History HePannedItNowHeSucks / Jimquisition

While Jim Sterling may have a history of correctly predicting and calling out some of the worst trends in the video game industry to the point of declaring themselves the [[VindicatedByHistory "Cassandra of gaming"]], the same cannot always be said for their takes/reviews of specific video games, which have frequently landed them in hot water with various parts of the internet.

* Jim's review of ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' stirred up a ton of hate from Nintendo fans due to Jim's complaints about the game's weapons durability, menus, enemies that can kill Link instantly, and being annoyed by the stamina system. Despite the fact that Jim liked the game enough to give it a 7/10 rating (or 'good', which makes the allegations even more ridiculous), fans accused Jim of either playing the game wrong or is intentionally trolling to get more clicks to their site and raise ad revenue (even though Jim's website ''is entirely ad free''). Just like the debacle their ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'' review caused, Jim's website was [=DDOS'd=] by angry Zelda fans and there were also attempts from them to hijack Jim's Twitter account. [[DearNegativeReader They would go on to address these grievances]] in [[https://youtu.be/AVseQ3RDa6s a March 2017 video]]. Even [[Creator/BobChipman Moviebob]], an unapologetic Nintendo fanboy, called out angry Zelda fans for harassing Jim.
** Much to their amusement Jim was the target of this kind of backlash after "their" 7.0 score for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' started going around. They had, in fact, entirely stopped assigning numerical scores to games in their reviews at the time and had not even played the game yet; somebody just circulated a fake screenshot ([[EpicFail one that misspelled Nintendo]]) and a fringe group of hardcore Nintendo fans didn't bother to look into it. Incidentally, when they actually did play it, they loved it.
** And then, they played [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom the sequel]] and, finding it to have both retained the fun parts and stubbornly and faithfully carried over just about all the flaws and frustrations of the original, had about the same emotional response to it in the end and gave it the same score. History, inevitably, quickly repeated itself, sans [=DDOS=] attacks (though their [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaerhOZOHyA video]] offering a major rebuttal to assertions that they hadn't played the game enough, as well offering a case that forcing a reviewer to play a game to completion would probably make them ''more'' critical of that game, ended up temporarily being wrongfully age-restricted. Considering the evidence Youtube presented was using ''The Creation of Adam'' as grounds for restricting on the basis of nudity, Jim hasn't ruled out the possibility the video was mass-reported by salty Nintendo fanboys).
* The ''Jimpressions'' [[https://youtu.be/6REhEuVBAec review]] of ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'' saw Jim generally being annoyed by the game's "obsession with detail" despite overall liking the game, and asks the audience if things like having to eat, sleep, hunt with the proper weapons, and having [[MemeticMutation realistic horse testicles]] was worth any possible sacrifice in regards to good gameplay. The backlash was piled on enough that Jim had to put out [[https://youtu.be/uj49X7Ahv_s a followup video]] further clarifying their "obsession with detail" argument.
* In a similar vein, their ''Jimpressions'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hy87yKfXn0 review]] of ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' had similar gripes, checking off a lot of their personal pet peeves -- [[BreakableWeapons equipment degradation]], [[JigsawPuzzlePlot convoluted, non-linear storytelling]], and [[MisaimedRealism game mechanics emulating reality just for the heck of it, playability and fun be damned]]. They generally liked the [[PlayerDataSharing asynchronous multiplayer]] aspects of it, but was otherwise either bored or annoyed with the several hours they spent on it, lambasting the "Grip for Balance" mechanic in particular as something that adds literally nothing to the overall enjoyment of the game. Jim's usual viewership generally agreed with the review (with some begrudgingly accepting that the game simply wasn't their style); elsewhere on the Internet, unsurprisingly, Jim was thrown in with the likes of incompetent game journalists by rabid Creator/HideoKojima fans, despite their insistence that the review was nothing personal against Kojima Productions. What bolstered the latter group's case was the fact that Jim never came close to beating the game, something Kojima suggested people do before giving it bad reviews.
--->'''Jim:''' ''Death Stranding'' is boring, and when it isn't boring, it's '''fucking irritating''', so... can't really recommend it. Seven out of ten.
* {{Inverted}} with the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' franchise: Jim is one of the few video game journalists to consistently give the games favorable reviews, and as they addressed in a video where they proudly proclaimed the series to be the "''Film/CitizenKane''" of games, their hatedom has used this fact to try and discredit them. That said, their relation with the series has soured a little bit in later years, especially with the release of ''Dynasty Warriors 9''.
* Played straight with their scathing 2/10 review of ''VideoGame/DukeNukemForever'' on Destructoid, inciting massive rage and prompting Jim to go further in depth behind why they didn't like the game (the sexist content along with the fact that they thought the gameplay sucked) and explaining, multiple times, how Destructoid reviews worked.
* Played straight yet again with their ''[[VideoGame/SenranKagura Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson]]'' review where they gave the game a 3/10. Although some fans thought Jim's review could've been better but got that the joke was that they focused on non-breast portions of the game about as much as they felt the game itself did, others weren't pleased with Jim going on and on about the characters' breasts and simply dismissed the review as factually wrong. This didn't stop the game's publisher, Marvelous, from poking fun at it, however.

* Their low score for ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' (a 5/10) and high score for ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyModernWarfare3'' had sparked a massive outrage among Reddit and Destructoid because they slammed ''Mario Kart 7'' for not offering anything new to the series while praising ''Modern Warfare 3'' for changing things up slightly to keep the series fresh. People felt Jim was being a hypocrite for praising ''Modern Warfare 3'' because they felt like the game was too samey overall, while Mario Kart 7 innovated the gameplay of its series way more by adding gliders and underwater driving. Jim ended up dedicating [[https://youtu.be/NTWlzGmCYFo a full episode]] to their rebuttal, which can be summarized as "I did fully explain this in the reviews themselves you know."
* Jim absolutely hated the controls in ''VideoGame/StarFoxZero'' and spent the majority of their review complaining about how awful the controls were and how Nintendo were being stupid trying to use [[AppealToNovelty a completely different control scheme for the sake of being "innovative" rather than to properly serve the game]]. Fans of the game complained that Jim either sucked at the game or refused to give it a chance, feeling like Jim was making the controls sound worse than they really were. It obscures their ''other'' criticisms of the game, which they felt that, even without the control issues, was mediocre at best.
* ''Creator/TotalBiscuit'' had a field day pointing out how Jim gave ''VideoGame/{{Vanquish}}'' a surprisingly-crappy score (considering the former's massive disdain for pad-controlled shooters and 30 FPS games, both of which ''VideoGame/{{Vanquish}}'' is an example of, this says a lot).
* Their score of 5/10 for ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'' created quite the outrage due to their opinion on the game not having a lot to do and how there seems to be more focus on the huge spectacle rather than having things to interact with. They also criticized the game for making everything into a mindless chore and that each new planet feels like copies of each other with a new color slapped on. Jim's review angered fans so much that they ''attacked their web site until it crashed''.
* Jim's choice for ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare [[UpdatedRerelease Remastered]]'' as "worst game of 2016" resulted in a huge case of BrokenBase, in no small part because of Jim's stance on microtransactions. [[note]]Fastforward to March 2017, and the re-release of ''Call of Duty 4'''s DLC at a higher cost appears to have vindicated them.[[/note]]
* Jim's constant criticisms over Nintendo's business practices garnered some people who think Jim is either being unfair towards Nintendo or are tired of hearing about them complain about the company. It also didn't help that Jim was not impressed by the the reveal event of the UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch and seemed to be more angry at Nintendo's decisions when it came to the games and the structure of the system (online services, the voice chat, etc). Ironically, they have since declared the Switch their favorite console of all time.
* Their review of ''VideoGame/YookaLaylee'' caused yet another heavy divide from their fans and those who liked the game. Jim complained about how the game is just a retread of old school 3D platformer games that includes all the flaws that entails (badly made control scheme, bad camera quirks, bad level design etc.), nor does the game try to do something different in the genre. Jim then gave the game a 2/10, which itself caused issues as even those who agreed with their sentiments found the score to be absurdly low, as the game does at least work (a few games they've also reviewed, like ''Arkham Knight'' got a 5/10 from Jim, despite categorically running worse and missing a bunch of graphical features at the time). Cue fans thinking that they're trying to clickbait, or otherwise cause controversy.
* They had a lot of people breathing down their neck for giving ''{{VideoGame/Shenmue}}'' the OnceOriginalNowCommon treatment, claiming that the ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' series is a superior successor.[[note]]To be fair, a lot of the vitriol was based in the fact that Jim was uncommonly harsh on ''Shenmue,'' not describing the game as an outdated one with some bad design choices which does not hold up well compared to games that have come since, but as a terrible piece of garbage with no redeeming features whatsoever that was never good in the first place.[[/note]] One particular response was so over-the-top that Sterling brought back Commentocracy just to make fun of it.
* Jim ''really'' ended up kicking the hornet's nest with their scathingly negative review of ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', giving it a 1.5/10. They complained about, among other things, broken physics that caused numerous cheap deaths, absurdly poor camera controls, cheap, frustrating boss fights, tedious and unfun side activities, an open world that they claim is so lifeless and visually out of place for the ''Sonic'' franchise it feels like a borderline asset flip, and that one of the few things they actually ''liked'', the Cyberspace levels, were just lazy rehashes of levels from past games. What really set people off was the very unprofessional attitude in the review, with how they directly insulted Sonic Team, calling them "lazy hack fucks", which was seen as in incredibly poor taste since the review came out shortly after it was revealed that Sonic Team had been under intense crunch and mismanagement by Sega during ''Frontiers''' development. None of this was helped by them declaring ''Frontiers'' their worst game of 2022, going so far as to outright insult the fans who actually enjoyed it, directly claiming that the game's fans have "zero standards" and "will eat up anything Sonic Team shits out".

* Fans of the 2023 ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake'' did ''not'' like their review of the game. While they did have an understandable reason for disliking the game (mainly, the issue of the original game's developers being ScrewedByTheNetwork and the stigma that surrounded the remake's very existence as a result) and admitted that it contributed to bias, many commenters stated that it felt as if Jim was deliberately going into the game expecting to hate it just because of the background of its existence. That said, even during their actual review where they put aside the game's background and instead focused on the game itself, they generally disliked many of the changes that were made to the game, such as Isaac being fully voiced, whereas many fans generally welcomed them. Their opening of the review with the statement that the remake "offends [them]" did not help matters in the slightest, and the comments section of the review is filled with people accusing Jim of being disingenuous as a result. Also, their complains about Isaac face was seen as really petty and insulting to the voice actor it was modeled after.
* A lesser example, since the game in question wasn't part of a big, well-established franchise or from a particularly big-name developer so they didn't face the same kind of vicious backlash as in a lot of the cases above, but their review of ''VideoGame/RemnantFromTheAshes'' was criticised heavily by people who'd played more of the game than they did (which turned out to be most of them) as just being outright factually ''wrong''. One of Jim's biggest complaints about the game was how samey, repetitive and bland the world and enemy design was, which combined with the gameplay footage used in the video review, gave away the fact that they'd never actually made it off Earth to any of the varied alien worlds that make up the other 3/4 of the game and just assumed that the entire game was the same as what they'd already seen. Tragically, they even stated at the end that they'd beaten the first several bosses that they'd encountered, including the world boss of Earth, so they had apparently given up on the game ''[[GaveUpTooSoon literally a short unopposed jog away from getting to leave Earth]]''. Although fans do seem to agree that the game up to that point did live down to their criticisms (and their complaint that every boss [[FlunkyBoss is accompanied by a never-ending swarm of minor enemies that gang up on the player and distract them from the main threat]] was also a common criticism of the game even among its fans), it does mean the rest is unrepresentative.

** Much to their amusement Jim was the target of this kind of backlash after "their" 7.0 score for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey'' started going around. They had, in fact, entirely stopped assigning numerical scores to games in their reviews by this point and had not even played the game yet; somebody just circulated a fake screenshot ([[EpicFail one that misspelled Nintendo]]) and a fringe group of hardcore Nintendo fans didn't bother to look into it. Incidentally, when they actually did play it, they loved it.

* In a similar vein, their ''Jimpressions'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Hy87yKfXn0 review]] of ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' had similar gripes, checking off a lot of their personal pet peeves -- [[BreakableWeapons equipment degradation]], [[JigsawPuzzlePlot convoluted, non-linear storytelling]], and [[MisaimedRealism game mechanics emulating reality just for the heck of it, playability and fun be damned]]. They generally liked the [[PlayerDataSharing asynchronous multiplayer]] aspects of it, but was otherwise either bored or annoyed with the several hours they spent on it, lambasting the "Grip for Balance" mechanic in particular as something that adds literally nothing to the overall enjoyment of the game. Jim's usual viewership generally agreed with the review (with some begrudgingly accepting that the game simply wasn't their style); elsewhere on the Internet, unsurprisingly, Jim was thrown in with the likes of incompetent game journalists by rabid Creator/HideoKojima fans, despite their insistence that the review was nothing personal against Kojima Productions. Not helping the latter group's case was the fact that Jim never came close to beating the game, something Kojima suggested people do before giving it bad reviews.

* A lesser example, since the game in question wasn't part of a big, well-established franchise or from a particularly big-name developer so they didn't face the same kind of vicious backlash as in a lot of the cases above, but their review of ''VideoGame/RemnantFromTheAshes'' was criticised heavily by people who'd played more of the game than they did (which turned out to be most of them) as just being outright factually ''wrong''. One of Jim's biggest complaints about the game was how samey, repetitive and bland the world and enemy design was, which combined with the gameplay footage used in the video review, gave away the fact that they'd never actually made it off Earth to any of the varied alien worlds that make up the other 3/4 of the game and just assumed that the entire game was the same as what they'd already seen. Tragically, they even stated at the end that they'd beaten the first several bosses that they'd encountered, including the world boss of Earth, so they had apparently given up on the game ''[[GaveUpTooSoon literally a short unopposed jog away from getting to leave Earth]]''. Although fans do seem to agree that the game up to that point did live down to their criticisms (and their complaint that every boss [[FlunkyBoss is accompanied by a never-ending swarm of minor enemies that swarm the player]] was also a common criticism of the game even among its fans), it does mean the rest is unrepresentative.

* They had a lot of people breathing down their neck for giving ''{{VideoGame/Shenmue}}'' the SeinfeldIsUnfunny treatment, claiming that the ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' series is a superior successor.[[note]]To be fair, a lot of the vitriol was based in the fact that Jim was uncommonly harsh on ''Shenmue,'' not describing the game as an outdated one with some bad design choices which does not hold up well compared to games that have come since, but as a terrible piece of garbage with no redeeming features whatsoever that was never good in the first place.[[/note]] One particular response was so over-the-top that Sterling brought back Commentocracy just to make fun of it.

* A lesser example, since the game in question wasn't part of a big, well-established franchise or from a particularly big-name developer so they didn't face the same kind of vicious backlash as in a lot of the cases above, but their review of ''VideoGame/RemnantFromTheAshes'' was criticised heavily by people who'd played more of the game than they did (which turned out to be most of them) as just being outright factually ''wrong''. One of Jim's biggest complaints about the game was how samey, repetitive and bland the world and enemy design was, which combined with the gameplay footage used in the video review, gave away the fact that they'd never actually made it off Earth to any of the varied alien worlds that make up the other 3/4 of the game and just assumed that the entire game was the same as what they'd already seen. Tragically, they even stated at the end that they'd beaten the first several bosses that they'd encountered, including the world boss of Earth, so they had apparently given up on the game ''[[GaveUpTooSoon literally a short unopposed jog away from getting to leave Earth]]''. Although fans do seem to agree that the game up to that point did live down to their criticisms, it does mean the rest is unrepresentative.

** Over the course of their career, Sterling has often run against the grain of ''Sonic'' fandom opinions. They are on record as really loving ''VideoGame/SonicTheHedgehog4'' but really hating ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' where most fans agree the latter was one of the best ''Sonic'' titles of its era and the former was a frustrating failure to recapture the original games' charm, and gave a higher score (4/10) to ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' than ''Frontiers'', a game that caused a major BrokenBase but which Sterling ''sorta'' likes.

* Their low score for ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' (a 5/10) and high score for ''[[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3]]'' had sparked a massive outrage among Reddit and Destructoid because they slammed ''Mario Kart 7'' for not offering anything new to the series while praising ''Modern Warfare 3'' for changing things up slightly to keep the series fresh. People felt Jim was being a hypocrite for praising ''Modern Warfare 3'' because they felt like the game was too samey overall, while Mario Kart 7 innovated the gameplay of its series way more by adding gliders and underwater driving. Jim ended up dedicating [[https://youtu.be/NTWlzGmCYFo a full episode]] to their rebuttal, which can be summarized as "I did fully explain this in the reviews themselves you know."

** Over the course of their career, Sterling has often run against the grain of ''Sonic'' fandom opinions. They are on record as really loving ''VideoGame/Sonic4'' but really hating ''VideoGame/SonicColors'' where most fans agree the latter was one of the best ''Sonic'' titles of its era and the former was a frustrating failure to recapture the original games' charm, and gave a higher score (4/10) to ''VideoGame/SonicForces'' than ''Frontiers'', a game that caused a major BrokenBase but which Sterling ''sorta'' likes.
* Fans of the [[VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake 2023 Dead Space Remake]] did ''not'' like their review of the game. While they did have an understandable reason for disliking the game (mainly, the issue of the original game's developers being ScrewedByTheNetwork and the stigma that surrounded the remake's very existence as a result) and admitted that it contributed to bias, many commenters stated that it felt as if Jim was deliberately going into the game expecting to hate it just because of the background of its existence. That said, even during their actual review where they put aside the game's background and instead focused on the game itself, they generally disliked many of the changes that were made to the game, such as Isaac being fully voiced, whereas many fans generally welcomed them. Their opening of the review with the statement that the remake "offends [them]" did not help matters in the slightest, and the comments section of the review is filled with people accusing Jim of being disingenuous as a result. Also, their complains about Isaac face was seen as really petty and insulting to the voice actor it was modeled after.

* Fans of the [[VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake 2023 Dead Space Remake]] did ''not'' like their review of the game. While they did have an understandable reason for disliking the game (mainly, the issue of the original game's developers being ScrewedByTheNetwork and the stigma that surrounded the remake's very existence as a result) and admitted that it contributed to bias, many commenters stated that it felt as if Jim was deliberately going into the game expecting to hate it just because of the background of its existence. That said, even during their actual review where they put aside the game's background and instead focused on the game itself, they generally disliked many of the changes that were made to the game, such as Isaac being fully voiced, whereas many fans generally welcomed them. Their opening of the review with the statement that the remake "offends [them]" did not help matters in the slightest, and the comments section of the review is filled with people accusing Jim of being disingenuous as a result.

* Jim ''really'' ended up kicking the hornet's nest with their scathingly negative review of ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', giving it a 1.5/10. They complained about, among other things, broken physics that caused numerous cheap deaths, absurdly poor camera controls, cheap, frustrating boss fights, tedious and unfun side activities, an open world that they claim is so lifeless and visually out of place for the ''Sonic'' franchise it feels like a borderline asset flip, and that one of the few things they actually ''liked'', the Cyberspace levels, were just lazy rehashes of levels from past games. What really set people off was the very unprofessional attitude in the review, with how they directly insulted Sonic Team, calling them "lazy hack fucks", which was seen as in incredibly poor taste since the review came out shortly after it was revealed that Sonic Team had been under intense crunch and mismanagement by Sega during ''Frontiers''' development. None of this was helped by them declaring ''Frontiers'' their worst game of 2022, going so far as to outright insult the fans who actually enjoyed it, directly claiming that the game's fans have "zero standards" and "will eat up anything Sonic Team shits out". Fun fact, they gave a higher score (4/10) to VideoGame/SonicForces, the game that caused major BrokenBase for the fanbase, but it's also the one which Sterling ''sorta'' likes.

* A lesser example, since the game in question wasn't part of a big, well-established franchise or from a particularly big-name developer so they didn't face the same kind of vicious backlash as in a lot of the cases above, but their review of ''VideoGame/RemnantFromTheAshes'' was criticised heavily by people who'd played more of the game than they did (which turned out to be most of them) as just being outright factually ''wrong''. One of Jim's biggest complaints about the game was how samey, repetitive and bland the world and enemy design was, which combined with the gameplay footage used in the video review, gave away the fact that they'd never actually made it off Earth to any of the varied alien worlds that make up the other 3/4 of the game and just assumed that the entire game was the same as what they'd already seen. Tragically, they even stated at the end that they'd beaten the first several bosses that they'd encountered, including the world boss of Earth, so they had apparently given up on the game ''[[GaveUpTooSoon literally a short unopposed jog away from getting to leave Earth]]''.

* Jim ''really'' ended up kicking the hornet's nest with their scathingly negative review of ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', giving it a 1.5/10. They complained about, among other things, broken physics that caused numerous cheap deaths, absurdly poor camera controls, cheap, frustrating boss fights, tedious and unfun side activities, an open world that they claim is so lifeless and visually out of place for the ''Sonic'' franchise it feels like a borderline asset flip, and that one of the few things they actually ''liked'', the Cyberspace levels, were just lazy rehashes of levels from past games. What really set people off was the very unprofessional attitude in the review, with how they directly insulted Sonic Team, calling them "lazy hack fucks", which was seen as in incredibly poor taste since the review came out shortly after it was revealed that Sonic Team had been under intense crunch and mismanagement by Sega during ''Frontiers''' development. None of this was helped by them declaring ''Frontiers'' their worst game of 2022, going so far as to outright insult the fans who actually enjoyed it, directly claiming that the game's fans have "zero standards" and "will eat up anything Sonic Team shits out". It also didn't help that for quite a few people, it's a reminder of some of IGN's reviews of other games in the series, such as the review of the PlayStation 3 and Wii versions of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' by Hilary Goldstein, who was also deemed unprofessional by many during said review, in which he gave the game a 4.5/10. And just for the fun fact, they gave a higher score (4/10) to VideoGame/SonicForces, the game that caused major BrokenBase for the fanbase, but it's also the one which Sterling ''sorta'' likes.

* Jim ''really'' ended up kicking the hornet's nest with their scathingly negative review of ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', giving it a 1.5/10. They complained about, among other things, broken physics that caused numerous cheap deaths, absurdly poor camera controls, cheap, frustrating boss fights, tedious and unfun side activities, an open world that they claim is so lifeless and visually out of place for the ''Sonic'' franchise it feels like a borderline asset flip, and that one of the few things they actually ''liked'', the Cyberspace levels, were just lazy rehashes of levels from past games. What really set people off was the very unprofessional attitude in the review, with how they directly insulted Sonic Team, calling them "lazy hack fucks", which was seen as in incredibly poor taste since the review came out shortly after it was revealed that Sonic Team had been under intense crunch and mismanagement by Sega during ''Frontiers''' development. None of this was helped by them declaring ''Frontiers'' their worst game of 2022, going so far as to outright insult the fans who actually enjoyed it, directly claiming that the game's fans have "zero standards" and "will eat up anything Sonic Team shits out". It also didn't help that for quite a few people, it's a reminder of some of IGN's reviews of other games in the series, such as the review of the PlayStation 3 and Wii versions of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' by Hilary Goldstein, who was also deemed unprofessional by many during said review, in which he gave the game a 4.5/10.

* Jim ''really'' ended up kicking the hornet's nest with their scathingly negative review of ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', giving it a 1.5/10. He complained about, among other things, broken physics that caused numerous cheap deaths, absurdly poor camera controls, cheap, frustrating boss fights, tedious and unfun side activities, an open world that they claim is so lifeless and visually out of place for the ''Sonic'' franchise it feels like a borderline asset flip, and that one of the few things they actually ''liked'', the Cyberspace levels, were just lazy rehashes of levels from past games. What really set people off was the very unprofessional attitude in the review, with how how they directly insulted Sonic Team, calling them "lazy hack fucks", which was seen as in incredibly poor taste since the review came out shortly after it was revealed that Sonic Team had been under intense crunch and mismanagement by Sega during ''Frontiers''' development. None of this was helped by them declaring ''Frontiers'' their worst game of 2022, going so far as to outright insult the fans who actually enjoyed it, directly claiming that the game's fans have "zero standards" and "will eat up anything Sonic Team shits out". It also didn't help that for quite a few people, it's a reminder of some of IGN's reviews of other games in the series, such as the review of the PlayStation 3 and Wii versions of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' by Hilary Goldstein, who was also deemed unprofessional by many during said review, in which he gave the game a 4.5/10.

* Jim ''really'' ended up kicking the hornet's nest with their scathingly negative review of ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', giving it a 1.5/10. He complained about, among other things, broken physics that caused numerous cheap deaths, absurdly poor camera controls, cheap, frustrating boss fights, tedious and unfun side activities, an open world that they claim is so lifeless and visually out of place for the ''Sonic'' franchise it feels like a borderline asset flip, and that one of the few things they actually ''liked'', the Cyberspace levels, were just lazy rehashes of levels from past games. What really set people off was the very unprofessional attitude in the review, with how how they directly insulted Sonic Team, calling them "lazy hack fucks", which was seen as in incredibly poor taste since the review came out shortly after it was revealed that Sonic Team had been under intense crunch and mismanagement by Sega during ''Frontiers''' development. None of this was helped by them declaring ''Frontiers'' their worst game of 2022, going so far as to outright insult the fans who actually enjoyed it, directly claiming that the game's fans have "zero standards" and "will eat up anything Sonic Team shits out". It also didn't help that for quite a few people, it's a reminder of some of IGN's reviews of other games in the series, such as the review of the PS3 and Wii versions of ''VideoGame/SonicUnleashed'' by Hilary Goldstein, who was also deemed unprofessional by many during said review, in which he gave the game a 4.5/10.

* Their low score for ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' and high score for ''[[VideoGame/ModernWarfare Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3]]'' had sparked a massive outrage among Reddit and Destructoid because they slammed ''Mario Kart 7'' for not offering anything new to the series while praising ''Modern Warfare 3'' for changing things up slightly to keep the series fresh. People felt Jim was being a hypocrite for praising ''Modern Warfare 3'' because they felt like the game was too samey overall. Jim ended up dedicating [[https://youtu.be/NTWlzGmCYFo a full episode]] to their rebuttal, which can be summarized as "I did fully explain this in the reviews themselves you know."

* Jim ''really'' ended up kicking the hornet's nest with their scathingly negative review of ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', which complained about, among other things, broken physics that caused numerous cheap deaths, absurdly poor camera controls, cheap, frustrating boss fights, tedious and unfun side activities, an open world that they claim is so lifeless and visually out of place for the ''Sonic'' franchise it feels like a borderline asset flip, and that one of the few things they actually ''liked'', the Cyberspace levels, were just lazy rehashes of levels from past games. What really set people off was how they directly insulted Sonic Team, calling them "lazy hack fucks", which was seen as in incredibly poor taste since the review came out shortly after it was revealed that Sonic Team had been under intense crunch and mismanagement by Sega during ''Frontiers''' development. None of this was helped by them declaring ''Frontiers'' their worst game of 2022, going so far as to outright insult the fans who actually enjoyed it, directly claiming that the game's fans have "zero standards" and "will eat up anything Sonic Team shits out".

* A lesser example, since the game in question wasn't part of a big, well-established franchise or from a particularly big-name developer so they didn't face the same kind of vicious backlash as in a lot of the cases above, but their review of ''VideoGame/RemnantFromTheAshes'' was criticised heavily by people who'd played more of the game than they did (which turned out to be most of them) as just being outright factually ''wrong''. One of Jim's biggest complaints about the game was how samey, repetitive and bland the world and enemy design was, which combined with the gameplay footage used in the video review, gave away the fact that they'd never actually made it off Earth to any of the varied alien worlds that make up the other 3/4 of the game and just assumed that the entire game was the same as what they'd already seen. Tragically, they even stated at the end that they'd beaten the first several bosses that they'd encountered, including the world boss of Earth, so they had apparently given up on the game ''[[GaveUpTooSoon literally a short unopposed jog away from getting to leave Earth]]''.

* Fans of the [[VideoGame/DeadSpaceRemake 2023 Dead Space Remake]] did ''not'' like their review of the game. While they did have an understandable reason for disliking the game (mainly, the issue of the original game's developers being ScrewedByTheNetwork and the stigma that surrounded the remake's very existence as a result) and admitted that it contributed to bias, many commenters stated that it felt as if Jim was deliberately going into the game expecting to hate it just because of the background of its existence. That said, even during their actual review where they put aside the game's background and instead focused on the game itself, they generally disliked many of the changes that were made to the game, such as Isaac being fully voiced, whereas many fans generally welcomed them. Their opening of the review with the statement that the remake "offends [them]" did not help matters in the slightest, and the comments section of the review is filled with people accusing Jim of being disingenuous as a result.

* They had a lot of people breathing down their neck for giving ''{{VideoGame/Shenmue}}'' the SeinfeldIsUnfunny treatment, claiming that the ''{{VideoGame/Yakuza}}'' series is a superior successor.[[note]]To be fair, a lot of the vitriol was based in the fact that Jim was uncommonly harsh on ''Shenmue,'' not describing the game as an outdated one with some bad design choices which does not hold up well compared to games that have come since, but as a terrible piece of garbage with no redeeming features whatsoever that was never good in the first place.[[/note]] One particular response was so over-the-top that Sterling brought back Commentocracy just to make fun of it.

** And then, they played [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom the sequel]] and, finding it to have both retained the fun parts and stubbornly and faithfully carried over just about all the flaws and frustrations of the original, had about the same emotional response to it in the end and gave it the same score. History, inevitably, quickly repeated itself, sans [=DDOS=] attacks.

* {{Inverted}} with the ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors'' franchise: Jim is one of the few video game journalists to consistently give the games favorable reviews, and as they addressed in a video where they proudly proclaimed the series to be the "''Film/CitizenKane''" of games, their hatedom has used this fact to try and discredit them.

** And then, they played [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom the sequel]] and, finding it to have both retained the fun parts and stubbornly and faithfully carried over just about all the flaws and frustrations of the original, and having about the same emotional response to it in the end, gave it the same score. History, inevitably, quickly repeated itself, sans [=DDOS=] attacks.

** And then, they played [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTearsOfTheKingdom the sequel]] and, finding it to have both retained the fun parts and stubbornly and faithfully carried over just about all the flaws and frustrations of the original, and having about the same emotional response to it in the end, gave it the same score. History, inevitably, quickly repeated itself.

While Jim Sterling may have a history of correctly predicting and calling out some of the worst trends the video game industry to the point of declaring themselves the [[VindicatedByHistory "Cassandra of gaming"]], the same cannot always be said for their takes/reviews of specific video games, which have frequently landed them in hot water with various parts of the internet.

* Jim ''really'' ended up kicking the hornet's nest with their scathingly negative review of ''VideoGame/SonicFrontiers'', which complained about, among other things, broken physics that caused numerous cheap deaths, absurdly poor camera controls, cheap, frustrating boss fights, tedious and unfun side activities, an open world that they claim is so lifeless and visually out of place for the ''Sonic'' franchise it feels like a borderline asset flip, and that one of the few things they actually ''liked'', the Cyberspace levels, were just lazy rehashes of levels from past games. What really set people off was how they directly insulted Sonic Team, calling them "lazy hack fucks", which was seen as in incredibly poor taste since the review came out shortly after it was revealed that Sonic Team had been under intense crunch and mismanagement by Sega during ''Frontiers''' development. None of this was helped by them declaring ''Frontiers'' their worst game of 2022, going so far as to outright insult the fans who actually enjoyed it, directly claiming that the game's fans have "zero standards" and "will eat up anything Sonic Team shits out".

While Jim Sterling may have a history of correctly predicting and calling out some of the worst trends in Video Games to the point of declaring themselves the [[VindicatedByHistory "Cassandra of gaming"]], the same cannot always be said for their takes/reviews of specific video games, which have frequently landed them in hot water with various parts of the internet.

While Jim Sterling may have a history of correctly predicting and calling out some of the worst trends in Video Games to the point of declaring themselves the [[VindicatedByHistory "Cassandra of gaming"]], the same cannot be said for their takes/reviews of video-games, which have frequently landed them in hot water with various parts of the internet.

While Jim Sterling may have a history of correctly predicting and calling out some of the worst trends in Video Games to the point of declaring themselves the [[VindicatedByHistory "Cassandra of gaming"], the same cannot be said for their takes/reviews of video-games, which have frequently landed them in hot water with various parts of the internet.