In today’s game media we have a bunch of different outlits that feel it is their job to give a broken game an 8/10 or above. Part of this is that PR wings of dev houses contact game reviewers to inform them that they have given their game a “harsh” review. In doing so they make it harder and harder for the game reviewer to give the actual score he/she wanted to give the game, not to mention the fact that if a company does not like the review you gave their game they can also complain to the company you work for and give less advertising dollars as punishment. What the hell?! In some cases, depending on how harsh the review, the reviewer can be fired but is this how the movie industry treats the critics?

Game reviews today are more complicated and convoluted than they were ever meant to be. Two games that are great examples for this point are BF2142 and Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. First, take BF2142 an moderately fun game by many people’s standards but possibly the buggiest game I have ever purchased. Now considering what I just said what would you expect me to give it? You would expect me to give it an F and it deserves to have an F but many game review sites like Gamespot and others gave it over an 8/10…check GameRankings.com if you do not believe me. Second, take Dark Messiah, a game which on most computers, hardly runs. If you consider 3-15 FPS on even today’s best machines good then by all means give it an A but what it deserves, once again, is an F.

Even if a company fixes a game down the line, it is still DOWN THE LINE. If a movie house put out a movie that was unplayable would it get great reviews? No, but for some reason the gaming industry feels broken games deserve great reviews. This is one of the most fundamental flaws in ethics but is considered acceptable in an industry that is trying to get people to take it seriously…seeing it this way, no one should.

- Justin Lowe

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