Eidos and Gamespot forums exploding over Gerstmann incident

Oh man. I really did like Jeff (he's awesome on the podcast). And he got fired for posting his opinion on a game? I mean isn't that what an editorial is? An opinion? I don't understand how that should cause a man to lose his job. I mean I don't give a fuck if you disagreed with him or not, an opinion is an opinion. And unless it's an objective article, the guy has every right to say if he thinks a game sucks or not.

I know I've always been the guy who defends these reviewers, saying it's their opinion and what not. But if this is what's going on, and that people their are scared to shit of losing their jobs if they don't write the "reviews", then I guess I gotta change my outlook on this whole situation.

Question:

Has anyone here actually PLAYED Kane and Lynch? If so, you'd probably realize that while the game is obviously flawed, he was nitpicking anyways. If not, shut your hole.

That's is teriible! Reviewers must be allowed to give their honest opinio-

Wait... isn't that the guy who gave Twilight Princess an 8.8?! HE'S A WITCH! BURN HIM!

(That was a joke. Mostly...)

Ok, apparently some people on this site are trying to make this issue into proof that all reviewers are scum and blah blah blah, I didn't agree with his review so he got what was coming for him. That's not what this is about. What this is about is some bigwig that owns gamestop firing someone because of his opinion. I mean come on, do you honestly think that the people who own gamespot play games? No. All they give a shit about is about making money. I mean alot of you are talking about ad revenues and taking money from publishers, but do you think any of that trickles down to the actual staff? I mean do you think they even know what's going on? Probably not. It's a just a shame that even while stating your own opinion, you're not safe from this bullshit.

time to can my gamespot subscription I guess.....

Funny part is, his review of Kane & Lynch is dead on and everything he says is basically the review the game is getting across the board on all sites. Glad I didn't waste my money on the game.

Hey Joystiq: Hire Jeff Gertsmann!!!

Twilight Princess deserved an 8.8.

Am I the only one who thinks that the "SHITSTORM!" picture would be more apropos for this post?

As a writer I completely disagree with the way Jeff was terminated. As a writer I also feel his video review was both unprofessional and childish.

so he gave a shitty game a meh score and gets fired for it? gamespot has it all wrong, they should have fired that jackass that reviewed mass effect. Half the "issues" he had with the game were due to his own inability to play a video game.

If Eidos had spent less money on covering all of gamespot with Kane & Lynch adverts, and more on making it a better game to start with, this entire problem could have been avoided.

Jeff's tone (which seems to be what got him into all this trouble) has always been fair I think. It is very hard to stay positive about a game which fails on so many different counts.

If you say that a game is average (Assassins Creed I would say is average) it is immediately assumed that average equals 5/10 which in terms of todays major video game review sites is very poor. Theoretically nothing should ever reach 10 and a publisher would have to be out of their minds to release a game that acheived a measly 1. The scoring of games today is partly to keep the industry alive. If only the very best games got scores of 7 or higher, anyone who read reviews would only buy between 1 and 4 games a year and companies like Eidos would go out of business.

Whichever way this pans out, I've cancelled my Total Access as Jeff was the only guy left that I still listened to.

I notice that no one mentions CNet in this whole fiasco. CNET is the corporate parent of Gamespot and a decision such as this would not have occured without their permission.

So this issue just isn't a Gamespot and Eidos thing. Its really a CNET and their network of websites and advertiser bought reviews thing. Considering the size of the network that is not a small thing and deservers more scrutny because of the scope.

So has anyone mentioned that Jeff gave The Guy Game a 7.5 because that is pretty lol

Oh Eidos if you could only spend more time and money in developing your games instead of getting reviewers fired because they didn't like your game even when you throw I don't know how much money in ads in the site they used to work for.

Eidos next time try Gamepro.You can buy reviews there cheap and since the only people that take gamepro word seriously are casuals you shouldn't have problems with people that actually go to more reliable sites or rent the game first…you could try that or make good games like the ones you used to develop like Hitman that was the last game you did that I actually enjoyed.

By the way, unless it's System Wars, it's GAMEFAQs message boards.

lol gs

Perhaps it's me, but I keep hearing this '60 is above-average' nonsense and thinking: "If you got a 60 on a test in school, would you consider that a good score if they weren't grading on a curve?"

Because I'm pretty sure most American audiences look at a 100 point scoring system and equate it with the school-grading system at some level. Which would equate this game with either a 'D' or 'D-'...which is barely above FAIL. The actual score is subjective, but the numeric associations, I think, are less so.

Also: the written review is more professional than the video review (which comes across as unscripted and working from notes from the written version). The 'tone' however, doesn't seem unreasonable. It's just that he gave them a bad review. Waah.

Not only has Jeff G left..so has Senior Video Producer & fan favourite - Tim Tracy ! http://www.digg.com/gaming_news/Not_Only_has_Jeff_Gerstmann_Left_Gamespot_so_has_Tim_Tracy

rabble rabble rabble.

there is truth, and that is all.... we the gamers work hard to make the money we spend on these over priced games, because we all love them so dearly. It is in OUR best interest, that we the consumer are able to be notified when a studio gives us below par games. Their greed is not > our happiness... without us they would be nothing. Everyone with money now thinks they can mimic the US Govt by thinking he who has money can boss around he who doesnt ..... and its crap guys, utter crap. I say we show eidos and studios like them we wont put up with it

"Your GameSpot Total Access subscription has been successfully cancelled, and your membership will not be renewed."

I've just canceled my paid subscription. Shame on you Gamespot!

P.S. Cancel yours too. It won't stop your paid service right away, it just stops the automatic renewal.

Censorship is part of Editorial privilege from a publisher's perspective. They chose to run the review without supressing the negative comments, which is equivalent to tacit concent. An ex post facto termination due to pressure from an Advertiser may be "the cost of doing business", but so are boycotts for stupid decisions. Vote with your dollars! Don't purchase EIDOS games, and by all means . . . don't pirate them either.