape simulator) is his favorite game, but that it would be greatly improved if it had the word "Party" at the end.
- He likes boobs.
- Galaga apparently helped Jeff overcome an unknown addiction. To hemp milk, presumably.
- In school, Jeff paid his drama teacher $18 for an A in the class.
- Jeff's favorite Pokemon is Koffing. He even took Pokemon Snap to Blockbuster to print out his snapshots of Koffing and tells Pokemon Center Tokyo that " No Koffing merchandise = No Jeff!"
- He's memorized the button combination to reset the title update combination. It's either 'LB, RB, X, X, RB' or 'X, X, LB, RB, X, X.'
- Jeff loves orange soda.
- Jeff almost died at a Walgreens in Houston, TX.
- Jeff is pro-explosion.
- Jeff is supposedly writing a book of poetry entitled "The Space Above the Snow."
- Jeff has voices inside of his head.
- Jeff once got busy in a Burger King bathroom.
- While in junior high, Jeff once played the national anthem on a saxophone in the middle of a speedway.
- Jeff hates gin.
- Jeff was once struck in the forehead with a batted baseball and fell face-first into a pile of cow feces.
- Jeff delivers stuff at night.
- Jeff's favorite game of all time is Smash TV.
- Jeff can chug a can of Coca-Cola in less than 9 seconds.
- Jeff believes Domo-Kun to be a murder junkie. Like Merle Allen.
- Jeff has stepped on a Wombat's neck before.
- Jeff's signature move is the Axe Kick! Its super effective against crates.
- Jeff is a self-absorbed glory hunter.
- The helicopter suit is his favorite suit.
- It is unknown if Jeff is SOL on the volcano stage in Street Fighter 4
- Jeff loves shiny white pants.
- He's a full on Shred-O-Holic, bro. For real, dude. Gnarly.
- Jeff quicksaved with 5 health once. Dumbest thing he's ever done.
- Gave the infamous "8.8" Twilight Princess review that crafted an internet meme.
- Can tell if a video game character will turn into a dinosaur.
- Jeff does not like organic ketchup. He prefers Heinz.
- Jeff thinks Dirt Nasty is the new Owl City.
- Jeff has made a pact with Ryan Davis to never go the Gathering of the Juggalos.
- Jeff has never seen an episode of Lost
- Jeff's second favorite flavor of Slurpee is Whirlwind of Fury.
- Jeff would eat a Koffing but not a Weezing.
- Jeff is presumably amused by having his last name continuously mispronounced as "Gertzmann" by industry veteran Geoff Keighley.
- Jeff has been known to Jungle.
- Jeff wakes up each morning relieved that he is not Brad.
- Jeff thinks he hasn't been baptized.
- Jeff has a T-shirt that says: "Don't let Dinosaurs Drive Go-Carts"
- Jeff once had a crap nap, partly to test his washing machine's capabilities.
Jeff Gerstmann games
Edit
| Name | Platforms | Developer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Guitar Hero II released on Nov. 7, 2006 | X360, PS2 | Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. |
General Information
Edit
| Full Name: | Jeff Gerstmann |
| Gender: | Male |
| Birthday: | Aug. 1, 1975 |
| Death: | n/a |
| Credited In: | 1 games |
| 1st Game Credit: | Guitar Hero II |
| Currently Working For: | |
| Hometown: | Petaluma, CA |
| Country: | USA |
| Website: | http://jeffgerstmann.net/ |
| Email Address: | |
| Aliases: |
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