The Splinter Cell Essentials Marketing Fracas

Videogame Media Watch has a breakdown on a developing story, yet another example of the sometimes less than stellar relationship game reviews/previews have with game marketing. In essence, Ubisoft used language from a GameSpy preview in their marketing, combining words to get the result they wanted. From the article: "As the 1up article notes, the UbiSoft ad probably does need an ellipsis to note where words were removed from the GameSpy preview. This is hardly the main issue, though, as the difference between 'one of the best games on the PSP' and 'one of the best games we've played on the PSP' is not all that important. A somewhat more salient question: how can a game turn from '...one of the best...' on a system to a 2 out of 5 review in a matter of two-and-a-half months between preview and review? "

Comments

Because all the games are shit?

[twoflower]

A somewhat more salient question: how can a game turn from '...one of the best...' on a system to a 2 out of 5 review in a matter of two-and-a-half months between preview and review? "

Easy. If all the games on the console are shit, and this is one of the best, it could easily rate 2 out of 5 and still be one of the best on that console.

Re:Because all the games are shit?

[arakon]

No kidding, I keep getting hopeful that a game will come out that will turn my Sony Paperweight(TM) into an actual game machine and I keep getting Severly disappointed. The most Severe crippling of a system in a long time, loading for everything.
Got Untold Legends, load times from hell, hard as hell to see and generally just not fun.

Got Metal Gear Acid, it wasn't Metal gear but some weird ass card game.

Got Rengoku boring as hell after 20 minutes of beatin on the same damn robots over and over...

Got Lumines was entertained for a while.

TOOK a long break from PSP software.

Got YS VI Ark of something.... holy crap at the god aweful 10 second load times. COuldn't play it any further when I cross a map in 5 seconds and wait 10 for the next area to load.

Got Generation of Chaos, which would be an okay game if there was a better story and a better explanation of what the hell it all was. I really liked Disgaia I guess I got my hopes up to far.

SO over-all my PSP has yet to have ANY serious gaming done on it. The games for it, just suck. Maybe that should be the PSP slogan.

"PSP, for games that just suck" Oh and watching that free spiderman 2 UMD you got with it when you are really bored.

Re:Because all the games are shit?

[iocat]

Loading is strictly a feature of individual games, not an inherent fault. My company made a game for PSP (Death, Jr.) which featured levels of >60MB (on a system with 24MB usable RAM) with no perceptable in-level loading times, and loading times ~5 seconds to start the levels. A lot of time with launch software, there's not enough time to focus on optimizing elements like loading, so launch titles have very long loading times. But titles like GripShift have almost no load times. So you can't blame the system itself for this.

Further, Metal Gear Ac!d was pretty clearly a card game if you look at the back of the box. You've bought maybe 5 games out of a library of 100; I'm sorry your results haven't been great, but if we're just offering anecdotal evidence here:

I bought MGA knowing exactly what to expect and enjoyed the game

I loved Lumines and wasted many hours playing it

I spent many, many hours leveling enjoyably in Untold Legends. Load times weren't great, but not bad enough to keep me from playing it

I had a great time, with fine loading times, playing the decidely old-school RPG Legend of Heroes.

Capcom Classics Remix is fantastic, as is Powered Up.

So from my perspective, PSP is pretty good!

Sucker born every minute.

[B5_geek]

That is why you should NEVER believe quotes on books, movie reviews, games, etc. Even if it is in print it is far too easy to take out of context.

Take this for example:
"The main-chase scene in Matrix 2 is the best I have ever seen; it's too bad the rest of the movie couldn't keep pace."

Spin enabled: "...Matrix 2 is the best I have ever seen.."

Anybody with half of an education should know this stuff.
Demo the ****ware, if you like it buy it!

Re:Sucker born every minute.

[gEvil (beta)]

This reminds me of a joke sticker on a CD that came out several years ago. The sticker simply said "...mesmerizing... -Time" as if Time magazine had said that about the CD. It was a fairly small band who had absolutely no chance of ever being reviewed in Time (do they even have CD reviews?), and again, it was done purely as a joke. Anyways, I always got a slight chuckle out of that.

Re:Sucker born every minute.

[Gulthek]

This crap got pulled most hilariously on a Benji poster:

"Gene Shalit gave us a lukewarm review on the Today show," Camp recalls. Shalit closed by saying, "It's a wow for kids, a bowwow for dogs, and (breaking for a commercial) I think it's time for this message."

"I knew the picture worked," Camp says. "But how was I doing to get people into the theater?"

That day he rented a billboard outside Shalit's NBC office in Rockefeller Center in New York. " 'Benji -- I think it's time for this message.' -- Gene Shalit."

Shalit looked out his window, saw it, and laughed his head off.

Benji creator, Ole Miss alum on star hunt

Re:Sucker born every minute.

[Minwee]

Looking at just who is being quoted can be informative too.

For example, if you pick up an SF book with words of praise on the back cover from Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley, then you might just want to put it down and walk away quietly before anybody sees you. Those two were the most pathologically nice people in the industry, and would have found a way to describe The Eye of Argon as "Delightful" and "Breathtaking". On the other hand, seeing a back cover quote from Orson Scott Card really means something, as a book has to really have something to get him to read past the first ten pages, let alone write a quote for it.

Re:I'll just say this

[mrpotato]

"I [...] approve of sleazy marketing." -- bogie

"I never tire of [...] killing people." -- bogie