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Worst video games journalism screw-ups?

Posting review scores that you disagree with is hardly journalism screw ups ¬_¬ Unless its known they were bought off or something.

That Gears review is fine, so is 8.8, MGS4 8/10 from Eurogamer et al.
 
AmMortal said:
EuroGamer Reviews:

Bioshock 8/10

Metal Gear Solid 4 8/10

GTAIV 10/10
HALO 3 10/10


:lol
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Should've been 9/8/8/8 instead. Disagreeing with a review score doesn't really qualifies as a journalistic screw-up, though.

Posting review scores that you disagree with is hardly journalism screw ups ¬_¬ Unless its known they were bought off or something.

That Gears review is fine, so is 8.8, MGS4 8/10 from Eurogamer et al.
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Exactly.


On the other hand, pointing out Takahashi not levelling up in Mass Effect or lots of reviews not mentioning GTA IV's technical difficulties or Gamespot complaining about the lack of Mii support in Fire Emblem.... those are fuck-ups.
 
My vote would go with Eurogamers infamous article about the PS3 unveiling at E3.

It still bites them in the ass in the comments section pretty much every day.
 
plufim said:
One of my favourite fuckups was *****'s exclusive news of a resident evil 4 xbox port.

Yeah, it's one of the unmentionable websites, but there's a reason for that :P


Also, has the halo DS fiasco been mentioned yet?
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I'm confused as to how that was a screw up.... so probably not. Its a boring nonstory in retrospect
Matt: Someone was making Halo Ds and it got canned. I dun seen it! too bad it will not be releasededed.
Internet: BULLSHIT
Mattt: Ima get u!
Internet: Mom!!
Bungie: I dont know what the fuck homeboy is going on about
Internet: haha!
Matt: Here it is bitches! a 3rd party tech demo that never got the green light!
Internet: Not fair! You cheat! You made that in your spare time!
Matt: Nu uh
Internet: uh huh
 
Atrophis said:
My vote would go with Eurogamers infamous article about the PS3 unveiling at E3.

It still bites them in the ass in the comments section pretty much every day.
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What is this?
 
Haunted One said:
On the other hand, pointing out Takahashi not levelling up in Mass Effect or lots of reviews not mentioning GTA IV's technical difficulties or Gamespot complaining about the lack of Mii support in Fire Emblem.... those are fuck-ups.
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No, those are just having different priorities.
 
Looks like this thread has turned into general "shit we don't like" moreso than factual errors. I'm fine with that.

Why are NES games the only ones ever talked about when it comes to games from the 80s? Why does it seem like the only old games ever written about are ones that the writer played as a kid?

Why does it seem like there isn't a single writer that played, plays, or understands arcade games? Why does the entire industry seem to think that most are literally unfair and exist solely to cheapen players out of money? Why do we see entries on Kotaku about x Cave game that amount to nothing more than "hurf look how impossible this is"?

Why does any game that falls into an "old" genre have to have its price brought up? Why are prices brought up in reviews in the first place?

Why do you still see people settling on calling a game "fun" or saying it has "great gameplay" without actually getting in to any detail at all? What's the point of that?

That's all aside from clearly unresearched stuff like claiming Dragon Quest introduced the top-down perspective, of course.

Unfortunately, a lot of this applies to forum communities just as much as it does to writers, so it's probably a lost cause.
 
What about the Penny Arcade post on Enchanted Arms, where they take apart a review and note that the reviewer couldn't have played it for more than 3 hours.

“The characters - the dunce leader, the incredibly effeminate sidekick, the quiet protector - are little more than one-note cardboard cut-outs in this supposed epic.”

I find it interesting because those aren’t the characters. Or at least they aren’t after about the three hour mark. I don’t want to spoil the game for anyone but the characters he’s described here are only a part of the relatively short “tutorial” phase of the game. The other fifty plus hours of gameplay are spent with a completely different crew and one that can be constantly augmented by the addition of various golems.

Obviously I don’t know how long he played the game. Maybe he played the entire thing but choosing to mention those characters is very odd if that’s the case. Especially considering that he could have made the same point and used the actual characters that you play the majority of the game alongside. C&C music factory might label this as the sort of thing that makes you “go hmmmmm.”
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http://www.penny-arcade.com/2006/09/06/
 
Atrophis said:
My vote would go with Eurogamers infamous article about the PS3 unveiling at E3.

It still bites them in the ass in the comments section pretty much every day.
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And it's been a steady decline ever since. And they're still one of the better sites :(
 
i remember the swedish mag super play spoiling the whole raiden thing in MGS2 months before the eu release. yeah lots of pissed of people
 
ONM with their forever promised exclusives.

Play magazine for reviewing unfinished code and believing a PR guy for saying all the problems would be magically fixed in the final.

That time some outlet was caught giving a moneyhatted Driv3r review.
 
Zenith said:
Play magazine for reviewing unfinished code and believing a PR guy for saying all the problems would be magically fixed in the final.

That time some outlet was caught giving a moneyhatted Driv3r review.
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What game and website/magazine were those?
 
Gametrailers preview of Yaris.

They screwed up by revealing they're ok with accepting money hats.



Also 8 out of 100 entries on Kotaku is a screw up.
 
Atrophis said:
My vote would go with Eurogamers infamous article about the PS3 unveiling at E3.

It still bites them in the ass in the comments section pretty much every day.
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To be fair most commenters on the EG site are idiots. :-)
 
Oh I forgot one.

Gamedaily live blogging MS event @ E3 2005 (or was it 2006?)


"OMG GTAIV IS 360 EXCLUSIVE!!! TAKE THAT SONY!!!"


Yes, he literally wrote "TAKE THAT SONY!"
 
AstroLad said:
244bfb8.jpg


Should have been at least an A- by any reasonable standards and I would have given it an A imo.
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Crysis (PC)
Also on 360, PS3 :lol
 
Metalmurphy said:
Oh I forgot one.

Gamedaily live blogging MS event @ E3 2005 (or was it 2006?)


"OMG GTAIV IS 360 EXCLUSIVE!!! TAKE THAT SONY!!!"


Yes, he literally wrote "TAKE THAT SONY!"
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:lol

I do love those live blogs. No editing, so they can literally say whatever shit they like. Eurogamers live blogs are always fun to read.
 
mj1108 said:
That was IGN.

I still have a cap from when they tried to pull that crap:
igngirlblog.jpg
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Hahah, that's the funniest thing IGN have done.

God you dudes are pedantic & harsh on these dudes. Jealousy's a curse n all, I guess.
 
Metalmurphy said:
Oh I forgot one.

Gamedaily live blogging MS event @ E3 2005 (or was it 2006?)


"OMG GTAIV IS 360 EXCLUSIVE!!! TAKE THAT SONY!!!"


Yes, he literally wrote "TAKE THAT SONY!"
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Hm, everybody was (:() megahyped during E3.
 
Bravo at that 1UP Gears review, the press is just FULL of that shit recently.

Well, theres that, and this, and that sucks, and that too, and that's quite a pity -- OMG GOTY 10/10

Innovative, real fun, great controls, great lenghth, nothing to complain -- 6/10 YEAHOOO

legend166 said:
GTA IV reviews.
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Yep, and let's be clear, I'm talking about "review", NOT "score".

Reading Goldstein's review after playing the game makes one word come to my mind : emphasis.
Just EVERYTHING.The worst bit might just be about the "moral decisions". He talks in a sooo dramatic manner of the "which one to kill" decision between
Playboy and Dwayne
"It's a choice that had us holding the gun to the head of our chosen victim for minutes of extended deliberation, and when the final bullet rang out it left a sick feeling in the pit of our stomachs as we were left unsure of our actions."
Seriously. I'll admit it, I was starting to like both of them so I felt a little like "why kill one of them?" when I had too, but first the "extended deliberation" doesn't take place when you hold the gun to the head of your chosen victim, but after saving in your safehouse or just doing shit in the streets, since you have to choose what to do before you enter a mission and once you're in there's no meaning in hesitation because you can't come back; and second the choice was quite easy. I mean, one of them inspires empathy, or pity, and the other doesnt. Furthermore, once you killed one of them, the other one disappears from the story, and the only way to see him again is to become "friends", which basically kills any meaning to your earlier decision. Meh.

But hey, let's go on a stretch here and say that could just be a matter of opinion. Okay.
What about not mentionning the lack of checkpoints in long ass missions ?? There's nothing subjective there, having to do everything again since the beginning because you failed close the end is a problem. Not even mentionning it in your review of the game is faulty.
 
All the perfect scores for GTAIV (and MGS4.)


And this little review of MGS3, god I was pissed off at the time :lol

50/100

Detroit Free Press

Not since the movie "Rambo 3" have we seen such cheesy dialogue and a storyline so over the top that it can be comical. That's fitting because the plot also borrows heavily from "Rambo 3," or at least the worst parts of it.
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EDIT: OMG just remembered the finnish gaming mag Pelaaja reviewed Zelda TP by only playing it about 4-6 hours. And their scores are taken in Metacritic etc...

And they fucking tried to justify that even on their message boards...
 
i love that mgs3 review snippet -- it sets out to criticize mgs3's writing and immediately produces an agrammatical sentence. 'not since rambo 3 have we seen such cheesy dialogue and a storyline so over the top' -- so far so good -- '...that it can be comical.' did you really mean to say that we haven't seen anything comically over the top since rambo 3? no, i suppose you didn't! it's awful how thoughts can crowd in!
 
I know it's not exactly a screw up, but I am still haunted by Eurogamer who reviewed the japanese version of R:FOM and gave it a 7. Five months later, when the PS3 launched in PAL territories, they reviewed it again and this is how the article ended:

The overall disappointment that comes from playing Resistance is troubling. For years, Insomniac has carved itself an impressive reputation, and had a golden opportunity to throw its creativity at a genre which has been stuck in its ways for far too long. That it merely aped almost all of the things wrong with this creatively moribund genre is alarming. That's not to say that it's a bad game at all, because in most senses Resistance bears a solid resemblance to a lot of very successful shooters of the last few years. But to simply come up with a game on a new platform that completely stands still feels like a huge disappointment from a studio that's more than capable of doing thing differently to everyone else. Put bluntly, the combat and AI is merely average, the visuals don't really wow, and the much-vaunted weaponry makes little difference to how it plays. To say we're underwhelmed is the understatement of the year.

6/10
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Penny Arcades little essay of hate on MGS4 based on viewing video's of the game (yes they hadn't even played it yet) has got to be on the top list.

Also, lol at the above Eurogamer review of R:FoM. Reminds me of their little MGS4 review where the score changed from 8 to 9 and then back to 8 again! :lol

Penny Arcade/Eurogamer's credibility - 100.
 
BruceWayneIII said:
I know it's not exactly a screw up, but I am still haunted by Eurogamer who reviewed the japanese version of R:FOM and gave it a 7. Five months later, when the PS3 launched in PAL territories, they reviewed it again and this is how the article ended:
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Except their main criticism was a fairly valid one. I would have given it a higher score but saying you are "haunted" by a reviewer not liking a game is pretty retarded.
 
Well it certainly doesn't reflect negatively on video game publications (though the review was certainly a "screw up" to Trip), but it fits from an entertainment perspective and I can never pass on an opportunity to introduce another person to this wonderful letter. Also ties in nicely with the review talk.

Trip Hawkins to GamePro said:
Hello John,

We at 3DO were very discouraged by the slam-job...on Portal Runner. I would hope you can recognize that I do not love all my children equally and can be objective about both good and bad features in a game as well as games that are of quality and those that are not. I do not send messages like this to you after every review. But this happens to be a game that I have played all the way through and beaten on all difficulty levels and I know the game intimately. I also have seen the profound positive effect this game has had on my children.

This sort of thing is really tragic because your online review excerpt was the first public review of Portal Runner, and it set the tone by telling the hardcore what to think. It closed minds that it could have opened. And even though your reviewer is hardly an authority on either games in general or Portal Runner specifically, his voice will be heard louder and taken more seriously than others. It's not right and it's not fair.

In any case, your reviewer blew it on this one. And we are re-evaluating our relationship with GamePro as a result.

I think it is unprofessional of a reviewer to assume he represents all his readers and all market segments and can therefore dismiss a game based purely on his personal experience of a game, particularly when he has no context about the goals and target audience of the game publisher.

The audience for games no longer consists of one iconic block of angry young men who cannot get a date on Saturday night. Reviewers who don't consult with the game publisher about the intended audience, and don't attempt to position a game in terms of who might like it and who might not like it, are unprofessional. I furthermore propose as a solution the idea that you assign a journalist during the preview stage of a game, and provide professional follow thru by having that same journalist write the review. In the case of Portal Runner, we had some ambition to reach a wider audience. We wanted to include boys, girls, women, and casual gaming men. I know from firsthand experience that Portal Runner is a hit with all of those market segments. Many of your readers are in those segments. But your reviewers are not. Meanwhile, I personally think we made a game that hard-core adult male gamers would enjoy. But I can understand that some of them would reject it the same way some adults reject Shrek or Beethoven. But personally, I think that really means there is something wrong with a man like that, not with Portal Runner.

If you disagree with me, you do so at your own peril. The industry is in a malaise. As you know, most game publishers are losing money and have cut back on advertising. Many magazines and webzines have perished. What seems needless to me is the often overly negative tone that gaming editorial takes.

Most of you have editorial staffs that are dominated by angry young men that are poorly trained and represent a narrow and anarchistic element of the world's population. They have a negative attitude and are looking for what is wrong with something, instead of looking for what is right and who might like it.

It reminds me of boys at junior high school dance. With their fragile egos, they stay on the sideline and say the band sucks, the girls are ugly, and that those brave enough to dance are lousy dancers. Your reviewers have no idea how to make a great game. None of them have ever made one. But they sure have fun telling us in a nasty tone how inferior we are to them.

I truly find it astonishing that magazines like yours seem willing to slit your own throats on occasions like this. You have so much more to gain if you are enthusiasts for gaming, and try to find the audience for a new game. You are so much better off if you do not bite the hand that feeds you. And do not patronize me by telling me the reader is the customer--your real customer is the one that pays you your revenue. And it is game industry advertisers. If you need to be able to be constantly negative you need to accept that you are like a parasite that is killing its host. In God's millions of years he has not created nor evolved a creature that would have such a stupid strategy for survival. But it is a common attitude among game magazines, despite the evidence all around them that it drives many of them into bankruptcy. You have been around long enough to know that this is true, but you have not adapted your publication.

I should mention in passing that 3DO has been one of your largest advertisers. Effective immediately, we are going to have to cut that back. If a consumer sees a bad editorial, and a positive ad, they are going to assume the ad is biased (what is frustrating is that often it is the other way around). But to make matters worse, they will think the advertiser is stupid, and it will reinforce their confidence that the editorial must be accurate, because it is also saying the game publisher is stupid. So, I don't go for that. In addition, it makes far more sense to give financial support to publications that are more professional and more fair. There are only so many bucks to go around.

In conclusion, I think you owe us one because you took us by surprise and threw our review to a wolf. And you accepted his word as God without even checking in with a major advertiser or wondering about how it makes you look to rip a game you chose to put on a recent cover.

I think we share a common vision--which is to get more people to play games and appreciate what a great thing it is to be at play. I know you are proud of the circulation increases of GamePro. We both are doing things to try to expand the audience for gaming. Unfortunately, our efforts to expand beyond the angry young hardcore are being counteracted by your angry young reviewers who don't share either my vision or yours.

Sincerely,

Trip
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TheHeretic said:
Except their main criticism was a fairly valid one. I would have given it a higher score but saying you are "haunted" by a reviewer not liking a game is pretty retarded.
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Mayby you put too much emphasis on the word 'haunted' and 'retarded'? :lol It was for a lack of a better word (it's not my native language). Don't take it that serious, ok?
 
Zoe said:
What about that GameFan article snafu back in the day? :lol
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i came in here to lol at that. damn....i miss gamefan. i wish they were around to go heads up on the web against the 1up crew (EGM and GF being my favorite mags from the older days).
 
GMR reviewing Dead or Alive Ultimate 4 months in advance. I think they did the same thing with Ninja Gaiden.

God that magazine sucked so hard.
 
nib95 said:
Penny Arcades little essay of hate on MGS4 based on viewing video's of the game (yes they hadn't even played it yet) has got to be on the top list.

Also, lol at the above Eurogamer review of R:FoM. Reminds me of their little MGS4 review where the score changed from 8 to 9 and then back to 8 again! :lol

Penny Arcade/Eurogamer's credibility - 100.
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Could you tell me what's wrong about those Eurogamer reviews? Other than the score obviously.
 
zoukka said:
Could you tell me what's wrong about those Eurogamer reviews? Other than the score obviously.
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Eurogamer are probably the best reviewers out there. People complaining about the scores obviously haven't even read the reviews.
 
BruceWayneIII said:
I know it's not exactly a screw up, but I am still haunted by Eurogamer who reviewed the japanese version of R:FOM and gave it a 7. Five months later, when the PS3 launched in PAL territories, they reviewed it again and this is how the article ended:
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The best part about that review is that from reading it that you can tell they didn't even play the game. At least with a lot of these reviews that have scores people don't agree with it is clear the reviewers played the game.
 
dammitmattt said:
Most people in this thread seem to think that game critique = game journalism. Would you call Roger Ebert a journalist?
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the thing is if someone is reviewing a game they are technically "reporting" on whether it sucks.
 
AstroLad said:
the thing is if someone is reviewing a game they are technically "reporting" on whether it sucks.
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So I can report on what flavor of Orbit gum tastes the best and call myself a journalist? Sweet!
 
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