25 July, 2009

Arkham Asylum: We Have A Winner

Have you been playing “spot the corruption”?

Excitingly, the embargo hasn’t lifted yet. Ding!

Ding!


Ding ding ding!


“With regards an article posted on RamRaider alleging that Eidos has fixed review scores for Batman: Arkham Asylum, we want to state that no discussions have been held about review scores with any magazines. In short there is simply not one shred of truth in this article, except for the title of the game.”

Jon Brooke, Eidos UK marketing manager


Scans of the full review here, if you can somehow heroically endure it.

50 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:36 am

    You do realize that even the makers of MGS4 tried to tamper with reviews, correct? Still, that game was critically acclaimed and is widely regarded as the best title on the PS3 exclusive list. They are simply offering to lift the embargo if the companies choose to guarantee a positive review. No money involved.

    BTW, the developers matter more than the publisher. Eidos has published some incredible games, such as Thief, Deus Ex, Legacy of Kain, etc. By your logic, every 9+ review before the game releases must now be corrupt?

    Ugh.

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  2. Anonymous9:08 am

    Besides, Eidos has published some kickass game series, like Thief/Kain. So what if the publishers want publicity by letting magazines CHOOSE to run a review early if they CHOOSE to accept certain conditions? It's all about the developers, and it's unfair. You're acting like every review that's now 9+ will be corrupt, which is a slap across the face to the devs of the actual content.

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  3. Anonymous9:54 am

    Just curious, what happens if the non-exclusive reviews are high too? Don't you need the context to actually call this one?

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  4. Anonymous10:37 am

    Is this not a bit like judging witches?

    "She's drowned! DING! Told you she was a witch!"

    BAA's a fantastic game which was always going to score 9+; is there something I'm missing?

    I've still to talk to anyone who has been offered this 'embargo', Rammy. I don't get it, 'cos you're often spot-on.

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  5. Is this really a sign that they gave it a 80%+ just too beat the embargo? Maybe just they really liked it...

    I think if we see a significant number of 80-85% reviews sneaking out in the next month, that'll be more telling. Rags are more likely to artificially boost the score by 2-3% to get the exclusive than give a sweeping 'BEST GAME EVAR' score since the latter just makes them look like shills.



    Not that Games Master has been relevant since Patrick Moore left anyway :)

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  6. Anonymous1:04 pm

    Rammy is so fucking right. Surely scores that high should be reserved for only the very, very best games, not some merely surprisingly competent liscensed fodder from a company whose PR is known for fiddling with press. There's coincidence, then there's blatant fucking lies and a whole heap of denial from overly defensive journalists who are probably rotten to the core themselves.

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  7. Anonymous1:53 pm

    did anyone actually think gamesmaster had integrity anyway?

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  8. Anonymous2:31 pm

    Good to see that GamesMaster is still a magazine with integrity that can be trusted to do the right thing. No wait, what? The other thing - the "Aww hell, we don't care so long as we get bats on the cover" thing.

    GM the magazine makes Dominik Diamond look like a diamond!

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  9. Anonymous4:51 pm

    @Previous Anon Knight: What a ridiculous claim. It's GamesMaster - they score highly because their readership thinks that anything less than 90% is shit, so they have to up the marks to compensate. BAA is a great game and will be getting 8+ across the board (even the harsh fucks like Edge/gamesTM will probably only go as low as 7, and that's if it's the reviewer's time of the month.

    Chances are, Robin knew it was getting a high score because he'd spoken to whoever was reviewing it and thought, "Well, putting it on the cover won't be bad, because there's no much else out there to put on... AND we'll get it before everyone else. Go on then...". If it was a shit game, I'd agree with the conspiracy - it's not though, so I don't.

    As has been said before, Ram's usually right about these things... but I really think he's taking this one a bit too far.

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  10. Anonymous8:09 pm

    even if the game is great it's still a shady practice...

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  11. Anonymous8:34 pm

    GamesMasturbator.

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  12. Anonymous8:36 pm

    "You do realize that even the makers of MGS4 tried to tamper with reviews, correct? Still, that game was critically acclaimed and is widely regarded as the best title on the PS3 exclusive list."

    So trying to manipulate reviews is alright if you're game is good? What if the game's bad?

    The entire point of reviews is to offer a (supposedly) impartial review. Otherwise it stops being a review and turns into an ad. It doesn't really matter if you're selling gold bricks as gold bricks. Telling a company that

    "They are simply offering to lift the embargo if the companies choose to guarantee a positive review. No money involved."

    Getting a review out for a highly anticipated game before the competition == money. Only a fool thinks that you have to actually shell out money directly to offer something of monetary value.

    "BTW, the developers matter more than the publisher. Eidos has published some incredible games, such as Thief, Deus Ex, Legacy of Kain, etc. By your logic, every 9+ review before the game releases must now be corrupt?"

    People who can't grasp the concept of a red herring shouldn't try to use logic in their arguments.

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  13. Anonymous9:00 pm

    I hate Eidos. Whether or not they did something here, I don't know, but they're the jerkoffs in the gamespot scandal regarding the mediocre K&L, and others.

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  14. Wow.. This Anonymous below me must be working for Eidos or some company related to the game. Utterly pathetic, your excuses wreak of bias and frankly, a lack of ethical standards.

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  15. Anonymous10:08 pm

    This is looking pretty conclusive to me. Wait until Teletext's GameCentral gets their review out, I find them to be the most accurate for reviews IMO, plus they don't get offered emgorgos since their viewership is no where near as high as magazines like GamesMaster and Edge.

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  16. Anonymous10:31 pm

    Amusing that someone is using MGS4 as an example of when publishers have touted for high scores for a game that actually deserves it. If MGS4 is the best exclusive the PS3 has, then it really is in trouble. A 7 at best - a game that has some amazing moments, but in the majority sets about killing any love you may have had for the franchise. I say this as a hardened fan, too. It was indefensible.

    That said, that was a case where magazines and websites got caught in the hype, desperately wanting to give a big PS3 release a high score, rather than being paid to do so.

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  17. Anonymous11:22 pm

    96% ? Get the fuck out of here. The game is decent enough, but handing it such an obviously bullshit score simply invites scepticism. Rammy was spot on with this matter but there are always a few that still can't see the bleeding obvious when it is staring them in the face.

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  18. Anonymous1:03 am

    How do you know it's a good game, have you played the damn thing? The very fact that game journalists can release a review early if they score it higher is deplorable. It sickens me, it's why I think games journalism is in a very bad place right now. Reviews are becoming more and more meaningless when they can be filtered to meet certain criteria.

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  19. Anonymous7:45 am

    Hmmm Eidos were involved with the Gamespot/Kain and Lynch/Jeff Gerstmann Sacking/game score rigging fiasco from a few years ago no?

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  20. Anonymous8:39 am

    is there going to be a demo for BatMan AA?
    i really want to try before i buy, havent played a demo since middle of may with the infamous demo.

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  21. Anonymous2:30 pm

    hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....

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  22. Anonymous2:33 pm

    "People who can't grasp the concept of a red herring shouldn't try to use logic in their arguments."

    Brilliant. Just brilliant. Give this man a medal, he wins the internet!

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  23. Anonymous2:35 pm

    Basically, Eidos are fucking cunts.

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  24. Anonymous11:19 am

    You'd have more of a point if it scored 90 and the game was known to be duff rather than it being widely praised and getting an OTT kids-mag score in a kids mag. As it is this story just suggests that anyone who reviews the game first and loves it is corrupt, which really just shoes how corrupt you are. Your logic would fit a Daily Mail story.

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  25. Anonymous12:47 pm

    Nah, Eidos are dead now. It's Square-Enix that are the fucking cunts.

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  26. Anonymous2:29 pm

    So any game from now on that get s score over 90% is wrong and corrupt. I bet hardly any of you morons has even played the game. The game is actually quite good, but obviously that doesnt matter does it. idiots!

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  27. As an MGS fan I must react to the first comment. MGS4's dev team did not try to "tamper" with reviews as you put it. Metal Gear Solid is a game that relies HEAVILY on its story telling, and how long a cutscene is and WHEN that cutscene is can spoil some parts for certain fans. Just specifically if a reviewer describes a level in itself, when cutscenes will happen, and for how long, that would kind of spoil the level. Especially since the game's transition from gameplay to cutscene was absolutely seemless.

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  28. Anonymous4:08 pm

    So it scores 1% less than GM gave MGS4, eh? Not everyone liked that, so I smell conspiracy. Grrrr.

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  29. Anonymous4:28 pm

    So everyone's a fucking critic I take. So what if Eidos was in a scandle based on rigging reviews. If you need reviews to tell you whether or not you should play a game, then you've wasted your life listening to other people. Like Crackdown, I listened to all the reviews on that game, but in the end it ws a piece of shit that was enjoyable for about 5-6 hours. Reviews on The Force Unleashed were harsh too, btu that game was fuckin' beast. Basically beyond all this rambling don't listen to reviews or other wannabe critics, just go play it. Rent it, borrow it, fuckin' steal it. But play it for yourself. All this niggas here all all bitchin' but do they know. No.

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  30. Anonymous9:06 pm

    The Force Unleashed was fucking awful. That comment made me doubt your smarts. Then you threw in some casual racism and I realised you're a complete fucking retard.

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  31. Anonymous2:18 am

    ..Maybe, everyone is missing the point, maybe its very simple, what is the purpose of a review? should it be touched by anything? personal opinion, profit or other.. or should it be focused on al the details of the game leaving it for viewers to decide if they like it or not. it is sad that many things lose their purpose..

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  32. Anonymous5:20 pm

    Maybe we should all just agree that both MGS4 and The Force Unleashed were fucking awful, Eidos are cunts and Arkham Asylum will be average.

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  33. Anonymous2:30 am

    I don't think Arkham Asylum will be average at all, but that's just my opinion. I actually quite liked the store demo I played, and I still have it on pre-order. Man, some visitors on this blog strike me as incredibly egotistical.

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  34. Anonymous1:12 pm

    Yeah, all of these anonymous commenters are just massaging their egos.

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  35. Anonymous7:31 pm

    The woodgrain on the desk behind that cover picture speaks volumes...

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  36. Anonymous10:24 am

    The woodgrain? Of course, the woodgrain! It reveals all! Well done, Inspector Morse, you solved another case.

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  37. Anonymous9:09 pm

    It's the brown bit, next to the lighter brown bit that gives it away. A sure sign of corruption.

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  38. Anonymous2:32 pm

    Hey you know what? Batman's really good.

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  39. Anonymous8:03 pm

    You're right. I'd personally have given it a 97%. GamesMaster's review did it a diserivce - but then they're obviously biased.

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  40. Anonymous2:38 pm

    Didn't they do this with GTA IV and MGS 4? Is this news? PR has been doing this since sliced bread!

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  41. Anonymous10:53 pm

    People are tossing the word "bribe" around, and it doesn't really seem apt to use the word, I think.

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  42. Anonymous4:00 pm

    It's not bribery, and there are other covers out there to be had so there's no gun to anyone's head. Nothing wrong with assets going to the magazines that like the game, either. It's just the bitching of a streak of piss who, if they were as connected and knowledgeable about games and the 'industry' (rather than magazines)as they constantly claim then they'd be able to, y'know, actually get in and make some games rather than bitching about dead media they hate yet can't leave. As it is all this bullshit is pure self-promotion and that 'but I use a pen name' bullshit doesn't wash. You know who you are, and no doubt your cock swells every time you see your pen name mentioned. You could have just fucked off and returned with an actual reviews site. Would certainly make more sense than this bunk.

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  43. Anonymous7:20 pm

    i dont really get the logic here, you've essentially said 'well, what i think of this game is absolute truth, and if anyone likes it more than i did, they're fucking shills.' i can't speak for the game's quality besides the awesome demo i've played like, nine times, but you can't just point your finger and scream "corrupt!" because you decided what this game should be getting review-wise and someone is disagreeing.

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  44. "Wait until Teletext's GameCentral gets their review out, I find them to be the most accurate for reviews IMO, plus they don't get offered emgorgos since their viewership is no where near as high as magazines like GamesMaster and Edge."

    actually, it's loads higher. for comparison, edge magazine has a circulation of ~30,000, and digitiser had a circulation of ~1,500,000 at times. gamecentral may have less these days, but definitely more than edge.

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  45. Anonymous3:48 pm

    "edge magazine has a circulation of ~30,000"

    Which is a crying shame because Edge is such a gre- man I'm sorry, I couldn't even finish the sentence. HAHAHAHAHHAAHHAAHAHAH!

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  46. Anonymous1:28 am

    What are you going to say if the game gets 90+ scores?

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  47. Anonymous11:06 pm

    I actually really liked the demo that i played, it was graphically impressive, made me feel like batman and the voice acting was spot on. I dont think it is fair to say that something is going on here until 1: we have all played the full game ourselves and see what we think, 2: See other professional reviews to see if the scores are consistently high and finally, 3: Well..just those two..but in an arguement you should always have a rule of three >_> <_<

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  48. Enigma_20993:07 am

    Hey, you Anonymous F***!!! Kojima and company didn't want story spoilers leaking out... that had nothing to do with score manipulation... Nice try.

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  49. Anonymous9:00 am

    The game has an average of more then 90%, and now everyone has reviewed it. You are just deciding that because it's getting loads of good early scors, it must be bribes. It's a fucking great game! If you had actually played the game i would've just found this funny, but most of you haven't touched it

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  50. Anonymous6:32 am

    EIDOS has and always will be a f*cking awful publisher/dev.
    Most of their titles were either stolen- Legacy of Kain (just go ask Silicon Knights about that, dropped into their laps because the dev house died because they were felating John Romero: Thief, or were simply IPs they acquired from other more talented devs they snapped up,IPs which they for the most part ran into the ground.
    I'm glad they no longer exist in all but name thanks to Square Enix.

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