UK Mag's Exclusive Review Fits Alleged Eidos Conditions

Kotaku:

"Earlier, The RAM Raider accused Eidos of trying to fix review scores for Batman: Arkham Asylum, a claim Eidos categorically denied. Now one magazine's exclusive review fits all the conditions said to have been made."

[jack_burt0n]

as long as the review doesn't come from kotaku or edge magazine its worth a read.

[Unicron]

I actually really like Kotaku's format. While I may not always agree with their opinion, I find their review format to be far superior to anything else out there. Pros and Cons, as well as how much of the game was actually played.

This review score crap needs to die a quick death, otherwise we're going to have more of THIS kind of thing Eidos is pulling.

[jack_burt0n]

I agree find a couple sources you agree with and use that as a rough guide to help a purchase.

From this review though they mention atmosphere is akin to rapture and def give the game alot of survival adventure praise which is great to hear, makes me think tenchu, Splinter cell, bioforge classic Aitd and thatd b worth 90+ from me lol.

Anyway if its bogus their credibility will b asylumed.

[lociefer]

lool u guyz check this out , it says in the review * some may point out to the lack of co-op or multiplayer modes as being out of step of modern gaming , but look how that worked for the INFERIOR resident evil 5* , so much for being honest and not blowing their cover

[Tony999Montana]

Have you actually read an Edge review or simply seen the scores? Anyone who actually reads Edge knows that they couldn't care less about the score they give, as their philosophy is that it is the actual content not the grade which is important when reviewing. Edge provide intellectual reviews and sometimes carry opinions which differ from others, yet the opinions are interesting an insightful despite any proposed bias.

[mrv321]

The game looks great, but a 96, I consider no game to be a 96 and that's what makes me wonder. Let's just see only time will tell.

[outlawlife]

well i'm glad you gave us your review guidelines, you're opinion doesn't matter any more than any review out there

opinion is opinion, not a number

[mrv321]

A 96 is pretty close to perfect, I highly doubt a game is truly that perfect, most AAA games for me are 80-90 because in all honesty they are not perfect, giving it a score of 96 is like giving a movie a 10/10 and saying it cannot be improved.

[freddy99]

96 is not the same as 10/10, and 96 is not a perfect score

[SpoonyRedMage]

They probably have fixed it but really any pre-embargo review is likely to be "glowing". They wouldn't have been allowed to release the review pre-embargo if it was bad.

[Salvadore]

But do you personally think that this will put pressure on reviewers to increase scores just to release their reviews? Personally, yes. I'm not stating that Arkham Asylum is a horrible game, but according to the recent Invisible Walls podcast, publishers have a lot of power in regards to these reviews. They can decided to allow some to publish their reviews and neglect others after the embargo.

[SpoonyRedMage]

Yup, I agree. It's terrible but it's nothing new. Just look back over the months at some pre-embargo reviews. None of them are bad because simply only a good review would be allowed to be released. Everyone does it.

[SevWolf]

Yeh I also watched Invisible Walls, like Kareem, and it seems that Marcus has a lot of experience in this..he was very informative, you know what I don't understand is why would Eidos do something like this for Batman:AA, they did it for Kane and Lynch and Tomb Raider cause they were average titles, but since they're doing this for Batman it means they are not confident of the title, which makes me have dounts about a game I'm anticipating :(

[Tony999Montana]

Just to let foreigners know, Gamesmaster is considered an immature magazine in Britain, by most standards. They aim at a young demographic and I personally stopped reading it when I was about 9. I wouldn't take their opinion with even a small amount of significance.

[Seraphim]

totally with you on all that SpoonyRDM.

The thing is this is a practice that's been going on for years and it won't change. Personally I have no problem with it and imo others shouldn't either. If they want to allow glowing reviews to be published earlier than the rest then let them. Any site/publication with any ounce of dignity won't write a glowing review just to get a review out there. And if they do they are amongst the least credible of sources in gaming journalism.

Perception is the key. Allow glowing reviews to be printed while placing an embargo on anything less. The glowing reviews get out there, more people are willing buy. It's good for business. Though I think a vast majority of consumers don't read reviews online or subscribe to a gaming publication anyway... At the end of the day to each his own and unfortunately enough, that's what gaming journalism is about. Nothing more than an opinion from a writer. Some will rave about said game while others will be more critical simple because they don't like the game. That's the forum of opinion we call gaming journalism. When was the last time professionalism and gaming journalism went hand in hand? They often don't because "gaming journalists" write as fans, not objective journalists who are informative more than they are opinionated. One of my complaints with the industry in general. We're not reading the review to see if you like the game or not. We're reading the review to see how good the game is in and of itself.

Seriously though? What is the big deal if publishers want to practice this method? If you buy games based off reviews you don't rely on the first you see. You wait to see several reviews unless it comes from a source you absolutely trust. From the publishers/developers it says nothing about their confidence in a game. No matter how confident they are in a game and no matter how good or great a game is there's going to be several idiots out there who take the journalist out of gaming and insert pure fan/a-hole into their review. Some who have no right even reviewing the game for whatever reason. Then there's the obvious that states no matter how good your game is, you're going to get plastered w/ 70's from several sources who are way too critical on good-solid games. As gaming journalists they need to review games based off it's merits, not their opinion. there I go w/ the problem about gaming journalists again... Anyway, wrapping this up. I see no problem with this kind of practice and I don't see what the big deal is. It's not like they're trying to pay $$ for raving reviews. All theyre saying is that if you really liked our game you can go ahead and publish your review, if not, wait till the embargo date then you can say whatever you want about the game...

[andron]

I really hope this game is good though, and I generally trust GM. I'm a subscriber and they have been saying this game is very good in their previews.

96% is high, thats what they gave GTAIV and the Halo games. Generally they don't score many games so high. Let's hope they are right..

Edit: After seeing the scans, I have to say it's a bit unusual for GM to have a 6 page review of a game like this. They might have over scored and given more space than usual. Hopefully the game is at least a 90% game, or my confidence in GM will have been shaken...

[TheColbertinator]

Well I thought GTA4 deserved its perfect reviews...until I started playing it and it felt like a snoozefest.Reviews have to be analyzed carefully especially the world exclusive first reviews.

[Obama]

Truthiness indeed. GTA4 is boring as hell.

[Rogert]

the games that do get great reviews are acutally very good games, so what if they get a 96% or 100%. If you look at the reader reviews on gamespot and ign, most of the time they are pretty much in the same zone. Are you saying that games like Gears, Mass Effect, GTA4, MGS4, Killzone 2, and other games that get early reviews aren't great games?

I look the whole number review system. Hollywood still does it and i do not see a reason for it to be abolished.

[Rogert]

is this how bad N4G has become, where a blogspot.com post is news?!?!

[Automat]

everything is news at this site. you got a rumour to share? put it up on the frontpage at once!
BTW; I like cookies, and I just took a dump.

[morkendo]

The RAM Raider accused Eidos of trying to fix review scores for Batman: Arkham Asylum,

in the tone of shaggy " like, duh man every company dose it" and u dont need a scooby snack to figure that out.

but seriously they all do it but we dont hear about it til one get busted. im sure Capcom,Activision,KONAMI,EA,Ra re, ETC at one time or another did the same. fix review score to pump up sales just like in sports the owners bid on the game before time to determine who'll win in advance its FIX!!!! boxing,football,basketball,bas eball i have over 15 years of service in all 3 sports catering to vice pres. sometimes they get drunk and slip of the tongue.

below
OH reginald i did not say i did not like the game

[OhReginald]

then you will know that batman: arkham asylum truly is a great game.

[Tony999Montana]

I haven't read the review. But i assure everyone else, this will be an excellent game. Possibly one of the best to be released this year. Doubt me however much you want, it will be a good game.

[cyborg6971]

Ram raider is full of crap none of his aqusations hold water. Yet another hack trying to get hits.

[tiamat5]

I have high hopes for this game. Also for Bayonetta and Uncharted 2. I hope that it gets good reviews to wash that dirfty taste of Prototype mascarating as a superhero game. Batman is one of my few DC heroe s and deserves a have a good game for once

[stryx]

If all the beanheads that read this kind of crap would actually check the credibility of the websites they go to, then they would understand that companies don't do everything that people say.

"Everything on this blog is the personal opinion of the RAM Raider, and is all lies (Apart from the comments, which are the personal opinions of the commenters. And are all lies.)" - Taken from the bottom of RAM Raider's blog space

Now...time for everyone to take their head out of the ground.