gamingeek said:

Salma used to be soooo hot.

To think that she started here in Mexico doing shitty soap operas. Then she moved away to pursue the Hollywood dream.

phantom_leo said:

If you are an adult male, you just HAVE TO stick your willy in the Chocolate Pudding to see just what it would feel like. (Not me.)

steelattack said:

iga_bobovic said:

Leo has fury. Leo time to rub it in their noses.

Rub what in? The penis?

Where have you been, anus? Fapping furiously?

Not yet, that day has not yet come, be patient Tanooki. My internet was not working, but I fixed it!

I never have a problem with my internets. That's because I have Comcast with PowerBoost!

dvader said:

IGN reviews LBP, 6 page review, really well done and touches on every single issue the game has. The only thing I dont think they had correct was some confusion about the creation mode tools, I think the one shot trigger does activate something once and thats it, he said that wasn't possible. Also he kind of didn't get into the playing of others levels which is where the magic happens. Still if you want a great read on what LBP is like, read it.

Leo World of Goo also got a 9.5, amazing score. Its $15 right, its going to have to wait, I am dying here, I shouldn't even be buying LBP. But its a definte buy later on.

Is that the reason why I can't access IGN? I get 500'd on everything BUT the boards. And I don't want to go on the boards....

What's the score btw?

phantom_leo said:

Phantom_Leo wrote: ...But there was A LOT of influence from RockStar. (Anyone care for a beer?)

Actually, that was sent several days after the game's release and after CVG already had their review up - which was 9.5, by the way.

Phantom_Leo wrote: Then... once IGN gave that 10... and it was up BEFORE everyone else's... They started a trend. "Oooo. They gave it a 10 and we weren't going to. Is there something wrong with us? What will the fans think? Have we had any scandalous happenings lately that we want to make up for by keeping the peace?" It almost seem like it was group think or going along with the consensus, rather than a true, unbiased review.

Do you have anything to offer as evidence or even a hint that was really the case...because I'm not buying it for a second. Lots of reviews end up similar to one another - usually it's a testament to the game's quality, or lack thereof - not massive conspiracy.

Phantom_Leo wrote: I personally don't feel this game deserves to be the "Highest Rated of All Time" due to the technical difficulties. Is it a AAA game? Yes. Best ever? No. Best GTA ever...? There seems to be opinions in this very topic that suggest, No... and the other versions didn't get 10's!

THIS WAS UP IN FLAMES (^)

_______________________________

THIS WAS FATHOMS_BASIC (v)

"...but to assume that Rockstar paid off a bunch of sources, and to assume that one source had a "cascading effect" on other sites (including ours over at PSX Extreme), kinda says that we journalists don't have a mind of our own.

I've never been paid off or coerced by another source to significantly change a score. There's no reason to do that. I have no motivation to do it. I get paid to do my job and I do it to the best of my ability. What you're implying is just a little insulting to the integrity of journalists and critics..."

_______________________________

Add these two to a crapload of GTA IV-inspired GGD Forum new members ALSO ganging up on me 'cause I dared to say something unfavorable about the "Game of the Century" (for THAT week at least, then came MGS4, then came LBP, then came...) and you can see where I got a little disillusioned earlier this year!

If you go back now and ask all of those people what their GOTY is NOW, I wonder how they would respond?

Most people in the gaming forum community don't live in "reality". I mean didn't you see how people were so SHOCKED about The Jeff Incident? I was one of the few who was just like "And? If this shocks you then clearly you people need to get a dose of  journalism and corprate relations". But noone listened and kept saying "Not Gamespot! Anything but Gamespot! How can our favorite website betray us!?"

Also Fathom's comment is fucking hilarious. Did I tell you guys about the guy at Gamespot who did the Lost Odyessy  review only got to the end of the first disc? After he did the review people went to his Xbox Live card that is displayed in his profile and it claimed he didn't even reach the 2nd disc. Of course the thread was locked.

Cliff B:

"I don't think the industry values visionaries as much as it could. I really don't," said Bleszinksi

That's because the majority of the people in the gaming community don't form their own opinions. They only go by what everyone else says. The only time the exceptions happen if the game sells like crap or the developers get canned (Examples: Clover Studios, Treasure's early works, Dreamcast SEGA) because only then do they become "under-rated" and become the "cool" thing to praise. The only exception to this statement that I can think of is Suda 51 and that's only because he was releasing a game that was the "shining light of hope" for "hardcore. If "No More Heroes" was released on the Xbox 360 it wouldn't have gotten half the attention nor the sales.

"As sad as it is, you're only as good as your last game, in many ways," he said. "In Hollywood, at least, you get movie jail for like a year, and you're out, and you get to try and make another good movie. In games, you screw up once, and no one ever wants to hear from you again. It's pretty sad."

Wow this guy is still butthurt from Unreal Tournament III

"Good as your last game"? Well not shit you are. Your "last game" tells how good you are at the present. Nobody gives a shit about how good you were.

"In games, you screw up once, and no one ever wants to hear from you again."

It's called redeeming yourself. I mean fuck every developer fucks up. Look at Capcom with the Devil May Cry series (2??!?!? WTF!?), Ion Storm (Daikatana?), Namco (Soul Calibur III), yeah okay. Try making quality FPS's again then all will be forgiven.

I remember that thread very well Leo, felt bad for you on that one. But I think the issue with UIF and fathoms wasn't so much defending GTAIV as it was defending game reviews in general. Looking back clearly GTAIV is not the end all game every site made it out to be, I am pretty damn sure its hardly anyones favorite GTA game let alone favorite game.  Still I believe its a very high quality game and a ton of fun.

What bothers me about rushed reviews is that I'm not even in the industry and have learned that you simply can't do a fair review without finishing the game as per my "Golden Sun" rule.  That is, a game can abruptly end at any point in the most ridiculously stupid manner possible immediately destroying the projected value of the game.

yodariquo said:

What bothers me about rushed reviews is that I'm not even in the industry and have learned that you simply can't do a fair review without finishing the game as per my "Golden Sun" rule.  That is, a game can abruptly end at any point in the most ridiculously stupid manner possible immediately destroying the projected value of the game.

When I read a review I am under the impressions that the reviewer has finished the game. If not they are betraying the readers trust unless they specifically state they have not seen the ending credits.  I cannont imagine reviewing a game I did not finish, thats absurd.

dvader said:

IGN reviews LBP, 6 page review,.

6 pages? Talk about going overboard. I can't fucking stand 3 page reviews.....6 is just dumb.

I'm a big believer in getting the point across in as little text as possible. I've just never seen the need to write an essay on whether a game is worth buying or not, and 99% of the time in these reviews they basically just tell you a bunch of ovbious crap about the game that you don't need to know. Which is how the LBP review is, I'm sure.

Is it worth buying or not? It is? Good, that's all I needed to know.

gamingeek said:

phantom_leo said:

_______________________________

THIS WAS FATHOMS_BASIC (v)

"...but to assume that Rockstar paid off a bunch of sources, and to assume that one source had a "cascading effect" on other sites (including ours over at PSX Extreme), kinda says that we journalists don't have a mind of our own.

I've never been paid off or coerced by another source to significantly change a score. There's no reason to do that. I have no motivation to do it. I get paid to do my job and I do it to the best of my ability. What you're implying is just a little insulting to the integrity of journalists and critics, that's all."

I've never heard of PSX Extreme, but it sounds something like Fathoms would be involved with. I don't think any PR company is going to put pressure or give incentives or exclusive reviews to smaller sites, so perhaps he can't apply his experience to the experience of larger media outlets?

BTW The Thundercats blog is up!

http://72.39.110.251:55000/blog.php?id=124

That's what I was thinking too, LOL. This Fathoms dude must be pretty full of himself if he thinks working at some little niche site is the same as IGN or Gamespot. Or he's really gullable.

gamingeek said:

steelattack said:

gamingeek said:

I posted that article.

And thus, I walk away vindicated.

Like Antonio Banderas in Desperado, walking away from the fire. His hair blowing in the wind.

Salma used to be soooo hot.

What do you mean USED to be hot?