The elephant in the room - Kane & Lynch reviews :D

[ShaDoW]

Sure, he's entitled to his opinion.

But people like him (who work for large companies like that) should remember not to bite the hand that feeds.

Reviewing can be a dangerous job. This is why Penny Arcade requests copies of the game very early on (even during development) so that they'll get an idea if the game is going to suck or not. That way they can advertise and review safely.

[Thrik]

I think what happened to that GameSpot editor, one of the leading games press sites, is a frightening testimonial to just how immature this industry's press is.

I mean, it was already pretty clear considering that we're still using crazy 1/100 score systems, but this is just the last nail in the coffin.

Games press needs to grow up, and fast.

[Zyn]

One day, they will come to their senses and ditch the scoring-system.

[dux]

Sadly that won't be soon enough, eh?

[FrieChamp]

This is a disaster.

If it's true, that an editor is fired because an advertiser threatened to cancel their ad campaign on the site (because said editor wrote a negative review on the advertiser's product), how can objective journalism be ensured? Will there be no more 6.0's on Gamespot from now on, because all editors are afraid to lose their job?

I don't think Gamespot and other websites/magazines fully realize what kind of responsibility they have. Their reviews are orientation to consumers on what games to buy and thus indirectly also for developers/publishers on what games to make. If they just fly out to exclusive on site reviews, sip champagne with the studio bosses and up their review scores for ad campaigns, I'm not willing to listen to these people any longer.

[channie]

Back on the topic, i have completed Kane & Lynch PC last night. And i must say the game is very fun, whatever gaming sites are saying (french reviews sites gave far more lower scores, ranging from 4 to 5). Best levels so far : the night club (Find the baddies through the crowd - pure awesomeness) and the final level "Consequence" which is probably the best one : completely open, f**kin' impressive line of sight when you've reached the church...using the sniper rifle is definitely useful at this point, and exciting...too bad this kind of level have not been mandatory for the whole game.

[spoilerZ AHEAD]Too bad I couldn't prevent the chick from being shot...been trying everything to avoid this and i was disappointed the level script spawned an enemy at the pier just to shot her [/sPOILZ]

Havana levels were damn hard, even with a mouse which is supposed to help aiming. I died countless times when you first regroup with an entire army, and then again when you're assaulting the governement building.

But the game is fine imo, voice acting is topnotch, storyline is ok, and lynch is definitely my favorite character : "I can fucking believe we're going back there ! I can't fucking believe it!". FTW.

[Sentura]

I think what happened to that GameSpot editor, one of the leading games press sites, is a frightening testimonial to just how immature this industry's press is.

I mean, it was already pretty clear considering that we're still using crazy 1/100 score systems, but this is just the last nail in the coffin.

Games press needs to grow up, and fast.

i completely agree. it seems that the majority of reviewer have a problem not being biased fanboys in some aspects. i always take reviews, especially from gamespot, with a grain of salt. it's almost not worth listening to them.

[dux]

We all know who the only person worth listening to is

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/article ... us-Mandate

WHO YA GONNA CALL?! YAAAAAAHTZEEEEEEEEE!

[KungFuSquirrel]

I feel really bad for you IO guys having your game associated with this, and it sucks to see people taking it out on K&L on the Gamespot user reviews and the like. This is just one of those things that once it's reported, true or not, is going to be a stain for Eidos and Gamespot for a long time. Shame someone else's game will also suffer for it.

[dux]

Time to make Corespot, amirite? We're the best there is for game reviews

[Furyo]

I'm pretty sure Eidos is now on the shitlist of companies not to work for for many many industry professionals out there.

Problem is, if only it was the only one....

[Thrik]

I've always said EA is far from the worst, but nobody listens and just bases their 'EA is the devil' shit on that drama a few years ago.

[D3ads]

That's pathetic :/

[Fletch]

Bottom line: reviewing is inherently an occupation based upon sharing an opinion, whether that opinion is positive or negative. If he was indeed fired for doing that, Gamespot failed, and I hope the community boycotts or whatever. Even the perception of impropriety is bad at this point.

On a larger scale, the realm of video game criticism is inherently screwed up. Let's look at movie criticism, you don't see people wanting to kill Roger Ebert when he gives a movie thumbs down. Sure, people will disagree, and maybe write a letter in response, but nothing near the venom that video game critics get. Major studio movie releases come out about as frequently as major video game releases, yet look at the Metacritic scores for both. People are willing to say a bad movie is worth a 20% or 40% score. People won't say the same about video games. A 70% is bad, and anything less than 90% is met with scorn. It seems as though the average reader of Gamespot or IGN isn't looking for an honest opinion, they merely want some sort of personal validation that their support of a game/developer/publisher/console is correct. A bad review isn't recieved by them as saying "this game is bad" but rather "you were wrong for liking this game (or at least anticipating the game)."

The flip side of this is that game journalism is based around a free-rider relationship with content creators. Game magazines and websites exist on the free screenshots, movies, and interviews given to them by publishers and developers. They can then leverage what they have (especially exclusives) into better ad rates. Take away their source of free content, and they're done. It's not journalism. It's a circular PR system.

[Bic-B@ll]

this is why i can only trust mazy's georf rating system