Tomb Raider: Underworld Doesn’t Want To Suck Until Monday
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Eidos wants to pull a fast one on all of us. They want us to believe that Tomb Raider: Underworld is a good game worthy of our purchase.
But not by clever advertising, or by releasing a PSN demo or by making absolutely sure the developer lives up to its word.
They are thinking out of the box on this one, by trying to stop any review below 8/10 going live until Monday.
From Monday onwards that little thing called truth can take over, after they tricked you out of your hard earned money. But none of us are going to fall for that right?
After all, I did try to warn you.
Videogaming247 reports Eidos’ latest review manipulation shenanigans (still fresh from their Kane and Lynch fiasco), complete with quotes from Eidos’Â own UK Public Relations firm Barrington Harvey.
It all started with a Twitter post by UK Gamespot journalist Guy Cocker (inspired by the ghost of Jeff Gerstmann I believe):
Call from Eidos – if you’re planning on reviewing Tomb Raider Underworld at less than an 8.0, we need you to hold your review till Monday.
But wait, it gets better. When Videogaming247 reached UK PR firm Barrington Harvey for comment, they confirmed that they are indeed trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos. When bluntly asked why, this was their response:
Just that we’re trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that’s handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don’t put people off buying the game, basically.
British sites Eurogamer and OXM UK have broken the ‘gag order’ and posted reviews of 7/10 and 7.0 respectively. Eurogamer said that it has caused ‘problems’ for them.
The evidence is really piling up against Tomb Raider: Underworld.
I picked up on this title’s potential for failure when the overly hyped Beneath The Surface developer videos came out, again after an exciting but suspiciously missing in-game footage release trailer was posted (a tell-tale sign of a bad game in my opinion).
What do you think about all this? Does it change your opinion from way back then? Or are you picking up sword and shield to try and defend Lady Croft’s yet again soiled honor?
Now all that is left for me is to get my hands on the actual game – good thing we don’t have a scoring review system, right? Stay tuned.
Uh oh … I smell another Gertsmann-gate.
Is a 7.0 game not Worthy of our money Danny_D? I still plan on picking it up. Maybe not right away, as usual this time of year I put all purchases off until after the holidays. But I will be picking this game up soon.
After the Gertsmann-gate fiasco and all the advertising money Eidos has to dump into gaming websites I feel confident saying that those sevens may have been generous.
But more to your question, I don’t follow review scores, I gather all the information available to me and make my own opinion (PSN demo, where art thou?). A bad or mediocre game is not worhty of my money, or yours in my opinion. It sends the wrong message to the publishers: any franchise name game will sell well regardless of quality.
[...] att bete sig som att det var 1940 och media kunde censureras och formas som de ville? Enligt en postning från i fredags på PS3 Attitude så har Eidos förbjudit recensioner som ger ett lägre betyg än 8 av 10 att publiceras tidigare [...]
OK Danny_D it’s Monday.
(And I know you got your hands on the actual game) Your final thoughts are….?
I got a sneak preview from a PSN message on Saturday.
I think you’ll be surprised with what Danny has to say.
[...] us is the loyalty to the Tomb Raider franchise people seem to have. Although the game is quite mediocre, people tend to buy it. Even more surprising is the fact that the PS3 version is selling better. [...]
[...] mediocre reviews (and the debacle regarding the “Below 80% review embargo”) has Microsoft bought a turkey here? Probably [...]
If tomb raider had another name and a different main character, i bet all the reviews would give it a good score. All the reviews are only one person’s opinion. Don’t listen to them.
People from Eidos are claiming this is BS….. And a good point by one guy in particular who said something along the lines of… Is it really possible for us to do that?? lol
I mean really if you think about how open and unrestricted the internet is in this day and age, is it really possible for a videogame publisher to keep a lid on a bad game until it sells enough to net them a profit???
Considering “danny d” has played the game already… where is his review???
Its selling well and scoring pretty good reviews all around, and while not a groundbreaking videogame by any means, it definetly hasnt “tanked”
@Pnyata
Edge gave TR:U an 8/10
It got some good scores!
@BigR
Personally, I don’t think it tanked. And I never did think it would to be honest. Its metacritic score is 78% so it’s far from awful.
But the <80% embargo was real. The PR company (bizzarely) confirmed it.
As for Danny’s review. It’s coming.
It was apparently taken out of context….
http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/11/21/eidos-uk-pr-firm-we-are-not-in-the-position-of-telling-reviewers-what-they-can-and-cannot-say/