Eidos' Tomb Raider: Underworld Review Shenanigans

L

Leon

A Smooth-Skin
Eidos is up to their tricks again, trying to tamper with reviews in order to maximize sales. Article here.

Said a Barrington Harvey rep on the phone this afternoon: “That’s right. We’re trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos.”

When asked why, the spokesperson said: “Just that we’re trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that’s handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don’t put people off buying the game, basically.”
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A follow-up article is here.

As you can clearly see from the scores posted so far, Barrington Harvey has no issue with scores of below eight out of 10 being posted online. The Eurogamer review in questions caused “problems” in so much as it originally contained a couple of minor factual inaccuracies which, to its credit, the site has quickly rectified and addressed (without, quite rightly, changing the context of the review).

...

Barrington Harvey has been working hard to ensure the launch scores of Tomb Raider Underworld are in line with our internal review predictions over the launch weekend - but to suggest that we can in some way “silence” reviews of the game is slightly overstating our influence.
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Figures, with the whole jeff fiasco that happend, this isn't going to be good PR for them. But most companies work just like eidos...they just get caught doing it.
 
Is there really anyone who cares about Tomb Raider anymore? Why would they even keep making TR games?
 
Because they can't make anything original or new anymore, they just don't have the creativity. Its easier to just spew another sequel after another. Safe and easy money. No real need to improve gameplay.

All those teenagers need to see half-nude archeologist women.

And butchering old series is always fun for the current game developers. :P
 
I dunno, the new chick they hired is pretty hot.

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Leon said:
Undoubtedly.
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Oh boy, yet another possible negative about DX3, following the removal of the 'skills improvement system' ('cause little gamers should be able to play without being forced to choose) and the already minimal stealth system (NPCs will now have vision 'cones' a la Metal Gear Solid)
 
It certainly looks cynical of me, but I sincerely doubt that Deus Ex 3 will be lauded and criticized by professional publications with the even-handed measure that its strengths and faults deserve based on how hopelessly worthless modern mainstream media is in that arena.

I never had much faith in the opinion of Joe M. Schmoe, who gets paid for his opinions, but the recent Gerstmann fiasco, the "A+ EDITOR'S CHOICE!" reviews with no mention of fault (beyond single-sentence dismissal) for games that lose their appeal after mere days, and the heavy-handed, remorseless, and downright insulting manipulation of the press into cheap advertising has snuffed any glimmer of faith I may have had.

Though I truly doubt that it will live up to its legacy (even with rose-tinted nostalgia goggles off), Deus Ex 3 could turn out to be a good game. Whether it is or not, Eidos and their PR firm will work hard to ensure the launch scores are in line with their internal review predictions.
 
I always thought Jeff should have been fired because his reviews were terrible, and quite frankly, Kane & Lynch wasn't half as bad as many of the games he poured his praise onto.
He was absolutely horrendous at picking out the undeniable faults of a game and instead focused on detracting points for things he personally thought were "gay", to put myself into his mindset. Honestly, how the fuck do you criticize a game for having a cone of fire that alternated based on distance, movement, and rate of fire? He actually criticized the game for using a halfway interesting FPS staple that has been in countless other games, it was even done better than most shooters in K&L's case. Bollocks.

What was worse than Gerstmann's fate were all the other "gaming journalists" piling onto his opinion. They have no ability to independently analyze a game, they knew if they gave the game a good score they would be accused of the "corruption" that apparently got Jeff fired, or they were simply attempting to deliver the same consensus to appear legitimate, since well, those guys must know how to review games well so why don't I follow their example?

He may have been fired for his review, I honestly don't care, but there are just as many people giving out high or low scores to games with absolutely atrocious reasoning with no publishers and their marketing department leaning over their shoulders.
 
Gerstmann isn't what you would call a good critic, or even a halfway decent critic, so that he was fired for that review and is being treated like a martyr is highly annoying. The publicity actually helped him launch a site of his own called GiantBomb. He's probably making more money off it than he did on GameSpot.
 
Who cares if Gerstmann is a competent critic or not? I don't care about his character or competence, even if he liked to punt babies for fun. The aftermath of his firing is more important. The herd mentality of other reviewers (as Eyenixon, astute as always, has mentioned) is an important showing of the poor state of affairs in the industry.
 
If, say, Greg Kasavin got fired, it would've been a different story. In this case the fool is being hailed as the martyr, and it's annoying.
 
She's very boring. During interviews she has no personality. Keeley Hawes, on the other hand, the chick who currently voices Lara, isn't half bad for a woman in her thirties. Carrol and all of the past Croft models (Rhona Mitra aside) have no charisma. Plus Lara never looks like any of the women who portray her. I think the games need to start being more lifelike in rendering faces. Lara is still incredibly cartoonish.
 
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