Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End Lead Game Designer Finds Preview Mistake “Pretty Scary”

By now many are aware about the Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End preview fiasco on a relevant British website. The site posted a since removed preview titled “Is Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End too formulaic?” The problem was that the writer mistook his playthrough of Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection at Tokyo Game Show for a hands-on session of Uncharted 4.

The editor in charge has since apologized and the article has been removed, but of course the internet reacted quite violently. Some at Naughty Dog took the issue with a bit of irony, and Co-Lead Designer Anthony Newman expressed his opinion on Twitter.

[Thatguy-310]

No excuse can justify the mistake. It's Among Thieves for God sake which is the pinnacle of the series. Journalist need to do research to know what they are talking about. This just paints a bad image to gaming journalism in general. Developers pour so much hard work for what? So individuals can badly represent it?

[fallacious]

who was the original author that wrote that preview? i want to go and tell him what a complete and utter moron he is.

[boing1]

I think it was a she.

[jordan8445]

Brenna Hillier. A 32 year old female communist (I'm not joking about that) from Australia, complete narcissist and bald-faced liar. And not too smart.

[ShadowWolf712]

@SolidStateSnake

How exactly does being female explain anything?

[Mr Lahey]

@SolidStateSnake

misogynistic much?

[VenomUK]

The fact that the Videogamer.com 'journalist' said she was an 'Uncharted veteran' was a barefaced lie to convince readers the game franchise was one she was knowledgeable on. However if she had played the original Uncharted 2 on PS3 she would have known the remaster was not Uncharted 4.

The sad part is that it's probable she had already made the editorial decision to be critical of Uncharted 4 BEFORE EVEN HAVING PLAYED IT. She took the stance that the game was unoriginal and unimaginative and sort to propagate her views to the public. This was from a person who very likely has never played Uncharted 2. But it makes you wander why was she so negative. Is it because she doesn't like one particular brand, is there incentives from another company?

Besides the contempt of the readership this reflects a serious issue within the industry of lazy hacks who even just repeat the perceived opinion of a game, or worst, make stuff up. I believe it is these repeated instances of incompetence or wrongdoing that is alienating gamers from traditional websites because they simply cannot be trusted.

[viperman240]

Not only that but what does it say about the person who originally made that article. That person can't even fuss up to make an apology or say anything, instead someone else had to apologize.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media...

PS: Yes the person on the left is the author who made the original article confusing UC2 for UC4.

[Hoffmann]

No wonder that more and more of us can't take the big gaming sites seriously anymore. Good there are many small alternatives, run by gamers and not people that have the main target to make clicks.

[Null]

....Mmmmm

[UKmilitia]

the funny thing is they branded themselves as a VETERAN of uncharted.

yet couldnt recognise the scene not being from uncharted 2.

im currently playing the remasters and onto 2nd one and while it looks great its far from uncharted 4 lvl.

[AizenSosuke]

Ikr these ppl need really have an retrospection on their careers as gaming journalists.

[S2Killinit]

To be honest i find a genuine mistake much easier to forgive than some of the shady behind the scenes practices of gaming journalism. This guy made a mistake, a horrible one, but luckily it was identified, and he appologized. I prefer that to journalists who give reviews based on how much a console holder has recently "donated" or "paid for advertisements" on the journalist's site.

Maybe this journalist's mistake is actually a testament to how good UC2 was? But then again, why did he mistake UC4 for UC2 and not for UC1 or UC3 for that matter? Isnt it a bit odd? Could it have been purposefully done? Was there a motive behind the site? A policy? Were they so eager to bash UC that they jumped the gun? I guess we wont know. Well maybe the site's review of the actual UC4 will clarify things? We shall see.

[Hairy Chewie]

The problem is the writer hasn't apologised or said anything about it as far as I know, only the editor has acknowledged the mistake. It would have been forgivable and forgotten about if the writer hadn't made out that they had played and enjoyed the previous games when it seems unlikely they have played or finished them.

[suckingeggs]

Gaming journalists don't do this for the Love of gaming.. They are narcissistic... Will be dishonest to garner hits...except gifts to write a favourable review ...and also for a bit of infamy

There are very few sites you can trust...its normally the smaller independent sites that are run by gamers who you can trust

Vg27 just highlighted what's been common knowledge for a while and I hope this really hurts their revenue from advertising hits

[chrish1990]

"Gaming journalists don't do this for the Love of gaming.. They are narcissistic... Will be dishonest to garner hits...except gifts to write a favourable review ...and also for a bit of infamy"

Spot-on.

[Aloy-Boyfriend]

To me, Colin Moriarty and Greg Miller are true gaming Journalists. Lots of hipsters on IGN hated them for being PlayStation fans and their stuff being limited to Playstation mainly (and still), but those guys did and still do show passion for gaming, wrote excellent pieces (Colin's PlayStation developers history), had the #1 PlayStation podcast in the world where they talked and even criticised PlayStation, and reviewed games fairly

[Salooh]

Naaah, not for me. IGN always been one of the worst sites for me. Most if not all were and still noobs. That's one of hundred reasons why any good gamer should avoid them...

Gametrailers in the other hand feels legit and i trust them with reviews. But still i always go with my taste in games. It's easy for me to know if the game will be fun or not.

[Yui_Suzumiya]

Yeah, those are the two people I've been trusting for many years now.

[_-EDMIX-_]

Agreed. I'd rather trust other gamers for my damn news then most sites. Too many writers that write for the sake of money vs because they REALLY game.

We are on here because we talk about games, literally DAILY!

You won't see Gangster Red confusing what a damn game is called or footage released.

You want see Foxtrot telling us about a damn game he "thought" was Uncharted 4 LMFAO! I'm sorry but its sad when we on this forum could very well do a better job then MANY on those huge sites. Consider when regarding games on this site, everone sorta keeps each other in check. We always got that one person that knows everything about said developer, publisher, IP etc lol

Some of them didn't know some serious gaming history junk, like some of them didn't know Sony published FFVII in the states or paid for its marketing. Some of them had no idea that Destiny was being worked at at MS, it was not Bungie that just went to Acitivision and started working on Activisions IP, just some sad crap that you hear and you just think....I'm merely a gamer, how is it I know lots of this and some of them KNOW those developers and just have no idea whats going on.

Don't get me started on those who review games they don't actually play the genre of.

[Pintheshadows]

Kinda Funny is great. Glad the two of them shed the shackles of IGN and went out on their own.

[The_Devil_Hunter]

Colin and Greg are the fucking shit, I absolutely love their work. Colin and Greg are no roubt my favorite journalists they dont give you any bullshit and are straight to the point, I'm glad they made a swift return to a Playstation podcast, I love PS I love you. Gamecast wit Tim Gettysburg just isn't the same.

[Tapani]

Spot on, sir!

Now, where can I find some eggs to suck? Eww, what did I just say...

[NeoGamer232]

Gaming journalists are a bunch of people who could not get a job doing real journalism.

The previews/reviews of gaming journalists are constantly biased based on fanboy opinion.

When they do decide to write articles they usually lack real content and quality.

And then stuff like this happens as well... If someone says they are a gaming journalist I instantly loose all respect I may of had for them when I first saw them.

I surf thru N4G about twice a day, and once every two weeks I find an article that is truly enlightening and useful.

[DragonDDark]

How can he even mistake Uncharted 4's drake from uncharted 2's? lol

[bobsmith]

uncharted 4s 30fps so uncharted 2 with 60fps evened it out to look good

[TwoForce]

Wow, nice trolling ! How much douche level are you ?

[bobsmith]

wasnt trolling I just dont think this is that big of a deal
if this was like gears ultimate mistaken for gears 4 no1 would make that big of a deal out of it. 60fps on gears ultimate looks good and uncharted 4s mp will be 60fps too im not hating

[fitfox]

This game is cursed, for the first demo drake fell through the ground, at e3 They had to reboot the demo, & now this.

[Bathyj]

I hope you just forgot the /S

[fitfox]

what is /S

[Bathyj]

Sarcasm

[johndoe11211]

@fitfox

"what is /S"

Wow, you should not be using the internet.

[fitfox]

Everything i said was factual, lol People are in such denial, but yes, There was a twinge of sarcasm, I thought it was funny how naughty dog has had a string of bad PR luck, Thanks for not completely biting my head off Bathyj.

[Spotie]

What part of "This game is cursed" is factual?

[Moe-Gunz]

ND live demos always mess up, and their games always turn out great. I guess The Last of Us was cursed too. I wish more games got that curse if those are the results.

[NeonEnigma]

self proclaimed uncharted veteran lol

[InTheLab]

Well consider this...

If you enlist and serve and sit behind a desk for 4 years in the military, you are a veteran.

So if you buy Drakes fortune and play through the tutorial, you are also a veteran at Uncharted!

What's really sad hear is not even the lying but the callous attitude after the fact where she couldn't even be bothered to apologize.

And a week from now we will see an article about how she's being bullied for reasons other than her poor work ethic and lack of skill as a journalist and gamer....

[Clogmaster]

Is she going to play the female victim card?

[slappy508]

Aw c'mon, people make mistakes man. just like I mistook the VG247 writer for a journalist...

[johndoe11211]

I think you just won the internet.

[nowitzki2004]

Thats worse than mistaking UC2 for UC4.

[Bathyj]

Look at the bright side guys. "The Uncharted veteran in me" is now a thing...

[SlightlyRetarted]

I love that line. He probably thought that his article would have more weight because stating that lie.

[Bathyj]

I loved "why does it feel so familiar?" He was so close to solving his own riddle.

The Uncharted Veteran is me thinks this guy wants to crawl into a hole and hide now.

[johndoe11211]

@bathyj

"I loved "why does it feel so familiar?" He was so close to solving his own riddle."

Good Lord LOL, this entire thread is filled with comedy gold.

[outsider1624]

"The uncharted veteran in me" thinks you deserve a bubble!

[InTheLab]

Really hope that makes it into UC4...

[SlightlyRetarted]

Yeah it's a little scary. How many times people on this site say that they will not buy something before reviews are in. Gaming journalists don't even master their craft. I mean this is same if a movie journalist saw Star Wars Episode 1 and wrote about it as it was Episode 7 preview.
And there were news that BO3 let's you skip streight to the ending. If this practice comes popular, how long before we have reviews for great games that read "6/10, Ending was confusing".
A lot of times journalists seem to lack the skill required to do their job correctly. I mean there was a Metal Gear Rising review, where journalist gave the game 6/10 because he was stuck at Monsoon on medium difficulty. When you read the article, you could read that he didn't bother to learn the block/counter system.
Remember God of War: Ascension and the hive mind effect that "Bros before hoes" trophy started. Half of the reviews slammed the game because of that trophy. It was ridiculous.

[OB1Biker]

Yes this is scary indeed. And I hope what happened here is a wake up call for gamers and that they remember it when they read opinion pieces/reviews and have a more critical approach instead of taking what the writer says they often try to pass as facts.
Not only games rating 'scores' need to go (they are complete BS IMO) but more importantly gaming journalists need to change and have a more humble and open minded approach in making clear their opinions is only theirs and gamers can enjoy things they don't

[Narutodemon]

NaughtyDog should make the platinum trophy for A Thief's End " The veteran in me"

[Bathyj]

Ha, I'm like 90% sure that will happen.

[Bennibop]

What has happened to gaming journalism? Sites paid for by Microsoft and potentially bribed by publishers, Reviews affected by advertising deals, reviews being surpressed, 'Journalists' previewing the wrong games and games given a poor review just because its not your preferred system. I think we should all boycott websites like VG247 and N4G should definitely ban there articles.

[LgbtWarrior]

She is actually the second in charge. Deputy editor. What's sad is she never apologized personally. Which means she's probably in a relationship with the main guy. Why would he cover for her? Should have been a joint apology. Shes a coward.

[AmUnRa]

I dont trust many gamingsites. I look for reviews on gamerankings and read the reviews they are linking. And yes there are reviews from gamingsites with an agenda. But you can read that between the lines. Then i make up my own mind and buy ore dont buy the game.

I dont read gamersreviews. Why?
The most gamersreviews i see are reviews with an agenda. Xboxone diehard fanboys giving PS4 only games a "review" and come up with score 2 between and 5.
The same can be said over the PS4 diehard fanboys.

Make up your own mind, if you love the genre, say Adventure games you know what you want from a game. Like i said make up your own mind, do not depent only on "reviews" from others.

[esmittystud101]

The only thing I took from this whole deal is the fact that Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection looks so good he thought it was the forth installment of the series. I just finished Drake's Fortune a couple days ago and I started Among Thieves last night. Love finding collectables in these lenear titles. I think I just get more satisfaction finding/missing items in these linear games than I do in the open world ones.

[jb227]

Same here, the first article about Uc4 mentioned a renewed focus on relics & optional story lines tied into them, so it sounds like UC4 will do it better than ever...there's nothing like scouring every inch of a Naughty Dog game to appreciate the art & look for that little gleam on the ground.

[zarbor]

If you think that gaming journalism looks bad now because of this one clown who had no idea what he was playing and wrote about it, you're a bigger idiot than him.

Give me a break people. Gaming journalism has been a joke especially on the internet. Since most dopey gamers believe everything they read on the internet, it amazes me the level of ignorance, fanboyism and down right lack of common sense in most of these gaming articles.

Yet gamers eat it up. I haven't even begun to talk about some of these developers and publishers cosey relationships with a number of these so called journalist....more like bootleg. So call me whatever since I could careless about ND and their fans complaining about something that has been known to many for a while now.

Its a shame what many like IGN, Gametrailers, Gamespot, etc has become.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Can't wait to play on my shiny new Ps4

[DigitalRaptor]

Congrats on the upgrade man!

I think this game will be GOTY 2016 and best action shooter.

[M4DE_IN_W4LE5]

As nice as ND Collection looks, anybody with a sense bout the games industry should know it isn't Uncharted 4. I would say easy mistake to make , but it aint

[bligmerk]

Just another how-low-can-you-go in pseudo-professional gamezine "journalism". There are questions? Had this woman never played an Uncharted game before to recognize it was a remaster? And it seems a gamezine journalist would know getting to play UC4 at this point would be kind of a major event? That, and even worse, developing an article to criticize it for being too "formulaic"? Gamezine guerilla journalism is the epic fail.

[FN4GM]

Classic example as to why the term "game journalist" is thrown around way to much. Far to many people claim they are without having the knowledge or experience to be one. This is why game review scores are so broken, most come from people with little to no credibility in the industry as a whole.

[level 360]

Just goes to show the sad state of gaming journalism is presently.

[MasterofMagnetism]

Funny... I find it sad and embarassing especially for an Uncharted "veteran".