Gamespot may have fired their veteran writer, Jeff Gerstmann, over his Kane & Lynch review.
EDIT: See below the cut for more details, and the pulled Gamespot video.
Many sources have posted the rumour that Gerstmann was fired from Gamespot in response to his 6/10 review of Kane & Lynch, which coindicided with some big-budget advertising from publishers Eidos.
We have a reliable source who tells us that while Gerstmann wasn’t the most popular man with the CNET owners, it was his Kane & Lynch review alone that allegedly saw him lose his job. We’d like to stress for reasons of balance, clarity, and fear, that this may be completely wrong. Certainly neither Gamespot nor Gerstmann have said either way, while Gerstmann has confirmed to Joystiq that the firing did happen. Eidos had secured massive advertising across the site, skinning the entire front page with K&L commercials, along with running gimmick adverts allowing readers to cut their own K&L trailers. This can make a below-average review a little awkward.
While the latter advert remains, the front page skinning has disappeared, along with Gerstmann, but not his (accurate) review, which can be read here. Gerstmann, meanwhile, can probably be found staring blankly at his computer screen in bemused confusion.
The story is spreading fast, with Penny Arcade even posting a special extra cartoon about it last night. (Sadly they forgot to include a joke, but there we go).
Any gaming magazine or website is going to carry gaming advertising. And that’s always likely to lead to conflicts. Fortunately, most of the time this ends with publications acting with integrity, taking a hit in the advertising budget, and standing by their man. Who knows what happened here.
Gerstmann’s review is for some reason only applied to the 360 and PS3 versions, but we can assure you that the same applies for the PC.
Here’s the closing paragraph of Gerstmann’s review:
“Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a premise with promise, and if you’ve been waiting patiently for a game to really dive into the whole “crew-based heist tale” concept, you might be able to look past some of the story flaws. But when you consider the nearly ridiculous number of extremely high-quality shooters available recently, there’s not much room for something like Kane & Lynch, even taking into account the somewhat unique nature of its story. That said, the multiplayer is a smart idea that’s worth seeing, even if playing it makes you wish that it was used in another, better game.”
EDIT: We are hearing rumours that what might have gotten Gerstmann in trouble was not so much his text review, but the video review now missing from Gamespot. So here it is below:
Also, the Eidos forums just happen to be shut today, presenting the message “We are currently making a change to the forums. They will be up shortly. Please check back later.” Reportedly that’s a result of them being visited by a crowd of angry internet gentlemen, though that’s unconfirmed. MORE EDIT: They’re back up now.
We’ve edited down the above post for reasons of common sense. And because, discussed amongst ourselves, we can’t see a logic for why firing him over this would ever have seemed a good idea to anyone. There must be more to it. Or indeed, it must be to do with something else. It’s an interesting muddle. Whatever’s the case, the throngs of the internet seemed to have picked a side. If CNET or Gamespot comment, perhaps it will be to explain. At this point we certainly don’t know the full story.
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Honestly, I think it was probably that last sentence that did it, if anything. Publishers may be able to take a game being slated (to a point, anyway…) but actively saying that you shouldn’t buy it may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
He did say “probably” three times, though.
The B but with the later hitman games it was all too easy to take the quick syringe to the neck route.
It was always there and always the easiest way to a silent assassin rating.
Do you remember hitman 2 the first level… the mafia one?
I remember sitting on a hill outside the complex with my binoculars just seeing how everything moved planning my way in and out and then going in.
It was real tense when I got inside the house because I hadn’t planned it and that was the only seat of the pants bit.
With the later hitman games on all the levels you just go in wear a peon’s or a cop’s uniform then you’re set to run in stab the guy and then run out again.
Or with the last hitman game you just triggered the set special kill trap and that was that [ie the pyrotechnic's death on heavan and hell] .
Pretty rudimentary and pretty straightforward.
Go back and play hitman 2; it’s really overwealming at first but it’s just teaching you to be patient about where to throw the spanner into the machine.
I don’t think that last sentence would do that. There are tons of other reviews, even on Gamespot’s site alone, that say that a game is better worth renting than purchasing.
Whether the firing was justified or not, CNET sure as heck handled this situation poorly. Removing the video review from the website, then waiting until midday to post a highly non-informative statement isn’t going to do anything to make them look less guilty.
Eidos should have put in place a code of conduct at a board level to ensure that they don’t have ‘PR ringing up and going apeshit’ at people.
I’m surprised and disgusted that this is standard practise in the industry. The unholy trinity of journalism, advertising and PR is a mess enough without major corporates failing to see the ethical problems in the situation and putting proper procedures in place.
Journalism…Advertising…PR…Corporations…Ethics…Proper procedures.
If that was a venn diagram it would look like the milky way.
Well, a very coherent picture is being painted, along with all the rumours and what Penny Arcade is claiming.
http://valleywag.com/tech/jeff-gerstmann/gamespot-editor-on-fired-writer-328775.php
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3164656
I’m beyond pissed now, this is closer to a smoking gun then I ever anticipated seeing, and it also would explain the harsh video review that feels much more rushed than the usual ones.
Does anyone really pay all that much attention to these online reviews, anyway? I’ve never really looked at any, Except the user reviews on GameFAQs (which is pretty much gamespot anyway, I know).
I just figured i can take those ones as honest from the game players perspective, or its blatantly obvious the writer has no idea what they’re on about.
Does anyone really pay all that much attention to these online reviews, anyway?
I read them from time to time, but only to gather enough information to make my own judgements, and only in the context of “it’s a frikkin’ web review” :P
I really have to ask, what the hell is with that review, and then 6/10? I wish people would actually use the ‘out of ten’ to accurately review a game. 98% for HL2? 95% for Doom 3? 6/10 for a game totally panned? I was under the impression that a high ranking meant “Oh my God, buy this game,” and a 6/10 meant “It’s ok, but it isn’t anything amazing.”
What would it take to get a two, or a four out of ten?
I am in mourning over this, now all the greats are gone from GAMESPOT— KARIE, GREG, RICH and now JEFF—- what is the point of that web site any more. Also TIM TRACEY left GAMESPOT at the same time as JEFF, so maybe, they are gonna do something, online and game related together. Here is hoping
And to top it off I am listening to 1 UPYOURS podcast, and JOHN DAVIES , is not going to be on that podcast anymore.
What a crud time to be an adult gamer, and a fan of gamesites
James Lyon: The comparison isn’t really fair. That wasn’t a publisher-going-apeshit story – it was a READERS going apeshit story. The review was a “What’s the point of a D&D game?” review, basically, and tore it apart for that. Readers, since the guy didn’t actually make the argument well, were furious. The review was going to be in GfW magazine too, but the editor decided – since he signed off on it online prematurely, he realised – he wouldn’t run it in the mag. He decided that if they did that, they’d have to pull the one online too.
It’s the equivalent of Gamer pulling Alec’s reiew of the Witcher because of the readers being angry with him not digging it, not the equivalent of a publisher bullying.
While there’s much to be angry about as a games writer in the story – i.e. Editor selling out writer when water gets too hot- for the consumer, it doesn’t compare to this.
KG
“Don’t mention the war.”
ridiculous. i’m with the others on the boycott against GS, CNET and eidos. i cannot let opinion manipulation to go by passively. bets of luck to jeff.
Now an actual writer of Gamespot is confirming that what he’s heard is true, not an anonymous person.
http://frankprovo.livejournal.com/2007/11/30/
That was pretty much the nail in the coffin that was my skepticism over this whole ideal. It’s so depressing to think Kasavin and Gerstmann spent over a whole decade trying to build up a reputation for Gamespot and in two days it now stands for every paranoid fanboy’s rabid claims of payola come true to life. So fucking depressing.
I would suggest adding http://www.gamespot.com to your local HOSTS file.
Review scores matter in a very tangible sense to most people on the dev/publishing side of games. At a lot of publishers, the marketing, PR, and production execs bonuses are structured around metacritic scores as well as sales, so if they take this personally, it’s because it’s going to affect their xmas. Eidos seems to have an awful lot riding on Kane and Lynch this year (with a sequel in production and a movie in the offing), so I can understand them going nuts at Gamespot.
That said, I think everyone in the industry wants to make sure reviews are honest and reliable. Games purchasers are so savy, they will literally make a decision to buy or ignore something based on reviews. That doesn’t really happen in movies or music, as it’s much easier to make records and movies on the cheap, and buying the media isn’t much of a risk for the consumer either – it’s £10-£15, versus £40+ for a new game.
Marketing blitzes will make a bad game successful if they are aimed at non hardcore buyers (that’s your mum or GF), but if the game’s not even half decent, it’s still going to bomb.
Reviews keep publishers on their toes, and it’s great for developers, because it means that good publishers recognise that they have to commit to making quality games. But equally, we need to know that consumers trust reviews.
The relationship between editors, magazine publishers, developers, and sales/marketing is so much tighter than you’d see in most other industries. Shit like this just highlights how much everyone relies on each other in this industry, and just how risky it is to launch a new IP if it isn’t ready.
allow me to disagree here. The Gerstmann does have a history of not being enamored of shooters. Many of his reviews of the genre are usually rife with glib, condescending remarks that come off as somewhat unprofessional. He does better in genre’s that he enjoys which seem to be racing and quirky Japanese hand-held titles. I believe he had been tempering his remarks of late though as his recent reviews are decidedly less glib. As negative as the K&L review has come off, he did do a commendable job of pointing out the games (many) flaws with a minimum of smart-ass editorializing.
Personally I didn’t care for his reviewing style as a whole but as a writer in general he was decent. Certainly he didn’t deserve this (if true).
Hump: To be fair, RPS is made entirely on glib remarks.
Gerstmann’s merits as a reviewer though, really, are pretty much irrelevant to the debate.
KG
Another bit of rumour mongering for you all – Kotaku
The valleywag.com thing is the shitz, a must read:
Gillen: You’re right. I didn’t want to imply there was advertiser pressure involved in the GfW situation in the first instance. They’ve always been open about their editorial process and the criticism of others’ on their (excellent) podcast, and I’d be happy enough to trust that they aren’t living in a glass house.
Loving all this desperate dirt-digging from all around the web, though.
His video review is certainly not my opinion of the game. I loved the story, loved the atmopshere, loved everything.
EXCEPT the execution. Utterly mediocre.
The lack of a hotkey based cover option is ridiculous.
The missions are frustrating.
The save system is flawed.
HOWEVER, no matter how I hate on this game, I wonder what the hell is gonna happen next, and after cursing the developers to an eternity of being sex-slaves to demon spawn, I start playing again.
The dialog is ADULT, and while I think the reviewer is a bit of a p@@@# for complaining about the language, I know real life bad-men. REAL bad men,and this is par for the course. My Girl swears more than these guys do.
The weapon accuracy is ok, not great, ok. Part of the problem is in videogames, we n00bs are used to 5000 yard headshots 99% of time, in real life that will not happen ever. I find that like in real life, when you play the game, 5 bullets to centre mass are far more effective, or even better like cops do, fire till the opponent hits the ground.
I love the premise of using adrenaline shots to recover if you are killed, but you die if you use it too often or no one is around to administer it.
If I was a bastard, I would give this game a 6.5, penalising only for flawed execution.
I love the game so damn much, like a ugly kid, or a one eared cat that execution aside, I give it an 8.9
The Japan level, in it’s entireity, is the most intense and brilliant time I have had gaming in years.
Please note, I did complain bitterly about the idiocy of playing the nighclub scene twice, but I realise the contrast between the first and second was what the developer was trying to bring across.
Here is the Biggest Problem with this title, the developers had a specific way they wanted each stage/ scenario to be played. When you figure it out it is a 9.5 out of ten. When you don’t, as in when I nearly uninstalled the game the first 7 times, or when i tried to play using a gamepad, you will curse the developers to the pits of hell and give the game a 5.0 or lower.
Just my opinion, I could be wrong.
There was a lot of good stuff in Kane and Lynch, really. I have been keeping track of most AAA titles the last few weeks, and this was the first one to surprise me; game mechanics were flawed to the bone. But at least the game stood out of the huge heap of political correct nonsense dung that seems to litter all the other AAA titles.
So game is as two-faced, two-sided, fragmented, plural as the game is, at least this game made me snicker. At least this game had me explain to my comrade Lynch how to shoot his gun, instead of being told every damn time how to do it when buy another computer game. At least I was an asshole in this game and there was no annoying Alyx person telling me how much she would like to swallow my balls on the first occasion she confused my scrotum for the flashlight. At least my friend shot all the witnesses, which I expected him to do, so that was good; and he doesn’t just stand around next time someone is perishing on the floor, but he aims that shotgun at their face and makes a nice big hole.
I saved my daughter from a monstrously big truck, and then almost cryed of admiration when my characters take the same damn truck to drive into a prison complex. This is art direction that embraces absurdity and they win. Assholes being pissed of at other assholes. The game was such a gem, that I was pissed off at the end, when I didn’t pay attention and finished the game, took off with my daughter in a chopper. I was so pissed off the credits rolled that when I shut down the game I realized that it was crazy, so I went back and checked out the title of the last chapter, which was ‘choice’.
Kane and Lych has the kind of flavour that Reservoir Dogs has, nonetheless far less profound, far less artsy; but it excels amongst every AAA title at the moment simply on the basis of ‘complete intellectual experience’. And THAT, is crazy.
I have abandoned the major gaming websites long ago, it’s a large conglomeration of chromosomic failure and every word I read there pisses me off beyond terms managable for translation into w.o.r.d.s.
wow, my writing/spelling/coherence is horrible… must still be under the influence… where, where are those pills?
Joystiq has a short interview with Jeff Gertsmann about this whole debacle.
LINK
I do want to get to the bottom of this. Someone official needs to actually come out and say something for real, or Jeff even. On one hand it definitely seems like many arrows are pointing to his being fired, due to the massive loss in advertising from Eidos. On the other hand I’ve heard that the main reason he was fired was because he never played past the second level of the game (as his gamertag would indicate), but claimed he finished it. If watching the review, that is somewhat supported in that there is no footage beyond level 2.
Did Eidos just go and make this worse?
http://kotaku.com/gaming/kane-%26-lynch/kane–lynch-site-fibbing-about-reviews-scores-329529.php
http://kotaku.com/gaming/eidos/did-we-give-kane–lynch-5-stars-329539.php
They arn’t just quoting stuff out of context. They’re actually lying…
The “His Gamer Tag Proves…” argument is just nonsense. Most reviewing happens on debug machines on Partnernet, which is a completely separate place. Looking at a reviewer’s profile is a deeply unreliable way to work out how much of the game they’ve played.
Regarding the video, if he’d used footage from the end of the game, I dare say the same fanboys would have hung him up to dry for spoilers. Between that and basic laziness meaning they’d only want to set the capture footage thing once, that it’s from one level doesn’t really mean anything.
And most categorically, it implies that the suits would care whether or not he’d completed the game.
KG
I don’t know what to think. Clearly the review has something to do with his firing, that much is clear by now. Whether it was just the final straw on management’s side of his sliding quality scale or if it was something more sinister, is a question that will probably never, ever be answered. I’m getting too invested in this, so I think I’ll stop paying attention to it and just say it sucks because I’m a big fan of Jeff, and he was the last interesting person there so I doubt I’ll be listening to the podcast anymore.
Joystiq has a short interview with Jeff Gertsmann about this whole debacle
good post