Half-Life 2 reviewed by same person in four mags. Future Publishing Scandal #854774

I love to see paper mags go through the shitter after getting up on a high horse about web publications during the dotcom boom. Now, we're slowly discovering they're all as bad as one another.

Trust the GAF hordes for your game quality judgements! :lol
 
The reason, I believe, that all four reviews were written by the same person was that presumably Future, rightly, balked at spending several thousand pounds on four separate reviewers all going over to Seattle to review the game. I'm not necessarily blaming Future for this. It's good business sense.

What is annoying is Valve's ultra cautious stance on allowing the press access to the game, even to the extent that its own publisher wasn't authorised to gain access to review code. It's frustrating for everyone, and if anything I'd prefer it if people directed equal displeasure at Valve, Future and VU for allowing this frankly farcical situation to play out.
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Valve guys are scared of another teh leak.

I've heard same things about Konami and MGS3. Noone is allowed to have the copy, every reviewer has to get in the Konami HQ for the review playthrough.
 
Vivendi should have provided "local" reviewing opportunities somewhere in Europe. It sucks if they all had to go to Valve, and if they did, I can see why Future were reluctant to send more than one from a cost perspective.

I guess as long as his views were consistent across all 4 reviews..
 
Marconelly said:
Valve guys are scared of another teh leak.

I've heard same things about Konami and MGS3. Noone is allowed to have the copy, every reviewer has to get in the Konami HQ for the review playthrough.
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Same thing with Halo 2.
 
teepo said:
the edge reviews don;t even have a name under them if i remeber correctly.
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They don't, which is a large part of the problem. Before the upheaval that saw half the magazines editorial team resign readers trusted it was either an Edge staffer or well known freelancer doing the review. Now it seems whoever is on a freebie at Future Publishing will get to review the game. :P

Bregor said:
It will take more than a post on a forum to convince me of this.
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The post was made by a staff member ("krudster"=Kristan Reed) at Eurogamer. So it isn't any old random forum tittle tattle.

ElyrionX said:
Are we talking about PC Gamer UK or US? God, they need to change their damn names......
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UK. Dunno about the US but it is the same publisher and they often have similar promotional pushes (e.g. Doom III).
 
cja said:
Before the upheaval that saw half the magazines editorial team resign readers trusted it was either an Edge staffer or well known freelancer doing the review. Now it seems whoever is on a freebie at Future Publishing will get to review the game. :P
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And you know it wasn't a "well known freelancer" who wrote this review how?

Mind that jerking knee, you'll do yourself an injury.
 
cja said:
The post was made by a staff member ("krudster"=Kristan Reed) at Eurogamer. So it isn't any old random forum tittle tattle.
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I gathered that, but it is still a totally uncorroborated accusation.
 
DavidDayton said:
What is so scandalous about a publishing company printing the same review in multiple magazines?
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Because people would read the four different publications expecting four DIFFERENT opinions by FOUR different individuals with their own UNIQUE TASTE for videogames.......
 
I must be suffering from "gaming magazine scandal" fatigue.

Either that or I don't see where the 'scandal' is, did they give different reviews/text/conclusions for each mag? or did they just syndicate one review across multiple magazines?

If it's the first then fire away, go at 'em :P

If it's the latter, then it's just economy & business cost cutting, which is hardly scandalous., more like an obvious step for a publisher fighting the tide of the online age.

ElyrionX said:
Because people would read the four different publications expecting four DIFFERENT opinions by FOUR different individuals with their own UNIQUE TASTE for videogames.......
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Can you introduce me to this fictional person who would buy all 4 magazines in 1 month, so I can either drag them kicking & screaming into the 21st century, or mug them down a backalley (as he obviously has more money than sense) :P
 
D2M15 said:
And you know it wasn't a "well known freelancer" who wrote this review how?

Mind that jerking knee, you'll do yourself an injury.
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PC Gamer had the "world exclusive" a month before the others reviewed the game and it was one of their staffers, Jim Rossignol, who reviewed it. I don't like the idea of FPs other writers being responsible for Edge reviews after all the crap that has gone on in the last year.

DavidDayton said:
What is so scandalous about a publishing company printing the same review in multiple magazines?
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It isn't the same review in any of the magazines, they don't mention it is the same reviewer, all these mags are supposed to have their own review teams.

People (okay "I") pay a premium for Edge magazine, £4 ($7+). Paying this price I don't expect the same kind of reviews as are in the cheaper mass-market rags that Future Publishing produces. It is quite possible the likes of 90% for Driv3r and 9/10 for MoH:Rising Sun are going to permeate here.

Examples of the review differences usually found in these mags. Doom III got 7/10 in Edge and 90% in PC Gamer. XIII got 7/10 (6/10 for PS2) in Edge and 94% in Gamesmaster. Whatever the merits of the scores most Edge readers expect a more critical stance with the review.
 
The bigger 'scandal' is companies requiring gamers to go to their HQ to play the game for a review. Fuck that. If I ran a magazine and someone tried to pull the shit, we'd just review the retail copy, and hope that the hardcore (GAF-type) audience recognized our credibility and supported us despite our sometimes late reviews.
 
Freeburn said:
Can you introduce me to this fictional person who would buy all 4 magazines in 1 month, so I can either drag them kicking & screaming into the 21st century, or mug them down a backalley (as he obviously has more money than sense) :P
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Maybe these people have seen Wario's free magazine threads. :P
 
cja said:
It isn't the same review in any of the magazines, they don't mention it is the same reviewer, all these mags are supposed to have their own review teams.

People (okay "I") pay a premium for Edge magazine, £4 ($7+). Paying this price I don't expect the same kind of reviews as are in the cheaper mass-market rags that Future Publishing produces. It is quite possible the likes of 90% for Driv3r and 9/10 for MoH:Rising Sun are going to permeate here.

Examples of the review differences usually found in these mags. Doom III got 7/10 in Edge and 90% in PC Gamer. XIII got 7/10 (6/10 for PS2) in Edge and 94% in Gamesmaster. Whatever the merits of the scores most Edge readers expect a more critical stance with the review.
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Maybe I'm just jaded, but I'd never think to compare two magazines published by the same company -- I'd assume that they are, for all intents and purposes, nearly identical, REGARDLESS of what they claim. The review text was different, you say? Were the scores and final outcome the same?

Even if the same person writes all four reviews, I don't see the problem, really. From my point of view, magazines published by the same company are all branches of that same company, and I really don't expect each to be "exclusive" of the others. Now, if the top four competing magazines all had the same review by the same guy, I'd be a bit annoyed...

As an aside -- why do people buy gaming magazines these days?
 
How many people would flip-flop if it turned out the guy hated Half Life 2 and they were publishing four negative reviews?

The policy is lame, any way that you look at it. It results in multiplying any reviewer's possible misjudgement, and deprives players of alternative viewpoints. If it is true that they are trying to pretend like it isn't the same author (there's no name attached to any of the reviews?), then obviously Future knows that they are on shaky ethical ground.
 
GDJustin said:
The bigger 'scandal' is companies requiring gamers to go to their HQ to play the game for a review. Fuck that. If I ran a magazine and someone tried to pull the shit, we'd just review the retail copy, and hope that the hardcore (GAF-type) audience recognized our credibility and supported us despite our sometimes late reviews.
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Heh, it's funny, but in an editorial a while back, Edge actually said they would do that from now on. They were apparently no longer going to play PR games when it came to reviews, and if needs be, they would be late reviewing retail copies. They referred specifically to PR people wanting minimum review scores guaranteed before sending a review copy etc. but I would have thought they would hold back and review a retail copy in a situation like this too, but I guess their dedication to reviewing excellence doesn't stretch that far...
 
DavidDayton said:
As an aside -- why do people buy gaming magazines these days?
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Good question, my guess?

EDGE: Job Vacancies :P
Others: Dunno, maybe the buyers have a telecoms infrastructure to rival that of the Rub' al Khali?
 
DavidDayton said:
Maybe I'm just jaded, but I'd never think to compare two magazines published by the same company -- I'd assume that they are, for all intents and purposes, nearly identical, REGARDLESS of what they claim. The review text was different, you say? Were the scores and final outcome the same?

Even if the same person writes all four reviews, I don't see the problem, really. From my point of view, magazines published by the same company are all branches of that same company, and I really don't expect each to be "exclusive" of the others. Now, if the top four competing magazines all had the same review by the same guy, I'd be a bit annoyed...
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The conclusions were roughly the same.

Figures from abc.org.uk on circulation for game magazines. Bolded are magazines owned by Future Publishing or one of its subsiduaries.

Official Playstation 2 (Future Publishing Ltd) 177,450
Official UK Xbox Magazine (FXM International Ltd) 83,549
PC Gamer (Future Publishing Ltd) 57,748
Playstation World (FXM International Ltd) 56,834
Games Master (Future Publishing Ltd) 55,254
Play (Highbury-Entertainment Ltd) 54,109
Nintendo Official Magazine (EMAP Active Limited) 46,108
PSM 2 (Future Publishing Ltd) 45,147
PC Zone (Dennis Publishing Limited) 41,073
XBM (Highbury-Entertainment Ltd) 29,559
Cube (Highbury-Entertainment Ltd) 29,172
Powerstation (Highbury-Entertainment Ltd) 27,566
Edge (Future Publishing Ltd) 27,464
NGC Magazine (Future Publishing Ltd) 23,804
XBox World (Future Publishing Ltd) 23,753
Playstation 2 Special Edition (Future Publishing Ltd) 22,677
XBox Gamer (FXM International Ltd) 20,037
Games TM (Highbury-Entertainment Ltd) 20,009
P2 (Highbury-Entertainment Ltd) 18,929
Official XBox - Special Edition Series (FXM International Ltd) 13,273
Cheatzone (Future Publishing Ltd) 7,205

Consider all FP periodicals to be the same and there isn't much of a print magazine market here.
 
So basically every single magazine in the UK that covers PC games has the same reviewer writing on Half-Life 2?

Yeah, no problem at all with that. =\
 
border said:
So basically every single magazine in the UK that covers PC games has the same reviewer writing on Half-Life 2?

Yeah, no problem at all with that. =\
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Who cares...if it were Bloodrayne 2 nobody would give a shit.
 
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