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IGN rushes through PJSideScroller, lies, is called out, removes part of review

NervousXtian

Thought Emoji Movie was good. Take that as you will.
Dylan Cuthbert is coming off as a pretty big douchebag who actually is just really pissed about the 6.5.

I doubt the 6.5 has anything to do with a secret level, difficultly levels, or whatever.. it just reads like the guy didn't the love the game and gave it a middling rating.
 

Shurs

Member
Replicant said:
No, but if you're a journalist and you play weak-ass casual then have the balls to admit it. So then people will understand why your review is as such and why you didn't get to see the additional contents that others would have gotten if they play on normal.

Hatfield is saying that he completed the game on both casual and normal, and that the last stage unlocks playing it on either difficulty level.
 

watershed

Banned
Twitter is kinda hilarious at the moment. I've got no problem with Dylan making his argument on twitter. The review was published and available for all the public to see. If it was factually wrong and created a negative impression of the game I think its only fair that he calls out the review publicly as well so people know it was wrong.
 

lowrider007

Licorice-flavoured booze?
Dance In My Blood said:
No offense, but I'm not sure that following the official thread for a game clears you of potential bias when a negative review like this pops up.

I don't care if you think it does or not, fact is I didn't judge Daemon based on this thread title which is what you was accusing me and others of doing, I read the story before this thread title was even made in the OT of the game.
 

Shadow780

Member
I remembered Daemon gave Lords of Shadow a 7.5 and the developer complained on twitter, and Daemon said the dev was being unprofessional on his podcast. I wonder how this one will play out.
 

DonMigs85

Member
Assuming Hatfield is wrong in the end and did get to play the "epic level", how much higher could the score have gone? Maybe just a .5?
 

Replicant

Member
Shurs said:
Hatfield is saying that he completed the game on both casual and normal, and that the last stage unlocks playing it on either difficulty level.

Isn't that the crux of the entire argument? That Hatfield claims to have completed it on normal and yet he failed to mentioned the last level, which Cuthbert said only shown in normal stage. And then Hatfield deleted a paragraph to cover up his tracks?
 

Vire

Member
DonMigs85 said:
Assuming Hatfield is wrong in the end and did get to play the "epic level", how much higher could the score have gone? Maybe just a .5?
I don't think the problem is that he didn't play it. It would be that he LIED about it and tried to cover it up...

Assuming that's the case - who knows at this point.
 
Replicant said:
Isn't that the crux of the entire argument? That Hatfield claims to have completed it on normal and yet he failed to mentioned the last level, which Cuthbert said only shown in normal stage. And then Hatfield deleted a paragraph to cover up his tracks?
No Hatfield says he played trough that level on both normal and casual.
 

cabottemp

Banned
Replicant said:
Isn't that the crux of the entire argument? That Hatfield claims to have completed it on normal and yet he failed to mentioned the last level, which Cuthbert said only shown in normal stage. And then Hatfield deleted a paragraph to cover up his tracks?

2 sentences = a paragraph.
 

Aselith

Member
Shurs said:
Hatfield is saying that he completed the game on both casual and normal, and that the last stage unlocks playing it on either difficulty level.

He's also the guy that said he didn't play it on casual though. If he played it on both, he would have said that not "I played it on Normal!"

Edit: Or least he says "I definitely beat on normal." Unsure why he wouldn't say "I beat on both" or something like that as that would be basically the same as saying "I beat it multiple times and definitely gave it a fair chance."
 

dallow_bg

nods at old men
Shurs said:
Hatfield is saying that he completed the game on both casual and normal, and that the last stage unlocks playing it on either difficulty level.
Hatfield responded last.
So I'll believe him now.

Until the next person responds.

Can someone just clear this up? I'm already tired of the topic title.
 

watershed

Banned
Replicant said:
Isn't that the crux of the entire argument? That Hatfield claims to have completed it on normal and yet he failed to mentioned the last level, which Cuthbert said only shown in normal stage. And then Hatfield deleted a paragraph to cover up his tracks?
Yep that's it. If the final level is in both casual mode and normal mode then Cuthbert is wrong on this one.
 

Vire

Member
Aselith said:
He's also the guy that said he didn't play it on casual though. If he played it on both, he would have said that not "I played it on Normal!"
Yeah good point. He would have said he beat them on both difficulties in the twitter response...

CRACKS IN IN THE STORY GUYZ.
 
Aselith said:
He's also the guy that said he didn't play it on casual though. If he played it on both, he would have said that not "I played it on Normal!"

To be fair, he simply said that he completed it on normal in reply to the accusation that he didn't play it on normal. Twitter isn't really good for going into a lot of depth :p

Edit: oh and who really cares anyway, we all just want to know who to throw poo at when it gets down to it.
 

HaRyu

Unconfirmed Member
tycoonheart said:
No Hatfield says he played trough that level on both normal and casual.

Which makes things even more confusing, because Cuthbert said you could only see that last level on NORMAL. Hatfield shouldn't have seen the "The Last Stage" at all on Casual.

Then again, we can argue about this all we want, but until someone can actually confirm there's is/isn't a "Last Stage" on Casual mode, this debate is just going to keep on continuing.
 
Shadow780 said:
I remembered Daemon gave Lords of Shadow a 7.5 and the developer complained on twitter, and Daemon said the dev was being unprofessional on his podcast. I wonder how this one will play out.
I have heard much love for pixel junk guys across beyond and game scoop, so I bet it will be gentler, unless Dylan keeps going on twitter tonight.
 

Shurs

Member
Aselith said:
He's also the guy that said he didn't play it on casual though. If he played it on both, he would have said that not "I played it on Normal!"

So, "Rest assured, I definitely beat it on normal" is now "I didn't play it on casual"?
 

Replicant

Member
cabot said:
2 sentences = a paragraph.

Right, that justifies deleting something that you have written in a review. Very professional. Didn't the review go through an editor or a proof-reader? Or hell, why didn't the reviewer REVIEW his own writing before hitting the 'submit' button?

artwalknoon said:
Yep that's it. If the final level is in both casual mode and normal mode then Cuthbert is wrong on this one.

Why would the developer forget that the extra bits is on both mode? In that case, yes, he'd be the wrong one. But for the developer to forget his own creation then that's silly.
 

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
There's a reason Daemon specifically mentions that he played on a dev PS3 in his response, by the way. Sometimes there are SMALL differences between code deemed "reviewable" and final retail code.

So it's possible that the final stage IS unlocked on any difficulty in the devkit build, but might not be in the build releasing to PSN today. They might both be right :) Or one of them might be wrong without knowing it. It's not like "fucking backpedaling liar" is the only option here. People can be mistaken. Dylan might be mistaken about his own game's unlock system. Daemon might have been mistaken about what difficulty he played on.

For the record, I know for a FACT that Daemon saw the final level. This will be my final post in this topic because I don't "speak for" IGN. I'm just a guy. But we literally discussed it, before the review was written. He specifically told me the game has three sets of levels, with one final level after that.
 

jokkir

Member
NervousXtian said:
Dylan Cuthbert is coming off as a pretty big douchebag who actually is just really pissed about the 6.5.

I doubt the 6.5 has anything to do with a secret level, difficultly levels, or whatever.. it just reads like the guy didn't the love the game and gave it a middling rating.

If you review a game where thousands of people are going to read it, you need to do a good job at doing, well, your job. And since the reviewer didn't even take the time and apparently lie about what part of the game he played, he shouldn't even be reviewing anything especially on the content of the game he played. It isn't fair to the developer and the readers.
 

Aselith

Member
jim-jam bongs said:
To be fair, he simply said that he completed it on normal in reply to the accusation that he didn't play it on normal. Twitter isn't really good for going into a lot of depth :p

Edit: oh and who really cares anyway, we all just want to know who to throw poo at when it gets down to it.

Yeah, I went back and reread to make sure I was correct about the wording after posting my response but nonetheless he just said I beat it on Normal which I don't understand if he was trying to reassure the developer that he gave it a fair shot.


Shurs said:
So, "Rest assured, I definitely beat it on normal" is now "I didn't play it on casual"?

It's not. I was mistaken on his phrasing but he also didn't mention beating it on both which seems off if he did and was trying to reassure the developer that he gave it a fair chance.
 

Vire

Member
Replicant said:
Right, that justifies deleting something that you have written in a review. Very professional.



Why would the developer forget that the extra bits is on both mode? In that case, yes, he'd be the wrong one. But for the developer to forget his own creation then that's silly.
Without leaving a notation that you edited the article.

Stealthy motherfucker.
 

Zomba13

Member
HaRyu said:
Which makes things even more confusing, because Cuthbert said you could only see that last level on NORMAL. Hatfield shouldn't have seen the "The Last Stage" at all on Casual.

Then again, we can argue about this all we want, but until someone can actually confirm there's is/isn't a "Last Stage" on Casual mode, this debate is just going to keep on continuing.
Yeah. According to his twitter Casual is the training mode. It doesn't have the final level as an homage to older games where you had to play on the harder levels to see more of the game. The final level is in Normal and above.
 
Isn't Cuthbert the same one who worked with Miyamoto, EAD back in the 90s and played a key part in development of the original Star Fox on SNES?

Watch your words and respect this man.
 

NewFresh

Member
When did this turn into trashing Dylan Cuthbert?

He called out a reviewer and is now defending himself on twitter. People are calling him unprofessional but he saw something he believed to be wrong and called it out.

Are people saying he is a douche because of this:
we're a small independent developer - this kind of crap unprofessional editorial can break us. I have to defend us

He is right. Q-Games is a small studio and if a large website calls your game crap for incorrect reasons there is nothing wrong with calling them out.


Miyamoto was at his wedding for gods sake!
 

watershed

Banned
On his twitter Cuthbert also says that IGN has a retail copy of the game or I guess since its a DD title, a final release copy of the game.
 

DonMigs85

Member
Sounds like Hatfield is innocent after all. Maybe there really is a discrepancy in the review code. I apologize for what I said.
EDIT: Or maybe the PS3 he used somehow affected the game's progression?
 

dimb

Bjergsen is the greatest midlane in the world
lowrider007 said:
I don't care if you think it does or not, fact is I didn't judge Daemon based on this thread title which is what you was accusing me and others of doing, I read the story before this thread title was even made in the OT of the game.
Well sorry. You were still exposed to the article in the exact same fashion. You went into the official thread and read some angry one-sided post about the game getting a 6.5 and how IGN are hacks. They are, but not because they "lied" or anything.
 
GDJustin said:
There's a reason Daemon specifically mentions that he played on a dev PS3 in his response, by the way. Sometimes there are SMALL differences between code deemed "reviewable" and final retail code.

So it's possible that the final stage IS unlocked on any difficulty in the devkit build, but might not be in the build releasing to PSN today. They might both be right :) Or one of them might be wrong without knowing it. It's not like "fucking backpedaling liar" is the only option here. People can be mistaken. Dylan might be mistaken about his own game's unlock system. Daemon might have been mistaken about what difficulty he played on.

For the record, I know for a FACT that Daemon saw the final level. This will be my final post in this topic because I don't "speak for" IGN. I'm just a guy. But we literally discussed it, before the review was written. He specifically told me the game has three sets of levels, with one final level after that.


Sounds like being a game reviewer is tough.....soooooo tough. You've got to hold on, to what you've got. It doesn't make a difference if you make it or not.
 

Shurs

Member
EmmanuelMunoz said:
When did this turn into trashing Dylan Cuthbert?

He called out a reviewer and is now defending himself on twitter. People are calling him unprofessional but he saw something he believed to be wrong and called it out.

Are people saying he is a douche because of this:


He is right. Q-Games is a small studio and if a large website calls your game crap for incorrect reasons there is nothing wrong with calling them out.

People are "trashing" him because it's possible he falsely accused someone of wrongdoing.
 

jokkir

Member
jetsetfluken said:
Isn't Cuthbert the same one who worked with Miyamoto, EAD back in the 90s and played a key part in development of the original Star Fox on SNES?

Watch your words and respect this man.

IIRC, yes.

He has an account here on GAF too and appears randomly in Star Fox threads ;D
 

Replicant

Member
Zomba13 said:
Yeah. According to his twitter Casual is the training mode. It doesn't have the final level as an homage to older games where you had to play on the harder levels to see more of the game. The final level is in Normal and above.

And I find it hard to believe that a reviewer, who claimed that he doesn't really like the game and pressed for time, would bother to play the game TWICE. Once in casual mode and another one in normal mode.
 

JackEtc

Member
Remind me, GAF, since the search function here stinks. What's some other shit IGN has pulled? I can only remember a few.
 
Replicant said:
Right, that justifies deleting something that you have written in a review. Very professional.



Why would the developer forget that the extra bits is on both mode? In that case, yes, he'd be the wrong one. But for the developer to forget his own creation then that's silly.
He explains why he did it and it seems fair. He put it back in at any rate. Regardless, its looking like he played the content that was there and its still a 6.5 which I'm sure is the heart of why Dylan miss construed a the part of the review he took out in the first place. We all know the perception of reading a number like 6.5 on a 10 point scale. Anything below a 7 reads like a failure because of grades in school.
 
Isn't the game out? I thought it was out on the 25th. Has nobody on GAF actually played it? Here are the questions that need to be answered:

1) How many stages are there total?
2) How many are there in each mode?
3) When/how is the "epic last level" unlocked?
4) When it is unlocked, can it be played on any difficulty?
5) What happens when the game is completed on normal? Is there a different message from the one shown when it is completed on casual?

Edit: He mentions the last level right there in the review:
There are but three stages made up of four short levels each and then a "last stage" end boss encounter.

.
 

MisterHero

Super Member
how can you have one of the most fun jobs ever (being paid for playing and talking about videogames) and end up wanting to skip those parts

how
 

Vire

Member
Dylan

@DaemZero you didn't play it on normal (as is obvious from your review) - completing it on casual doesn't unlock the last epic stage

Daemon

To clarify, there are three stages in SideScroller. In both casual and normal mode, when you complete all three stages you unlock the "last stage." So I played through this last stage on both difficulties.

Someone is incorrect and or lying.
 
I will say one thing about this:

Daemon is one of the biggest shmup fans I know.

Shame how this has all gone down, but at the very least the guy definitely has an affection for the genre.

That said, I'm also a fan of Dylan's work and studio, and I won't dare take a side...not until I play the game for myself, at least.
 

watershed

Banned
Vire said:
Dylan

@DaemZero you didn't play it on normal (as is obvious from your review) - completing it on casual doesn't unlock the last epic stage

Daemon

To clarify, there are three stages in SideScroller. In both casual and normal mode, when you complete all three stages you unlock the "last stage." So I played through this last stage on both difficulties.

Someone is incorrect and or lying.
So the question is: who deserves to eat crow?
 
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