Local Kids Make Good TV

Sometimes, video games journalists seem vaguely Colbert-ish: earnest, confident, utterly out of touch. (Case in point: G4's "Judgment Day," with the slogan "all verdicts are final" -- oooh, the are final, OMG, they're totally the new Judge Judy.) But we're cautiously optimistic about "Reset," a new gaming news/lifestyle show, locally produced by Big Love Productions. Anchors include trustworthy fragdoll Kat Hunter (whose work SFist likes) and Raymond Padilla (whom we don't know, but he has a pleasant email demeanor) as well as Zoe Flower (who's Canadian and therefore potentially awesome). It's damn near impossible to find quality reporting in video games journalism -- it generally either consists of inarticulate fanboys churning out bland feature-lists, or poindextery assclowns trying to fit Foucalt into a review so they can call it New Games Journalism. So far, "Reset" only has one episode online, but they seem to know what they're doing: low on rhetoric, big on content, what's not to love?

"Being on Yahoo!, 'Reset' has a sizeable mainstream audience to serve," Raymond told us, explaining the first episode's apparent appeal to, well, a mainstream audience. But he added, "that said, all three of the hosts love games and want to cover things we enjoy. … I want to have one segment per episode that's about people and places in gaming, rather than just previewing a game." Legitimate gamers … diverse tastes … meatspace lifestyle reporting … could it be … be still our hearts … video game journalism that's actually GOOD? Hard to say, partially because the show is so young, and partially because it's so hard to watch. "Reset" only comes in the oh-so-convenient WMV and RA formats, with no torrents, and each segment averages 130 megs. Gah. If you can get over those inconveniences, though -- and we recommend that you do, because who the hell do you think you are, anyway -- this might just turn out to be the show we've been waiting for.