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Prey review thread

P

Primethius

Banned
big fake said:
Wow I haven't seen a complete 180 in such a while. Dan broke from all this outrage towards him didn't he? I'm glad he realized that mistake and rectified it.
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I don't get it.

Game had a bug. Reviewer experienced bug. Bug was patched. Reviewer updated the review to reflect the patch.

IGN has plenty of scummy things (review in progress having scores for clicks for example), but in this instance, him doing this because people got their panties in a bunch over a number probably isn't what happened as opposed to actually updating the review due to the bug being fixed.

I mean good lord, some of the previous page reads pathetically now that he actually changed the score.
 
E

EmCeeGramr

Member
killroy87 said:
Does Metacritic update in situations like this? If not, that's a SUPER dick move from IGN.
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Metacritic has had a policy since 2003 (in the age when things like the Shenmue GameSpot review were still in recent memory) where they don't change video game scores with the intent of protecting reviewer's work by preventing companies from pressuring reviewers into changing scores.

People really started to chafe against this in... I want to say it first started to become a discussion in 2012, when there was a review of Natural Selection 2 that had a handful of odd factual errors in it and got pulled for a new review, and Metacritic still listed the original. Then when websites started doing rereviews/changing scores in the case of things like SimCity and following the aftermath of Master Chief Collection, Metacritic still didn't budge, which is why sites like IGN now do "reviews in progress" including that one Battleborn review where they even had a score but had to specify "that's what I'd give it now, but it's not my official score," just so Metacritic wouldn't lock it in forever.




edit: Also, please try to be mature, people. I think this entire thing has been handled... awkwardly, given the circumstances, but the childish name calling is beyond the pale.
 
S

SunBroDave

Member
Ponchito said:
IGN's Dan Stapleton just updated his review after bug was fixed.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/05/13/prey-review-2

8.0
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cute-nice-gif-143.gif


Lol. Good on you Stapleton. Sometimes you gotta just swallow your pride and do the right thing.
 
P

Perineum

Member
I am really surprised IGN changed the score. I mean I'm glad the reviewer had a change of heart, but at the same time you were willing to dismiss the game so quickly (despite saying how good it is) to something they fixed same day you tossed a rage 4/10 at.

No matter what number they want to give it now, it holds 0 weight to me, and it 100% concretely dismisses all future IGN reviews of any game if I want to see early impressions and reviews for a game from them. I'll stick to other sources instead.

Again, nice gesture, but when someone just tosses out numbers willy nilly it sours the whole thing.
 
M

ModernBoxes

Banned
Primethius said:
I don't get it.

Game had a bug. Reviewer experienced bug. Bug was patched. Reviewer updated the review to reflect the patch.

IGN has plenty of scummy things (review in progress having scores for clicks for example), but in this instance, him doing this because people got their panties in a bunch over a number probably isn't what happened as opposed to actually updating the review due to the bug being fixed.

I mean good lord, some of the previous page reads pathetically now that he actually changed the score.
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He previously said he wasn't changing the 4.

I'm not upset though. He did the right thing, no harm no foul.
 
S

Sotha_Sil

Member
I've always supported updating reviews after patches and editions with all the DLC become available, but this is a funny one because the bug was resolved within an hour or two of the review releasing, him saying the review was final, and then doubling the score a day or two later.
 
R

Rexatality

Member
Naughty_Doge said:
Can this nonsense be over now?
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Considering the guy still thinks he wasn't wrong in giving the initial score

Hell, I argued with him on Twitter and he still thinks that giving a review in progress due to the bug (which was already fixed an hour before he published it) is basically sucking up to Bethesda/Arkane

He's pretty dense, if you ask me.
 
G

Gears

Member
Yall aint talking about that sick steelbook huh

Game is a great surprise, I think it runs fine on ps4 though i havent completed it yet
 
P

Psychoward

Banned
malfcn said:
Maybe reviewers should have their reviews reviewed, and have a part of their salary be based upon the critics.
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Or maybe people shouldn't freak out when someone scores a game low because of a game breaking bug instead and then updates it when it's fixed?
 
G

GwyndolinCinder

Member
Psychoward said:
Or maybe people shouldn't freak out when someone scores a game low because of a game breaking bug instead and then updates it when it's fixed?
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The reviewers reason for the score was to "Raise a red flag", if your misrepresenting a game and misleading your audience, then you are not doing your job.
 
M

Matt

Member
I don't get the anger. The game didn't work for him, and he reviewed it like a broken game. Game was fixed, and he updated his review to reflect that.

All seems perfectly reasonable.
 
P

Psychoward

Banned
GwyndolinCinder said:
The reviewers reason for the score was to "Raise a red flag", if your misrepresenting a game and misleading your audience, then you are not doing your job.
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If there's a game breaking bug I'd like to know though?

I love New Vegas but I don't fault anyone who hates it or rated it low because of technical issues, makes sense to me.

I'm sure Pillars of Eternity is a good game but it never got to the character creation screen for me despite multiple troubleshooting efforts and having a PC above the recommended specs and contacting Obsidian (just like he contacted Bethesda and it still didn't resolve the issue). I gave it a poor review. What's the issue?
 
G

GwyndolinCinder

Member
Psychoward said:
If there's a game breaking bug I'd like to know though?

I love New Vegas but I don't fault anyone who hates it or rated it low because of technical issues, makes sense to me.

I'm sure Pillars of Eternity is a good game but it never got to the character creation screen for me despite multiple troubleshooting efforts and having a PC above the recommended specs and contacting Obsidian (just like he contacted Bethesda and it still didn't resolve the issue). I gave it a poor review. What's the issue?
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The intent of it, Read the thread etc.
 
M

More_Badass

Member
Psychoward said:
I'm sure Pillars of Eternity is a good game but it never got to the character creation screen for me despite multiple troubleshooting efforts and having a PC above the recommended specs and contacting Obsidian (just like he contacted Bethesda and it still didn't resolve the issue). I gave it a poor review. What's the issue?
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I hope you're talking about a Steam review and not a site

That's like going to a theater to see a movie, an issue happening with the film that result in you not being able to see it, and then giving the movie a poor review
 
B

Blastoise

Banned
What a weird way to protest. Maybe he wanted Bethesda to listen, maybe he wanted some good ol' clicks. Never the less it was a bad way to do it.
 
P

Psychoward

Banned
GwyndolinCinder said:
The intent of it, Read the thread etc.
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I did. I still don't see an issue.

The point of a review is two things; to recount your personal experience with a product and to provide an opinion for other people so they can decide whether or not to buy it. He did both.
More_Badass said:
I hope you're talking about a Steam review and not a site

That's like going to a theater to see a movie, an issue happening with the film that result in you not being able to see it, and then giving the movie a poor review
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Steam review yeah, but I mean no it's not 1:1 since for a movie I'd get a refund and it doesn't cost me 1,200 dollars to go to the theater.

If a game breaking bug exists on a game and you reach out to the developer and they don't even respond (in my case), yeah, it deserves a bad review whether it's Steam or from a professional site. If I can run 200+ games without an issue but 1 makes it so it won't even bring me past the main menu, the issue isn't my PC, the issue falls on the developer.

Similarly, if you encounter a game breaking bug while writing a paid review, reach out to the developer and it doesn't fix it, then it deserves a bad review.
 
T

Tinfoilhatsron

Banned
More_Badass said:
Why not? Other writers do opinion pieces and reactions to other writer's articles all the time. Like all the reactions to the "Video Games Are Better Without Stories" article last month
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I understand opinion pieces commenting on specific articles and other stuff like that, but directly commenting on each other's reviews? Feels like it would be taboo at that point.
Charamiwa said:
TotalBiscuit wrote something very similar, and Dan responded to it. I know he's trying to defend himself on twitter and keeps his position but I'm sure this whole situation must bother him. Especially when industry fellows start to criticize him for it.

Lately his angle on twitter seems to be mostly "this wouldn't have happened without that bethesda policy", which is interesting.

Anyway, I'm betting he's going to update the review soon.
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Yeah I agree. When other media outlets and buddies you might go drinking with start calling you out, besides TB I guess moreso Jason, it probably feels terrible.

Yikes! That's his position? He should have stuck with the "Reviewer Integreity to Announce Bugs" narrative.

And you were totally right. Looks more like a coward to me. This just shows that he couldn't defend his own position.
Curufinwe said:
Stapleton wrote an editorial about how much Bloodborne sucked and put it out at the same time as the IGN review.

And he's the fucking IGN reviews editor. How do you think that made the actual reviewer feel?
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Damn. I know IGN staff is diverse and can have different opinions, but right after the review? Wow.
 
Moff

Moff

Member
it's extremely rare that games get such low scores for game breaking bugs, because game breaking bugs are fairly often and I have never seen such a review before from a major site. things like that just happen with games, bugs happen, something can fuck up your saves. especially complex pc games, they will have bugs.
if you are a user, it's ok to give in to your frustration, that's one of the reasons I don't care at all about user reviews. but as a professional reviewer you should be able to rate a product objectively to some degree. he even called it a great game before, and give it a 4 then simply becaus he had a bug is absolutely silly attention whoring I could understand it if that issue was very widespread, but on the several message boards I read I never heard anything like it, and those are usually the places people with such problems come to vent.
 
MR ARCADE FOREVER

MR ARCADE FOREVER

Member
Psychoward said:
Well then it makes sense the other reviewers gave it better scores if they didn't run in to the game-breaking bug :)
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But they all had the same version before the update didn't they? Also, I hardly believe that this bug could affect the gameplay to the point of being unplayable as he claims.. Feels like he got resentful about the early copy thing
 
T

Tinfoilhatsron

Banned
Psychoward said:
I did. I still don't see an issue.

The point of a review is two things; to recount your personal experience with a product and to provide an opinion for other people so they can decide whether or not to buy it. He did both.

Steam review yeah, but I mean no it's not 1:1 since for a movie I'd get a refund and it doesn't cost me 1,200 dollars to go to the theater.

If a game breaking bug exists on a game and you reach out to the developer and they don't even respond (in my case), yeah, it deserves a bad review whether it's Steam or from a professional site. If I can run 200+ games without an issue but 1 makes it so it won't even bring me past the main menu, the issue isn't my PC, the issue falls on the developer.

Similarly, if you encounter a game breaking bug while writing a paid review, reach out to the developer and it doesn't fix it, then it deserves a bad review.
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They did fix it though? So I'm not sure what your complaint is. He could even continue to the end. A release day patch fixed it. His complaint, apparently, was that early copies and an embargo would have solved this.

THEBONDIGTY said:
But they all had the same version before the update didn't they? Also, I hardly believe that this bug could affect the gameplay to the point of being unplayable as he claims.. Feels like he got resentful about the early copy thing
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...
Are you really claiming he's lying? Everyone else seems to acknowledge that he did run into a game breaking bug but that it was fixed. Even the devs. What the fuck are you on about?
 
A

aliengmr

Member
Matt said:
I don't get the anger. The game didn't work for him, and he reviewed it like a broken game. Game was fixed, and he updated his review to reflect that.

All seems perfectly reasonable.
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Reasonable until it's a game many more people love. PC games ALWAYS have bugs, its to be expected and will always be that way. That is just part of the platform.

The review is about the median experience, not the outliers. So unless the game is really buggy, and I mean that it affects the majority of users, bugs stay out of a review. Unless said reviewer doesn't want to be taken any more seriously than some random user review, they gotta bite the bullet, that is their job.

I mean, would you judge a game based on the people that had the worst experience? I wouldn't.

Now, I am giving Stapleton the benefit of the doubt that this wasn't because of Bethesda's review policy, but he fucking knows better. He knows all about how bugs work and certainly believes that what he does for a living isn't user review quality, so I have serious doubts this was anything more than revenge.

Like I said, it seems perfectly reasonable until it's something like Horizon, then the internet would fucking implode. He's damn lucky this was just Prey.
 
G

grandwizard

Member
I'd be funny if because of this the PC version's aggregate is lower than the console versions when the PC version is miles ahead of them. It's one of the best PC versions in years tbh, looks amazing and runs smooth as butter, and doesn't have any input lag issues.

That Ign dude has his saves corrupted does suck but that seemed to be an extremely rare bug.
 
B

benzopil

Member
aliengmr said:
The review is about the median experience, not the outliers. So unless the game is really buggy, and I mean that it affects the majority of users, bugs stay out of a review. Unless said reviewer doesn't want to be taken any more seriously than some random user review, they gotta bite the bullet, that is their job.
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So play until you encounter a bug, finish the rest on YouTube and call it a day. Mention that you couldn't finish it but don't change the score too much. Who cares about your own experience, you are writing about median experience anyway.

Does this also apply to the plot, music, gameplay etc.? If reviewer didn't like it but the majority of people did.
 
C

Charamiwa

Banned
Psychoward said:
Well then it makes sense the other reviewers gave it better scores if they didn't run in to the game-breaking bug :)
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I'm thinking some of you are purposefully playing dumb and acting like this was a very straight forward review. When the Executive Editor of Reviews of the biggest review site in the world say that he won't change the review despite being already irrelevant and that none of that would have happened without the Bethesda policy, obviously you realize this is not purely about the game and its bug anymore. He chose to make an example out of this, to try to make a point, and a lot of people thought this was a poor way to fight this battle. Finally he decided to go against his previous judgement and change the review anyway, which tells me that he knew he was in the wrong for doing that. Especially after some fellow game journalist criticized him.

Arguing whether a reviewer should give a 4 to a game he can't finish is kind of missing the point. Even then I'd argue that a prominent reviewer like himself has a responsability to go a little beyond his own experience with the game to paint as clear a picture as possible.
 
M

Matt

Member
aliengmr said:
Reasonable until it's a game many more people love. PC games ALWAYS have bugs, its to be expected and will always be that way. That is just part of the platform.

The review is about the median experience, not the outliers. So unless the game is really buggy, and I mean that it affects the majority of users, bugs stay out of a review. Unless said reviewer doesn't want to be taken any more seriously than some random user review, they gotta bite the bullet, that is their job.

I mean, would you judge a game based on the people that had the worst experience? I wouldn't.

Now, I am giving Stapleton the benefit of the doubt that this wasn't because of Bethesda's review policy, but he fucking knows better. He knows all about how bugs work and certainly believes that what he does for a living isn't user review quality, so I have serious doubts this was anything more than revenge.

Like I said, it seems perfectly reasonable until it's something like Horizon, then the internet would fucking implode. He's damn lucky this was just Prey.
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A review should be about the "median experience," it should be about his experience. And his experience was he encountered several bugs that made it impossible for him to finish the game. I don't know what else he was supposed to do after contacting the developer, redoing hours of gameplay, and still being unable to progress.

And I like Prey.
 
E

Eusis

Member
Matt said:
A review should be about the "median experience," it should be about his experience. And his experience was he encountered several bugs that made it impossible for him to finish the game. I don't know what else he was supposed to do after contacting the developer, redoing hours of gameplay, and still being unable to progress.

And I like Prey.
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I think the only thing to change would've been to slap a "tentative" on the review then lift and/or update as necessary. They resolved the issue and it didn't exist on other platforms, so it got changed to an 8, so in the end it's basically a minor change that is the most I'd want to see.

And really, if they never fixed it then it'd deserve that 4 for forever, but it won't be an issue you'll even encounter sooner than later thanks to the nature of Steam releases, already gone if you opted for the beta patch.
 
D

dex3108

Member
Eusis said:
I think the only thing to change would've been to slap a "tentative" on the review then lift and/or update as necessary. They resolved the issue and it didn't exist on other platforms, so it got changed to an 8, so in the end it's basically a minor change that is the most I'd want to see.

And really, if they never fixed it then it'd deserve that 4 for forever, but it won't be an issue you'll even encounter sooner than later thanks to the nature of Steam releases, already gone if you opted for the beta patch.
Click to expand...

Well it is already 4/10 forever on Metacritic for PC version.
 
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