-
Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.
Ubi to reviewer: Give us an A review for Assassins Creed 2 or NO COPY FOR YOU!
- Thread starter ClovingWestbrook
- Start date
Ghost Leviathan
Banned
Back in the day when I was writing for GE (GamersEurope, old rival to the then start-up Eurogamer) I was told by my Editor to email every publisher I could to try and secure games for review. I was the sub-editor for the Xbox section so I tried to secure every single game (I wouldn't usually play) to cover the front page with new reviews.
I was surprised at how eager Midway were to send me this relatively unknown game called Gravity Games (an extreme sport, bike game I knew nothing about). Express delivery. Full retail release. At that time I felt we were allowed to say anything in a review so I absolutely destroyed the game with one of our lowest scores on the site. The review was even hilarious. The game was that bad.
I'll still never forget when I was riding a bike in the game to reach the a section of the level that that wasn't there. I'm not even joking. They made half a level and put it in the game. Then - a couple of days later I received this angry email from the Midway representative who sent me the game saying we would never receive a game from them again.
My Editor just said that this is the industry and to email over a string of reviews with the same negative review to prove our point.
.
I understand the sensitive relationship between the reviewer and publisher but seriously - if they want a good score make a good game.
I was surprised at how eager Midway were to send me this relatively unknown game called Gravity Games (an extreme sport, bike game I knew nothing about). Express delivery. Full retail release. At that time I felt we were allowed to say anything in a review so I absolutely destroyed the game with one of our lowest scores on the site. The review was even hilarious. The game was that bad.
I'll still never forget when I was riding a bike in the game to reach the a section of the level that that wasn't there. I'm not even joking. They made half a level and put it in the game. Then - a couple of days later I received this angry email from the Midway representative who sent me the game saying we would never receive a game from them again.
My Editor just said that this is the industry and to email over a string of reviews with the same negative review to prove our point.
.
I understand the sensitive relationship between the reviewer and publisher but seriously - if they want a good score make a good game.
So because you haven't heard of a German magazine (Are you familiar with ANY German magazines?), they are automatically lying? :lolDreamwriter said:
Back on topic: Not surprised, game and media publishers all over are shit, with no ethics at all. It is up to any gaming media outlet that wants respect to openly discuss these things when they occur.
Edit:
Yep.Flavius said:Who the hell cares about game review sites anymore???
Most of the great-to-decent scribes have moved on to greener pastures...
I'll see how you fuckers malign it/jerk-it-off, filter it as appropriate, and decide for myself.
I heart GAF.
Community Forum
Member
In a perfect world, there would be game previews, and then a demo to check out.
Segata Sanshiro
Member
The sad thing is this is so common now that it doesn't even faze me.
ShockingAlberto
Member
Definitely. It should be the first line in each of their reviews.shuri said:
faceless007
Member
Is there any other line of consumer products where the producers have such open contempt for its enthusiast press and journalistic ethics? Books, movies and music almost never have crap like this.
wolfmat
Confirmed Asshole
Well, BILD is the German Sun equivalent. Computer BILD Spiele is a mass-market games mag (such things exist over here, believe it or not).Dreamwriter said:
They're by far not the trustworthiest magazine on our market. Actually, few games magazines over here have any sort of positive reputation. And we have quite a few of them.
However, they don't just make shit up as they go. There's really no reason for them at all to do stuff like that. Furthermore, although BILD itself is stigmatized as historically being the biggest liars and biased fuckers on the market, Computer BILD Spiele doesn't have that reputation at all.
Seems like they're pretty pissed.
You realize the world contains more stuff than you know, right? For example, there might be a big South-African game mag you never heard of, does that automatically make it non-trustworthy?
I think you should check your attitude towards foreigners, no matter where you're from
Wutdaheckman
Banned
So:
an 80-89 now means A
a 70 - 79 means B
and a 90 - 100 is BS.
an 80-89 now means A
a 70 - 79 means B
and a 90 - 100 is BS.
lorddarkflare
Banned
Buckethead said:
In my opinion, pacing is the #1 killer in games, from Bioshock to Prince of persia to AC.
If you cannot properly pace your game, then it deserves to be crucified.
I may be overly critical about some games and lax on others, but AC deserved everything it got from those "assholes." GTAIV pissed me off because it could have been much better. AC pissed me off because it was horrible. It is a prime example on why graphics don't make a game.Buckethead said:
Hell in my mind it wasn't even a game. Saying it was repetitive is an understatement. After all, I thought games were suppose to be fun.
faceless007
Member
I think you're mistaking "pacing" for "variety of tasks." AC was an open-world game and you could pace it however you liked. If you wanted to spend hours running around fucking things up you could, the game didn't force a pace on you at all. Whether you wanted to only do 2 or 3 tasks per assassination, or all 6, it was your choice.lorddarkflare said:
I can sort of see the variety of tasks complaint (although the superior PC version doesn't suffer from this nearly as badly), but on the other hand, virtually every game these days gets that criticism leveled at it just due to the fact that any game mechanic gets repetitive after 5 hours or so. It's hard for me not to see that criticism as a failing of the player's attention span rather than the game itself.
GillianSeed79
Member
Maybe I'm easily entertained, but I actually liked AC1. Yeah it's repititive, but what other open world games aren't? You could argue that X number of car chases/hit missions in GTAIV are just as repetitive as AC1's investigations. The problem with AC1, besides the horrible ending, was the actual assasinations were too goddamn frustrating. Half the time i just got fed up and bum rushed the target, killing him, then ran for 20 minutes. The combat was good though. It's essentially Batman AA with a sword, but no one gave UBI credit for that.
Haunted
Member
No one's stopping you! The official thread is the catch-all place to be for all discussions surrounding a game.Loudninja said:
Kinda like Gaming Discussion is the catch-all place to be for all kinds of discussion about the different platforms!
You mean Batman was Assassin's Creed without a sword.GillianSeed79 said:
I loved the counter-combat system, but I'm a sucker for this style of fighting, so I'm biased. Loved AC in general, fantastically realised cities, a rarely used setting (time and place) in gamea as well as ambitious and unique crowd interaction and freerunning/climbing mechanics.
Yes, there were flaws (oh God those repeating soundbites), but I was too busy being impressed and having fun playing through the game - and that's what counts.
lorddarkflare
Banned
faceless007 said:
'Variety of tasks' factor into the pacing.
Truth be told, 'pacing' is a bad word to use as it is the combination of many factors and not a single one.
While players today do all seem to suffer from ADHD, i think many games to day are a bit more repetitive than they should be.
I mean, compare RE4 to DS. Both fantastic games, but DS's mister fixit routine wore pretty damn thin, whereas RE4 was much more varied.
Unknown One
Member
If I got a free trip of course I would give it a higher score.
Then he can write a review based on the retail copy.
I really wish reviewers would stop rushing to get out before the game releases. I'd rather read a considered review a month after the game releases than read all the rushed, hype-splatted reviews that come out based on their early copy.
I really wish reviewers would stop rushing to get out before the game releases. I'd rather read a considered review a month after the game releases than read all the rushed, hype-splatted reviews that come out based on their early copy.
rainking187
Member
Ballistictiger said:
I wouldn't. I mean I'd definitely take the trip, but I hated the first AC, if they don't fix all the flaws of the first one I'd have no problem shitting on it, trip or no trip.
Son of Godzilla
Banned
After all the shit that AC1 got by over-privileged asshat reviewers, Ubi has every right to protect it's baby.
GillianSeed79
Member
Also AC1's free climbing mechanic was great. I actually liked climbing really high shit. Plus wasn't it one the first console games to do away with an annoying hud. I'm also a sucker for Crusaders/Templars/Holy Land plot lines and medievil atmosphere.
faceless007 said:
AC was an open-world game that had absolutely nothing in it except those shitty tasks.
A lot of good a setting like the Crusades were when all it ended up being was for a backdrop of a failproof climbing simulator. Even the Assassination missions were shit because this was not some methodical, multi-phased set-up. Everything was fairly linear and the tool sets available to an assassin, were limited.
One of the games released this year, Infamous, was also an open-world task-oriented game, yet it isn't slammed like AC because the plot didn't revolve around doing the same tasks from the beginning to the ending of the game.
AC was a failure from a game design standpoint and a brilliant success from a marketing perspective. It showed that if you just spend enough money, you can hype up and sell shit to the masses.
"Yes Yes, you didn't like our two games we gave you last time, but sure we give you our biggest title this holliday because we believe in freedom of speech and free press FTW". I cannot say I'm condemning Ubi because I would do the same if I were them. There's no obligation to provide ammo to your "enemies". I mean in the end it's their game and they can provide early access to whoever they want on whatever conditions they want. If press doesn't like the conditions answer is simple - don't sign the deal, and get copy of the game themselfs.
ipukespiders
Member
skip said:
OMG!