First off, read this.  It's pretty interesting.

Now, those of you who frequent Gamespot for reviews probably know this guy as he usually rates "hyped" games with low scores like when he gave Twilight Princess an 8.8 and everyone on gamefaqs suddenly got bunched panties.

While him getting fired over the review itself is a rumor, it is fact that he was terminated AFTER the review itself.  

So, the discussion is: did he get fired due to advertiser pressure? Or perhaps he knew that he was going to get let go so as final retribution, he unleashed an attack on an otherwise good game knowing full well that if gamespot took down his review, it would raise people's suspicions?

Had to do this before anyone else :<

If this is true, that he was fired for his review, then I agree that it sets a bad image for the validity of game reviews.  If the companies behind the games can put the squeeze on writers then how objective will their reviews really be?

Or perhaps he knew that he was going to get let go so as final retribution, he unleashed an attack on an otherwise good game knowing full well that if gamespot took down his review, it would raise people's suspicions?

Doubtful.  Gamepro gave the game pretty much the same score (3/5) and Game Informer's(7/10) review wasn't much better.  The game is only  slightly better than average. 

I don't understand why so much weight is put on reviews when, in general, a review doesn't stop people from buying a game, or get people to buy the games.  I mean, with the age of 360/PS3 demos, tons of internet coverage, I think a general interest in a game can be garnered well before a review comes out.  

Twilight Princess should have been an 11/10. 

He shouldn't have been fired over this. The metacritic score of this game is at about 65, which isn't far off from the score he gave. I think it's ridiculous that some people actually wanted him to be fired just because their beloved Zelda didn't get a high enough score. While I don't fully agree with most of his reviews, he still shouldn't have been fired over KANE & LYNCH.
Who had this game on their Christmas list anyway? Maybe I'm missing something.
I guess advertising has a bigger effect than I thought.

Edit: Now this is interesting.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/rumor/alleged-gamespot-employee-spills-guts-on-valleywag-328797.php
According to this RUMOR, he was fired over something of a larger scale. The review was made 2 weeks ago, long before he was fired....so maybe something else happened.
Just a rumor, though.

Off topic but... Twilight Princess was boring shit. I was 4 hours in I still couldn't get into it. My Gamecube has been collecting dust since. The closed POINTATOPOINTB areas and the LOLITARGETSEVERYTHINGFORYOU aspect really killed the game for me.

Jeff is an amazing reviewer, I like him more than any other reviewer, because while he calls it like it is, he also explains in thorough depth why he is calling it like it is, why he is giving it this score BROKEN DOWN. He explains himself.


Also, a bunch of other guys quit to....notice how the GameSpot frontpage hasn't been updated in any major way for like, the past couple days?

Yeah.

BTW:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBD0cUeeEQc

^Jeff's last review.

Wow, he tore that a part.

If he honestly got fired for this then that's pretty sad. If eidos can't handle their games being ripped up then maybe they should make better games???

Even funnier news, Cnet was hacked and the gamefaqs poll was turned into something ridiculous.  I have a screen capture somewhere around here...

EDIT: lol here we wo

Even funnier news, Cnet was hacked and the gamefaqs poll was turned into something ridiculous.  I have a screen capture somewhere around here...

Yepyep




Also Jeff totally went easy on Kane & Lynch...

Off topic but... Twilight Princess was boring shit. I was 4 hours in I still couldn't get into it. My Gamecube has been collecting dust since. The closed POINTATOPOINTB areas and the LOLITARGETSEVERYTHINGFORYOU aspect really killed the game for me.

This!!

Also, I doubt he was fired for giving this game in particular a low score.  I don't remember what the corporate world calls it, but I think it starts with "r" and is a synonym for "revenge".  Anyway, it's illegal to fire someone for a reason like that.

Him: You forget.

We have an International VgMAF1A. The VgMAF1A cuts away the dissenters like a fat aristocrat eats ham on rye with fancy Dijon mustard.

It looked pretty cool, but if reviewers are getting fired over their opinions I think something is seriously messed up. Hopefully he goes to a good site like Gamecritics.com or something similar as I actually quite enjoyed his reviews. I didn't agree with all of them, but he always explained why he was giving that score.

Also, I'm usually not the biggest fan of PA, but that comic is fantastic.

I read about it yesterday over at IGN's I think and it's messed up. I've actually been considering picking up Kane & Lynch seeing as I love the Hitman series and I figured it couldn't be THAT bad since honestly speaking, Hitman games have ranged between 7 and 8 and I've had far more fun with those than a lot of the 8-9-10 games (for instance, Viva Pinata or GRAW or even Rainbow Six Vegas).

But fuck no, fuck this shit. I'm not getting that game. And I'll prolly pirate the next hitman instead of buying it. That's gay shit.

edit: No wait, I didn't read it at IGN but it wasn't here either... Can't remember where though :/

yeah you know ratings are based on how good a GAME it is

if you like the genre youll more than likely like it regardless of how crappy it is (i know i like nearly (read: nearly) all fps games because i just like shooting gun's)

so yeah you really shouldnt get a game if its a 10 just cos its a 10 (why the fuck did you get viva pinata it seems like the sort of game only people who KNOW they'll like it would get)

Anyway, for a more serious post.

Basically the general post seems to be LOL he got fired for a REVIEW, but what do you expect a reviewer to get fired for? We don't know the full story, there could be a very good reason for firing someone (you don't fire someone for having a different opinion etc).

But yeah, if it's true and gamespot is actually the SHOCKINGLY elitist nemesis as everyone is making it out to be, then that's pretty bad. But the theory of a reviewer/critic is getting pretty old now, considering everyone should be slowly figuring out that everyone has different opinions on things, and so relying on what one person tells you isn't the most reliable thing in the world. But that's for another time, I guess.

Well, in truth I think Eidos is the bad guy here if it's true. Threatening to pull out funding for a bad review? That's bribery. Gamespot clearly didn't have to take it but Eidos shouldn't have put them in that position anyway.

If it's true.