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Driv3r
Reviews. Were PSM2 & XBW honest? (Part
II)
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simon71
Member

Joined: 17 Mar 2004
Posts:
170
Location: London

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 4:30
pm    Post
subject:

Egregious Willy
wrote:

Yes, but my point is, who
are all these poor saps who've wasted their
hard-earned cash because of these "bullshit"
reviews? Hands up anyone, please, who bought the
game based on one of these reviews (i.e. anyone
who wouldn't have otherwise bought it) and was
then thoroughly pissed
off.

I bought a copy of Xbox
World. And based on the extremely
favourable review, I would most certainly have
bought a copy of Driver 3 had I not noticed this
thread.

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GwiDan
Veteran Member

Joined: 16 Jul 2002
Posts:
5957
Location: Hiding the corpses...

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 4:38
pm    Post
subject:

OctogenarianPussy
wrote:

In this case Gwi, it's utter
tosh.

I'm trying not to get sued.

simon71
wrote:

I bought a copy of Xbox World.
And based on the extremely favourable review, I
would most certainly have bought a copy of
Driver 3 had I not noticed this
thread.

That's the whole point!
You'd have bought this game based on these reviews
expecting a game on par with Halo/Metroid
Prime/Zelda and all the rest of them. It's quite
clearly not in the same league as those
magnificent gems. Based on the gem scale, Driv3r
is a lump of coal.

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Prince Of
Evil
New
Member

Joined: 19 Feb 2004
Posts:
66

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:03
pm    Post
subject:

I played the
game.

It's sh*t.

*burns £35*

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KKLEIN
Veteran Member

Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts:
8444
Location: Misery Guts Avenue

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:07
pm    Post
subject:

GwiDan
wrote:

I got a reply from Mia Roberts,
Publishing Director of the Future Games division
a while ago - it's plenty to be disappointed
about. Simply, it's all corporate rubbish; as
Eighthours eloquently put, "a cut and paste
job". According to Miss Roberts, Future staff
would never bow to any kind of pressure when it
comes to reviewing, opinions are the writers'
own and not influenced by outside or commercial
pressures. Future never has or will tamper with
review scores.

That's extremely
difficult to
believe.

Bah.
_________________
That's a disc drive.
What's been in them you ask? Well:

PS2 - Smackdown
HCTP, PSM2 disc 51.
Xbox - Driv3r

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Jonny_Darko
Member

Joined: 09 Dec 2003
Posts:
124

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:09
pm    Post
subject:

gamesindustry.biz
wrote:

/-------------------------------------------------------

GamesIndustry.biz Weekly Update - 24/06/2004

-------------------------------------------------------/

The launch of Driv3r has been
telegraphed for weeks as being an important
event - not necessarily because of the
anticipation for the title, which is the
annoyingly-monikered current generation update
of the well-received PSone franchise, but rather
because of the huge impact its success or
failure will have on the future of its
publisher, Atari.

For a second year
running, Atari has effectively bet the farm on a
single title - with some estimates suggesting
that the game will need to sell four million
units worldwide just to recoup its huge
development and marketing budget, while
speculation runs rife within the business
community that should the game fail, Atari could
well go to the wall. We've all been here before,
with last year's Enter The Matrix; it sold
millions of units, and Atari lived to fight
another day. Something else also gives a
distinct sense of deja vu - like Enter The
Matrix, early reviews of Driv3r have divided
broadly between those which consider it a
disastrous failure, and those which have lauded
it to the heavens, with the bulk of opinion
seeming to come down in favour of a critical
slating.

What's different, this time, is
that the divided opinions have ignited a
firestorm of discussion and debate over the
entire issue of reviews and the politics which
surround them. Accusations of review scores
being "sold" in return for advertising and other
such incentives have flown back and forth,
publications have been forced to admit to
reviewing from incomplete code and taking
Atari's word that bugs would be fixed, and the
whole question of how trustworthy reviews
actually are has been given an airing once again
- along, of course, with the ultimate question
of the credibility of publications which are
supported by advertising for the products which
they attempt to review impartially.

These are important questions for the
games media, but there's a single more important
question which won't be answered until the sales
figures for Driv3r finally appear - namely, just
how relevant are reviews at all?

Driv3r
may have achieved incredibly - arguably
ludicrously - high scores from some
publications, but major sites such as IGN and
Gamespot have both criticised the game harshly,
as have several other publications. It seems
likely that the balance of professional critical
opinion will come down heavily against the
title; but while Atari is unlikely to be happy
with this situation, nobody seems to believe
that this critical slating is going to make
Driv3r bomb.

In fact, even those
journalists who have slated the game admit that
it's probably going to ride high on the charts
for months; and while review scores might drive
sales lower than they would have been otherwise,
Driv3r will probably still sell the four million
units it needs to shift with ease.

Reviews certainly aren't irrelevant;
hardcore gamers rely heavily upon them, and
those elusive "key opinion formers" probably
read reviews, even if their friends don't. But
there's little doubt that the Driv3r episode
should prompt much navel-gazing in the games
media, and perhaps some deep thought among
publishers. If a game can be released in an
unfinished state, filled with fairly serious
bugs and - in the opinion of many professional
critics - badly designed in the first place, and
still sell four million units, then a host of
problems are raised. Where are those purchasers
getting their information from? Why are poor
reviews failing to influence them, and what can
the games media do to help this situation? Will
bad experiences with hugely hyped games damage
their interest in gaming as a hobby, and hurt
our industry in the long run?

None of
the answers are apparent - but it's important
that answers are found, both for the future of
the games media, and for the future of the games
publishing industry as a whole.

Personally from Future's
response I get the impression that they're hoping
this will blow over. I don't think it will. Or if
it does we'll all just be back here again in a few
weeks going through the same crap. Poor Mia
Roberts doesn't seem to have realised how big this
is snowballing and as a result seems to have made
herself look a bit daft.

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E.Peterus
Unum
Veteran
Member

Joined: 14 Feb 2004
Posts:
3622
Location: Pat Sharpe's Fun House

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:14
pm    Post
subject:

Kalibur
wrote:

One of the biggest tragedies to
my mind was Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of
Liberty...10/10... I dont know how many people
have played this but, it is absolutely terrible,
i havent heard a person say it was more than
6/10...

Probably not many people,
it's quite a niche game
_________________

XBOXGamerUK
wrote:

I bought a StarSucks T-Shirt
today down Camden Town for £6.99 and it is so
funny the way it satires
StarBucks.

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GwiDan
Veteran Member

Joined: 16 Jul 2002
Posts:
5957
Location: Hiding the corpses...

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:15
pm    Post
subject:

KKLEIN
wrote:

GwiDan
wrote:

I got a reply from Mia Roberts,
Publishing Director of the Future Games division
a while ago - it's plenty to be disappointed
about. Simply, it's all corporate rubbish; as
Eighthours eloquently put, "a cut and paste
job". According to Miss Roberts, Future staff
would never bow to any kind of pressure when it
comes to reviewing, opinions are the writers'
own and not influenced by outside or commercial
pressures. Future never has or will tamper with
review scores.

That's extremely
difficult to
believe.

Bah.

You'll be glad to know I
haven't let it drop with management,
then.

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KKLEIN
Veteran Member

Joined: 15 Jul 2002
Posts:
8444
Location: Misery Guts Avenue

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:17
pm    Post
subject:

One forum
discussion has basically ballooned out of control
& is now not only a major discussion on other
message boards but on gaming sites & the media
as well. I can't wait to see what PSM2 & XBW
say, if anything, about all this. They can't just
ignore it can they?

It’ll be on BBC news’
website next. Maybe.
_________________
That's a disc drive.
What's been in them you ask? Well:

PS2 - Smackdown
HCTP, PSM2 disc 51.
Xbox - Driv3r

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E.Peterus
Unum
Veteran
Member

Joined: 14 Feb 2004
Posts:
3622
Location: Pat Sharpe's Fun House

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:20
pm    Post
subject:

Kalibur
wrote:

One of the biggest tragedies to
my mind was Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons Of
Liberty...10/10... I dont know how many people
have played this but, it is absolutely terrible,
i havent heard a person say it was more than
6/10...

Probably not many people,
it's quite a niche game
_________________

XBOXGamerUK
wrote:

I bought a StarSucks T-Shirt
today down Camden Town for £6.99 and it is so
funny the way it satires
StarBucks.

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Vyper
Experienced Member

Joined: 27 Nov 2003
Posts:
1627
Location: Durham

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:21
pm    Post
subject:

KKLEIN
wrote:

Quote:

Of course there are a few
gripes. For one, shouldn't there be more
traffic? Considering how incredibly hard you
are, the police could also benefit for a little
extra beef? Where's the helicopter support?
Where's the blood? What about the filthy
language, for f*ck sake (not censored in review
- quite frankly that's out of order
imo)?

Does no one else find it
strange that swear words are censored on here
(where you're supposed to be 13 and over) because
it might reflect badly on Future if people take
offence, yet they have no problem with swearing in
the mags (which anyone can
buy)?
_________________
Vyper - 'our mouse
hating snake buddy'
] WTFbomb>

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Vyper
Experienced Member

Joined: 27 Nov 2003
Posts:
1627
Location: Durham

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:26
pm    Post
subject:

KKLEIN
wrote:

One forum discussion has
basically ballooned out of control & is now
not only a major discussion on other message
boards but on gaming sites & the media as
well. I can't wait to see what PSM2 & XBW
say, if anything, about all this. They can't
just ignore it can they?

It’ll be on BBC
news’ website next.
Maybe.

Unfortunately though casual
gamers will have read none of this, and will
probably never hear about it. Because of this
Driv3r will still make its sales target anyway and
most of the people who've bought it will be none
the wiser. Its all very well getting the whole of
the net up in a fury about this but the number of
people who will take notice (ie, the 'serious'
gamers) is pretty low compared to the number who
won't (the casuals)
_________________
Vyper
- 'our mouse hating snake buddy'
] WTFbomb>

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GwiDan
Veteran Member

Joined: 16 Jul 2002
Posts:
5957
Location: Hiding the corpses...

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:31
pm    Post
subject:

Anybody fancy
emailing the BBC Online Newsdesk? They might be
able to investigate further, and it would make
compelling reading for the technology section of
their site.

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Jonny_Darko
Member

Joined: 09 Dec 2003
Posts:
124

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:34
pm    Post
subject:

I actually
think the Beeb might well be interested - with
their adherence to unbiased editorial
policy.

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pieman
Starting Member

Joined: 24 Jun 2004
Posts:
6

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:36
pm    Post
subject:

True Vyper, but
will 4river or what ever they call the next one
sell if people on the whole have a bad memory of
the game? I suppose the question is are consumers
that shallow that a lot of glossy advertising can
convince them that a game is worthy, when it
isn't.....

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jamiej
Member

Joined: 19 May 2004
Posts:
288

Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2004 5:36
pm    Post
subject:

HAHA oh yes
beeb unbiased....heehee
_________________
Carpe diem-seize
the donut.

Currently playing=

Ps2=Final Fantasy X-2/prince of persia

Xbox=voodoo vince/full spectrum warrior

Gamecube=Wind waker/metroid

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