Stalker and review affecting allegations

Hi guys,

this matter might be further looked upon. I have participated earlier in a discussion on RPGwatch about reviews influenced by the publishers . Here is a very interesting story from an editor working for a major czech paper magazine. He has written a diary about his journey to london with a goal of reviewing the final game.

Here is a translation from one part of the diary.
Here is the link but it is in czech - http://stalker.vokr.com/

Monday 22.nd January
Evening - we are sitting in the pub drinking a beer and here comes the first SMS from the publisher: Hey, there are some problems with the final version and maybe its just not ready for review.
We are thinking: Yeah, we could forsee that having seen the guys working on the game in Kyev
We answer: Yeah, ok sure. Let us know - we could write a zoom or a preview.

Tuesday 23.rd january
Another SMS coming: So guys - the version aint exactly 100% so there will be no review.
We think: You must be frickin joking!!!
We answer: Allright .. so could we at least play it and and write a preview or a zoom?

Another SMS from the publisher: The version is not 100% but if you rate it over 87% they will let you publish the review.
We think: What the heck?? What kind of fu****g pressure is that???!!!

Wednesday 24.rd january
In the morning we travel to Harrow on the Hill, fifth london travel zone. […] After almost three hours we get to the other end of the city. A that time another SMS is coming: I myself cant believe it, but THQ has cancelled the whole event an hour ago.

So what do you think guys? … aint this one worth looking into at least a bit?
Oh and thx to me for translating

Well, STALKER is now 'gold' and due in March, so we'll see how the reviews play out and how the game is received by gamers.

Originally Posted by txa1265
Well, STALKER is now 'gold' and due in March, so we'll see how the reviews play out and how the game is received by gamers.

yes … well from what i know Stalker received a 90% from german gamestar .. we will yet have to see I agree …
the score is however somewhat fishy

Originally Posted by darghan
yes … well from what i know Stalker received a 90% from german gamestar .. we will yet have to see I agree …
the score is however somewhat fishy

I agree - I have always gotten upset about these 'bought' reviews. Like how PC Gamer in the US is always getting 'world first' reviews on games like HL2 … I remember calculating that they must have been playing the game almost 1.5 months before it was gold to get that review … which means pre-release code and playing at the developer site on their machine. How is *that* a review?

I know it's a game that hasn't been talked about too much here on RPGWatch, but I can't tell you guys how excited I am about STALKER coming out next month. I've been anticipating this game for well over 3 years now.

I've been hyped up about STALKER ever since someone talked about it at RPGDOT and posted some links to it.

Originally Posted by JDR13
I know it's a game that hasn't been talked about too much here on RPGWatch, but I can't tell you guys how excited I am about STALKER coming out next month. I've been anticipating this game for well over 3 years now.

Me too … but I'm trying to temper that, since I know it has been cut back with a machete …

Why do you think 'real' gamers don't read that rubbish!!

The first print review appeared some time ago in CD Action. They mentioned quite a few flaws (like the exclusion of vehicles for strange reasons and too big walking (boring) distances) and rated the game at 8/10.

I'm not too concerned about lack of vehicles or the RPG elements (stats) that I heard they removed. I'm sure there are respectable reasons for the omission of those things.

The only thing that makes me a somewhat leery is that I heard there is no physics engine in the game.

I am a huge fan of this project and even though many ingame features have been removed I still think it could be a classic. So i am not really concerned about the quality of the game. There will surely be loads of bugs but i will be able to bear them . Anyway what troubles me is that the publisher is pushing many pre-release reviewers and trying to affect them. I really hate that sh*t.

JDR - respectable reasons for cutting down content - yes surely. They would not be able to pusblish the game otherwise and THQ would loose a large amount of cash on the project.
Same as Piranha Bytes the developers of this game have chosen a very hard goal to reach. Perhaps too hard. But we will see.

I remember reading someone (maybe it was on the codex ) that the EU is indeed looking into this sort of thing, and not only that:

Apparently many game developers & publishers review their own games in magazines like gamestar.de or on gaming sites like gamespot.co.uk

I remember some time ago, there really was an outrage when it was discovered that a reviewer at gamespot didn't exist (I think) and that gamespot had gotten money to write good reviews for games.

Anyway if a game is good, it is good. Then it will get the game scores it deserves
(no, this is not pick up line for games ) like the game I'm currently playing: The Longest Journey (not an rpg, though, but you get the point ).

This whole getting over a 87% score in a review bothers me a bit. (but that, imo, sort of explains a lot of the gaming scores lately, like the ones for a game that starts with O or something )

And whu does it have to be over 87% --- probably because market research has shown that games with a score over 87% percent sold better. Yes, they did. The reason being that the games deserved these ratings - since they were creative, groundbreaking, tried something new and actually took the games for a complete new spin, regardless of genre.

I don't really see what STALKER needed to have its rpg elements cut. It would have been nice to have acces to levels, stats, and abilities and such things. Now, imo, it will just be another survival game. Instead of going to a planet mankind now goes to --- you guessed to - Chernobyl - and has to kill all the monster thingies in order to survive.

And yes, thank your for translating, darghan since my checz is a little (or a lot) rusty

Originally Posted by aries100
I remember some time ago, there really was an outrage when it was discovered that a reviewer at gamespot didn't exist (I think) and that gamespot had gotten money to write good reviews for games.

Do you have a link to some info on this subject? I'd love to read more about it.

Originally Posted by darghan
yes … well from what i know Stalker received a 90% from german gamestar .. we will yet have to see I agree …
the score is however somewhat fishy

Stalker is on the radar of the Gamestar since its early days (the game, not the magazine ).

But apart from that I once read kind of an satire about "bought" reviews on a German gaming site, which was followed by an real interview on that.

Don't remember the site's name, though.

Maybe I should start "The Dig" (LucasArts Lawyers recently started to sue an online service which is named "Digg"), to see whether I can find that link again ?

Originally Posted by darghan
So i am not really concerned about the quality of the game. There will surely be loads of bugs but i will be able to bear them . Anyway what troubles me is that the publisher is pushing many pre-release reviewers and trying to affect them. I really hate that sh*t.

So let me get this straight - you are more concerned about the game getting false reviews than you are about it being a buggy mess with a great number of its primary features cut?

I gave up on putting much stock in print reviews several years ago when Computer Gaming World made the transition from 4-6 page reviews to 1-2 page reviews. Let my subscription die. Never did put much emphasis on internet reviews by folks I don't know. I can get a pretty good feel for a game here with people I trust and whose tastes I understand.

Originally Posted by dteowner
Never did put much emphasis on internet reviews by folks I don't know.

Of course, for some people you take their opinions with a grain of salt … like when I opened up my new Games for Windows and saw Matt Peckham (yes, him) gave Supreme Commander 7/10 - perhaps he is still trying the 'use the whole scale' thing, but the scoring throughout that mag was so out of whack that I felt the editors really need to step in and *do* something - and not just when their is an uproar.

Well, blaming it all on the publisher is a bit too easy I think. Of course it's quite lame to ask for a certain score, but then again… the guys from the games magazine can just say no. It's not a new problem that games magazines work hand in hand with publishers, and game developers. I can understand that a gaming magazine wants to be first to publish a review, but if the score is settled anyway, what is the review good for? Personally, I'd appreciate it if gaming magazines would test games after their release, just to avoid such things. I have the feeling that the close cooperation between magazines and publishers/developers has led to many distorted reviews.

CGW had several articles about the challenge of maintaining integrity when the ads from the game companies pay the bills. Back then, exclusive "pre-release" review copies weren't a problem like they are now. The publishers have a lot more carrots to offer than they used to, and that's bound to cause a couple angels to fall.

Originally Posted by txa1265
So let me get this straight - you are more concerned about the game getting false reviews than you are about it being a buggy mess with a great number of its primary features cut?

yes
I am an ex game journalist and believe me I hate that thing much more than anything that could happen to the game.
And you know why? Because I grew up in a communist country where propaganda and false information was in the order of the day.

Originally Posted by txa1265
So let me get this straight - you are more concerned about the game getting false reviews than you are about it being a buggy mess with a great number of its primary features cut?

I would say that buying journalists is of course much worse problem than buggy game.