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At Least Now You Know Which Video Game Reviewers Are Sellout Clowns

All I see are salty console fans.

Fuck man let the game side be about other things. Tired of all these damn threads. Life goes on, go play other games.

That’s how TLOU2 fans feel and people are STILL attacking that game over much more minor things than Cyberpunk 2077. Unfortunately, that’s the internet for you.
 

CamHostage

Member
...goes to show how much game studios have your favourite reviewer by the balls just so they could upload a review on day one instead of I don't know....... buy and play the game like everyone else on day one like a normal fucking gamer and do a review later.

But you know the drill of game reviews. Speed over quality or ethics.

But why is Day One worse than Day Fifteen/Twenty?

Why is it better to have a product come out to zero critical analysis? Yes, there are a lot of caveats embedded in those reviews that were easy to gloss over in the rush to just consume the content, and there was a tactical approach at CDPR as far as what was let out when, but some solid information was out there for consumers to make use of, and the void of info on the unexposed versions was also in the disclosures. Gamespot was out there with a review saying they didn't enjoy the game and it was full of bugs before any of us regular consumers could have cracked the plastic on the box (I assume the embargo was up at midnight launch day in the first territory, GameSpot's timestamp on their video review on YT even says Dec 9 for me.) If CDPR had remained in full control of the conversation, it would have been just their trailers and commercials and no public hands-on impressions from anywhere in the world until 8 million copies of the game had been opened. That's better?

By agreeing to the terms of this NDA, the reviewers were able to deliver quality and ethics (at whatever their definition is of these terms, which you may not agree with, but ethically they were able to say whatever they wanted in their pre-release-day review text, just without footage to depict it until launch day unlock) while speeding it out before the consumer launch date. So, what's the downside? If reviewers had refused the NDA, it's not like they had any recourse; you don't get copies elsewhere by being bullheaded. You can either work within the rules (because the fact is, until the street date, a company is entirely within its rights to choose who has access to its product) and be clear about the rules you're under if the terms seem to be an issue, or you can not do your work until the rules go away. The NDA manages the situation either way, it's up to the negotiator to determine whether the terms are fair or are not worth agreeing to.
 
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The game is missing so many promised features, it's nothing at all what they said it would be. Especially the police system.
Stop falling for dumbass shit developers say. I can't even feel sorry for these types of people lol. Being mad because they lied about console performance is rational. Being mad because you were swayed by the promises of a marketing team are lol worthy. That shit happens all the damn time in the game industry. Guess no one learned from No Man's Sky
 

playXray

Member
Omg, the hyperbolic reaction to this game is to much.
It really it. It’s an absolute joy to play this on XSX. I’ve only seen one big in 9 hours of playthrough, and that was fixed in patch 1.0.5.

Doesn't take away from this issues on previous gen, but the hyperbole around this game is astounding.
 
Never thought I would say this but I am at the point where I miss the Console War Threads. At least they have "dank memez."

NXGamer NXGamer and D dark10x please upload anything comparing something on PS5 and XsX so we can start climbing out of the Cyberpunk Drama avalanche.
 
After years of them repeatedly being outed as nothing but clueless PR/Salespeople at best and outright liars at worst, i'm baffled at why anybody still looks at reviews or trusts reviewers.
 
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Jada

Banned
True ... not what was promised. Mediocre GTA with branching story elements.

60+ hours here..on xbxSx. I desperately needed something on my Series X so I started playing on Xbox

- Mediocre world... The architecture and verticality is good but it is un interactable.
- Terrible traffic AI ....similar to Watch_Dogs 1 from 2013. If your car is 1 ft on the street 4 cars just stop behind you and then traffic stops generating.
- Brain Dead NPC.. no interaction same one line response...if that
- Exact Same Police mission x 100
- 99% of the stores/buildings are DEAD .. unable to go in...
- No taxi ....go to a purple fucking news stand to transport your ass
- Same obese fat fuck NPC walking on street with different skin color ...E X A C T same animation.
- Same side quests... go there kill NPC in different clothes/gang colors
- 1 hacking mini game... ONE
This sounds so terrible, making all the “Guys, this game is so amazing. Might be my GoTG. CPDR is incredible” posts even more embarrassing.
 

Royal-Slime

Banned
Cyberpunk 2077 has turned out to be an indictment of every part of the 21st century games industry: its abusive working conditions, its imaginative bankruptcy, the distorting power of its marketing machinery. Add to that list the complicity of so many of the people and publications covering it. In that respect this broken piece-of-shit game has revealed quite a bit more truth than most of what you could read about it prior to last Thursday.
I'll take a "broken piece of shit game" over shallow TLOU2 made for delusional journalists and juvenile women and their "allies". Keep playing that power fantasy, real life is not going to be kind.
 

K.S v2.0

Banned
Have any of them walked their reviews back or apologized? Would be nice.

If reviews ever getting walked back or redone were a thing, the entire practice of trying to 'buy' a day1 review score wouldn't exist at all and we wouldn't have a problem.
 

Humdinger

Member
If reviews ever getting walked back or redone were a thing, the entire practice of trying to 'buy' a day1 review score wouldn't exist at all and we wouldn't have a problem.

Seems like this would be a good way of establishing credibility with an audience. Stand up and say you messed up. I wish at least one of them would have the guts and integrity to do it. I think they might generate a lot of good will and credibility. Coming clean sometimes does that.
 

K.S v2.0

Banned
Seems like this would be a good way of establishing credibility with an audience. Stand up and say you messed up. I wish at least one of them would have the guts and integrity to do it. I think they might generate a lot of good will and credibility. Coming clean sometimes does that.

We are at the point where if you say you're a journalist, you're probably going to be laughed at at gatherings. The entire profession needs a massive shot in the arm credibility wise and being able to prove honesty and the fact you're not a sellout would go a long way. But that doesn't actually fix the problem either... What we need is to make it a crime to offer bribes/incentives/perks/whatever to journalists since it effectively is poisoning what SHOULD be an unbiased review.

That being said, even doing the above won't fix the problem if your journalists are biased cucks to begin with but that's yet another thousand miles down the hole that the profession has dug for itself.
 

MrFunSocks

Banned
Nah. They probably didn’t even play the base console versions.

What is it about this game that’s making everyone lose their shit and act like this is the first game with a bad frame rate? Did none of you people have a PS1 or N64?
 
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iHaunter

Member
Stop falling for dumbass shit developers say. I can't even feel sorry for these types of people lol. Being mad because they lied about console performance is rational. Being mad because you were swayed by the promises of a marketing team are lol worthy. That shit happens all the damn time in the game industry. Guess no one learned from No Man's Sky
I'm not mad, I didn't buy the game. I'm waiting for a sale.
 

ArtHands

Thinks buying more servers can fix a bad patch
Checks OP avatar.

From the same guy who misleadingly said that CDPR only gives out review codes to publications with RTX 30 series cards
 

MayauMiao

Member
Every review is a subjective opinion. Read reviews, watch the footage, make your own mind.
I find Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines one of the best RPGs ever made but that game was ROUGH when released. Every person here has examples of games reviewed 6/10 they absolutely adore.

You're responding to someone who already have the game, saw the shit for what it is.

Gone Home is the exact reason why I don't read reviews anymore, especially from Polygon.
 

Humdinger

Member
We are at the point where if you say you're a journalist, you're probably going to be laughed at at gatherings. The entire profession needs a massive shot in the arm credibility wise and being able to prove honesty and the fact you're not a sellout would go a long way.

Are we? I wonder. I know a big chunk of GAF feels that way, but what about the masses? Are they really plugged into this stuff? Do they know enough about the situation to even be upset at game reviewers? Do they care that much?

I know some of us do, but I wonder how much that translates to the average gamer. My guess, based on knowing human nature, is that 95% of gamers will not be upset at game reviewers about this. They will turn a blind eye, and things will go on as they have before.

But that doesn't actually fix the problem either... What we need is to make it a crime to offer bribes/incentives/perks/whatever to journalists since it effectively is poisoning what SHOULD be an unbiased review.

I have to strike another note of pessimism. The medical profession is rife with this sort of thing -- incentives, perks, etc.. It's true of the authoritative governmental bodies and agencies that issue health advice, which is then followed by millions. There have been efforts to curb those incentives, but it has been unsuccessful. These influences pervade and corrupt the system.

And that's a system where life and death are at stake. We have been unable to fix the problem there, despite decades of people raising the alarm. Do we expect to be able to cleanse the videogame world (where nothing like life and death are at stake), when we can't do it for the medical, pharmaceutical, and healthcare industry? And there is literally no oversight?

What I'm saying is that this problem will not get fixed.

It would, however, be nice to see at least some reviewers stand up and say it's a problem, and take some accountability themselves. That happens in the other corrupted industries I mentioned. You have doctors calling out the medical profession, writing books about how corrupt it is, even at personal cost to themselves. I'd like to see a little of that in the game industry.

I'm not saying it would change things. I just think it would be a breath of fresh air.
 
I have like 20 hours on PC and it's clearly an excellent game with some bugs. 9/10 is a fair score considering right now.

Old gen console reviews? Cool, I don't care. Anyone who thinks a CDPR game is going to be smooth on a last gen console is stupid. At least you got refunds for your stupidity.
 

Evil Calvin

Afraid of Boobs
It runs completely fine on XSX. The reviewers played on PC's. It's good there too. Sure, CDPR should have allowed base console reviews but the reviewers played on PC's and they mentioned the platform that the review took place. I see no problem there.
 

PC Gamer

Has enormous collection of anime/manga. Cosplays as waifu.
All I see are salty console fans.

Fuck man let the game side be about other things. Tired of all these damn threads. Life goes on, go play other games.

And yet, here you are reading and commenting...
 

K.S v2.0

Banned
Says somebody defending Cyberpunk 2077 :pie_thinking: :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Where did I ever defend Cyberpunk's bugginess? :pie_thinking: I even said repeatedly in all my posts about the game that while I enjoy it, I'm putting it aside until they fix the bugs.

See, unlike you, I live in the Real World™ and am capable of being honestly critical about a product, unlike you and The Lez of Us 2.
 

ethomaz

Banned
Where did I ever defend Cyberpunk's bugginess? :pie_thinking: I even said repeatedly in all my posts about the game that while I enjoy it, I'm putting it aside until they fix the bugs.

See, unlike you, I live in the Real World™ and am capable of being honestly critical about a product, unlike you and The Lez of Us 2.
...
Nigga prrrrlz. I knew which ones were sellouts long before CP, it was all the ones who gave TLoU2 a 10/10.

Well here's a question! What's the difference between CP2077 and TLoU2?

CP2077 will eventually be fixed and will be good.

:messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy: :messenger_tears_of_joy:

Real world yeap...

807253.jpg
 
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Much polish! Very ma'am! WOW!

If that is your definition of polished, you seriously need higher standards.

.....did you actually play the game? Or are you just basing it off youtube videos?

Any game can have a bug, or a glitch, and when it occurs is subjective to each individual gamer - that is the "death and taxes" of video games, by which I mean that is in unavoidable. But if you actually played the goddamn game, you'd realize how polish the game is in comparison to games like Cyberpunk 2077, or Watch Dogs 2 in comparison.

I'd even chalk up RDR2 as one of the most polished games of the generation (considering the size and scope), but you'd still find bugs and glitches compilation of it.

But ya know, you do you dude.
 

soulbait

Member
A couple of things. First, reviewers are stuck between a rock and a hard place. You make money by people reading your articles and reviews. This makes it very important to have your review ready to go as your competition's. Not many people will read more than one review. Even less people will read 3 or more. If your competition gets a leg up on you, there is less chance of people reading your review, which means less money for you. Game sites are not charity, but businesses. Their sole function is to make money. When a publisher has shitty NDA agreements like this, the gaming sites are basically held hostage and have to do this, or lose out of money. The only way one can really take as stand, is if all of them take a stand. However, one will want that money, so the others follow.

Second, every review I read and watched admitted that the review was played on PC only and all video they could show was video provided by CDPR. This was made clear and up front in all reviews I read and watched. If the previous red flags was not enough to get you worried about the console versions, then this very much should have. I read those reviews simply as PC reviews and not console reviews. I do feel that some sites could have done a better job at separating this out and making it clear that this review is for PC only and they will have a follow up review for consoles. Most reviews I read and watched, while saying they have only played it on PC, gave off the impression that they assumed the overall game play would be the same on console, but with scaled back graphics. That assumption is what killed it here.

To summarize, game sites had no choice but to post a review and accept the terrible terms by CDPR due to competition, reviews were forward that all they played were PC versions and the video was provided from CDPR, however they should not have been so optimistic about the console versions.

So how do we gamers combat this? How do we prevent CDPR thinking it is okay to have have a ridiculous NDA for a review and for game sites to be better overall at this?

  1. Stop falling in so much for hype. We all fall for this. Hype is just marketing convincing us game X is going to be the next best thing. Manage your expectations and wait until actual game play is shown on the box of your choice before going all in with excitement. It is hard to do, because we are passionate about games, but falling for hype gives marketing the upper hand on us.
  2. Stop pre-ordering games! Unless you know there is going to be a shortage of a physical copy that you want, there is absolutely no need to pre-order games, especially if you are all digital. There just is no reason. Even if you think you want to do so you can pre-load the game and be able to play right at midnight at launch, just have patience. Only time I will pre-order a game now is once the reviews have been out and I know it is a game I will like, and that is usually the night before launch day. Even then, I usually wait for the day of launch, read up on the game, and then have it download while I am at work. If I read about bugs and such, I will wait until the first round of patches and then reevaluate. No big deal. There is no practical reason I can think of for a pre-order, unless it is due to limited physical copies and you want that copy as a collector. Pre-ordering is just rewarding their marketing attempts towards you and not rewarding them for actually creating a good game.
  3. Let the gaming sites know you want more transparency on how they get the games to review. Also, make sure the review sites are clear on which platforms the games were reviewed on (most do show this, but CP2077 brings up this issue).
Okay, off my soapbox.
 

K.S v2.0

Banned
.....did you actually play the game? Or are you just basing it off youtube videos?

Any game can have a bug, or a glitch, and when it occurs is subjective to each individual gamer - that is the "death and taxes" of video games, by which I mean that is in unavoidable. But if you actually played the goddamn game, you'd realize how polish the game is in comparison to games like Cyberpunk 2077, or Watch Dogs 2 in comparison.

I'd even chalk up RDR2 as one of the most polished games of the generation (considering the size and scope), but you'd still find bugs and glitches compilation of it.

But ya know, you do you dude.

Oh I know, I'm simply applying the same standards TLoU2 fanboys apply to their beloved game vs any other. Double standards is the only thing they understand coz if they didn't have double standards they wouldn't have any standards.
 

Carna

Banned
Who is willing to defend game journos, anyway?

Besides the people who hated every Sonic game between s3&k and mania?
 

Magog.

Banned
PC gamers only love this game so much because it's actually barely playable on their chosen platform unlike consoles so they will defend it to death even though it's missing huge amounts of promised features. It's like the one game in forever that they can hang their hat on though so they will pretend it's great even though everyone can see it is a rush, unfinished product.
 

BlackTron

Member
I don't think this Cyberpunk situation is a great example of games media being sellouts. More an example of the studio/publisher manipulating the outcome.

They don't need this to count as sellouts though, that was written in stone long ago.
 

GymWolf

Member
They all are... But i'm not gonna judge them based on how they reviewed cyberpunk, i have 82 hours on that game on pc and my experience was far better than any bethesda game at launch or downright broken stuff like avengers or anthem.

If i was lucky for 82 hours, other people were lucky too, not everyone had their worst gaming experience with cyberpunk, some people can't really grasp this fact...
 
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waquzy

Member
They all are... But i'm not gonna judge them based on how they reviewed cyberpunk, i have 82 hours on that game on pc and my experience was far better than any bethesda game at launch or downright broken stuff like avengers or anthem.

If i was lucky for 82 hours, other people were lucky too, not everyone had their worst gaming experience with cyberpunk, some people can't really grasp this fact...
If you only play the story then yes, it’s a great game. But it’s when you start exploring the Night City, when things fall apart. No cop AI, brain dead NPC’s, no interaction whatsoever etc.
 

GymWolf

Member
If you only play the story then yes, it’s a great game. But it’s when you start exploring the Night City, when things fall apart. No cop AI, brain dead NPC’s, no interaction whatsoever etc.
All true, i was talking about the bugs and glitches.

I liked the game but i never gonna defend the fact that it is clearly undercooked in many aspects.
 
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