I Stand By My Five Star Rating of Kane & Lynch and Intend to Play It Soon
The strange Gamespot/CNET/Jeff Gerstmann/Kane & Lynch/Eidos saga, which I haven't really gotten into here at all, has now included me in a peripheral way. (In short, CNET execs. fired Jeff Gerstmann, former editor of Gamespot, for the "tone" of his review of the game Kane & Lynch, presumably because of pressure from the publisher Eidos who pulled future advertising from Gamespot because of the low review Gerstmann had given the game. Basically all the negative things you hear about payola in videogame reviews seem to be true at Gamespot—or would have been soon, if the internet hadn't gotten up in arms about Gerstmann's firing.)
Anyway! I took a preview tour of Kane & Lynch at E3 earlier this year. I was actually impressed with the game at the time, despite myself. The characters looked possibly interesting—two despicable anti-heroes against a bunch of other hard-boiled criminals—they were referencing modern classics like Heat and Ronin, and the team responsible for development made a small game that never got much attention but that I rather enjoyed: Freedom Fighters. My preview was positive.
Now it turns out that on the German version of the Kane & Lynch site, a pull-quote from my preview has been put up next to a five-star rating. I just want to make it clear: Yes, I did give Kane & Lynch, a game I have yet to play, five stars in my "pre-review," or "review" for short. However, it must be noted that my scale goes far past five, up into the bushels, and stars rarely rate in my metric, ranking far below "plum tomatoes" and infinitely below the craved-after "waxy turnip."
If Eidos is not happy with my five-star rating, they know where to send a check. (Could you also include a copy of the game? Thanks.)
Did We Give Kane & Lynch 5 Stars? [Kotaku]
the latest
latest episodes
Does the website really display the HTML entity code '&' instead of '&'? Because I find that more damning than the misleading 'review' quotes and the payola...
You report, as fact, that "CNET execs. fired Jeff Gerstmann, former editor of Gamespot, for the "tone" of his review of the game Kane & Lynch" when you have no idea if it's true. Nobody knows why Gerstman was fired, least of all the hysterical commenters jumping to conclusions left right and centre. To say "presumably because of pressure from the publisher Eidos" is irresponsible reporting. The payoff: "Basically all the negative things you hear about payola in videogame reviews seem to be true at Gamespot" On what evidence? Because a bunch of bloggers said so? That is lame. Fail.
Wow. I didn't realize I was translating from German as well as HTML entity in my head. I honestly would not have noticed that had #1 not pointed it out.
No, because of bunch of game writers who have earned my trust have said as much from sources directly tied to the event. If you have some evidence to the contrary, feel free to share it.
Freedom Fighters is an amazing game. I'm happy when anyone else acknowledges it.
When the news broke on Friday I was of the mind that everyone getting up in arms about this in the video game community peanut gallery were displaying the usual degree of self control and reasoning skills that gamers are famous for (read: overreacting because it's more fun to assume the worst and be a part of a big movement.) I took the "wait and see" approach, and since then several blogs have had follow-ups citing anonymous sources close to the story that point toward something being rotten in Denmark-- I'm a believer now; this sucks.
As per this recent development regarding the quotes on the Kane & Lynch site, Niero on Destructoid noted that it is sliggtly possible (though horribly, horribly, inexcusably misleading) that the stars are intended simply as a design element and not a review score. Someone on Kotaku also noted that the quotes used from previews have been on the site for some time.
It's still incredibly misleading and plays nicely into the whole shitstorm, though. Kane & Lynch, Awesome Show Great Job!
The design element theory occurred to me too, but it doesn't seem too likely, otherwise it would have happened across the board and not just in the German version.
I think they just put five star graphics in as placeholders and then forgot to swap/remove them.
They've now removed the star graphics.