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[AcceptableGhost]

Well, the fact that so many are willing to back him up (co-workers from IGN) means they clearly don't have an issue with the behavior, no?

Most of these gaming outlets will defend their co-workers to death no matter what. It seems to be a hive-mind mentality for the most part. I can't blame them though, ultimately they don't want to be the odd one out. When looking for people to fire they would throw away rebels first.

 

[Lord Error]

I see, I got it wrong. So there's the ending cutscene when you finish the game on Normal as well, based on Dylan's post.

Any case, I'm pretty close to beating the stage 3 on Sidescroller, can't wait to see the final boss level and whatever comes after it!

 

[MrPliskin]

so... nothing really happened and this is 19 pages longer than it should be?

19?! How can you browse GAF at 50 posts per page?!

 

[Shanlei91]

Have you even followed this? Cuthbert wasn't upset, and simply commented on ONE PIECE of the review. It is not possible to be this dense...

He stated that the game has no ending, and boots you out to the main menu. Dylan simply says "if you play it on normal, you'll get a cool ending".

Deamon blatantly lies and says "oh yea, I beat it on normal". Notice that Dylan has NO ISSUE that he didn't like the game. He still only clarifies that if he would have completed it on normal (not casual) that he would have seen the ending sequence.

Deamon saves face (tries to) removes that piece from his review, and is called out for it (he did, after all, tell a white lie over twitter).

At no time does Dylan have an issue with the score, his taste, or anything else. Not once.

I honestly have been reading some comments on here and couldn't figure out where everyone was getting the Dylan being whiny part from. Figured I had missed some part of the story, glad to see I'm not nuts.

I do wonder how many reviewers play games on easy, just so they finish quicker. I imagine the bulk who see reviewing games as a tedious job will want to find some way to get the work done easily. Imagine someone reviewing X-Men for Sega Genesis - "Game is too short, it ends at the 3rd stage! Magneto is advertised but nowhere to be found!"

 

[Nealand Liquor]

I guess half-assed journalism isn't unethical, even if it involves, not completely finishing games, misrepresenting information, and generally being extremely dogmatic. Cool...

Lol could you twist my post any more?

Seeing as I was simply asking for proven instances outside of this one, (cause you know, I've never heard of any and was legitimately curious) that show IGN's pull towards the unethical, I'm finding the hostility hilarious. Also yes I'd argue that not completely finishing a game isn't unethical as long as the information provided states as such.

 

[vulva]

19?! How can you browse GAF at 50 posts per page?!

It's a nice barrier. If I reach the end of a page with no substance to it, it's usually a sign to go to the last page to recap the thread a bit and see if it was even worth going through.


It usually isn't.

 

[Mrbob]

I wish more reviews were similar to cheapassgamer, in which the reviewer discloses how long they played and what they achieved. For example from their tropico 4 review:

Tropico 4 was provided for review by Kalypso Media. I’ve played the game for nine hours completing five out of the twenty campaign missions. I’ve accumulated 13 out of 50 Achievements for 195 GamerScore. In addition to the campaign there is also a sandbox mode and an online challenges mode. Tropico 4 is also available for PC.

At least you gives you insight into how the game was played.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

I wish more reviews were similar to cheapassgamer, in which the reviewer discloses how long they played and what they achieved. For example from their tropico 4 review:



At least you gives you insight into how the game was played.

This is exactly what I want out of every review.

 

[Nemo]

This is exactly what I want out of every review.

It doesn't state difficulty

 

[AcceptableGhost]

It doesn't state difficulty

Woops, yeah add that in too. Full disclosure and transparency is needed. Games ultimately aren't movies, there is a lot more to review then the low hanging fruit of the product.

 

[mbmonk]

so... nothing really happened and this is 19 pages longer than it should be?

Something happened. How much importance you put on it is up to you of course.

 

[echoshifting]

I wish more reviews were similar to cheapassgamer, in which the reviewer discloses how long they played and what they achieved. For example from their tropico 4 review:



At least you gives you insight into how the game was played.

In a perfect world I would love this...but fanboys are bad enough when they don't like a review. Can you imagine if that was a AAA game and a major outlet? "This reviewer only played 25% of the campaign, therefore his review is invalid and he is a horrible person."

On the other hand, our existence shouldn't be managed according to potential fanboy fallout, so perhaps it's the right thing to do all the same.

 

[Rollo Lawson]

reviews are wack because they are like homework to these guys. think about all the times you bullshitted through an essay...

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

You know, one thing that's pissed me off for 20 years with reviews is that maybe 5% of them ever actually discuss the control scheme and whether it can be customized. If it was me, I'd start every review discussing how you play the game, how well it works, and how responsive the controls are.

My opinion of IGN couldn't get any lower, but I'll say that things like this almost justify Twitter's existence.

 

[Meus Renaissance]

His explanation seems reasonable. One of the tweets complaint he would have unlocked the last epic "stage". He then clarifies in another tweet it was an ending sequence rather than a stage. The explanation of the review confirms this.

Whats the problem?

Thread title needs to be adjusted.

 

[EvilMario]

Game reviews barely ever even talk about difficulty anymore, so probably?

Pretty common to see reviewers complain about a game being 'too difficult' rather than too easy these days.

 

[Kazerei]

His explanation seems reasonable. One of the tweets complaint he would have unlocked the last epic "stage". He then clarifies in another tweet it was an ending sequence rather than a stage. The explanation of the review confirms this.

Whats the problem?

Thread title needs to be adjusted.

OP definitely needs to be updated.

The IGN review says

Finish the last stage and defeat the final boss and what is your reward? A swift kick back to the title screen with no more than "congratulations."

But this only happens on Casual mode. There's an actual ending cutscene on Normal mode and above. Dylan made a mistake when he said the last stage was only Normal mode and above though.

 

[echoshifting]

His explanation seems reasonable. One of the tweets complaint he would have unlocked the last epic "stage". He then clarifies in another tweet it was an ending sequence rather than a stage. The explanation of the review confirms this.

Whats the problem?

Thread title needs to be adjusted.

...because if he didn't see the ending sequence it's an indication he didn't play it on Normal at all. He also didn't so much as mention the fourth difficulty level, which I believe (?) is unlocked when you beat hard. I dunno, I'm still sifting through the thread. This is a twisty one.

 

[chri5t]

Has IGN released an official statement regarding this yet?

Would it be stupid of me to even expect one?

 

[GQman2121]

Has IGN released an official statement regarding this yet?

Would it be stupid of me to even expect one?

You would be stupid to expect one......unfortunately.

 

[AcceptableGhost]

Has IGN released an official statement regarding this yet?

Would it be stupid of me to even expect one?

Not a big enough title for them to push them over the edge. The reviewer is probably working on 3 more games as we speak.

 

[Resident_UA]

Has IGN released an official statement regarding this yet?

Would it be stupid of me to even expect one?

Yes! It would be stupid of you to expect one because nothing happened!

 

[levious]

Lol could you twist my post any more?

Seeing as I was simply asking for proven instances outside of this one, (cause you know, I've never heard of any and was legitimately curious) that show IGN's pull towards the unethical, I'm finding the hostility hilarious. Also yes I'd argue that not completely finishing a game isn't unethical as long as the information provided states as such.

they famously stole a fan-made guide (or large portions of it) and published it as their own.

 

[HaRyu]

...because if he didn't see the ending sequence it's an indication he didn't play it on Normal at all. He also didn't so much as mention the fourth difficulty level, which I believe (?) is unlocked when you beat hard. I dunno, I'm still sifting through the thread. This is a twisty one.

Review also apparently indicates that the game is "short":

"Seeing everything Pixeljunk Shooter has is a matter of minutes instead of hours"

We've already had confirmed reports that the game, at least on Normal mode, is at least an hour long. That's a decent amount of time for a shmup.

 

[Oemenia]

Im still royally miffed about Gamespot's Radiant Silvergun review.

 

[MesserWolf]

Another perl from IGN it seems ....

unbelievable!

 

[rainking187]

Eh, the only mistake he made as far as I can tell was saying he beat it on normal when he hadn't on twitter. I'm not a game reviewer, so I don't know what kind of info you get about the game as a reviewer, if there was some mention of a different ending for playing the game on different difficulty levels then that would be another issue. But if I beat a game and it has a shitty ending I wouldn't automatically assume there's a different ending on a higher difficulty level, it's not something that happens that often, at least not in the games that I've played.

 

[Loach]

But this only happens on Casual mode. There's an actual ending cutscene on Normal mode and above. Dylan made a mistake when he said the last stage was only Normal mode and above though.

Anyone actually seen the ending cutscene? I'm wondering if it actually does more than effectively saying "congratulations" before booting you back to the title screen.

 

[levious]

Im still royally miffed about Gamespot's Radiant Silvergun revieww.

saturn or xbla review?

 

[Kazerei]

Anyone actually seen the ending cutscene? Maybe it just says "Congratulations" (with voice acting) for all we know...

Kassatsu: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=32177783&postcount=553

 

[MarkRyan]

they famously stole a fan-made guide (or large portions of it) and published it as their own.

Oh yeah? When?

 

[HaRyu]

Anyone actually seen the ending cutscene? I'm wondering if it actually does more than effectively saying "congratulations" before booting you back to the title screen.

We've already had several people confirm the ending, in this thread and the actual game OT thread. No actual cutscene if you beat Casual mode, just kicks you back to title.

 

[kassatsu]

Eh, the only mistake he made as far as I can tell was saying he beat it on normal when he hadn't on twitter. I'm not a game reviewer, so I don't know what kind of info you get about the game as a reviewer, if there was some mention of a different ending for playing the game on different difficulty levels then that would be another issue. But if I beat a game and it has a shitty ending I wouldn't automatically assume there's a different ending on a higher difficulty level, it's not something that happens that often, at least not in the games that I've played.

There was not. But when you do beat it on normal, the games' visuals change on the title screen. A competent review would go "mmmm maybe I should check out hard mode to see what this did"

If he would have done that it would be obvious the game unlocks stuff for completing it on other difficulties.

Spoiler: the visual effect for playing on hard mode the first time if the best visual look, imo.

 

[Loach]

Kassatsu: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=32177783&postcount=553

Thanks, did Kassatsu play on normal or has he skipped to hard, and if he played on normal did he say what the cutscene was?

We've already had several people confirm the ending, in this thread and the actual game OT thread. No actual cutscene if you beat Casual mode, just kicks you back to title.

Sorry I've read part of the thread, but it's pretty painful so I'm not reading it all. Has anyone said what happens (if it's impressive) or just that they've seen it?

 

[Coxy]

they famously stole a fan-made guide (or large portions of it) and published it as their own.

they also steal art: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=424490

 

[echoshifting]

The further back into the thread I get the more convinced I am that this is much ado about nothing. The critic's blog presented a fairly reasonable explanation to me. Did he spend enough time with the game? Probably not, but this happens all the time. Still, I'm inclined to give GDJustin the benefit of the doubt here. If he says he saw this guy playing the game for hours all week...okay, that doesn't make sense to me based on some of the information here, but I'll let it slide.

The central issue to me is the review's obsession with dollars and minutes, something else that is all too common. I have to say that I am sick to death of game journalists trying to explain to me the precise value of my time and money, because they don't know. Those are factors on the user end of the experience that can't be accounted for, and it drives me crazy that so many reviews emphasize them. If the writer had focused solely on the experience of actually playing the game, we wouldn't be having this conversation at all. Yeah, I know the original issue was with the reviewer getting "busted" by not mentioning the endgame cinematic, but if he wasn't trying to tell people that the game isn't worth x dollars because it only goes on for y minutes, nobody would care.

 

[kassatsu]

Thanks, did Kassatsu play on normal or has he skipped to hard, and if he played on normal did he say what the cutscene was?

Hard is locked. You have to beat normal to get it.

beating hard unlocks brutal, which adds harder enemies that explode into bullets plus a gray scale visual effect.

 

[HaRyu]

Thanks, did Kassatsu play on normal or has he skipped to hard, and if he played on normal did he say what the cutscene was?

I believe he beat Normal first, then started Hard mode during the whole "wtf is going on" sequence of events last night.

 

[MMaRsu]

This guy should be fired.and ign banned

 

[GotEmRunnin]

My issue with this is he exaggerated his review to make it more believable and when he was called out on it. He changed his review. Had he had any integrity he would have left it as is. Even though it was wrong, but i have this issue with all journalism.

 

[Loach]

Guys thanks for confirming that people have beaten it on normal, but what I'm trying to get at is whether or not the cutscene you see if you finish it on normal can be reasonably summed up as ("congratulations", title screen).

I'm starting to get the impression that there is no cutscene at the end of normal...

 

[NervousXtian]

Have you even followed this? Cuthbert wasn't upset, and simply commented on ONE PIECE of the review. It is not possible to be this dense...

He stated that the game has no ending, and boots you out to the main menu. Dylan simply says "if you play it on normal, you'll get a cool ending".

Deamon blatantly lies and says "oh yea, I beat it on normal". Notice that Dylan has NO ISSUE that he didn't like the game. He still only clarifies that if he would have completed it on normal (not casual) that he would have seen the ending sequence.

Deamon saves face (tries to) removes that piece from his review, and is called out for it (he did, after all, tell a white lie over twitter).

At no time does Dylan have an issue with the score, his taste, or anything else. Not once.

Thanks for the personal insult, makes your argument that much stronger.

I don't know for a fact that he finished it on normal, but I'm willing to accept that he did and he just didn't make it clear in the review. It's very possible he beat it on casual first, then normal, but referred to the casual ending. Doesn't really change the review to me, nor do I honestly find much issue with it in the context of the rest of the review. It read as a review of a smaller downloadable game that the reviewer just didn't connect with. If he would have mentioned the cut-scene and still had the rest of the review the same I'm sure people would still complain, this is PJ after all.

..and read the tweets, Dylan misspoke about an last epic stage, then went on a tweet about how he's pissed, about the length comment, called Daemon and intern, called IGN a web-shite, called Daemon out of touch, questioned the editors, called them crap, then admitted that there wasn't an epic unlock just a different ending, etc.

So your comment about Dylan not having an issue is false. He never did actually call out the score, but I'm betting the same text of the review with a 8.5 wouldn't have led to any of this. He claims he's passionate, this seems to be true, but I think bottom line, IMHO it's about the score, and that score being from a large site like IGN hurting his bottom line. I guess it's understandable, but in the end it's disappointing to see.

 

[levious]

Oh yeah? When?

can't recall, was it soul calibur? Or maybe I'm confusing it with the stealing fan art incident, ether one would be embarrassing.

 

[kassatsu]

Guys thanks for confirming that people have beaten it on normal, but what I'm trying to get at is whether or not the cutscene you see if you finish it on normal can be reasonably summed up as ("congratulations", title screen).

I'm starting to get the impression that there is no cutscene at the end of normal...

It is a cutscene with voice acting. probably a min long or so.

 

[Loach]

It is a cutscene with voice acting. probably a min long or so.

Thanks, appreciate the response.

 

[Speevy]

These guys have been consistently the worst reviewers in the industry for what seems like 10 years now.

They can't spell, they can't write, they don't know what the hell they're playing, and they have no integrity.

 

[Grinchy]

It's a nice barrier. If I reach the end of a page with no substance to it, it's usually a sign to go to the last page to recap the thread a bit and see if it was even worth going through.


It usually isn't.

People who do 100 posts per page don't ask questions that have recently been answered. Doing a ctrl+f on 2 pages would be the same as a 50ppp peasant having to do it on 4 pages (which they never do because their attention spans won't allow it, hence the 50ppp peasant status). Upgrade to a Gold account, already.

 

[mbmonk]

Thanks for the personal insult, makes your argument that much stronger.

I don't know for a fact that he finished it on normal, but I'm willing to accept that he did and he just didn't make it clear in the review. It's very possible he beat it on casual first, then normal, but referred to the casual ending. Doesn't really change the review to me, nor do I honestly find much issue with it in the context of the rest of the review. It read as a review of a smaller downloadable game that the reviewer just didn't connect with. If he would have mentioned the cut-scene and still had the rest of the review the same I'm sure people would still complain, this is PJ after all.

..and read the tweets, Dylan misspoke about an last epic stage, then went on a tweet about how he's pissed, about the length comment, called Daemon and intern, called IGN a web-shite, called Daemon out of touch, questioned the editors, called them crap, then admitted that there wasn't an epic unlock just a different ending, etc.

So your comment about Dylan not having an issue is false. He never did actually call out the score, but I'm betting the same text of the review with a 8.5 wouldn't have led to any of this. He claims he's passionate, this seems to be true, but I think bottom line, IMHO it's about the score, and that score being from a large site like IGN hurting his bottom line. I guess it's understandable, but in the end it's disappointing to see.

I am open to this argument.

The only thing that is a bit weird is his review originally was factually incorrect ( the whole cut-scene thing ). He removes the sentence and make the review factually correct. But then puts the sentence back in ( thus making it factually incorrect again! ). His reason for putting it back in was that the removal of the sentence bothered people ( developer and readers ). Personally, I would have preferred him just leave a factually correct review with an annotation at the top or bottom that he removed an incorrect statement.

 

[Aselith]

The 10 dollar quote is awesome, I expect a bit more from a 10 console game in 2011, that's my money that didn't pay for the game.

Well, I've been arguing against this IGN guy the whole thread but this is a really very silly point. Reviewers need to decide if a game is worth the asking price for CONSUMERS. You know, the people for whom they write the review? Of course if he feels like he wouldn't pay the asking price for the amount of content in the game he's going to let people know because he doesn't have to pay for it but other people do.

 

[NervousXtian]

Well, I've been arguing against this IGN guy the whole thread but this is a really very silly point. Reviewers need to decide if a game is worth the asking price for CONSUMERS. You know, the people for whom they write the review? Of course if he feels like he wouldn't pay the asking price for the amount of content in the game he's going to let people know because he doesn't have to pay for it but other people do.

Exactly, why would they review the game on the merits of being free to them. Don't we rail against that? I want them to review from the context of my value, not theirs, because their value would be the game being free.