Who broke embargo? Bear in mind a number of sites will have entered into separate NDAs which permitted them to post regionally exclusive coverage etc. That's basically the point of setting an embargo for everyone else. View

Lewis here. Just spotted this. Worth pointing out: this is my personal blog and in no way affiliated with any of the publications I write for. GGG's editor spoke with me about the situation and I blogged about it, as I found it an interesting situation and wanted to know whether people thought MS were appropriate in their somewhat heavy-handed approach. The post wasn't intended to be accusative of anyone. Just wanted to clear that up before it spirals and I have a load of people on my case. View

Does it not strike anyone as weird that people are "disagreeing" with a review of a game they've only played the demo of? View

Remember tha 82% is still an excellent mark. From the Resolution 'About our reviews' page:

"80-90%:
Excellent, highly commendable releases that fall just shy of true greatness. There's not an awful lot to criticise here, and most players will have a brilliant time with these games. They're towards the head of the pack, and if you're looking to purchase something in a particular genre, you could do far, far worse than to opt for one with an 80%+ score." View

Apologies to anyone who thought I was plugging - I specifically didn't link to that review because of that.

Anyway, saying this wasn't a great piece was a little hasty - I apologise for that. I think it misses what I saw as the point somewhat, is what I was trying to say, albeit awfully. Fair comments about my piece. My personal impression is that it's the sort of game that needs to be examined on slightly different criteria to most games. Notably, though, I didn't find it to be particularly bug-ridden.

As for scores, well, they're all kind of arbitrary, aren't they? I prefer not giving them. And I do, to be fair, acknowledge that The Path defies usual scoring systems in my review. The score could have been anywhere between 50 and 90, for me. I settled for a slightly higher one because, y'know, I quite liked it.

I think there's a lot to discuss about this game, basically, and find it a shame that the review's so dismissive from the outset.

Ah, the vested interest in a game argument again. I don't have one. In any game. I write about my experiences with the title, and nothing more.

EDIT: As a result of this and a comment I left over there, I'm now currently having a fascinating conversation with this review's author about The Path. He's clarified some of the issues I had with it, as well as explaining a bit about *why* he felt this was about the game. It's very interesting, and his further comments have come across a lot more insightful than the actual review itself, for me, despite his opinion having not shifted one bit. View

Fascinating!

It's going to be very interesting to see how diverse opinion about this game is. This is, to my knowledge, the fourth review to appear. The others have ranged between confused and rather positive, but I can imagine more of these cropping up very soon.

This isn't a great piece. It fails to even attempt to engage with what ToT were trying to do, and strikes me as an example of "reviewing a game based on what you wanted it to be, not what it is." Some of the factual errors also devalue the opinion a little. I also think it's a pretty hideous accusation to level at ToT, as you heavily imply, that they're being tasteless and gratuitous for "the sake of art". I simply didn't take it that way at all. It's poetic, and it makes you feel uncomfortable to play it. Is that really something to be shouted at? Still, it's really interesting to read about a reaction so far away from my own. I thought The Path was excellent, and gave it an 80% score in Resolution. I'd have actually liked it to be *less* game-like than it is.

Let's see how other people take The Path. I can imagine it slicing opinion down the middle more than almost any other game that springs to mind. View

I enjoy this article.

The correct way to respond to silliness is with more silliness. But *clever* silliness... View

Yeah, the GTA4 thins is slightly awkward. Its story is very good, and certainly the best in the series by a long way. But I can think of a handful of titles off the top of my head that are more interesting, enthralling and well-told. Planescape's the obvious one, though as a game it's very dated now. How about Pathologic, the bizarre Russian action-adventure-RPG-thing from a few years back, with its philosophical musings and inspired setting? Or the nuanced sub-plots of Vampire: Bloodlines' underground subcultures and astonishingly well-conveyed characters?

Dear Esther stands out for me. No one knows what it is. It's a Half-Life 2 mod that pushes the boundaries of what can be considered a "game", and how emotionally affecting the medium can be. View

Having suffered this myself, I'd be surprised if ANYONE manages to see this to its conclusion. It's so broken and horrible that even a full revival in the last few moments wouldn't save it.

Also, remember that only a tiny portion of players actually finish the games that they buy, meaning the movie comparison isn't a particularly good one, since the vast majority of people sit through a full film. View

"I never heard of edge! Are they relevant?"

Edge is the leading industry and culture magazine within gaming. View

Adropacrich2:

Accurate and elegant. I'm not sure it's necessarily an issue of age, though perhaps as the mind matures there are a few issues that crop up, and one starts to view things in different ways.

Largely, the people who go into arts criticism are those who are A) passionate enough about their subject to want to view it at something beyond a superficial level, and B) perceptive and eloquent enough to be able to analyse a work to a deeper level and voice their opinions persuasively.

Edge is an interesting case, because it's not really a games magazine in any traditional sense. Most function primarily as a buyers' guide, but Edge dubs itself a 'culture magazine'. That alone sets it apart, and the style taken in its pages reflects this.

I am, every issue, very surprised they bother with scores at all. Firstly, they seem almost entirely arbitrary, which is why people kick up expletive-storms like this. I'd imagine the writer of - for example - the Fallout 3 review would probably agree that Fear 2 is not a better game, even though it scored more highly. But the scores are uniquely personal, and in a magazine like Edge, which actively hides its writers identities in favour of a more anonymous and collective approach, this sits awkwardly.

Secondly, because it tends to favour a particular TYPE of game. And no, I'm not talking about bias, in any shape or form, so stop that. Its favourite games are generally refined, carefully considered releases with a spark of artistic individuality that sets them apart from the rest of the pack. They're often accused of being biased towards Nintendo; this patently isn't the case. Nintendo just tend to release a lot of games that fall into their area of expertise and preference. There's nothing WRONG with that, but weighing up the scores against releases from outside this band again feels clunky.

Finally, Edge's focus has NEVER been its reviews section. As N'Gai Coral said recently: "I'm not a games reviewer; I'm a games critic." There is clearly a big difference, and Edge is very obviously going for the latter. Not remotely fair to bemoan them for treating our medium with the sincerity of other art forms. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's precisely what most of us would like to see more of. View

Biggest mass stupidity since the release of Metal Gear Solid 4?

Bias. Bias against/towards what? It's the new buzzword, isn't it? "People are criticising a game I have on pre-order! THAT'S DEVALUING MY DECISION TO BUY IT! THAT MEANS YOU'RE BIASED!" Do people genuinely think that professional games critics are going to get drawn into the 'console wars'? Games critics get paid to voice their opinions about a game. They're also not teenagers who can only afford to buy one console and stick with it for dear life.

(It's why I find it funny when, for example, people accuse Eurogamer of being biased towards the 360, when their writers' list is comprised primarily of people who also work for loads of format-specific mags like PC Gamer and PSX.)

I kind of got it with MGS4. HUGE sequel to one of the best loved franchises in the world. Killzone less so. It's a first follow-up to a *reasonably* well-received title. It's just had a mammoth PR campaign behind it. And all this nonsense just baffles me.

I can't believe we've seen a day when a game with a Metacritic average score of 93% is causing people to call out reviewers for being overly critical.

Anyway, this writer claims to have played KZ2 but he hasn't. You can tell. Firstly, well, Sony have a very strict list of who they're sending pre-release copies to. While obviously I don't have access to their traffic data, I sincerely doubt a site that generates next to no comments on its articles is receiving the 200,000 unique readers per month Sony currently require proof of in order to send you Killzone 2. But ever aside from that, there just no detail in his piece. No reference to any part of KZ2 - just to other games this guy reckons KZ2 will be better than.

It's pathetic. It really is. Just look at yourselves, everyone. View

Is anyone else seriously confused as to how ANYONE has found it possible to disagree with ANY reviews of this, since NOBODY other than specially selected members of the press has played it? View

Scores are pretty redundant, really, though. I appreciate it's a Swedish review so, unless you speak-a-da-lingo, it's hard to have any serious discussion about the text, which is - obviously - more important than an arbitrary number tagged on the end. View

I think it's too far removed from Half-Life 2 and the direction the series is taking to be of any use, to be honest. When I spoke to Carlos for this article, he was quite clear in stating that Valve would not be involved in any way. I believe there was talk of some support a while back, but nothing ever came of it, and they haven't been in touch since.

Valve's all about its community support. I doubt it'd go down well if they stole this. View

Still not understanding the GTA4 hating. Maybe Rockstar has set the bar so absurdly high for itself that anything other than the second coming of Christ packaged neatly within their new release is going to be a disappointment to some.

It's about as close to the perfectly crafted videogame as anyone's yet come.

Anyway, anyone else find it odd that Planet X-Box list Sonic Unleashed on the 'worst games of the year' list, when they actually gave it 7-point-something out of ten and a reasonably good review? View

Images removed from the website, as they were seemingly nicked from another source. Oops! View

Spent the last few days playing through this for Honest Gamers. Was a big disappointment for me. The opening is excruciatingly bad and, while it picks up a little bit, the bugs, nasty design choices, awful dialogue and derivative world hold it back throughout.

I'll link to the review when it's live - or someone else might post it, I don't know. View

It's funny, when I read Gary's review I kicked up a similar reaction to people here... but I still don't think it's a great game. Style-over-substance and cheap tricks abound... though I do still secretdly disagree with the score at the end.

But that's what Honest Gamers is about, and in response to your question, that's why we still review older games retrospectively as well as providing coverage of new titles. We attempt to form a full database of available releases, review them, and potentially revisit them at a later date to decide whether they are still worthy of people's attention. In this case, practically everyone was in agreement: Doom 3 simply isn't.

However, it's a website that positively encourages its readership to get involved and have its say. Do feel free to register on the website and contribute to the large user reviews section.

Regards,
Lewis @ Honest Gamers View