Eidos stretches truth about game

I haven't played it yet, because it doesn't seem to be available for rental - and there's no way I'm paying anything over 30 quid for a game when I don't even know if it's any use or not.

Games websites are generally very dire and poorly done - the cheat codes are often wrong and it's obvious, since all the hundreds of sites carry exactly the same information, that most of what should be real writing is just a bad case of the party game Chinese Whispers. Copy and Paste.

Back in the 'day', those codes were called 'hacks' - ages before the word 'cyberpunk' and 'hacker' existed with reference to what they tend to mean now. And they actually did cool stuff back then. Just about every game had an infinte life hack, and a level select hack, the kind you actually want. Few do now. The code for the lava game unlock in Surf's Up for example - it doesn't work.

Whenever I look for information on a game, it's often difficult to locate a review that actually exists, out of the again hundreds of search results returned for sites all claiming to have all the lowdown on whatever it was you typed in. Yet on viewing all of them are the same empty databases.

Gamespot and most of the other large sites are only viewable on 10megabit college internet as that's the slowest connection that will actually manage to load a single page of them within a decent time. In fact most websites these days seem designed by people with no comprehension of HTML and in using frames sparingly, and have probably never optimised anything in their lives, nor do they know of browsers other than the last release of IE.

I looked up a review for a Gundam title the other day, and the comments are full of "it's not Halo or Gears of War" - well of course it's not, because it's a different game isn't it, not even the same gametype as those two. Who's ever picked up a Gundam title and thought it was those two games.
The point here being - it's not just Eidos that is (apparently) misrepresenting titles. It's all over the place, from userbases too. There's an assumption by many that if it's not an FPS then it must be worthless. Then try locating a mention of an STG (shoot em up) title in the 'mainstream' that doesn't try to shove it down your throat that hardly anyone plays those 2D shooters anymore. Well clearly many people do or they wouldn't sell and have so many niche markets and replay videos online.

Is this even legal? There are laws in a lot of countries about misrepresentation.

I think they realized that the game was going to fail and it was left to the marketing department to take care of it. By creating a CONTROVERSY they have generated so much 'free' publicity and everyone seems to be talking about the game. If it hadn't been so, it would have disappeared like so many other thousands of game titles. Truly, it is remarkablw what they have pulled off ... bad publicity is good publicity indeed!! ( I bet the person who got fired made some good cash for his 'act' )

They did something very similar and equally underhanded with the very mediocre "Clive Barker's Jericho." In a TV ad, which is here,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_N6hQ-fFos

They quote IGN as saying "A blur of spilled blood and bullets" which was actually quoted from and early E3 preview of the game which IGN published. Their actual review was pretty bleak, and they gave the game a 5.6/10.

I'm just waiting for publishers to invent their own e-zines for the purpose of giving their own games rave reviews so they can print them on the boxes.

It seems Eidos spent too much money on marketing and not enough on gameplay. The same could be said of Lair. Game companies need to realize that hype is a two edge sword. Raising hype increases first day sales, but if the game isn't any good, too much hype backfires and sales drop through the floor. You need to have SOME marketting, or good games get overlooked (Okami, Psychonaughts), but there is a balance between marketing budget and gameplay.

The missteps they made AFTER the game was released are unforgivable, though. If you can't buy good reveiws, lying about the reveiw isn't acceptable either. Did they think no one would notice?

Jeff G lost his job over at GameSpot but GS state it was something to do with inhouse problems.

If he got fired for giving the game a 6.5/10 over at IGN.UK.Com they gave it a 7 so does it have to be under 7 for someone to lose there job.

I can't tell you how many times I have played a game that I thought personally , sucked, that got rave reviews. Any idiot that buys a game based on a review FROM the company, or from gaming magazines isn't that bright. The best bet is to wait only a couple hours after launch and the user reviews start to pour in. Sometimes the gaming sites, and the users reach the same conclusions, sometimes, it is a huge difference in the score..

Is there any other term to qualify this kind of behavior ? How can anyone be stupid enough to cheat so obviously on review quotes and honestly think that it won't be caught ?
Once upon a time, when game news was only spread on dead tree pulp, you could actually fake a news byte and be confident that it would take a while before the news spread that it was a hoax.
Nowadays, with the Internet, checking a quote source is a few clicks away, and there are enough rabid game fans to ensure that ONE at least will go and check out the review. And it won't even be to verify authenticity, it'll just be to read yet more on the game.
And surprise, and the end of the review the guy will come back with the news that the quote is bollocks. He'll post a note in a forum about it, and that is all it takes for the rumor mill to latch on and spread the word.
Bad Eidos ! No scooby snack ! And I'm boycotting Eidos until next year. Such behavior is disgusting, and I hope people will make it known by not buying ANY Eidos game until at least an apology is put forth from the CEO.