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

[Neil Squibb]

Being possibly the worlds number one Jeff Gerstmann fan I am outraged. Though I am going to wait till the facts are out first before I deal out that rage.

[Skjalg]

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

seconded!

[st0lve]

I got it today, I like it so far. But the graphics are kinda outdated, poor lipsync on the characters and such nit-pick stuff. Only got to the club, but I'll atleast finish it and play coop with my friends some time. Oh and the coversystem wasn't my type, I'm a more fan of the "click and go to cover" ala Vegas and GoW.

[Taylor]

Gerstmann was infamous for being a bad reviewer, handing out a perfect ten for THPS3, sub-par scores to Twilight Princess, and having fanboys foaming at the mouths. I’m not in anyway trying to suggest what happened to him wasn’t horrible or was, in some way, overdue - but he was one figure at Gamespot known for creating unneeded controversy, and I imagine this was the angle taken when Eidos loomed over him like a softly spoken mob-boss that was oh so very disappointed.

[ReNo]

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I finished it in coop yesterday, enjoyed it start to finish. I must say though, that Havana and afterwards I wasn't quite so keen on. I loved the crime vibe the game had going, with business suits and so on, but Havana onwards went a bit too military. Still fun to play, in places actually more so, it just lost some of it's identity. I'd also have liked the fights against The7 members to have been more significant. It was pretty much only the final two that felt like a significant moments - the others I only really knew I'd killed because the revenge achievements popped up.

The endings are both pretty disappointing. I quite liked the fact they are both tragic endings, it's a brave move I've not seen done before, but I didn't like the implementation. Really short cut scenes and neither felt like a good payoff for the game. When you rescue Shelley, he runs off and dies. I think it's a nice move killing the daughter, but you could at least have got Shelley out I reckon. And if you take the chopper, why the hell don't you take Lynch?! He was stood right next to me, then I chose the chopper and he's suddenly back down at the plane saying "I fucking knew it...". Another minor annoyance is Lynch changing his opinion. All through the car chase/plane level he's saying "we've got to rescue them!", then you go to do it and he starts whining at you for not taking the chopper.

But despite all the niggles I had with the game, I still really enjoyed playing through it. I'll definitely finish it off in single player as well at some point.

EDIT: Something I meant to mention is that, on the 360 version at least, the initial control sensitivities are horrible. I put aim acceleration right up and increased the aim/turn speeds, and it became much easier to play. I recommend you try tweaking these yourself, as watching that video review made it look like he hadn't bothered.

[Warby]

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I finished it in coop yesterday, enjoyed it start to finish. I must say though, that Havana and afterwards I wasn't quite so keen on. I loved the crime vibe the game had going, with business suits and so on, but Havana onwards went a bit too military. Still fun to play, in places actually more so, it just lost some of it's identity. I'd also have liked the fights against The7 members to have been more significant. It was pretty much only the final two that felt like a significant moments - the others I only really knew I'd killed because the revenge achievements popped up.

The endings are both pretty disappointing. I quite liked the fact they are both tragic endings, it's a brave move I've not seen done before, but I didn't like the implementation. Really short cut scenes and neither felt like a good payoff for the game. When you rescue Shelley, he runs off and dies. I think it's a nice move killing the daughter, but you could at least have got Shelley out I reckon. And if you take the chopper, why the hell don't you take Lynch?! He was stood right next to me, then I chose the chopper and he's suddenly back down at the plane saying "I fucking knew it...". Another minor annoyance is Lynch changing his opinion. All through the car chase/plane level he's saying "we've got to rescue them!", then you go to do it and he starts whining at you for not taking the chopper.

But despite all the niggles I had with the game, I still really enjoyed playing through it. I'll definitely finish it off in single player as well at some point.

quoted for truth you summed it up absolutely perfect ... this is exactly how i think about the game and what should have been different ... THAT and a better aim and cover system ^^

[Cybbe]

Gerstmann was famous for actually being a good, unbiased reviewer, handing out fair grades for everything - successfully pointing out flaws and strokes of genious in mechanics of games and hardware alike. Not being afraid of the fanboys, he valiantly assumed the role of being the one honest person you could actually trust to make a review that was at least in-depth, well-thought, and had viable arguments pro and contra. Him being fired is a great loss to the future of reviews, and I fear that the example set will only serve to further cave in reviewers to give amazing scores to shitty games in fear of losing their job.

Fixed.

-Edit-

Oh, btw. I haven't played Kane and Lynch, so I have nothing to say about that particular game so far.

[Mazy]

SPOILERS

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I finished it in coop yesterday, enjoyed it start to finish. I must say though, that Havana and afterwards I wasn't quite so keen on. I loved the crime vibe the game had going, with business suits and so on, but Havana onwards went a bit too military. Still fun to play, in places actually more so, it just lost some of it's identity. I'd also have liked the fights against The7 members to have been more significant. It was pretty much only the final two that felt like a significant moments - the others I only really knew I'd killed because the revenge achievements popped up.

The endings are both pretty disappointing. I quite liked the fact they are both tragic endings, it's a brave move I've not seen done before, but I didn't like the implementation. Really short cut scenes and neither felt like a good payoff for the game. When you rescue Shelley, he runs off and dies. I think it's a nice move killing the daughter, but you could at least have got Shelley out I reckon. And if you take the chopper, why the hell don't you take Lynch?! He was stood right next to me, then I chose the chopper and he's suddenly back down at the plane saying "I fucking knew it...". Another minor annoyance is Lynch changing his opinion. All through the car chase/plane level he's saying "we've got to rescue them!", then you go to do it and he starts whining at you for not taking the chopper.

But despite all the niggles I had with the game, I still really enjoyed playing through it. I'll definitely finish it off in single player as well at some point.

EDIT: Something I meant to mention is that, on the 360 version at least, the initial control sensitivities are horrible. I put aim acceleration right up and increased the aim/turn speeds, and it became much easier to play. I recommend you try tweaking these yourself, as watching that video review made it look like he hadn't bothered.

I agree. The best level of the game is the Tokyo boardroom, once you reach that the game peaks, and after that the game goes slightly down in quality from there on out.

Also the endings had been changed so much in the development that I actually had no idea how they ended up in the final game, was pretty disappointed when I finally got to see them both.

[Taylor]

Gerstmann was famous for actually being a good, unbiased reviewer, handing out fair grades for everything - successfully pointing out flaws and strokes of genious in mechanics of games and hardware alike. Not being afraid of the fanboys, he valiantly assumed the role of being the one honest person you could actually trust to make a review that was at least in-depth, well-thought, and had viable arguments pro and contra.

Right, which is why he gave THPS3 a perfect 10 in every single category, I notice that wasn't mentioned in the fix, though taking 'fanboy' out of context (of needless controversy) is better material.

I fear that the example set will only serve to further cave in reviewers to give amazing scores to shitty games in fear of losing their job.

Online review sites have always been at the beg and call of their advertisers - IGN have been pretty notorious for it. It’s just until this point here has been no (known) incidents where one has done anything so heavy handed about it. Like I said (though I skimmed over it as other posts have covered it), I feel sorry for the guy, it’s horrible this happened, a terrible realisation of how these sites are run and in no way do I think this is a 'good thing.' But please don't pretend his dubious reviews are suddenly him standing against the tide and saying how it really is.

[Sentura]

it seems nobody at gamespot is unbiased.

[Cybbe]

Well, honestly, I don't trust reviews because I know my tastes aren't fit for reviews. I'll play games with broken game mechanics if the story is good.

But the fact that this guy actually manages to slam his balls on the table to at least provide some sort of feeling of how well-constructed the game/item is, is a huge step up from most other things I've read. And of course every review site are under the influence of their paycheck. That's why 8 is actually considered a semi bad grade around reviews. Because after all this time of gloryfying stuff, people are just expecting 9 and above for good games.

I must admit, that I do not vigilantly read every review out there. I've read a few here and there on the things that piqued my temporary interest, but the ones I've seen with Gerstmann have been, though hardly objective, at least somewhat analytical in their execution. This compared to a bunch of other reviews just plaqueing the walls with fancy buzzwords that hold no general meaning, and after you read your 9.9/10 review, you feel like someone shat in your hand and told you it was liquid gold.

But at least we still have Zero Punctuation for some bashing..

Oh, and excuse my ignorance. What is THPS3?

[Erratic]

Oh, and excuse my ignorance. What is THPS3?

The best game ever, apparently.

(Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3)

[Ginger Lord]

Random/Obscure comment:

Any British people here upon reading the title immediatly jumped to thoughts about QI?

[dux]

lol, now that you mention it...

[st0lve]

if he gave THPS3 a 10, then he deserves to get fired. that's the WORST game in the THPS series, and everyone knows it. Atleast it's the worst of the 4 first games.

I loved the Tokyo boardroom, haha that was awesome. Now I'm at Havana and it's soo much harder. But the squad commands are actually ok, they aren't really that stupid, and god, if you want them to follow you, they are right behind you, that was pretty amazing in the nightclub, how Lynch was behind me the entire time.

ps we need to create the most sketchy fragile alliance, anyone have any idea about how fun it is to blow up the getaway car with 2 or 3 people inside of it? hahahahhahahahahaha just hit me up, lassepdsn and I'll play everyday this week.