MEGAowch: Haze handed 4.5 review by IGN

by Justin McElroy { May 20th 2008 at 11:00AM }

With its long development time and PS3-exclusive status, Haze has had a lot riding on its shoulders. If a new review by IGN is any indication, the game seems to have been crushed by the weight. The site gave Haze a paltry 4.5 out of 10, calling the effort a "middling, generic first-person shooter with bland visuals, a weak plot and laughable characters."

Developer Free Radical Design leapt to the defense of its game, telling PSU, "Haze has had mixed reviews, but even GoldenEye got a 4/10 when it first came out. With a 9/10 in the Italian PSM, and an extremely positive review in Famitsu [34/40, fyi], we're looking forward to people playing Haze and making a judgment for themselves."

We're currently compiling such judgments from across the netweb for a metareview. We'll let you know when there's something approximating a consensus.

Tags: free-radical, haze, ign, ubisoft

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 11:03AM

What has in common TimeShift and Haze?

Answer: Both sucks... oh, and the helmet.

=p

OMGOMG @ May 20th 2008 11:05AM

Get ready for the developers to release a pamphlet on how to review Haze.

baby sea tuna @ May 20th 2008 11:08AM

Excerpt from the Haze Reviewers Guide:

"Smear a thin layer of vasoline on your TV, and play Halo 3 with your controller held upside down"

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 11:10AM

And I was voted down for saying that this game would receive average scores:

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/03/17/ubisoft-rep-haze-is-staying-on-ps3/#comments

=p

OMGOMG @ May 20th 2008 11:15AM

Gamespot will come out with a review 1 month from now with a 8.0 and a hefty profit from creating your own Haze Movie.

copa @ May 20th 2008 11:20AM

That thread is epic, Fernando. You predicted an 8/10 score for this game. That's so generous I wonder if you are a closet Sony fanboy!

Fidlious Wong is 'hyped' for this game.

Vidikron writes a good post saying it has a 'good chance of being good.' Good!

Matt B is 'looking forward' to the game!

Elsewhere in this thread I posted that all three of these guys were talking up the game well in advance of release. That was before Fernando linked this post.

How did I know these clowns were putting lipstick on this pig? You'll need a mirror to find the answer!

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 20th 2008 11:29AM

Famitsu gave it a 34...

I'm still looking forward to it I wasn't totally turned off by the demo but I was annoyed at the area they chose.

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 11:31AM

FidliousWond

Lair received a 33 from Famitsu too.

http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=21437

baby sea tuna @ May 20th 2008 11:38AM

Yeah, 33...out of 100!

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 20th 2008 11:38AM

Fernando, have you played Lair or followed the mob mentality on that one as well?

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 20th 2008 11:38AM

Fernando, have you PLAYED Lair or followed the mob mentality of that one as well?

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 11:39AM

Fidlious

Have you played WiiFit? You called it a POS on MSN...

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 20th 2008 11:41AM

Yes, I have actually... I did play WiiFit.

copa @ May 20th 2008 11:41AM

Fidlious Wong goes for the 10.0 degree of difficulty! Can he pull it off?

"I haven't played the game, but the reviewers who have are all wrong. If you played the demo and didn't like it, it's because I they chose the only level that wasn't fun for the demo. And not one of the other levels, that are fun. That I haven't played."

You nailed it!

Paid commenters are the most entertaining part of Joystiq.

Knight Marquise @ May 20th 2008 11:42AM

A thread I never thought I'd see...Fernando owning the shit out of Sheppy. Think I'll go buy a lottery ticket today.

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 11:42AM

I did play Lair too sheppy... every Walmart/Target still has the game running in the PS3 kiosks.

Supino @ May 20th 2008 11:48AM

generic FPS'ers deserve to be slaughtered!

Can you think of anything less creative to be developed?

I mean - we got TONS and TONS of perfected FPS'ers these days. It's like hearing the same old joke for the fifth time. Make something new FFS!

sorry - I just needed to rant about this, just fed up.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 20th 2008 11:49AM

How can you play Lair with the controller tethered to that shaft, Sony having never released a demo disc with it included on it, and companies like Target and Walmart never putting retail games in their demo kiosks? You.. you were playing a video, weren't you?

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 11:52AM

Fidlious

They do have a Lair demo, and also a Motorstorm demo. I swear I have played it.

Ed @ May 20th 2008 11:55AM

I played Lair, and it was like a Wal-Mart greeter telling me which aisle the dog food is in.

Maverick Saturn @ May 20th 2008 11:58AM

You played Lair? You had the patience?

tmacairjordan87 @ May 20th 2008 11:59AM

"Can you think of anything less creative to be developed?"

All of the shovelware that statistically makes up around 85% of the wii's entire lineup.

xFenixKnightx @ May 20th 2008 12:02PM

THE FLAMES!!! THEY ARE A RISING!!!

Oh noez, save teh Haze...

Mr.ESC @ May 20th 2008 12:02PM

Oh no u didun't Fernando.You just pissed the SDF.

To be honest I didn't see this one coming,I mean a 6.0 yes but c'mon 4.5.Free Radical aren't what they used to be.

Also a 34 from Famitsu doesn't mean much I remind you some games far from perfect such as Blue Dragon got above 34.

(BTW I liked Timeshift,I thought it was cool.Maybe with some patches it could be playable)

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 12:18PM

lol =p

http://www.ps3fanboy.com/2007/05/31/crysis-vs-haze-unnecessary-comparison-or-closer-than-you-th/

PojoMofo @ May 20th 2008 12:20PM

Honestly, Lair is much improved now that the analog controls are in there.

And Sir Fid is right about a legion of avid Lair fans.

BananaBoat @ May 20th 2008 12:21PM

The demo turned me off from ever buying haze, but a 4.5 is ridiculous. In todays world where games can get 7's or 8's by just being playable, how could you ever justify giving something a 4.5? I'm not defending haze (far from it) but given that it's playable, and it's the same generic shooter that usually gets an 80+, I just can't see the reasoning behind the low score.

Maybe, just maybe this is the start of a brave new world wherein the entire 10 scale is used, and not just the last 3 numbers on it? I doubt it, but we can hope.

Anticrawl @ May 20th 2008 12:27PM

The demo made me vomit so yeah this is more or less what I was expecting. I hadn't been that disappointed with a game since Red Steel. Clearly these so called "God-like developers since they made Goldeneye" are out of touch with the industry and need to take another 10 year hiatus to get their shit together.

xFenixKnightx @ May 20th 2008 12:42PM

"Crysis vs. Haze -- unnecessary comparison, or closer than you think?"

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaaaaaa!!!!!
Holy Shnikeys Fernando...PURE WINNNN!!! I think we should have a little FIESTA to celebrate buddy. Dos XX Equis all around!

I'm just amazed that they even put that crap up in PS3fanboy.com Wheres the peopl esaying there was no hype for Haze at now?

Korova @ May 20th 2008 12:48PM

BananaBoat,

IGN rates games with consideration of other games in the category. So without COD4, Haze may have gotten a better score, but with COD4 setting the bar so high, Haze just falls way below. AIRBALL!!!

NATO_Duke @ May 20th 2008 12:49PM

Why are you guys bickering over this? The game was expected to suck by most folks around this site, and then IGN said it does in fact suck. So, what does it matter who said it would or would not suck? Lets just all come to a peaceful agreement that the game came out like it was predicted to - and its not worth our time. Lets move on to the next flop being hyped.

Vidikron (FU) @ May 20th 2008 12:50PM

@Copa

Where was I hyping up the game? All I've said all along is I hope it would be good based on the developer. Everyone here does the exactl same thing for various other games. Everyone. What's really funny is people like Fernando have been claiming the the "SDF" has been claiming this game as some sort of "next big thing" when I've hardly seen anyone doing that. The game has been bashed endlessly everytime any news about it came out.

But now that it is getting very mixed reviews the anti Sony crowd is acting like this is some huge failure when, at best, most us hoped it would be good. No one was really holding it up the same way MGS4 or other games in that category have been held up. It's like the anti-Sony crowd force dit on a pedestal just so they could laugh when it didn't meet expectations that the SDF never created. The people here are such fucktards... seriously.

xFenixKnightx @ May 20th 2008 12:53PM

Duke

Well said, but you should try it. It's fun and everybody is doing it! :O

"Lets move on to the next flop being hyped."

Lol, Any candidates yet?

BananaBoat @ May 20th 2008 12:57PM

Maybe the SDF themselves didn't hype this thing (though I'm pretty sure they did) but the internet in general has been in love with Haze since the first screenshots were shown, and the first promises of "As good as Crysis, on a console!" were thrown out. I did have high hopes for this game, all the way up to the demo, as did thousands of other people. While I didn't personally go around saying that Haze was an amazing game for Sony to have exclusivity with, there were a TON of Sony fanboys that did infact go around doing just that. Go back a few months, and Haze was absolutely on any SDF members list of PS3 exclusives that they used in dire attempts to make it seem as if the PS3 was somehow getting better stuff than the 360 (Turns out, MGS4 is the only real, jealousy inducing exclusive the PS3 will be getting this year).

So whether or not it was the SDF, or Sony Fanboys in general, the expectations for haze were set so high that the only end result (unless the game was incredible) was disappointment.

Vidikron (FU) @ May 20th 2008 12:58PM

Fenix,

Please, don't become the fall into the same fucktard category as the rest of these ass clowns. When has the game received anything but negative hype? Some of us were hopeful it would be good because of Free Radical, but these guys are acting like it's MGS4 that fell flat here. Haze has never been regarded that way... at least not by the majority of PS3 owners. But we have all the NDF guys saying, "Haha... we told you so!". Yet, most of us weren't saying it would be? Retarded.

Knight Marquise @ May 20th 2008 1:00PM

Vid...

Ps3fanboy had an article where they actually compared screen shots of Haze to Crysis, and stated, in some cases, it looks better. I think that's the kind of SDF crap Copa is referring too.

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 1:01PM

"The comparison shots show that, in some situations, Haze looks identical if not slightly better than Crysis."

-ps3fanboy.com

=p

Vidikron (FU) @ May 20th 2008 1:03PM

I'm sure there are examples around where people were hyped, but again, I just haven't seen that here among the Joystiq posters. So I'm not sure what exactly the anti-Sony crowd is trying to throw into people's faces here.

Dale @ May 20th 2008 1:04PM

I have no comment on the game, but...

"Dos XX Equis"

Two Two Xs Xs?!

Fernando Rocker @ May 20th 2008 1:06PM

Vidikron

Please dude... Haze was in the "just wait until..." lists.

You can check the comments sinc last year... this game was very hyped here in Joystiq comments.

BananaBoat @ May 20th 2008 1:07PM

I think what they really meant to say is that if you look at a screenshot of Crysis and Haze side-by-side, and then you punch yourself in the testicles, and squint really hard, you won't be able to tell the difference between the two (and you'll think Haze looks better).

If that article really happened (links, FTW), then PS3fanboy has some massive explaining to do (or atleast the guy that posted the comparison does)

xFenixKnightx @ May 20th 2008 1:10PM

Vidikron

I know man, its just all in good fun. Look, I had so many arguments with Noshino and others about Haze being lame while they wre defending it for whatever reason that this is kinda in a way satisfying.

BTW,

Where is Noshino? Crying in a corner? Getting a refund on Haze? :P

Dante X @ May 20th 2008 1:21PM

Another mediocre FPS exclusively on the PS3 =P

NATO_Duke @ May 20th 2008 1:21PM

C'mon guys, at least we have Turning Point: Fall of Liberty to play.

Am I right? Yeah!

Vidikron (FU) @ May 20th 2008 1:23PM

"Please dude... Haze was in the "just wait until..." lists."

So what if people did list it as a game they were looking forward to? It was developed by Free Radical, some of us were hopeful for it. But it is getting mixed reviews. I don't really see the big deal here. It was never in the same category as HGS4, FF, or anything like that.

Paul (PSN: heypaul) @ May 20th 2008 1:31PM

You guys are such a bunch of girls.

The game always looked mediocre. Most of us PS3 fans who saw that early on were wise enough to keep our mouths shut. The rest are looking somewhat foolish right now, but given Free Radical's history, their expectations were not entirely unrealistic. (Though some may say that they should've learned their lesson with Factor 5's Lair.)

On the other end of the spectrum, we have a guy like Fernando, who, as with his Mario Kart sales victory, has proven himself to be the gloating, egocentric, self-righteous, own-back-patting, Terrell Owens of the Joystiq boards. Good on ya, rock star.