Share your opinions about OTHER gaming websites

Giantbomb is not a huge journalistic machine. It posts the news that the staff believe is important, opting for a quality over quantity. I'm totally cool with that. Sometimes however it's nice to get a more punctual and inclusive feed of information as and when it occurs. I don't need a huge article of nonsense to sugar coat the latest batch of Gears 3 screenshots, so i'm not too fussed that none of the giantbomb staff assign time into doing so. I do still want to see those screenshots, however. Usually this means going to someplace like Kotaku. Kotaku is pretty good for highlighting the interesting and weird news that crops up on a daily basis, but their writing is bland, generic and minimal. The editorial staff seems to share, between them, the personality of damp cardboard.  
 
I used to visit IGN, back before I knew better. I now avoid that website like the plague. Their attention-seeking desperation is enough to drive any man insane. Why would anyone care about a hypothetical discussion in which you, Nate Ahearn, tell us what you want to see in the next Mass Effect game and pretend it's news? You are an idiot. There are only so many "Top 10" lists I can stomach before I set fire to an orphan child. 
 
Destructoid is a site I have never really visited, though from what I am told it's writers are convoluted and pretentious. That has kept me at bay so far, though I would be interested in hearing any dissenting opinions. 
 
I never really used gamespot (though I was an avid member of the Hotspot and On The Spot audiences) which is the closest I can come to any life before giantbomb. 
 
As for the remaining sites, apparently 1UP has (had?) a pretty good podcast and I know literally nothing about Joystiq. Anybody want to share their impressions?

Can anyone here even say anything positive about any other fucking site?

Well, 1UP crashes my browser every time I go to it so that's pretty cool I guess.

I don't like or visit other gaming sites.

1up was okay before they became UGO and fired everyone with any shred of personality, integrity or reviewing credibility (ex. Scott Sharkey).  Now it's only good for linking to the 8-4 podcast.

I can see this going HORRIBLY awry, turning into a ton of folks saying a ton of nasty shit about sites. 
 
With that said, I still visit Gamespot for some news and such every once in a while, as well as Joystiq and Destructoid.  They all seem pretty alright.

Navgtr provides some pretty funny material.
 
  

THE MORAL VICTORY IS MINE

They all suck.
 
The only other site I visit that I like is Joystiq and that's because of their witty write-ups and quick news coverage. Also they have integrity, unlike some of the bigger sites like IGN or 1up.

 
used to do kotaku, giantbomb, then it slowly turned into just giantbomb. 
giantbomb really has all the gaming news i need, kotaku posts more, but its fluff and off topic for the most part.
 
ages ago i frequented IGN, but it takes too long to load, they had some nice video reviews here and there. 
if IGN shows up on Digg or something i'll see it, but other than that i never go there directly.
  
Metacrtic if i am on the fence about a game, or saw a box at the local game store whose cover was interesting yet i hadn't heard of.
 
if i am stuck in a game or need a hint, google will likely drop me off at gamespot. 

I can dig joystiq and Kotaku just has tons of scoops and it's timely. 
 
But as for every other site, it's always just this cluttered mess with arbitrary numbers and reviews. No personality on the other sites.

" I can see this going HORRIBLY awry, turning into a ton of folks saying a ton of nasty shit about sites.  "

• Gamespot: Used to visit this site. I no longer do, mainly because I find their higher-ups to be assholes after allegedly firing Jeff. I still visit from time to time for some specific coverage that I can't get here, like sports game coverage. Although with Ekberg having left to work with Turn 10 now, even this use has become... well, less of a use.
• Game Trailers: Probably the second most used Gaming site for me, and that's kinda sad since I only use it for live coverage type events and for HD trailers and videos.
• IGN: Waaaay too much advertising. I actually used to visit IGN and Gamespot fairly equally back in the day, but I just can't put up with their business model any more. Also, their sister sites are fuckin' creepy.
• 1Up: I actually really like 1Up... at least from what I hear. I have tried to visit the site and have tried to get into it, but I always lose interest. I appreciate their letter grade review system which is at least a LITTLE better than the 100 point scale. Some of the community stuff they have going on there seems neat. I dunno though, it just hasn't stuck yet. Maybe some day.
• BitMob: I really like what BitMob is all about and I really like some of their editors too. This is kind of similar to the 1Up scenario where I want to spent more time on their site because of the awesome community features, but I just can't commit to being part of so many communities. They do a great podcast though. Interesting format at least.
• Destructoid: Having read just a couple of their reviews, I never want to go back there. I can appreciate how they don't take journalism very seriously (it's kinda like the GB guys), but they just go too far in that direction. Totally not my style, but I'll respect them from afar I suppose. Don't wanna hate too much without having spent much time there at all.
• Kotaku: Not much to say here I don't think. It's a news site. They post a shit ton of news, and that's great, but last time I visited I really didn't dig the format. I think if I set up an RSS feed from their site, I'd be much happier. Kotaku offers a unique mass-news type service though, so it's cool with me.

Gamesradar is awesome. They've gotten even more hilarious recently, and Talkradar is in my Top 2 fave podcasts, battling for first with the Bombcast. It used to be amazing in the earliest days, but now it's consistently good. 
 
Their forums suck though, filled with babies.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun is the best PC focused site ever, and they have the best puns on articles. THE BEST.
 
giantbomb aint got shit on their awesome wordplay.

I go to 1up often. It's tied with giantbomb for my favourite gaming website. Really dig that place. Plus, they had fucking retronauts, which makes up for any and all transgressions.

I use kotaku and joystiq for news and Gb for the rest

I'm just going to list the sites I do use and enjoy on some level. Focus on the positive rather than the negative I say! 
 

• Shacknews; great place to find news and game updates posted regularly and to a decent standard. Their 'Daily Filter' and 'Evening Reading' segments are extremely handy in catching up with the days/weeks news and screenshots, trailers etc. They manage to organise their content effectively in my eyes.
• Rock Paper Shotgun; probably not the best place for finding out the latest news as it breaks but they have amazing content on the site in the form of journal entries as one of the staff progresses through a particular game and jots down their experiences in great detail. Great personality to the place.

I have tried some and:
-1up's writing is good but the ui is incredibly convoluted and frustrating. I especially like the retronauts podcast and blog 
-IGN has a lot of junk but I think they write very detailed, comprehensive reviews and still visit them somewhat often 
-kotaku I have grown to dislike. I have no need for that many stories, of which most are not informative or entertaining 
-joystiq i still read almost every day. The have a good balance between timeliness and quality 
-destructoid is really alternative, and in my opinion it is one of the best. If you want rarer stories than destructoid is good. I also enjoy their reviews, which are sometimes sarcastic and trivial but still entertaining

IGN panders to their audience of idiots who would gladly argue about a .3 to a .5 or how the ps3 is better by creating fuckin articles dedicated to it, or siply stateing a game is the citizen kane of games or creating a top 25 or a top 50 games/consoles every 6 months

my first internet forum was g4. it's where i use to go for video game news on tv and on the forums. this was back when g4 use to be good and had things about video games. they merged with tech tv, then it just went down hill. they decided to update their forum with a new message board. there were just glitches and problems with the message board. i decided it was time to find a new website. 
 
gamespot was my next website. it was good. i watched trailers, reviews, hot spot, and on the spot. this was around where jeff got fired from gamespot. it was just alright. people started talking about gaintbomb. i made an account but stayed at gamespot. one day i posted two images. the images were hyper linked. it meant that sometimes the picture would post another picture. it ended up being a picture of naked old lady.  i got banned for posting that. 
 
i decided to join gaintbomb. this site is great and small.  a lot of times i will see the same people around.

Giantbomb- Ok site really. I'm not much into the articles here... I just post on the forums
 
Gamesradar- They have some pretty cool features each week. Other than that there's not much to it though.
 
Gamespot- I always go there first for reviews, even if they're not the best. The forums suck though. I think we all know that.
 
IGN- It's ok. Don't care much for it, though I don't hate it either.
 
Gametrailers- I  visit it a lot since I prefer video reviews over written reviews. That, and to watch the AVGN videos :3
 
LL- DA BEST MAN DA BEST

I used to go to Kotaku but I just stopped I guess.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun is an awesome awesome awesome site (for PC games) sitting pretty much at the very other side of the spectrum to Giant Bomb though I love them both.  It has an amazing quality of writing displayed particularly in all the editorials or other specials that frequently crop up and  the editors have a depth of experience and integrity which means I really trust and value their comments on the state of gaming and whatever controversies emerge.  Also it's great for highlighting indie and smaller profile games that are nevertheless really good and I would never hear about otherwise.  Plus a British sense of humour - I feel at home there.
 
1UP did have a really good podcast but sadly no longer of the same level and similarly with the stellar 1UP show which I found late on and now no longer exists.  They just relaunched their site though and it seem to have some promise.
 
Gamasutra often has some really good and thoughtful articles on gaming.
 
Edit:  Somehow forgot about Gametrailers - hey, they have all the trailers you could ever need in one place there and promptly (although I find GB videos to play a little smoother).  ALso Pach Attack and Bonus Round can be pretty good and informative.
 
Gamespot does have the occasional feature of interest like their behind the games series and some stuff on music in games recently - they should have more of that though.

The thing is, I love IGN's podcasts, Beyond and Gamescoop, I have listened to them for a while and everyone on the show seem like very nice people, who care about integrity and stuff like that. 
 
Ryan Clements and Colin Moriarty are two very good examples of that. Greg Miller and Daemon Hatfield are also quite respectable.  
 
It is unfortunate that the content of the site does not match the character and integrity of their podcasts.

 1up -- a really great editorial team (even without Sharky), but the community is just BAD in my experience.  Some of their podcasts are also quality. 
 
Destructoid --  Before they used to have a really good podcast, but since they lost Anthony Burch and Brad Nicholson the site feels like its missing something.  Their reviews are aright but Jim Sterling really benefited from the podcast so he could clarify his positions.  The community is actually really great at that site, and I've met some really cool dudes there. Destructoid is also a decent alternative to Kotaku
 
Kotaku -- a good news site.  The editorial doesn't add anything to the news and the community seems non existent to me. 
  
The other sites I have visited are not really worth mentioning.  

" ... Plus a British sense of humour - I feel at home there. ... "

I go to Destructoid for new and stuff because I dont like Kotaku's layout and lack of personality. Destructoid can be pretty dumb but they do have some cool editors( I even appreciate Jim Sterling's review style even though he goes a little to far). They also just had a huge update to make the site function more like GB which is cool

Gamespot's ok. I still read their reviews and value their opinion, but they have no personality since everyone left. I just watched their "Now Playing" feature on Kirby's Epic Yarn, and it's basically a boring Quick Look.

oh right, and socksmakepeoplesexy.net have some absolutely amazing retro articles. The Rise and Fall of Final Fantasy and the Chrono Trigger/Cross articles were far, far too good.

I've been going to IGN since before it was IGN, but in the past couple of years they have been headed in the wrong direction.  They have fired or otherwise lost many of their older editors.  The last straw was when they fired Chris Roper a month after hiring Scott Bromley to run their damn facebook page.  I still visit the site regularly, but I don't look at it the same, and completely write off the opinions of certain editors.
 
GameInformer.com is quickly growing into its own.  The site has a number of technical issues--videos only playing after fully loaded onto the browser, sign-in disabling, causing my PC to freeze and beep before going back to normal, and sometimes (like most of today) the site simply refuses to load--but I often find articles there that I would never find on most sites, such as video game related crafts.  And of course they always have very in-depth, exclusive material on whatever game is on the current month's cover, including podcasts where they (and sometimes the developer) answer questions from the community about the game.

Shacknews is my place for news.
 
1up is the fallen king of podcasts.
 
That's all I ever use besides Giantbomb.

" What is the Escapist like? I only go there for the Zero Punctuation "reviews". "

I've frequented all the major gaming sites and I've settled on a blend of Gamespot and GiantBomb.  Gamespot has just about everything, but you can tell its a more industrial process with them.  They seem to weigh cost benefit on every feature and don't run the obscure stories.  Giantbomb hits the fun topics and the site has more personality.  I enjoy the hotspot, 1up's oddcast, and on-the-spot every now and then.  The new format for on-the-spot is kind of lame though, 10-20minute shows multiple times a week instead of a big production. 
 
Destructoid has waaaay too much adverts for me to go there, IGN is soulless, and 1up is not bad.

They are all shit.

The only other site I visit regularly is RockPaperShotgun for PC games news and I'll occasionally check out Bitmob.   
1up was great and had some of the best podcasts out there before UGO fired everybody that mattered.
 
 @C2C: You should check out The Electric Hydra it might as well be the Destructoid podcast but hosted by Brad.

Gamespot: I used to visit it lots when it was the old Gallup hosting On The Spot days but not go there mostly for press conference streams.
 
IGN: Visit it a few times a month maybe just to look through movie and game news.
 
GameTrailers: Used to go here a lot, but when the video player changed and hella ads kicked in no trailer was worth the struggle.

GameSpot - I only really go there for The Hotspot. Everything else there is kind of awful.
 
1up - A nice, well put together site. It may be fairly large, but it doesn't seem to go for the same mass appeal nonsense that IGN and Gamespot tend to fall into. It's just a bunch of guys who love games, writing and talking about the games that they love.
 
IGN - Hahahahahahaha! Yeah...
 
BitMob - A really neat idea for a website, although it's not as good in practice as it sounds on paper. Often times I have trouble finding articles that are of any interest to me.

I typically go to Kotaku for my regular ass news since they cover all the major stories and the occasional dumb thing, then to GoNintendo for all my Nintendo news (and they literally post everything down to the most trivial press releases and box art.) My 3rd and final stop is usually Giant Bomb where I do all my blogging and bitching.

" @Feser said:

" What is the Escapist like? I only go there for the Zero Punctuation "reviews". "

They actually had some really great articles last time I checked.  They were no where near as humor filled as Zero Punctuation, but they were really well written.  Than again it has been a long while since I have been to that site.  The rest of their video content however was not so hot.   "

1st up is Giant Bomb: They have the shit I care about.
Next is Kotaku, just to see what else is happening.
Gamasutra is pretty cool from a business perspective so I try to keep up with their news.
It's technically a blog, but SexyVideoGameLand from Leigh Alexander (if you're still having issues with her, grow the fuck up) has had some of the more interesting 'Deep though' articles I've ever read about games.

" @C2C:   He isn't? Hold on. *checks for data* Can't find anything to back it up. I always thought he was an intern, probably because he came around the same time as Matt. "

I like to go to Bitmob because it features a lot of articles from the community.  It also refuses to bombard you with the tiniest rumors like friggin IGN which is really bloated.