There's a nifty article over at Bitmob that consists of reasons why Aaron Thomas doesn't like Uncharted 2. It's maybe the weirdest thing I've seen, because he compares the game to one of his friends going through cancer. To me, I don't think he's giving the game a fair chance, and he's incorporating the things that is happening in his life right now to the quality of the game. At least that's what I think. Check it out and see what you can make out of it!

When you're mad about having to press a button to pick up ammo, it's obvious you're searching for reasons to hate the game. Sorry about his friend though, cancer is every bit as awful as it sounds.

...I like it.

Well like the titles says, nobody should care that he doesn't like it.  It's his opinion, we're all entitled.

I think all it is is that he and his friend are going through some hard times, and he trying to take some of that out on uncharted with his message that there are more important things in life than video games. Is he right? Definitely. Is his taking it out on Uncharted 2 fair to them game? Not really. Could he just maybe not like the game, cause not everybody has to like what you like? Also a possibility.

What?  He doesn't like uncharted? CLEARLY HE IS 360 TEH BIASED!!!! ANYBOODY WHO SAIDS uNCHARTED IS CRAP IS OVIUSLY BIASED.  THIS GUY SHOOD BE FIRD!

" What?  He doesn't like uncharted? CLEARLY HE IS 360 TEH BIASED!!!! ANYBOODY WHO SAIDS uNCHARTED IS CRAP IS OVIUSLY BIASED.  THIS GUY SHOOD BE FIRD! "

" @ArchScabby said:

" What?  He doesn't like uncharted? CLEARLY HE IS 360 TEH BIASED!!!! ANYBOODY WHO SAIDS uNCHARTED IS CRAP IS OVIUSLY BIASED.  THIS GUY SHOOD BE FIRD! "

Last time I checked, he's a freelancer.  "

" @ArchScabby said:

" What?  He doesn't like uncharted? CLEARLY HE IS 360 TEH BIASED!!!! ANYBOODY WHO SAIDS uNCHARTED IS CRAP IS OVIUSLY BIASED.  THIS GUY SHOOD BE FIRD! "

Last time I checked, he's a freelancer.  "

Who?

" @ArchScabby: Hey, you know what I mean. "

I wonder who that former Gamespot employee is that Aaron was arguing with.

Sounds like he's just stressed to hell and when that happens you start taking it out on things you love. He really rectifies himself in the structuring of the article and his posts in the comments.

I never liked Aaron Thomas to begin with, so I really dont care at all what he thinks.

It's strange to me that he focused that article so much on Uncharted 2.

" I wonder who that former Gamespot employee is that Aaron was arguing with. "

i thought pressing triangle to pick up ammo fit.  It makes sense to have to stop to pick up something, not just run over it.
 
I will say however, that Uncharted 2 was not that amazing of a game, but it is an amazing experience.  The gameplay itself is good and competent, sections of shooting or climbing never last too long.  Wish there was one more thing he would do like driving or harder puzzles, and not ones where you just look in your book for the answer.  But the camera, the cinematic pieces of climbing, like that first sequence, how the camera moves when you are climbing other stuff or going through a crevice, the character banter in game, the cinematics.  It all makes for something i will remember.
 
The only thing I do hate about the game, is the inability to run and melee at the same time, especially in the multiplayer.  It doest have to be halo where the melee is homed in and dashes to someone, but that my feet are planted to melee is really retarded.

Sorry to go off topic but...
I couldn't remember what Aaron Thomas  looked like from my gamespot days, so I googled his name with safe search off.
That was a mistake.

I quite like Aaron Thomas. Sorry he didn't have the same opinion as you (or me for that matter) but he's entitled to it.
 
EDIT - Probably should have read the article, but this was more a reply to what the OP/Title was about. Having read the article now, it was a great read.

Aaron Thomas:

 I’ve written this article to remind myself just what is -- and isn’t -- important in this world. It turns out that video games aren’t all that important. Arguing whether or not a game or a console is good or not... everyone’s life should be so amazing that they have time to worry about such petty and trivial matters.  

It's not really a blog to why he doesn't like Uncharted 2, but how Uncharted helped him mature. Pretty interesting piece of writing, though.

Wow, a lot of you are missing the point of this article. It's really not about him disliking Uncharted, but the fact that he's angry at himself for arguing and getting worked up about something that in the grand scheme of things, isn't all that important. He's saying video games aren't the most important things in the world. 
 
You guys are treating this like another Uncharted thread, when it should be about how important games truly are over everything else.

That ammo thing did strike me as a jarring design choice in the first game though, I'm surprised they didn't change it.  Not that it's exactly a big deal or anything.
 
Kinda strange wasting time writing a blog about how you regret wasting time playing a game.

I really liked the article. It was mocking the petty quibbles fanboys have by comparing them to real problems, and claiming that the reason it hasn't received any negative reviews is because reviewers are worried about a backlash from fanboys. I suspect that maybe he actually liked Uncharted 2 (just maybe not quite as much as everyone else seems to be liking it) but is using this to criticize both petty fanboys for their dumb, stupid arguments and reviewers for pandering to the fanboys expectations.

burn the heretic.

This is the only review of Aaron's I've ever trusted, for the Flip Video Soft Pouch: 
 
 

   2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
Horrible Case,

By	Aaron Thomas - See all my reviews

I think it's kind of inevitable that knowing someone with a terminal illness is going to make a lot of things you do seem petty and trivial.  Of course, it's also kind of inevitable that we as humans are going to do those petty and trivial things anyways.  Basically, we need to be reminded every few years or so that we "don't know what we got til it's gone".  
 
Basically what I'm trying to say is, cancer sucks, but I'm not really sure this article belongs on bitmob.

I think it's less about Uncharted 2 and more about what is happening in his life, which probably gives him a sense of perspective. I thought Aaron Thomas was ok when he was at Gamespot, but definitely not my favorite. After all, at least he's better than the "inexperienced young guy who gives every game a 9/10" that GS seems to be hiring nowadays.

" When you're mad about having to press a button to pick up ammo, it's obvious you're searching for reasons to hate the game. Sorry about his friend though, cancer is every bit as awful as it sounds. "

I've enjoyed what I've played so far.  Don't care what anyone else says, as does Thomas.

Aaron Thomas always hates good games. He rated Mercs 2 lower than Fable II Pub Games. (I'm not saying Mercs is on the same level as Uncharted, but it's not terrible).

That was actually a very good article. He does make a great point that arguing over a video game is petty when compared to the big things in life. Yeah, sure, maybe he was acting angry over the game for no reason but he learned from his mistakes. I am sorry about his friend too.

So let this be a lesson to us all: Only disagree with the opinions of those who's friends are cancer-free or else they'll feel entitled to give you a lecture on priorities via video game blog.

To those who took the time to read the article, thank you. To those that don't "get" what I wrote: I'm saying that I was stupid to get so emotionally involved in a bunch of opinions over a video game. While I was worried about something stupid that I didn't like, my friend was laying in a bed, dying of cancer. I feel like a terrible person that I spent my time arguing about a game and not trying to be a better friend. 
 
I didn't know she was sick again when I was sharing my thoughts on the game, but that's beside the point. I took things too seriously, and I feel awful for it. I'm not really trying to say anything about the game, other than have fun with it and don't get wrapped up in whether or not other people share your opinion. 

" @Metal_Gear_Sunny: He is ok, but that was a bit stupid, reminds me of My name was Endogene "

" There's a nifty article over at Bitmob that consists of reasons why Aaron Thomas doesn't like Uncharted 2. It's maybe the weirdest thing I've seen, because he compares the game to one of his friends going through cancer. To me, I don't think he's giving the game a fair chance, and he's incorporating the things that is happening in his life right now to the quality of the game. At least that's what I think. Check it out and see what you can make out of it! "

Aaron Thomas is a great writer but that post didn't show it.

" I think it's kind of inevitable that knowing someone with a terminal illness is going to make a lot of things you do seem petty and trivial.  Of course, it's also kind of inevitable that we as humans are going to do those petty and trivial things anyways.  Basically, we need to be reminded every few years or so that we "don't know what we got til it's gone".    Basically what I'm trying to say is, cancer sucks, but I'm not really sure this article belongs on bitmob. "

This doesn't seem like it's about Uncharted 2 at all. He's obviously going through something really hard right now and it seems like he's struggling to find how to deal with it. I'm not sure if writing that article is the best way to deal with it but hey, whatever works. I would think that he would want to keep work and his life separate.

" I really liked the article. It was mocking the petty quibbles fanboys have by comparing them to real problems, and claiming that the reason it hasn't received any negative reviews is because reviewers are worried about a backlash from fanboys. I suspect that maybe he actually liked Uncharted 2 (just maybe not quite as much as everyone else seems to be liking it) but is using this to criticize both petty fanboys for their dumb, stupid arguments and reviewers for pandering to the fanboys expectations. "

I think some of you are missing the point of his article and taking it at face value. Sure he doesn't like Uncharted 2 but that ISN'T the focus or reason he has written that article. The reason he's written that is to show, symbolise even, that the fact he doesn't like Uncharted 2 when so many others do is irrelevant compared to bigger more important things, like his friend dying of cancer.
 
We gamers spend so much of our time arguing and comparing our views over video games and take it seriously enough to waste large chunks of our time in doing so. When the really important things like spending what time you have with friends and family are neglected. Essentially we have our priorities so fucking wrong that by the time we do perhaps realise we have them wrong it's too late to spend the time we lost with friends or family. And in Aaron's case what he is pointing out is that because his friend is dying from cancer the time she has left to live is not going to allow her to spend much time doing anything with friends. He isn't going to be able to make up to her the time he's missed by spending it elsewhere bitching about video games with people on the internet because she doesn't have much time left to live.
 
In short what he's trying to say is that the amount of time we spend bitching on the internet over review scores could be better spent enjoying our life, friends, family and the time we have with them. Because eventually it'll be too late, eventually you'll never be able to make up for that lost time with friends and family. Eventually all those moments you didn't spend hanging out with a friend and instead argued over review scores with the internet are a complete and utter fucking waste of time.
 
We as a collective group and community of gamers devote too much of our time too and take our hobby far too seriously. We place such importance on it that we consider it higher in our priorities than our social life in many ways. And that the fact it takes a friend dying of cancer, in Aaron's example, to suddenly put everything into perspective is saddening. How many of us have spent maybe half an hour arguing on a topic on a message board because site X gave game Y a review score of X when we feel it deserved something better or worse? A half hour we could have, no, should have spent doing something better and productive like hanging out with a friend.
 
I think Aaron's article is brilliant. I'm sorry to hear his friend is dying, but his article is a brilliant and emotional example of what is entirely wrong with the way video game communities act and established site's help breed. We all spend far too much time wasted on bickering over video games and the slightest little thing over them, like Aaron's example of pressing a button to pick up ammo in Uncharted 2, that it really is bloody depressing to think how low we all sink at times.

" To those who took the time to read the article, thank you. To those that don't "get" what I wrote: I'm saying that I was stupid to get so emotionally involved in a bunch of opinions over a video game. While I was worried about something stupid that I didn't like, my friend was laying in a bed, dying of cancer. I feel like a terrible person that I spent my time arguing about a game and not trying to be a better friend.  I didn't know she was sick again when I was sharing my thoughts on the game, but that's beside the point. I took things too seriously, and I feel awful for it. I'm not really trying to say anything about the game, other than have fun with it and don't get wrapped up in whether or not other people share your opinion.  "

  @Hamz said:

" I think some of you are missing the point of his article and taking it at face value. Sure he doesn't like Uncharted 2 but that ISN'T the focus or reason he has written that article. The reason he's written that is to show, symbolise even, that the fact he doesn't like Uncharted 2 when so many others do is irrelevant compared to bigger more important things, like his friend dying of cancer.
 
We gamers spend so much of our time arguing and comparing our views over video games and take it seriously enough to waste large chunks of our time in doing so. When the really important things like spending what time you have with friends and family are neglected. Essentially we have our priorities so fucking wrong that by the time we do perhaps realise we have them wrong it's too late to spend the time we lost with friends or family. And in Aaron's case what he is pointing out is that because his friend is dying from cancer the time she has left to live is not going to allow her to spend much time doing anything with friends. He isn't going to be able to make up to her the time he's missed by spending it elsewhere bitching about video games with people on the internet because she doesn't have much time left to live.
 
In short what he's trying to say is that the amount of time we spend bitching on the internet over review scores could be better spent enjoying our life, friends, family and the time we have with them. Because eventually it'll be too late, eventually you'll never be able to make up for that lost time with friends and family. Eventually all those moments you didn't spend hanging out with a friend and instead argued over review scores with the internet are a complete and utter fucking waste of time.
 
We as a collective group and community of gamers devote too much of our time too and take our hobby far too seriously. We place such importance on it that we consider it higher in our priorities than our social life in many ways. And that the fact it takes a friend dying of cancer, in Aaron's example, to suddenly put everything into perspective is saddening. How many of us have spent maybe half an hour arguing on a topic on a message board because site X gave game Y a review score of X when we feel it deserved something better or worse? A half hour we could have, no, should have spent doing something better and productive like hanging out with a friend.  I think Aaron's article is brilliant. I'm sorry to hear his friend is dying, but his article is a brilliant and emotional example of what is entirely wrong with the way video game communities act and established site's help breed. We all spend far too much time wasted on bickering over video games and the slightest little thing over them, like Aaron's example of pressing a button to pick up ammo in Uncharted 2, that it really is bloody depressing to think how low we all sink at times. "

 
And as you say Hamz as much as we all at times take things to seriously and overlook the bigger picture we also at times look for things to blame, things to attack even if its unwarranted, just to make ourselves feel better.

Now whether or not these are Aaron’s true feeling about the game, and if they are then more power to him, I disagree but it’s his opinion and it should be respected, it doesn’t change the fact that he may have been better off putting the game down and coming back when he was in a better frame of mind, with my pervious job if I felt I wasn't in the correct frame of mind I wouldn't carry out the work as it would undoubtedly effect the quality and content of that work, which would have been of no benefit to myself or my customers.