Two Worlds II - Review Controversy, Next Game in 2012

Dhruin

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One of our readers posted about some Two Worlds II review controversy in our forums yesterday, which I was going to ignore, but it's spilled onto several major sites. TopWare is accused of threatening to blacklist unless a site raised their score but TopWare's James Seaman claims they only wanted the scoring system to reflect convention, where 7/10 is average (not 5/10). You can read more on Desctructoid and Beefjack.
More interesting is one of James' responses in the Destructoid comments, where he says the next Two Worlds game will be released next year:
We are trying to do a better job every time and have brought in a brand new 3D modeling, animation and CG team for the next Two Worlds game coming out in 2012.
More information.
 
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Topware is denying the allegations, but Beefjack has two emails from the representative making the denials -- one of which has him actually admitting to it!
Unless these things are PGP-signed, that's hardly evidence. Forging emails is quite trivial. The other accusations are from 'anonymous sources' - which are also trivial to forge. Unless somebody coughs up some real evidence, this just a "he says she says" case.
 
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I think James Seaman's comments pretty clearly accept the accusation in general, apart from the philosophical difference between increasing the score and changing the scoring system.
 
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They are so cheap, they won't bribe the review sites properly, like the other companies do! I had great expectations from them...
 
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Yes , a lot of sites that review AAA games the weekend before the games street date .... best believe they will drop a half million for a high rating.
 
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I don't think 3d modelling was their problem - more design and pacing...
 
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I don't think 3d modelling was their problem - more design and pacing…

Agreed. The actual "RPG-ness" was more of what should be expanded/deepened. I guess the consoles/casual gamers won this time. However if by 3d modeling they mean world construction, them I'm all for it.
 
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I don't think most review sites and magazines are being bribed into giving good scores. It is more like the game studio/publisher gives the reviewer extras. The reviewer then thinks, "If I give the game a good score I'll get extras/more extras next time" so then the reviewer gives the game a good score. The better the extras the better the score but it isn't outright bribing. On the other hand the reviewer expects those extras so if they don't get any then the game gets a bad score.
 
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7 is definitely considered average by readers, or even below average. I mean that should not be the case, but it is. I don't blame Topware guys for being annoyed by an average review that gives a 5 and throws off their metacritic average or whatever.

In other news average is a perfect one word description for Two Worlds 2. Well, except for the awesome magic system.
 
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Right the game company doesnt say we will give you this much if you give our game a 9 out of 10. They will donate money to the site. It doesnt happen all the time but it does happen . Its a fact
 
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European reviewers have accepted ad buys from Topware in exchange for favorable reviews.

And American ones don't ? Come on, be serious ...
 
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What sucks most is that this might hurt TW2 DLC/expansion or TW3. And RP did a great job with TW2, especially coming from TW1. They've already patched the hell out of TW2 (4 patches in 4 months ironing out pretty much every bug, issue or inconvenience in the process, with more on the way).
 
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It amazes me that any RPG players still rely on major review sites and magazines for game reviews. I stopped years ago, I go to forums where people are actually playing the games to find out the details I'm looking for prior to purchase.

I have heard enough about TW2 to know that Im either skipping this one or waiting for it to drop to 20$.
 
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I would MUCH rather get a professional (or at least 'highly skilled amature') review. Those don't just say "it sucked" or "it was totally cool and everyone who says it sucked sucks." They actually take the game apart and tell you how it works and what was/wasn't fun about the game. Plus they test them on well maintained computers, not some old klunker with a dozen viruses and twice as many codec packs. Double-plus they test either the actual game or a release candidate, not some hacked thing they got over Torrent.
 
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if 7/10 is average what do we need 1-5/10? Just cut it to /5.
 
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