EGM's question of the month

[Saint of Killers]

Gunvalkeryie and Gungrave. What a couple of shitty games.

Oh wait, EGM said they sucked. It was the people here who convinced me to buy them.

[Diff-chan]

I bought Stretch Panic thanks to ECM... one of the worst games Ive ever played in my life.

Waste of fifty fucking dollars... sold it back to EB when Metal Gear Solid 2 came out for like eight or nine. I admit I was lucky just to get that.

[SamuraiMoogle]

Splinter Cell is fucking geat and deserved the rave reviews. I couldnt stop playing it and theres plenty of moments in the game where I was like woah, that kicked ass!!

I was so not going to buy Mario Kart DD but now that I seen the 10's I probably will buy it based upon their review. I shall be very angry if its poop.

I bought VooT based on Gamefans review and I HATED the game!! What a boring pile of monkey ass! I think thats the only game I've ever bought based on a review and actually hated.

[Darkweaver]

Not that I can recall, but I do remember a lot of magazines giving The Thing good reviews. The only exception was EGM who gave it average to mediocre reviews.

Anyhow, I didn't buy it but borrowed it from my friend and I must say from all the good reviews it had to be one of the worst PS2 games I've played in awhile. While nowhere near as bad as State Of Emergency, I found it to be difficult, clunky in the control department, graphically unimpressive and boring. I don't see how so many publications gave it the high marks they did and It's nearly as boggling as that one review I seen (can't remember the site or publication) that gave State Of Emergency high marks.

But at least I didn't waste my hard earned cash on it, thankfully.

[Diff-chan]

I have The Thing for the PS2, and its a good game. STFU.

[dlinn]

I agree with Mamoscott 100% when it comes to Splinter Cell.

I'd like to add that I was pretty disappointed when EGM failed to mention any of the shortcomings in GTA Vice City and gave it a perfect score across the board. I was speechless.

Good game? Yes. Perfect? Not by a long shot.

A 10 in EGM doesn't mean perfect, by the way...because then nothing would EVER get a 10. It means grrrrrrrreat.

[Mamoscott]

A 10 in EGM doesn't mean perfect, by the way...because then nothing would EVER get a 10. It means grrrrrrrreat.

Not one person who reviewed the game at the EGM offices experienced the commonplace and sometimes game-stopping glitches that plagued Vice City? There was no mentioning of the rampant glitches in EGM's reviews of Knights of the Old Republic either.

I understand that, technically, a 10 does not mean the game is perfect, but both of the above games, though great, were obviously rushed through QA to retail with a lot of unresolved problems. Don't you think that's enough to disqualify those titles from EGM's highest possible score? I mean, it's easy to overlook the occasional little "stuck in a wall" glitches here and there, but these games have bugs that fuck up your entire save game and force you to start over from scratch. Hell, GameFAQS has an entire FAQ dedicated to only the reproducible bugs in KOTOR and how to try and avoid them, which probably constitutes only a small percentage of the bugs in the game.

In my mind, a review of a game that gets a 10 from the Review Crew shouldn't have to be prefaced by "Once you get past the glitches and bugs..."

Ironically, a few months ago, you guys ran a feature highlighting some "major releases" that were buggy and obviously rushed through development/testing, but once again, KOTOR and Vice City were never mentioned. Do the biggest Xbox title of 2003 and the biggest PS2 title of 2002 not qualify as major releases or something? That article was a major opportunity to show readers that even major game series and developers were susceptible to publisher pressure and rushed releases, not just licensed tripe like Enter the Matrix and Pirates or whatever.

[Mzo]

I'm not sure what dlinn's connection to EGM is, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't wholly responsible for the reviews of those games, and making him admit that he agrees that they are not perfect 10s (and whether he agrees or not) is pointless.

Good rant though... I agree that games should be docked points for technical glitches and bugs, ESPECIALLY on a console where patches are unheard of, really.

Oh, and EGM doesn't suck, but the shit Shoe pulls on TV certainly does. I don't know if part of the "getting on TV" deal involves saying something positive for every piece of shit out there, but I find it incredibly annoying and fake, since I know he is capable of being fair and critical.

Fucking boo to that.

To stay on topic, I was also pretty let down by the original Tony Hawk after everyone jizzed all over it for months, but I figure there's something wrong with me, not the game, since people who's opinion I respect seem to love it. Oh well.

[dlinn]

staying off topic, unfortunately - I wasn't on any GTA or KOTOR reviews, so I can't address any of those specific issues.

However, I know where the problem is. We review "reviewable code," i.e., a build of the game that the publisher says is in a reviewable state. That doesn't mean it's 100% bug free -- it means the game is in its final round of bug fixes, usually. When we come across bugs, we ask about them. Invariably, the publisher tells us they are going to be fixed. 98% of the time they are. Sometimes they aren't. Now before you queue up the "EGM should only review boxed copies OMG!!!" rant, know that then all of our reviews would be two to three months late. And none of our competitors would follow suit.

Incidentally I never came across any "game stopping" glitches in either GTA. Mission stopping maybe, but not game stopping. Now, kotor...#!$#@ Carth bug got me good.

[Mzo]

What the hell is your avatar from? It looks so familiar in its style that it's driving me insane.