gamesradar.com

jamiej · Member Joined: 19 May 2004 Posts: 288

Im tempted to go and spam atari fanboys i really am....
anyone else?
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Currently playing=
Ps2=Final Fantasy X-2/prince of persia
Xbox=voodoo vince/full spectrum warrior
Gamecube=Wind waker/metroid

Steve · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 2:15 pm Post subject:

Eighthours · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 2:21 pm Post subject:

No invasion squad. If you want to do it, be a lone operative deep deep undercover, and don't mention GR.
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Confront Juliet
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poser1929 · Member Joined: 20 Oct 2003 Posts: 281 Location: England

It's sad, given that most of us have grown up alongside computer magazines, but I really don't think you can trust reviews.

I'm a qualified journalist - a 'proper' one, not at a games mag. Several times I've seen good stories pulled because of board-level decisions.

There was one in particular when one of my paper's major advertisers had seriously mistreated a female member of staff. We couldn't do the story because of the financial implications.

To paraphrase Kevin Spacey in American Beauty, trade mags are nothing more than whores for the advertising industry. The idea of a mutually benficial deal between a softco and a magazine is a fairly run-of-the mill concept.

The only thing that surprises me is that this fact surprises anyone.
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KKLEIN · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 2:39 pm Post subject:

nellis · Starting Member Joined: 18 Jun 2004 Posts: 5

Well then. Our review score for Driv3r seems to have created quite a stir and with half of you baying for blood and demanding a response from XBW, I thought I'd brave the forums. Ulp.

First off I'd like to totally refute the suggestion that magazines, and specifically XBW, take bribes - monetary or otherwise - to inflate review scores. Sure we might get the odd T-shirt sent to us or a pint bought by a PR but never, in 4 years of working at Future, have I ever given a game an inflated score because a/ I've been ordered to or b/ I've been thrown a bung. Sure I've over marked games - 9/10 for MOH: Rising Sun in OPS2 I will freely admit was a grave error of judgement but an honest mistake. But that's another story entirely.

Further to this, the allegation that there is some grand conspiracy between ourselves and Atari - 'you give it a nine, we'll lob a sticker on the box and a page in the manual' - is again wrong. The sticker was agreed on only after the review had been written and sent to press.

So to Driv3r. It's a great game and we stand by the review. Our staffie played it to completion and loved it, as did the man who wrote our tips guide. However, with regard to the technical issues raised on this forum then you may have a point. Because of the long lead times for magazines and the fact that it was an exclusive review, the code we reviewed from was not final. We were made aware of some bugs in the game and were promised that these would be sorted by the time of release. I cannot comment on whether these were fixed or not but I have an unopened boxed copy of the game on my desk and will endeavour to check it out this evening - there's been too much footie on for serious gaming sessions at home! If it transpires that what was supposedly going to be fixed wasn't, then we will speak to Atari. But like I say, can't comment on that yet. That said, the old PS1 games were greeted with rapturous applause and they were pretty ropy technically in places - slowdown and pop-up aplenty - but had the killer gameplay that we believe has carried over to the latest Driver incarnation.

So with this in mind perhaps a 9 was a little too enthusiastic. Perhaps. But for gamescentral to score it a 3 is just plain rubbish. A 3, or even a 6, would suggest that the game is fundamentally broken and the gameplay offers little if anything in the way of enjoyment. This is simply not true, far from it. If we were to review from the boxed copy and found that all the technical issues had not been resolved then I believe we still would have scored it an 8 or 9 but again, this is pure conjecture and I'll comment when I've played it.

At the end of the day, Bob, much of this is surely down to personal opinion and taste. Can I point you in the direction of OXM's Shadow Ops review in their current issue? This is in no way a personal attack on Gavin Ogden (we'll leave the petty bitching to Xbox Gamer) but 8/10 is, in our opinion, a very very high score for the game. We've only just gone to print with our review so I wont give out our score but I only mention this to illustrate that games, like most things in life, are so often down to the reviewer's/gamer's taste. An another example - I'm currently having a heated discussion with the boss about Leilani and whether she's hot to trot or not. She is, he's entirely wrong, I am entirely right.

Right, I'll stop rambling on now. Hope this goes someway to answering your points. I await responses with extreme trepidation...

Please note this post is speaking for XBW and not PSM2.

Nick Ellis
Deputy editor, XBW

phAnt0m buRn · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 3:50 pm Post subject:

KKLEIN · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 4:03 pm Post subject:

Stephen · Member Joined: 25 Dec 2003 Posts: 156 Location: Japan

Thanatos · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 4:08 pm Post subject:

Stephen · Member Joined: 25 Dec 2003 Posts: 156 Location: Japan

Sorry - but anyone giving that particular game a nine ( and possibly parting anyone from their hard-earned cash) is a prick.

Eighthours · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 4:13 pm Post subject:

Seriously, don't flame the guy. I respect him greatly for coming on here and giving us an honest and detailed response.

At least we now know that it was unfinished code, and that there were no enducements offered!

One question I do still have: how was it arranged for Xbox World to get the exclusive review? Is it just a case of your staff schmoozing with the Atari PR? The only reason I'm asking this really is that Atari have asked other publications not to print reviews until after the game's release date, and I'm just interested in how the process of getting the exclusive works.
_________________
Humiliate John Rodney Bennett
Trash CompDeck
Confront Juliet
But do it quickly....you've only got eight hours to live

Cal · Experienced Member Joined: 14 Jan 2004 Posts: 1324

More and more I'm coming to forums like this first to get the low-down on new games, as opposed to magazines. I just can't trust them any more - and the post from the guy at XBW just backs this suspicion up (playing unfinished code and marking the game on that is just not fair to the readership to whom - especially the younger members - 40 quid is a large amount of money to gamble).

GR proves it's worth on this one issue alone - you wanna hear the truth about a game, hear it from real players, with real experiences of the game.