www.egmnow.com/articles/xbox_360/letter-from-the-publisher-who-watches-the-watchmen/

The Publisher responds to the criticism of EGM's Aliens review, and notes that Brandon Justice has left the building.

Honestly, even watching someone play A:CM showed me that it wasn't very good. The graphics were ok, but the plot, gameplay, and even voice acting were just so... mediocre.

Not worth full price.

I personally don't buy a game unless I see a video review (gametrailers, Total biscuit etc.) so I can see for my self about it to see if what the reviewer says is on the mark.

[url=#user_comment_252868]@Yaruosu[/url] You are a pirate!

[url=#user_comment_253521]@Efrath[/url] There are games that can only be enjoyed by fans of a certain franchise or genre. And then there are games that can only be enjoyed only by VERY DESPERATE fans of a certain franchise or genre. As a fellow fan, it's kind of pitiful and rather sad to watch people try and justify A:CM.

WHAT IS THIS PERSONAL TASTE AND OPINION YOU ARE SPEAKING OF?

I love how people claim money is behind good reviews for mediocre games, but when you accuse review sites of taking money to give bad reviews to good games (like Otomedius Excellent), they get super defensive.

This game isn't nearly half as good as Alien vs Predators 3 and look that that game wasn't even that good.

Lets be honest, anyone who takes reviewers seriously is stupid. Like you need a yay or nay from some random fuck to decide if you like a game. Everything you read is subjective opinion, mixed with some professional output on things that CAN be objectivly good or bad. It's good 2p co-op. Bad solo..

Strange, I seem to remember you saying that Star Wars: the Old Republic was a great, golden tower worthy game, despite it being on par with this game...

Whoever tagged the Xenomorph and said "These are eyes.." is a fucking retard.

Hmm ... oddly enough I thought the exact same thing about the Pro reviews when DA2 came out. And don't get me started on how great the ending of ME3 is...

She's chokin' on the D... ollars.

I forgot. Demo was on Unreal 3 engine, while actual game is running on Unreal 2.5

Demo wasn't fabricated. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z2qVebxlUo Fault for this product is completly at TimeGate Studios. Gearbox couldnt finish game due to Borderlands 2. TimeGate instead of finishing game, they did they own A:CM and mostly scrapped 4years of Gearbox work.

The problem is, the demo for this game is completely different, so even that wouldn't have worked. :(

chibi engie too good

chibi engie too good

[url=#user_comment_252868]@Yaruosu[/url]: 5/10.... is quite bad. Especially if you consider the so-called "4-point"-scale (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourPointScale)

[url=#user_comment_252813]@AckAckAck[/url] yes, I know about Jeff Gerstmann, that doesn't change the fact that a game will have ads in a magazine or site regardless of having a high or low score.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XIPwKiasDo

nuff' said.

Money shot!

Problem with the demo and the gameplay footage was that it was carefully crafted to look really good; the actual game was nothing like the demo, animations and level design was all different.

Thankfully Steam accepted to exchange my unplayed pre-order of A:CM for store credit. I absolutely loved AvP2. I thought it was awesome, both in single and multiplayer. AvP "3" was very disappointing and I hoped A:CM would be good but it was just a big lie :(

And this is why the best reviewers right now are guys like VideoGameDunkey, TotalBiscuit or TwoBestFriends. If you cant trust the journalists, you can always trust the comedians to say what they really think.

Same as Guild Wars 2...

it's called "new games journalism"

[url=#user_comment_252902]@2033[/url]: This is actually tame when it comes to Aliens: CM. The truth is they put a review embargo in place banning anyone from posting reviews until after the game was released so they could max out their pre-orders.

Engie-Tan(1) is dominating Engie-Tan (by a bunch of money)

[url=#user_comment_252774]@pong[/url]: no, there wont. in some cases. Some publisher PR departments cancel advertising contracts if the test ends up being less than 80%.

this is a harsh accusation, jo.
But with the way it is, gaming magazines having to rely more and more on advertising for the games they test to fund their shit, this is the natural result of "capitalistic economy".

@An Onymous: I agree with you pal. I'd rather read an opinion from someone who actually played the game (a friend or a fan) than read any kind of "official gamereview".

Hell! Even back in the 90's when EGM started as a gaming magazine...they were totally biased! Guess they didn't change at all.

P.S. In regards to Engie-chans:

"Shut up and eat my money!"

I hardly ever trust game reviews anymore. Best to just buy game and return it if I don't like it. Also, Gameinformer sucks at reviews, everyone of my favorite games has gotten a 7 or less. Then again, different strokes for different folks I guess...

I am a pirate!
Just download game, install it, and it was pretty much ok. Nothing "WOW OMG LUV IT" but nothing bad. As for me 5/10

>2013
>Reading commercial reviews.

OH U

I have two friends who own the PC version and are enjoying the hell out of it in SP and MP (When the host of the MP doesn't RAEGQUIT because his team is losing, that is).

Aliens: Colonial Marines? I just saw one 1 trailer and thought No way, José. Looked boring. Besides, I'm bitter at Sega for cancelling the Obsidian's Aliens RPG that was being developed at the same time.

As for reviewers, I don't really care about them. We rarely agree anyways.

Everyone should probably go watch TotalHalibut's video on preordering games. Just got search "Should you preorder games videogames?" on Youtube. He goes into the issue for reviewers whoring themselves out to developers.

And this is why one of my primary sources for reviews is Total Biscuit and Pierre Atbay.

[url=#user_comment_252774]@pong[/url]: Good thing about firing Jeff Gerstmann is the fact that he later establish Giant Bomb website and he brought with him a lot of Gamespot readers and ex-Gamespot employees who quit after Jeff was kicked out.

[url=#user_comment_252774]@pong[/url]: Tell that to Jeff Gerstmann and Geoff Keighley. Jeff kicked out from Gamespot because he Gave Kane&Lynch2 so-so score (K&L2 ads are all over Gamespot site. For further reading google: Gamespot Jeff Gerstmann

Maybe he likes games that do things differently?
To be honest there wasnt that much new stuff in Halo4 and the story was not much to write home about. Havn't played Colonial Marines but rumor has it that its terrible. also a 7 is good, as long as you use the 1-10 scale, and not the 4-10 scale.

Oh red engie, the bills gott abe paid somehow.

>Sometimes it's hard to take reviews seriously.

Sometimes? XD

[url=#user_comment_252709]@AckAckAck[/url] There will be games ads on websites and in magazines regardless of the rating. The journalists and the ad department are totally separate and don't talk to each other. I won't pretend it is impossible that they were paid, but why would they pay off just one journalist? Why bother?

[url=#user_comment_252726]@Drake[/url]: AvP2 terrible? Huh, I must have a different taste then because its one of my most loved games. I played through it several times and even suggest it on LANs nowadays since mp was just fun.

Well I bought the game, beat the campaign and played a little MP. This game is very underrated. It gets slamed becouse it's not another call of duty. Of course rating 9/10 is too much but giving it even 6 is half-ass. In my opinion this game deserves 8-(at least for pc version).

Either way..bad or good...I will still buy it....doing bad only means it will be cheaper when steam sales comes

EGM are a bunch of noobs. Halo 4 was awesome and deserved no less than a 9.5.

That review reads like something an aliens fanboy would write. It read like the kind of thing -I- would write in my youth when Aliens VS Predator 2 came out in 2001. Looking back, it is a terrible, TERRIBLE game, but I loved it.

PS: Halo 4 was awful

Additionally annoying is when a multi-platform game gets reviewed and you can tell they just reviewed one and copypasta'd the review to the other versions

I don't even bother with review sites anymore. Most of the time if they're not paid off, you can tell the reviewer is either an idiot, biased, or is reviewing a game far out of their standard type(guy reviews a FPS after years of nothing but racing).

I want to make baby brain spaghetti with you, Jo.

No Comment.

If you go to the EGM site you will notice giant ads for Aliens Colonial Marine surrounding the site. So yeah.

It's sad to see EGM, a magazine I used to read turn into crap when they turn digital. Such a shame really. Of course I don't know how much credible they are in their printed era.

Jo... I don't think this review is very honest *opens mouth*

Good comic.

wait so you're complaining about paid reviews AND that some guy gave Halo 4 a seven? these don't seem like conflicting things to complain about?

Isn't this by the reviewer who said halo 4 needed ironsights? Seems like they gave it a high score specifically to get attention and views cause its a horrible horrible game. i.e. all publicity is good publicity.

@What do you want?: but are they worse than IGN

EGM is comprised solely of idiots, has been for years, they're worse than GameSpot.

I just think it is crazy how people defend "opinionated" reviews but then wonder why they are not taken seriously as journalist. This is why.

Kotaku says that the demo is a lot better than the game because the demo was made by Gearbox. They got their hands full with Borderlands 2 and then handed development off to a studio called TimeGate, which scrapped a lot of Gearbox's work and turned the game into shit.

Needs more tsundere aliums.

The giant Aliens: Space Marines banner across the back of their site surely shows no bias!

No Comment.

[url=#user_comment_252652]@Jarin[/url]: Yeah, the demo is actually not part of the game at all, and they made it better than actual game just to impress the media...

From what I can tell, it was brilliantly hyped pre-launch, then a big letdown upon release.

[url=#user_comment_252638]@TheBaron[/url] Wait, you mean the game is great? Because, y'know, if you think those two games are awful I have to completely disregard your opinions. (Because, you know, it means our tastes are too different)

Just wait. There's going to be dumbasses defending this game regardless, coming in with the usual 'why don't YOU make a game before judging' arguments, insisting that 'reviews aren't everything' (despite relying on positive reviews from paid sources as their defense whenever USER reviews are low).

TheBaron: From what I've heard, "caters to fanboys" isn't even right. Jim Sterling talked about how the story is basically a slap in the face to Aliens canon.

to know if a game is good is to play it. Take reviews with an ocean of salt.

Sadly, the demo isn't a representation of the game at all, from what I can tell. It doesn't appear to even be by the same team.

I've heard the game is aweful. Like, Dragon Age 2, Mass Effect 3 aweful.

Caters to fanboys, not much for anyone else.

Indeed

nines suck, draw more sixes.

F

Aliens sucks, draw more Predator!