Negative DNF Reviews Lead to PR Blacklist?

The integrity and even legitimacy of video game journalism depends on the reviewer's ability to ignore threats like these and continue reporting and reviewing games honestly; based on the merit of their design rather than the bonuses that come with positive or simply disingenuous reviews.
 
Dan_D said:
Probably. I've seen bigger pieces of shit get awesome reviews. Far Cry 2 is a great example of that. Reviews are generally positive for it but that game sucks horse dicks and teabags elephants.
Click to expand...

Thank you for your honesty. I was beginning to think that I was the only one who thought that Far Cry 2 was a horrible game as everyone else around me raves about it. That game even with the final build is still unstable as hell and still has a few bugs that havn't been fixed. After my love with the original Far Cry, FC2 is the reason why i'm not all that excited about the announcement of Far Cry 3.

This gangbanging of Duke by these pissed off reviewers better not deter Gearbox from releasing any more Duke games in the future.
 
NIVO said:
and this is why many game developers dont do demos anymore. If it sucks ass in the demo, chances are it'll suck ass in the full version.
Click to expand...

I had DNF on preorder with amazon, only to get that early access to the demo. Once that got playtime I canceling the preorder. I was really hyped, but that was such a disappointment.
 
AaronGant said:
I had DNF on preorder with amazon, only to get that early access to the demo. Once that got playtime I canceling the preorder. I was really hyped, but that was such a disappointment.
Click to expand...

DNF is one of the rare games where the full version is actually better than the demo. I thought the demo was mediocre, so far the full version is good.
 
kllrnohj said:
DNF is one of the rare games where the full version is actually better than the demo. I thought the demo was mediocre, so far the full version is good.
Click to expand...

I feel the same way. I hated about half the demo. The full game is much better. It's not ground breaking, it's not fantastic, but it's enjoyable and I think fans of the original will at least like the nostalgic aspects of the new game.
 
Betaboy1983 said:
Whatever happened to the damn demo? I thought it was supposed to come out yesterday, or was that just for pre-order people? I have to see for myself how horrible this turned out after reading this stuff. :D
Click to expand...
The demo came out on June 3rd for pre-order customers. I played it and found that it actually exceeded my expectations.
 
ZDPhoenix said:
People were (ignorantly) expecting a game that seriously would take 12 years to make.

How many months (not years) do you really think they put into making it?

When that first delay hit, I canceled my pre-order.

Seems like a decent game... but I just knew there'd be a fan backlash over it not being "An Ass Kicking Tribute".
Click to expand...

1: 14 years, announced in 1997. It was supposed to be a direct sequel to Duke Nukem 3D.

2: Umm... judging by the looks of it, 6 months, maybe 8 if they were slackers.

3: Ditto

4: Maybe you enjoy it, but about 10 minutes after reaching the workout room (where the Balls of Steel pinball game is) I uninstalled it. It would have been good if it came out years ago, but with the shooters of today, DNF simply didn't bring enough to the table to keep my attention.
 
mhenley said:
1: 14 years, announced in 1997. It was supposed to be a direct sequel to Duke Nukem 3D.

2: Umm... judging by the looks of it, 6 months, maybe 8 if they were slackers.

3: Ditto

4: Maybe you enjoy it, but about 10 minutes after reaching the workout room (where the Balls of Steel pinball game is) I uninstalled it. It would have been good if it came out years ago, but with the shooters of today, DNF simply didn't bring enough to the table to keep my attention.
Click to expand...

You didn't give it a fair chance. The game gets a lot better when you get past the first few levels. Seriously, give it 30-45 minutes at least before calling it crap. The beginning is nothing special. In fact it sucks. However the rest of the game has been far better. Once you get past the first turret section where you shoot at the alien mothership it gets a lot better.
 
meatfestival said:
Some of the reviews have been way, way too hard on Duke. It's not a very good game, but it's not as terrible as some would have you believe. To be honest I've had more fun playing it than any Call of Duty lately.

Some reviewers (who need to get over themselves) just seem to have taken it upon themselves to take the game down a peg or two because they have this fake moral indignation about the game's "disgusting" attitute to women etc. Others just want to join the queue of people putting the boot in... it all seems very personal and biased.
Click to expand...

same, Its not great, but th 3.0-4.0 reviews where a bit questionable, 5-7.5 would be a better score for it. heck im not trusting the one who gave it 80 though,lol, there's a lot of questionable stuff in the game. but its no- "the end of the world problems",lol
 
Nothing new here. I still remember Jeff Gerstmann's firing from Gamespot due to his scathing Kane and Lynch review and pressure from Eidos like it was yesterday. One of the reasons why I (somewhat) trust his new site and don't even read IGN or GS anymore.
 
When I read reviews like "This game has poor voice acting" I immediately stop paying attention. It has poor voice acting on purpose because it's not expected to be taken serious.
Click to expand...

I completely disagree on this. I also thought the game had terrible voice acting. Just because the game is not to be taken seriously doesn't mean you skimp on the voice acting. Bad acting is bad acting period. And I'm not just talking about Duke, it was all bad. It's pretty clear the game makers didn't spend too much time and effort on the dialog and acting. I think they made a mistake cause it would have made an ok game much better and much funnier.
 
Fail move on tweeting that but to be honest if a game gets a total thrashing it did not deserve then i can see why a company would not want to give them things to review in the future but telling everyone in that way made it seam as simple as negative review = blacklisted when it seams like it really is not.

I truly don't understand why DNF is getting trashed for being what it was supposed to be, with the amount of games that are utter shit that get much much higher scores it shocks me that DNF did not get like 7+/10 or 80+/100 in all reviews.

Yes it's nothing ground breaking, but duke 3d was not, if you take this game as what it is supposed to be then it can be a lot of fun, Yes the demo sucked balls, i was disappointing after playing through the demo but a couple maps in to the full game i realized the full game is way better than what is shown in the demo and after finishing the single player of DNF the only thing that really annoys me is the fact its only like 10 or so hours long.
 
Dan_D said:
You didn't give it a fair chance. The game gets a lot better when you get past the first few levels. Seriously, give it 30-45 minutes at least before calling it crap. The beginning is nothing special. In fact it sucks. However the rest of the game has been far better. Once you get past the first turret section where you shoot at the alien mothership it gets a lot better.
Click to expand...

I will consider it... but it will probably happen after I get tired of Black Ops, Crysis 2 and Brink, which may be a while.
 
This guy better be ready to ban every honest review site on the web...
Then again its hard not to be honest about this game.
Had to play Serious Sam for a few hours to feel normal again.
 
I said here 2 weeks ago not to expect DNF to be all that good because Gearbox didn't put much time into it when they got the green light to finish it. It has to be said...told you so. :)
 
Gamespot, IGN, Kotaku, and all the other review sites need to die in a fire, and I'd be happy to set it. You can bet MW3 will get a 9.5. To hell with review sites. They are to games as 3DMark was to video card performance.
 
I don't think bribes and threats are all that unusual in the game review industry given the stories we've seen in the past.

I think the mistake he made was that he put it out there publicly for all to see. He lifted the curtain. Of course 2k had to fire him.
 
Wait, that must mean that someone thought DNF was gonna be good.
Two development teams and 10 years of wasted time do NOT add up to a good game. The fact this game is boring should surprise no one, not even Redner.
 
_PixelNinja said:
Redner has already written out to journalists to apologize for that Tweet:
Click to expand...

I'm so sick of people today. You KNOW that guy meant what he said, and he probably got blind sided at work and told to apologize. I'm sick of people being forced to apologize for the way they really feel. He should be a man and stick to what he said, even if it costs him his job.
 
I can understand the frustration for console owners. There is no reason it shouldn’t run at a native 720P and run good on those systems. It seems that be an unoptimized mess. Which is funnny since so many people on here said it's been consoled. The PC version runs great for me but of course the game looks pretty dated. It's been fun so far and I'd give it a 6/10.
 
Q-BZ said:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ta...nukem-ratings-2011-06-14?reflink=MW_news_stmp

Can't PR this.
Click to expand...

You don't understand how the stock market runs. It's emotion-driven, and investors right now are reacting to the reviews and not actual sales. Wait until the sales numbers start coming in, then see what the market does. It's too freaking early to use investor knee-jerk reactions as a measure of Duke's success.

Boomstick: I agree. People need to grow some backbone. Anyone asks my opinion I'll give it straight up. Hell, I do that without people asking anyway.
 
I don't get it either; the negativity about the game. It's exactly what it was supposed to be, which is a sequel to Duke 3D done in the exact same style with flashier graphics. It really is an old school shooter and a breath of musty nostalgic air. It's alright for what it is.
 
I think they counted on titties and guns and the games history to sell itself

ill buy it on steam when its 20 bucks
 
Phoenix333 said:
You don't understand how the stock market runs. It's emotion-driven, and investors right now are reacting to the reviews and not actual sales. Wait until the sales numbers start coming in, then see what the market does. It's too freaking early to use investor knee-jerk reactions as a measure of Duke's success.
Click to expand...

Actually I understand it all too well and you're exactly right.

I just put the info up for whatever it was worth.
 
If they didn't stop dorking around with it and left it on the Quake 2 engine it would of been out a couple years after D3D and it would of been alright. Gearbox didn't redo anything, they took all the code and finished it so it would run. This is the same game that was 'done' years ago but kept getting its graphics redone every year or two. They really did count on titties, guns and the still hot buzz for the 3rd Duke game to sell it...back in 1999.

As others have said it's a fun distraction from all of the COD crap these days. If you liked the old school FPS of yesteryear then yeah you'll like Duke in the bargin bin.
 
Q-BZ said:
Actually I understand it all too well and you're exactly right.

I just put the info up for whatever it was worth.
Click to expand...

Ahh, good then. A lot of people honestly don't understand the stock market. Glad to meet someone with a bit of real-world education. :)
 
Grimspoon said:
The integrity and even legitimacy of ALL journalism depends on the reviewer's ability to ignore threats like these and continue reporting and reviewing ANYTHING honestly.
Click to expand...

Fixed for you. Unfortunately, practice like this is going to the wayside in all walks of journalism these days :eek:
 
Boomstick said:
I'm so sick of people today. You KNOW that guy meant what he said, and he probably got blind sided at work and told to apologize. I'm sick of people being forced to apologize for the way they really feel. He should be a man and stick to what he said, even if it costs him his job.
Click to expand...

I want to agree with you but if the guy has any responsibilities he would have to be some kind of fool to throw away a job. "being a man" does not always work in the real world when you have to provide and care for others. How a person really feels is pretty irrelevant in most jobs, especially a PR firm I'd imagine.
 
Boomstick said:
I'm so sick of people today. You KNOW that guy meant what he said, and he probably got blind sided at work and told to apologize. I'm sick of people being forced to apologize for the way they really feel. He should be a man and stick to what he said, even if it costs him his job.
Click to expand...

It's his own business. So yes, if to you "being a man" means saying something stupid and then watching your business go under because you're too full of yourself to take it back, get down with your bad self. In the unemployment line.
 
I have been a regular at Ars Technica for over 10 years visiting at least 1-2 times every week. The last couple years they have put out much more opinionated BS and after their last site redesign their quality has plummeted considerably. After the DNF review I will never be going back to their site since it is now obvious they are no longer are the site they used to be.
 
Mike89 said:
I completely disagree on this. I also thought the game had terrible voice acting. Just because the game is not to be taken seriously doesn't mean you skimp on the voice acting. Bad acting is bad acting period. And I'm not just talking about Duke, it was all bad. It's pretty clear the game makers didn't spend too much time and effort on the dialog and acting. I think they made a mistake cause it would have made an ok game much better and much funnier.
Click to expand...

The bad voice acting was part of the joke. The Duke 3D had shit voice acting, poorly done graphics and also very bland but exploitable levels. Multiplayer was fun as hell becuse of the basic levels.

Duke3D is basically a spoof of overly serious FPS games in general and DNF was the sequel to the spoof.

That said, I give it a 6.5, and I'm an asshole when it comes to reviews of games.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top