Real Game Reviews, Part II

Things that can cost you your job.

Apparently giving your real opinion of a game can cost you your job too, if you happen to be hired as a game reviewer. Calling a game ugly seems to be out of the question.

Funnily enough we are all pretty accustomed to movie critics blasting the latest Hollywood block buster down so low you'd think nobody would want to see them, yet millions flock to the box office anyway because most of us just look to be entertained for a couple of hours.

I wonder when the game industry will mature out of its insecurity and accept that not everybody needs to like their latest creation. And disguising their marketing as "objective" game reviews will eventually cause a negative backlash. Funnily enough, the publisher in this case would have done a lot better not to react to the negative review at all (many of us don't really spend that much time pouring over reviews before deciding which game to buy) rather than draw everybody's attention to it by overreacting.

In the meanwhile, hopefully critical game reviews will find alternative avenues.

• Gamespot's editorial director fired over Kane & Lynch review
• Comparison shows significant edits to Gerstmann's Kane & Lynch review