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Tomb Raider: Underworld Demo Now Available On XBL

Aaron Dunlap — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:58:36 -0500

In case you haven't got enough Lara in your life, you can now download an official demo for Tomb Raider: Underworld via the Xbox Live Marketplace.

PS3 fans seem to not be invited to this party. We haven't gotten any word that a demo will find its way to the PlayStation Network.

Tomb Raider: Underworld goes on sale November 18.

GameSpot (Finally) Responds to 'GerstmannGate' Questions

Aaron Dunlap — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 12:39:54 -0600

At long last, GameSpot has issued a full Q&A regarding Jeff Gerstmann's firing and the swarms of conspiracy-theory rumors surrounding it, his Kane & Lynch review, the many edits to it, Eidos's reaction to it, and what really motivated the firing.

Unlike the last statement, this post contains significantly less legal stonewalling and seeming coverup.

Q: Why was the Kane & Lynch review text altered?

A: Jeff's supervisors and select members of the edit team felt the review's negativity did not match its "fair" 6.0 rating. The copy was adjusted several days after its publication so that it better meshed with its score, which remained unchanged. The achievements and demerits it received were also left unaltered. Additionally, clarifications were made concerning the game's multiplayer mode and to include differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game.

Q: Why was the Kane & Lynch video review taken down?

A: Both the text and video reviews of Kane & Lynch went up on Tuesday, November 13. The morning of Wednesday, November 14, the video was taken down due to concerns of quality. Specifically, its audio was deemed inferior due to a faulty microphone. There were also concerns about the limited amount of footage, which was unrepresentative of the game in the review.

Q: Why wasn't the video immediately reposted?

A: Due to the crush of high-profile games being released the following week, there were insufficient resources to reshoot and re-edit the video review.

And...

Q: Was Eidos Interactive upset by the game's review?

A: It has been confirmed that Eidos representatives expressed their displeasure to their appropriate contacts at GameSpot, but not to editorial directly. It was not the first time a publisher has voiced disappointment with a game review, and it won't be the last. However, it is strict GameSpot policy never to let any such feelings result in a review score to be altered or a video review to be pulled.

Q: Did Eidos' disappointment cause Jeff to be terminated?

A: Absolutely not.

Q: Did Eidos' disappointment cause the alteration of the review text?

A: Absolutely not.

Q: Did Eidos' disappointment lead to the video review being pulled down?

A: Absolutely not.

Q: Why was GameSpot "skinned" with Kane & Lynch ads when Jeff was terminated?

A: Due to design and development considerations, media buys on GameSpot are made weeks in advance. The timing of said ads was extremely unfortunate but was purely coincidental and determined solely by the game's release date of November 13, 2007.

It seems like a rather thorough squelching of the fires. It was just a fantastic series of coincidences all happening at just the right time in just the right order to completely throw several companies' credibility into question. Happens all the time.

Deus Ex 3 Teaser Analyzed, And Then Some

Aaron Dunlap — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 11:35:54 -0600

Reader Nick Marinelli sent in this tip:

There's a flash of photos in the [Deus Ex 3] teaser that this guy looks through and comments on. Pretty interesting stuff.

He also analyzes the fetus in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD4xq7HpW-k

I watched that trailer at least 4 times and didn't even notice these images. I guess I need to upgrade my vision augs.

Gerstmann's K&L Review Was Heavily 'Toned Down' Post-Firing

Aaron Dunlap — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:31:53 -0600

We all knew that shortly after Jeff Gerstmann was fired from GameSpot, some changes were made to his Kane & Lynch review. What we didn't know was how extensive those changes were.

Going off of a Google cache of an EB Games page that featured the original review, Joystiq was able to piece together all of the edits made to the original version.

Basically, it was heavily toned down in attitude. The wording of several complaints goes from active to passive neutral, such as the line:

"it's extremely difficult to care about anything that's happening to them." [the main characters]

...being changed to...

"it'll probably be tough for you to find anyone to latch onto and care about, even if you typically go for this sort of crime drama on TV or in movies."

And...

"So whether you're doing the shooting yourself or hanging back and letting your men do the dirty work, the game is a real letdown."

...to...

"So whether you're doing the shooting yourself or hanging back and letting your men do the dirty work, the game is a real disappointment, especially when you consider how well this same sort of stuff worked in the developer's previous squad-based game, Freedom Fighters."

The whole thing seems watered down to remove some of the "bite." It makes you wonder, if GameSpot actually had a problem with it, wouldn't they have changed these things during the pre-publishing process where nearly everybody on the review team looks over and makes changes to a review? The fact that the changes were made after publishing makes it seem like the changes were done at the request of an outside party.

If Jeff was fired for submitting an angrily-worded review instead of a nice, casual, everbody's-a-winner one, the review either wouldn't have been published or the changes would have been made before publishing. Making the changes after publishing means somebody saw it and decided it needed to be changed, be them from CNet management, a GameSpot manager who didn't see the review pre-publication, or someone from some outside party like a game developer or something.

The full body of the review with modifications highlighted by Joystiq is included after the jump.

Gamespot's Kane & Lynch Review
By Jeff Gerstmann

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men has a lot of promise, but nothing in this game works out nearly as well as you'd hope.

[Removed from original: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is an ugly game, and we're not necessarily talking about the graphics. This criminal tale is packed with a collection of completely unlikable characters with no redeeming value whatsoever. It's impossible to even root for them as antiheroes. Once you get past the messy, meaningless story, things don't get too much better because you're saddled with clunky artificial intelligence on the part of your allies and your enemies, as well as a core shooting mechanic that simply doesn't satisfy. The unfortunate part is that the game does have a few bright points and feels like it had a lot of potential that just didn't come together as well as anyone must have hoped.]

[Added in edits: Io Interactive is best known for its stealth-focused Hitman series, but there's nothing quiet and sneaky about its latest release, Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. This time around, the developer put together a crime-themed shooter that starts out with a couple of simple, heist-like objectives and then rapidly spins out of control until, without much warning, you're gunning down soldiers in the middle of a foreign revolution. While the journey sounds interesting at first, and has a few bright points, it's weighed down by bad storytelling, a real lack of character development, and a host of gameplay-related issues. The end result is a game that squanders much of its potential and just doesn't come together as well as it probably should have.]

The story mode opens with you in the role of Kane, a death row inmate on his way to his execution, apparently convicted of being a very savage criminal as part of a notorious gang called The7. You're on your last ride with a quirky guy named Lynch who tells you to cover your head. After an explosion, you're both busted out and on the run. That might sound great, but it's a fate worse than death. The surviving members of The7 have busted you out to force you to recover something they think you stole from them. They consider you a traitor and will kill Kane's family if he doesn't comply. Lynch is sent along for the ride to watch over Kane and report in if anything weird happens. Circumstances change over time and the back half plays out like a revenge tale, but it's a revenge tale where you don't actually care if anyone actually gets their revenge. Every single person you play as or encounter is despicable and wholly abrasive; thus, [it's extremely difficult to care about anything that's happening to them.] [it'll probably be tough for you to find anyone to latch onto and care about, even if you typically go for this sort of crime drama on TV or in movies.] You can play through this story alone or with a friend in co-op mode, though this mode is only available locally and takes place on a vertically split screen that makes it difficult to follow the action, even on a widescreen TV.

The core gameplay in Kane & Lynch is your standard third-person shooter with cover elements and a light dusting of squad tactics. You can fire from the hip, but it's somewhat more accurate to fire while aiming. Unfortunately, even when you're aiming, hitting your targets is more difficult than it should be because your automatic fire has a wide spread on it. Kane is supposedly a badass arch-criminal; he should be able to hit his targets with short, controlled bursts. You're able to get behind cover and either blindfire or pop out for aimed shots, but there's no easy way to stick to walls. You don't press a button or anything; instead you sort of get up against a wall and turn sideways. Then after jiggling the controls back and forth a bit, you'll eventually snap into place to get behind cover. It's such a pain that you'll rarely want to use it, and it seems like you're always snapping into cover behind something at the most inopportune times, making the game quite frustrating. There's no health meter, but if you go down, you don't die immediately either. You can be revived by one of your teammates with an adrenaline shot. If you get that shot too frequently, you'll overdose and die. If your teammates don't reach you in time, you'll die too. Also, if one of the guys on your crew gets dropped, you have to make sure he gets revived. If he dies, the game ends. Between your poor accuracy, the enemy's sharp accuracy, and the boneheaded AI from your squadmates, this all adds up to you keeping your squad on a very short leash.
When you've got a team with you, you can order team members around individually or order the team all at once by telling it to regroup to your location, move to a specific spot, or attack specific targets. Telling team members to move to locations is the most effective move because you can keep them close and revive them when they get shot down. Sending them after targets results in your squad running around aimlessly and trying to get too close to targets. That leads to them getting dropped in the line of fire, where you probably won't be able to rescue them. So whether you're doing the shooting yourself or hanging back and letting your men do the dirty work, the game is a real [letdown.] [disappointment, especially when you consider how well this same sort of stuff worked in the developer's previous squad-based game, Freedom Fighters.]

There's only one multiplayer mode in Kane & Lynch, and it's a great idea. [Unfortunately, the idea doesn't translate into a great or long-lasting experience.] It's called Fragile Alliance and puts up to eight players in one team of criminals. Then, it sets the team off to steal money, cocaine, and jewels from various locations seen in the single-player game. So you might start out in front of a bank, run in, collect a bunch of cash, and then escape from in a van out back. The catch is the way the money is split up among teammates. If you all work together, the money is split evenly. But at any point, a player can go rogue and gun down one of his teammates. This brands you a traitor; thus, any money you collect and escape with is yours to keep. Of course, this also means that other players who are still part of the team will try to waste you before you escape with their hard-stolen loot. So every round is a tentative affair where you always expect the worst--you're just never sure when someone's going to finally turn on you. When you die, whether it's from the AI that opposes you or another player, you respawn on the other side of the heist. Now you need to stop the heist by eliminating the other players and you earn money by collecting it before the criminals collect.

[It's a great idea that's] [It's a bummer that the multiplayer is] mucked up by a few different things. First, you're still playing Kane & Lynch, so all of the inaccurate firing issues and poor cover tactics from the single-player still apply. But another problem is that you can see the names of the other players over their heads from a distance and through walls, even if they're on the other side. While you can run while crouched to make your name disappear, it's pretty weak that you can see the names of the police team members as they head your way. There's no element of surprise. Also, there are only a handful of different scenarios for this, and they play out the same way every single time. The security guards are always in the same positions in the bank and the cops are always waiting for you right outside, so it gets old fast.

[Technically,] [While it might seem like a basic heist game, Kane & Lynch does a good job of moving the action around, and you'll see a variety of different environments and situations, ranging from banks, to prison breaks, to full-scale conflicts in the middle of illicit poppy fields. It also has some] good-looking player models, with Kane and Lynch both looking appropriate as over-the-hill criminals. And even though their faces don't animate much in-game, they still look good. Most of the animation isn't so hot, though, and you'll see a few ugly textures here and there too. Some of it looks a bit unfinished, like the way you see guys go through the motion of hitting you with an adrenaline shot, but their hands are actually empty.

[The multiplayer mode is a really cool idea that leaves you wondering who's going to turn traitor on you, but it isn't strong enough to make you forget the game's other problems.]

The soundtrack is probably the best part of the whole game, delivering some tense music when the game calls for it. There's a lot of voice acting in the game. The voices are appropriate for the characters, but the dialogue is hokey and filled with [lazy] [gratuitous] cursing. The good ol' F word is certainly appropriate, given the nature of what these guys are doing, but when it's every third word out of every character's mouth, it comes across as a crutch that drags down the rest of the game a bit. Lynch frequently responds to your squad-orders by just shouting "F*** you!" [That's just lame.] [Things like that just make the game feel purposely abrasive, and not in a "gritty" or "cool" sort of way.]

[The game is available on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 as of this writing, and the differences between the two versions are minimal. Both games have occasional frame rate issues and the control issues with finding cover and hitting targets are noticeable in both. The only real difference is that the PlayStation 3 version doesn't seem to have voice chat support. The multiplayer mode only really clicks when you can talk things out with other players and try to convince them that you're not going to turn traitor--only to turn traitor on them and then laugh about it. Without that, the whole experience feels a little dry. The Xbox 360 version also has the standard set of 1,000 achievement points, a few of which reward you for specific moments in co-op, like having the player controlling Lynch put a few cops out of their misery, rather than leaving them to writhe on the ground.]

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a premise with promise, [but the gameplay isn't sound while the story and characters go nowhere. And it's got enough random AI-based glitches to make you want to scream. Considering] [and if you've been waiting patiently for a game to really dive into the whole "crew-based heist tale" concept, you might be able to look past some of the story flaws. But when you consider] the nearly ridiculous number of extremely high-quality shooters available recently, there's not much room for something like Kane & Lynch, [but] [even taking into account the somewhat unique nature of its story. That said,] the multiplayer is a smart idea that's worth seeing, even if playing it makes you wish that it was used in another, better game.

[Editor's Note: This review has been updated to include differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions and a clarification on the game's multiplayer mode.]

Eidos Reduces K&L Fake Rating Complaints to 'Eidos Bashing'

Shiva Stella — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:57:14 -0600

Hey, at least our star is real.

While gamers and gaming journalists everywhere are currently in an uproar regarding GameSpot's firing of Jeff Gerstmann over a poor review score for Eidos Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (you can check out our own review here), what's interesting is that Eidos itself has refrained from commenting on the K&L fiasco.

In particular, the company's blatant graphical lie about the game's review scores, which we noticed were preview quotes paired with star rankings that didn't exist (GameSpy was recorded as having given the title a five star rating when the actual review issued three stars; similarily, Game Informer was recorded as issuing a five star rating when it scored the title a 7/10, which is funny because Game Informer doesn't even use a star system).

While Eidos Interactive has remained quiet on the issue, the company's PR trolls have been hard at work handling the damage control on various Kane & Lynch "fan" sites, including this one, which contains a post in which an "Eidos Official" comments that, indeed, those cheeky five stars weren't meant to be viewed as scores because obviously it's common practice to issue star ratings for game previews. Here's the full quote:

One of the sites quoted gave us a score of 7, however it still showed 5 stars. Reason why? they were not actually supposed to be seen as a score. Yes i know you are all gonna say `pull the other one`. However look at the facts (which people seem to ignore), those quotes and stars have been there since the page launched, before ANY review code or scores were received. So the only reason they are being picked on now is cos its fashionable right now to hate us and bash us and everyone is scaling the wall trying to find something new to bash us for.

FYI this is my personal thoughts and opinions and should not be seen as an official comment in any way shape or form.

In the words of our own Aaron Dunlap, who broke the original story, "Silly us for thinking that a star near a review had something to do with reviews giving stars."

What's infuriating about this "graphical misrepresentation" of game scores that don't exist is that Eidos would "forget" to remove the intentionally misleading star graphics and then explain away the fans' negative reaction to being outright lied to as simple Eidos bashing - "bashing" Eidos apparently being the hip thing to do.

What's even more hilarious is that while the stars have since been removed from the official site's splash introduction, the site still parades preview quotes around as though they were the official "review" word on the title.

In other Eidos news, the game's official Eidos forum has been unlocked and is now available for posting. At one point an Eidos admin actually responds to a fan's statement that "they [the stars] are MEANT to be misinterpreted so that people will be misled into thinking K&L is a better game than it is and [buy] it" with:

You mean this is an [advertisement] that is not quite scientifically based? Wow, I never thought I would see the day an advertisement tried to sell me something.

Read: it is peachy to outright lie about your game's review scores if you can get away with labeling them as "design decisions". Thanks for the heads up, Eidos.

GB Review: Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (360)

Aaron Dunlap — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 13:22:38 -0600

The same feeling I had playing the game.

I do not dislike this game. Dislike is a passive sentiment. I actively hate this game. This game drove me completely bonkers, entirely independent of any scandals or controversies floating around lately. Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a very poorly designed product, with a story that tries way too hard to be gritty and comes off as adolescent; a completely useless aiming and control scheme; lazily designed levels, and a downright infuriating save and checkpoint system. When a game pisses me off, I stop playing it; but when I'm reviewing it, I have to soldier on and take the continual emotional beatings it provides. After playing Kane & Lynch, I hate my life, myself, and my Xbox 360.

Click here for an explanation of our review and scoring format.

Kane & Lynch: Dead Men is a game that wants to be a lot of things and fails at them all. Surely foremost in their attempts is to be a "bad guy game." Either Eidos or IO Interactive probably took the popularity of their Hitman franchise as a sign that people like games where you play as a "bad guy" and decided to take that to an extreme. What they overlooked is that why we love Agent 47 so much isn't that he's technically bad, but that he's a sympathetic character and a master at what he does. He's cold and collected: all he knows is assassination and he does it better than anybody on the planet. He's not after money, glory, or fame. Usually, he's after the truth or vengeance. Kane & Lynch, on the other hand, contains two of the most contemptible characters of all time who do absolutely nothing to redeem themselves.

As soon as the game begins, Kane (our "hero") and Lynch (our perpetual AI teammate) are busted from a prison transport on the day they're set to be executed (why the HELL would they be transporting prisoners in death row on the very day of their execution, or at all?) and within 60 seconds of control being handed over you're blasting cops. Dozens of cops, in fact. This game is a practical cop-killing extravaganza. That's not fun for me. Maybe a few 14-year-olds with social issues might enjoy the thought of killing hundreds of cops in a game, perhaps due to some resentment they hold because a cop took their weed once. The ridiculous amount of cop shooting might be understandable if we could grow to like our main characters and wish for their survival, but all we're ever told about these guys is that they're cold-blooded killers.

Whenever there is a chance for a character to be developed so as to be slightly likable, the game plows right over it. Lynch is apparently completely insane and has occasional bouts of extreme violence as we witness him killing all of the hostages in a pathetic bank robbery mission early in the game, and later we discover that he killed his own wife. There's some pills that are supposed to help but, well, they're running out. Kane attempts to find nobility in character by really wanting his daughter to like him, but those glimmers of humanity are wrought pointless a few seconds later when Kane comes up with another deftly moronic plan to solve the next problem. In an attempt to "gritty" up the experience, the writers decided to pepper nearly every line with obscenities. The script begins to sound like it was scribbled into the back of a Mead notebook during after-school detention. Lines like, "Shut the f___ up, what are you f___ing talking about?" occur on a minute-by-minute basis, and just come off as lazy or pathetic. As the game continues, instead of learning more about the characters and coming to like them, we come to despise them.

Look, cops! Better shoot them!

Michael Mann movies, which this game very desperately wants to be associated with, often feature nasty villains as main characters but always, always contrasted with a good main character. Heat has Robert DiNiro's character doing awful things, but Pacino is there to serve as a moral mirror. Same with Collateral's Tom Cruise and Jamie Foxx characters. These movies aren't good because they're about bad guys killing innocents, they're good because they show the highs and lows of moral character. Kane & Lynch is all lows, and very low lows they are.

This game also wants to be a next-gen shooter, of course, but it surely doesn't try very hard. It has a similar control to Hitman games; games where the use of guns is practically discouraged except in rare cases, but in this game shooting is often your only option. Aiming in Kane & Lynch feels sluggish and sloppy, and accuracy is a complete joke. For what we eventually learn to be as a paid mercenary, Kane is absolutely worthless with guns. That would be fine and even interesting if it were supposed to be a plot point, but the game is almost entirely nothing but shooting. No problem-solving, no stealth, no outrunning, just shooting. Eventually the game slips into the war genre as you find yourself in the middle of a Cuban civil war for absolutely no reason.

There is a "cover system," a popular trend in next-gen games where you can stick yourself to corners and surfaces and shoot around them. Here it feels tired and slapped-on. You don't hit a button or anything to stick to cover, you just sort of have to wander up to a surface and push the analog stick in every direction until perhaps the Gods of Play Mechanics decide to get off their asses.

Anything that would make this game feel "next-gen" is alarmingly absent. The graphics are very bland and there is practically no dynamic lighting. Every surface seems to have this unnatural universal lighting with no account for light sources, making it feel like a cartoon.

Level design is quite poor. There's a level that takes place in a Tokyo nightclub where you're supposed to kidnap the owner from her office. So you get to her office and Lynch carries her while you shoot your way out. Who is shooting at you? Night club guards, all 5,000 of them, all with guns. Of course they shoot at Lynch too, who is carrying their boss, which is why they're attacking you in the first place. Anyway, while you're in her office a guard on the roof shoots at you through a skylight, and then you leave the office the way you came in, fighting off the dozens of guards with pistols who can all zero in on you in a pitch-black nightclub amid hundreds of stampeding clubgoers . Then you get to the roof, and the lady escapes and runs back to her office. Do you follow her? No, you cross the roof and then drop down through that very same skylight into her office and grab her again, then fight your way through the night club again, only this time all the guards have submachine guns. Lazy, lazy level design.

There is often little sense to what you're supposed to be doing or where you're supposed to go, and usually the only thing to do is go by the objective marker placed on your crappy radar/compass feature. Problem is, that radar thing disappears after about 10 seconds, and to make it come back you have to click the left analog stick (and it'll just disappear again). This becomes interesting when you're running to avoid getting shot and you can't click the stick while moving, so you have to stop dead in your tracks just to get the radar to come back so you can see where you're going, and by the time you've oriented yourself the thing has already vanished.

"Grab The Cocaine" -- My life-long motto.

From a next-gen game I expect some kind of variation in gameplay. There are even a few times when the game pretends to be giving you some variation, but then forgets to carry it out.

Take the beginning of the second level, for instance. Kane needs to get something from his safe-deposit box from a bank, so obviously he decides to rob the place. Your first objective is to put some knockout gas in the air system, and Kane actually says he'll "bypass the guards," so I'm thinking that means elude them. So you walk into the rear parking lot and a guard will see you and approach you. Kane says he's just looking for his car, but the guard doesn't buy that, so he starts to shoot you, then another guard raises the alarm. Mission failed.

I restarted this level at least 10 times before I figured out that I'm supposed to kill the guard, then quickly kill the second guard before he can raise the alarm. Fine, but why did the game tell me I was doing something different? Then in a later level, which takes place in Tokyo (believe it or not, a completely separate trip to Tokyo from the nightclub level. Actually, this game transports you from LA, to Tokyo, back to LA, then to Tokyo again, then to Cuba, and so on without any sense, logic, or direction). You and a crew of four other guys have just had a big shootout on an upper level of an office building wearing window washer outfits (for no reason), then you take an elevator down to the lobby. While in the elevator, your crew changes into suits so as to elude the police or guards. Awesome, a sneaking mission! Wrong. You exit the elevator, and then for no reason the Tokyo police are shooting at you. There's no "whoop, our cover is blown" and there's nothing done to raise suspicion. The whole thing with changing outfits was completely pointless other than to segue into a Tokyo streets shootout, followed by a Tokyo bus station shootout, followed by a completely jarring transition to Havana.

And the biggest failure of next-gen technology: the save system. This game uses a checkpoint system, where each level has about six checkpoints and if you stop playing for any reason (such as when the game freezes your Xbox 360, which it did to mine twice) you have to restart the boring, poorly designed level all over from the beginning. This is an absolutely infuriating element, and would have been the reason I'd have stopped playing if I didn't have to review the damn thing.

Thapa, I order you to get yourself killed... Nice work.

Kane & Lynch also wants to be a squad commanding game. In early levels, you just have Lynch to boss round but eventually you add on a crew of four guys. They're all useless. If you tell them to follow you, they won't. If you tell them to go someplace and secure it, they'll go there and die. If you tell them to kill someone, they'll run right up to him and shoot him from two feet away instead of from cover.

In fact, the game's only real unique feature is destroyed by the squad system. If you take too many hits, instead of just flat-out dying Kane will sort of keel over until either Lynch or another teammate comes over and hits you with a shot of adrenaline and brings you back or you eventually die if nobody can reach you. If you do this too often, however, you'll overdose on the adrenaline and die outright. When you go down, any one of your AI teammates can bring you back with the adrenaline, but if any of your AI teammates goes down, only you can hit him with adrenaline. If one of your teammates dies, mission failed. Even though there will be teammates closer to your fallen comrade, you have to stop what you're doing, cross an open battlefield, and dose him, keeping in mind that if he went down someplace it's because that's a very dangerous place to be, and you're kind of a sitting duck when you're reviving someone.

Kane & Lynch only has one online mode on the Xbox 360, a clever little thing called "Fragile Alliance" where everybody in the game starts out as allied crooks trying to rob a store or bank protected by AI guards or police. Whatever you steal gets split with everybody, so if you don't want to share you can grab the loot and then try to kill all your co-crooks and keep it all for yourself. When you get killed, you respawn as a guard or cop and your job is now to take down the remaining thieves. It's a good idea in theory, but is broken by the following elements: if you die and respawn as a cop and die again, you're done. No more repawns. Also, the game doesn't really let you know when someone has turned traitor, which is a major turning point in gameplay. You have to figure it out for yourself, which can get pretty confusing. Every time I played, some loser would start killing teammates from the very start of the level; nobody would get any cash, and the game would be over in two minutes. Also, about 60% of the times when I tried to play, I would get an error that would kick me to the very first game menu.

There is a co-op mode, where your split-screened buddy can play as Lynch, but there's no online co-op so the whole thing is rather worthless.

This is a bad game. It had promise, but it was clearly pushed out the door way too soon. It's no big surprise, really, this is Eidos's only holiday release for this year and they wanted it to be good so bad. Instead of giving IO Interactive the time and resources they needed, however, they spent all their money on advertising and hoped that would cover up for a poorly designed product. I really wish they would have just made another Hitman game instead, and considering there's a freaking Hitman movie in theaters, wouldn't this be the perfect time for a new Hitman game? I would have taken one or two levels of the quality of Hitman: Blood Money to this rushed, convoluted, lazily designed, buggy, aggravating, unpleasant disaster.

And if I must say any more: there is a boss battle against a tractor. Yes, a tractor.

Publisher: Eidos Interative
Developer: IO Interactive
Release: Nov 13, 2007 Interactive
MSRP: $59.99 Interactive
Also on: PC, PS3 Interactive

Official Kane & Lynch Website Lies About Its Scores

Aaron Dunlap — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:26:44 -0600

At the heart of this Jeff Gerstmann controversy is the unconfirmed notion that Eidos was upset with GameSpot's 6/10 review of the game. While we have no way of knowing if that is actually what happened, it seems that Eidos might just be completely delusional about the media reception for the game.

If you go to the official Kane & Lynch website and watch the flash intro that plays before the main content appears, you'll see two excerpts from reviews flash by with a 5-star rating for each. The problem is, those reviews did not issue a 5-star, or 100% rating.

It lists a GameSpy review with the quote, "It's the best emulation of being in the midst of a Michael Mann movie we've ever seen." This quote doesn't exist from GameSpy's review. It's pulled from some early E3 2007 coverage that would have been published at least 5 months ago. The preview issues no kind of score or rating that could be perceived as a 5-star rating.

In fact, GameSpy's actual review gave Kane & Lynch a 3-star rating. Three stars, on a 5-star scale, equates to a 60%, or 6-out-of-10 score, which is exactly what Gerstmann gave the game.

The Kane & Lynch webpage also lists a quote from Game Informer: "A mercenary, a psychopath, & a bundle of cash... what could go wrong?" and also lists it with a 5-star rating. That quote also does not appear in Game Informer's review, it seems to be pulled from an early preview. And if you guessed that Game Informer's actual review gave the game a 5-star score, you'd be both wrong and stupid. They gave it a 7/10.

It's common for game PR to include preview quotes on early advertisements, as those are the only kind of quotes available before the game's release. Never before, however, have I seen preview quotes being paraded around as reviews, and also given completely imaginary scores to boot.

Delusion. Complete delusion.

Screenshots of the website are included after the jump.

UPDATE: GameBump (that's us) gave Kane & Lynch a 1-star review. And no, it's not a joke.
UPDATE UPDATE: Apparently people are mad at Eidos because "Eidos Bashing" is the thing to do.

Idea: Maybe GameSpot Needs A Writers Strike

Aaron Dunlap — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 11:55:17 -0600

If you've been following entertainment news lately you're probably aware that the Writers Guild of America (the people who write our TV shows and movies) are on strike because studio executives refuse to increase the percentages of online and DVD sales distributed to the writers.

Writers fear they are being treated unfairly, so they strike. They stop working, showing management how important they are.

If you've been following video game journalism news lately, you're probably aware that Jeff Gerstmann, an editor from GameSpot was apparently fired because Eidos put financial pressure on them of CNet, their owners, over a negative review Gerstmann gave to Kane & Lynch.

If I were a writer at GameSpot now, I would be terrified to submit any writing in fear that my job could be at stake for simply crafting an opinion: what their job requires. I couldn't do my job if it became apparent that credibility was for sale.

I'd go on strike. I'd stop submitting reviews or news. I'd stop working.

That's what I'd do, maybe it's what GameSpot writers should do.

Interesting to note, there haven't been any reviews posted at GameSpot today or yesterday. Maybe they're already refusing to submit reviews.

Gerstmann Firing Not GameSpot's Fault, Says Mod

Aaron Dunlap — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:34:04 -0600

According to a post by a moderator at the linked page of the GameSpot forums, if anybody at the GameSpot (not Eidos) side of this issue is to be blamed, it's CNET, not GameSpot itself. CNET handles advertising for GameSpot and all other property sites, and they handle hiring/firing.

From the thread:

People, don't direct your anger at Gamespot. This is CNet's meddling. Gamespot consists just of the editorial, news, community, and development teams. It's CNet's marketing that puts the ads up. CNet's marketing that complained. CNet is who can fire their EIC.

This makes sense to me. CNet, as owners of GameSpot and damn near a thousand other websites, would be the ones handling HR and marketing rather than having each individual property doing it themselves; that would be redundant.

So who should we blame here? Eidos for pressuring CNet into firing Gerstmann over a bad review of a game they've been paying CNet to promote, or CNet for caving to pressure and firing a journalist for doing his job?

UPDATE: However, there would of course be people within GameSpot's management that can fire people. Complete control wouldn't be handed over to CNet.

[UPDATED] Eidos Backlash Begins: Eidos.com is Down

Aaron Dunlap — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:05:07 -0600

I'd heard that the forums over at Eidos.com were going completely crazy over the firing of GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann over a negative Kane & Lynch review so I was on my way to the site to collect some quotes or screenshots and, well, the site was down.

Needless to say, the entire internets are in an uproar over this (now confirmed) firing. Gerstmann's Wikipedia article has been locked from changes by new users due to vandalism.

If it turns out to be true that Eidos forced GameSpot to fire Gerstmann over a negative review, there will soon be unleashed a holy hellstorm of outrage that this industry has never before witnessed.

UPDATE: The GameSpot homepage now includes no mention of Kane & Lynch, but yesterday there were many images and links to the review. The GameSpot forums don't seem too pleased. This thread alone has over 4,000 replies so far.

UPDATE UPDATE: We've received word that Tim Tracey, another GameSpot employee, has left his job today. As we understand it, he left voluntarily. We can't confirm whether this is related to the Gerstmann firing. Tracey worked in the video production team for GameSpot LIVE then moved to MP3.com.

UPDATE THE THIRD: Eidos.com and Eidosinteractive.com are back online. The US Eidos forums are also back, though every forum is locked and nearly all threads related to Gerstmann have been purged. There is this one, but it ends rather tersely.

Long-Time GameSpot Editor Fired. Negative Review To Blame?

Aaron Dunlap — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 20:04:26 -0600

We have it on good authority from a source close to GameSpot that Jeff Gerstmann, a GameSpot employee for over 10 years and more recently titled as an editorial director was abruptly fired yesterday.

While there is no official reason for this, many people (our source included) and convinced that he was fired because of a somewhat negative review of EIDOS's Kane & Lynch: Dead men. EIDOS had been advertising pretty heavily on GameSpot recently, and apparently the 6.0 didn't please them.

We received the following statement from the Human Relations department of C|NET after inquiry.

"... it is CNET Networks company policy to never comment on individual employees current or former regarding their job status. This policy is in place out of respect for the individuals privacy."

Interestingly, the online gaming-themed comic Penny Arcade has just published this strip, featuring the firing of Gerstmann. How they knew about it is anybody's guess at this point, as no news story has been posted for it yet. Keep in mind that there is no official confirmation from any parties about the firing.

Today there was no episode of On The Spot, a video segment that Gerstmann typically hosts.

GameSpot's 6/10 review of the game, while low, isn't unique. GamePro and GameSpy also gave the game 60% scores, with no high-profile outlets giving any scores above a 90%.

Eidos Confirms Deus Ex 3 Rumors, First Teaser Trailer

Solomon Lee — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:03:56 -0600

Eidos Interactive has announced that Deus Ex 3 is, in fact, being developed for the PC.

Eidos Montreal's general manager, Stéphane D'Astous, has stated that the company is "only working on AAA, major titles. We're going to be developing only major AAA games, using only next-gen technology."

The release date is unconfirmed at this time.

GB Preview: Kane and Lynch - Non-Swag Edition (360)

Eric Jonathan Smith — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 15:40:00 -0600

Kane and Lynch: Dead Men is the newest offering from developer Io Interactive, best known for their Hitman series. But unlike Hitman's focus on its iconic lone wolf, Agent 47, Kane and Lynch: Dead Men instead plays on the dichotomy between its two titular characters, Kane and Lynch; a division represented in the title's gameplay and story.

Kane and Lynch seems to carry over the Hitman series' mission-based structure but Io seems intent on furthering the game from its spiritual forerunner by introducing a squad-based structure to the gameplay. While you only ever play as Kane (Lynch is playable in co-op by a second player), he can order around an ever-increasingly useful gaggle of goons as the game progresses. Lynch's role, when not controlled by a second player, seems to be one of adding a rather random (if not unwanted) element to the gameplay which is backed up by the game's story.

Both characters have an extensive back story that is appropriately covered in grit and grime. Kane and Lynch have ended up on death row, where they meet. Former mercenary Kane is there for getting caught up in the dealings of a mysterious group called "The Seven" and Lynch for being a pill-dependent schizophrenic (hence his random nature) who apparently killed his wife. However, The Seven intervenes and set Kane and Lynch free on the deal that Kane makes right his past while Lynch keeps a close eye on Kane's actions.

The strength of how the game executes the opposing natures of these two dead men is undoubtedly the key to its success; at worst, Kane and Lynch could be nothing but a Hitman clone, which to some wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing. We'll see soon enough as Eidos publishes Kane and Lynch: Dead Men for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 in North America on November 14 and in Europe November 23.

Also available on: PS3 | PC
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: Io Interactive
Release: Nov 13, 2007
MSRP: $49.99 - $59.99
Online | Mature

Eidos Goes All Out On Kane and Lynch

Tim Grube — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:21:28 -0600

Who loves getting videogame swag? I know we do! I remember the best swag package that came in was when the PlayStation 3 launched. I got a few PS3's, an umbrella, jacket, blanket, and the list goes on. It was completely insane, but that's what I love about Sony.

Our friends over at CBS received a similar package from the guys and gals at Eidos for the upcoming game Kane and Lynch that is scheduled to release next week. The package contained two ziplock bags and an envelope that said "Urgent, Please Read."

My hats off to Eidos for the way they packaged the information. I suppose they really wanted us to get into the spirit of things by sending us such a well thought out package for a game that will be released November 13, 2007

Head over to CBS for a bit more detail on this sweet swag.

Warner Bros Hands Batman License Over To Eidos

Aaron Dunlap — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 01:45:04 -0600

If there's ever been anything more disappointing than how bad Superman videogames always are, it's how bad Batman games always are these-days. Sure, the Superman games are typically abysmal -- but we've come to expect that as a gaming mainstay. Batman, however, has so much promise for a cool stealth-based action puzzle-solving crime-fighting-caper game, and all the recent attempts have fallen flat.

So, Warner Brothers has decided to stop trying to make their own crappy games and let someone else do it for once. According to Variety, WB has given Eidos Interactive (Tomb Raider, Hitman) the rights to a lot of their licenses, from Batman to 'The O.C.'. Yes, there could very-well some day be an O.C. game.

Also picked up in the handoff were the licenses to the entire catalog of Hanna-Barbera and Looney Toons cartoons.

This is all possible because Warner Brothers just bought a 10% share of Eidos/SCi stock for over $86 million.

Yet another change in this deal is that Warner Brothers will now handle distribution of all of Eidos' games (while Eidos will still publish and manufacture the games). So basically, WB is handing off some of their very valuable licenses to someone who actually knows how to make games, and Eidos is handing off the job of distributing millions of copies of software each year to a company who's been putting media on store shelves for ages.