And for once, GameSpot appear to be right (ok, I actually avoid GameSpot so have no idea how credible they are these days). The review embargo for Killzone 2 is up and the reviews are pouring out. But are they accurate?
More precisely, how accurate are the review comments on the multiplayer aspect of the game? A game not released to the public for another three weeks. G4TV say about the multiplayer that it’s “good fun, but you will only get the most out of it if you commit to spending some serious days and weeks racking up those promotions.”
G4TV have played the multiplayer for days and weeks? O rly? Why is it then that GameSpot haven’t posted a review, instead saying they will be holding off for a few days, citing multiplayer inexperience.
There have been three one-hour multiplayer sessions to date for members of the American press. However, Killzone 2’s online play is complex. It uses a class-based system with seven total classes, but these classes (among weapons, upgrades, and many other perks) are only unlocked once you have reached the appropriate level. In just over three hours of play, the two of us joining these sessions had yet to unlock a new class. It takes many, many hours of online play to unlock them, and it would be improper for us to review class-based multiplayer without actually experiencing the classes.
Improper you say!? But IGN said in their review that the multiplayer was the “strongest segment of the game” and gave it a 9.4, they wouldn’t say that if they hadn’t properly played it. Right?
Destructoid, who posted their GTA 4 review a month after launch along with an acompanying 8/10, appear to be taking their time also. As Destructoid’s reviews editor, Jim Sterling, explains:
Because reviews are big business and being “first” is paramount, people will do whatever it takes to compete and win the race, and I think publishers know that. They feed off the desperation of the gaming media, and it gives them power to control and manipulate. Because some writers will do whatever they can for an early review copy of a game, the balance of power shifts directly to the publisher, who can dictate terms, tell a reviewer what can and cannot be written about, and generally bend that writer over and fuck him in the arse. Too much of games media appears to be in the pocket of the publishers, and that’s not right at all.
I have nothing but respect for a media outlet that doesn’t mind not being first, and cares more about giving you the most in-depth and intelligently written review out there.
So, if you are looking for a reliable Killzone 2 review, I would suggest waiting. Even GameSpot aren’t in a rush and that’s saying something (though that something might be “Hey Guerrilla, your cheque bounced” har har).
If they knew how to read, they would no there is a “cheat” code for the review build to unlock all the classes and whatnot in order for them to experience all the perks.
However, I understand waiting for the final game, as integrated stats with killzone.com among other features will be out there, unlike now… the MP however IS KZ2’s strongest point, and saying IGN is somehow lying is just silly.
I’ve put around 100 hours into the beta, it was amazing, no doubt in my mind thats it one of the best online FPS games this gen.
I agree, very good article and thank you. It gets me kinda pissy when I see reviews on the multi-player. Im like ” huh, isnt the game not out yet, isnt that totally biased if they’re not experienced with the mp” then people tell me all this stuff about reviews and im like, ” hey, reviews are important to me but play the game for yourself before judging”
I believe that GameSpot didn’t read the reviewer pack, since it has a code in which allows you to rank up quicky and play the multiplayer mode.
Still what i love most is that this article is saying don’t trust anyone as Gamespot said so. After the whole kane and Lynch incident last year GameSpot are the last place to go if you want trustworthy reviews. Quite Ironic, don’t you think
this article is retarded. they have played the multiplayer.
do you think the reviewers of COD 4 got to level 55 before reviewing the game? fuck no. they only played enough to form an opinion, and that is that it is great. the MP is only going to get better and better the more you unlock. go fuck yourself and get poop in your mouth while you are sleeping
Gamespot are the ones who are talking shit. I played the hell out of the beta, which gives a fair idea of the final multiplayer, meanwhile if you check the neogaf.com killzone 2 thread you’ll see that there are shitloads of multiplayer games going on between the gaming press ALL THE TIME. and they’ve had review copies since ***december***, so they’ve had a fair amount of time with it. this article is bs.
Do you have even one clue what you’re talking about? Most game sites have had the reiview build for KZ2 since before Christmas. The guy who reviewed it at IGN had beated it 7 F’N times!
I think they know what they’re talking about.
dude wtf gamspot saying about not playing it , they gave the codes away dnt tell me tht they didnt snatch a few 2 play, proves to show you tht gamespot it is not a reliable source whn it come to reviews, mostly cause they on 360 sides most of the time, whn 360 has almost all the time news, and ps3 has like wht 2 weeks ago news man they suck they dont even deserve to play, if its to complex they say who cares man wht they want a baby game tht will open its self, if you ask me im going to waste my money for a good game tht will have me leading for more, and killzone has tht ,same way tht CoD4 had it,for ign is the most reliable on reviews they tell truth and the why’s and the what’s, it was like assasins creed GS gave it 9.0, and IGN gave it a 7.6 or somthing, surethe game was massive and beautiful but mostly wht you did on the game was tht sit hear move kill, follow pickpocket, and rewards werent tht rewarding you know,i did liked the story though but gameplay just gets boring after the first play,but back to the realthing final thing gamespot you suck learn how to do reviews asses
Why is the media so biased to everything the ps3 gets?
This article is so unnecessary and draws so many conclusions. I have an idea, take a class on how to think correctly… Then write articles.
@saminseattle:
You have no idea how a review works right? A reviewer gets into closed beta and open beta and usually gets the review code or the final retail code several months before launch. That gives them plenty of time to review the game, including multiplayer. I can’t believe people are trusting GS over 40+ other gaming sites that have said that they have pretty extensive hands-on with the multiplayer. I remember Play or Edge had at least a 4 hour hands on of the multiplayer months ago (the article should still be up in your local bookstore). If anything, I trust IGN and OPM and Gametrailers much more than GS. Let’s not forget that GS is the same people that fired their top editor because of an unbiased honest review of a game that made the publisher pull the ad from GS. GS has also been bashing the PS3 since the beginning especially the guy who wrote Ratchet and Clank’s review who gave 360 games consistently 8+ and PS3 games consistently lower than 8 (you can’t see it anymore because GS took reviewer’s personal pages down).
So, the PS3 exclusive gets high marks for its online and here come the fanboys out of the word work. Gears 2 gets high marks for its online and there’s no questioning. Man the fanboyism in the “media” (never heard of this site so I use the term loosely) needs to stop.
I totally agree! In addition, has anyone noticed that a MAJORITY of the reviews are from foreign countries like Hungry and Italy and especially from lesser developed countries? YES, I know there are a couple State side, but it still makes me wary to see them so early of such a BIG game.
In addition, Gamespot’s decision to not use the Review Build Cheats is commendable! In fact, anyone who uses the cheats and then thinks that they are putting out a quality review are only hurting the public…
Not that this game is going to receive any bad reviews though, it’s going to be awesome, but I will understand if someone says it’s not perfect!
Blacksharinganx what the hell is wrong with your spelling? Game reviews are a matter of opinion and should not be taken as words from god. You have an opinion that assassins creed was boring, mine was different. I liked it! see the difference? everyone has differing(its a word)opinions and they liked it. Now on to this KZ2 business. I’d have to trust gamespot with this one. I’ve never trusted IGN passed the cheats on their site. The game will be good though(coming from an xbox player)and will likely get some award for graphics or some sh*t but i dont care, the reviewers should really just shut up and wait for the final build.
HOPE YOUR TAKING NOTES
I’d be very surprised if many of the reviewers didn’t take part in the beta, so I think most know what they’re talking about.
I wouldn’t trust GameSpot over a bag of spanners.
i cant believe how some cant allow the ps3 to get good games !
you are wrong your article is wrong and irrelevant .
i think this article is both accurate and correct. Of course some sites have to be first, but you have to give kudos to those that want to provide you with a formative review with integrity.
Some of these comments are giving me a headache :P
I appreciate that some of these sites are concerned internally about the quality of their reviews, and it would be interesting to talk to someone from the various sites that have reviews and see if they somehow got their hands on a finished copy of the game earlier than Gamespot et al. (beta code doesn’t count. It’s unfinished code and it shouldn’t be reviewed).
Guess we’ll have to wait and see if withholding reviews makes sense :)
I avoid buying most games on release for this reason.
i belive there reffering to the bots? as in multiplayer
Wardrox you dirty Microsoft Fanboy.
@ Everyone.What I meant was , reviewers should release their review later so they can have more hands-on with the game and give a better idea of the MP. Instead of hurrying up and getting the review over to win the race.
Oh, and its gay that reviewers are marking Killzone2’s graphics down when they gave GTA:IV a 10/10 for graphics.
I personally don’t give a rat’s bollocks when GameSpot decides to post their review. That’s their perogative, isn’t it? And who gives a toss if they’re trashing those ‘other reviewers’ who already submitted their entries?
I can’t believe this passes for news. o_O
The only thing this article proves is that Gamespot has not played this game for a long time. Which invalidates any review that they put if they choose to release the review anytime soon.
I looked back to see how Halo3’s anti-hype 7/10 review by GamerCritic received a lot of flack from fanboys… And I noticed that INTERESTINGLY none of the Halo3 fanboys blamed Sony Sheep for the review… I repeat NONE!!! Now isn’t that interesting???
So, why is it that Sony Sheep are blaming Xbots for less than desired KZ2 reviews? Your guess is probably better than mine, but I think that it’s the “cornered animal” feral instincts kicking in. BaaaBaaaa!
Killzone 2 is one of the worst shooters I’ve ever played and I’ve played all. It’s not even visually impressive. I’m surprised how many people liked it. The military in the game has to be dumber than the actors pretending to be military in Tropic Thunder. You have that one guy that runs around with you named Rico, who is the stereotypical minority character that swears every other sentence. He calls me a mfer or worse when I don’t revive him back into battle so he can miss a shot anyway and go down again. He even puts down his own fellow soldiers in battles, telling them to “shut the f up” for no reason at all. He ruins the already incredibly flawed singleplayer experience because the guy swears more than me and at every turn. Although I have to point out that almost every character swears almost every sentence spoken in this game, because they NEVER have anything important to say. I think these guys are either suffering from Tourettes Syndrome or they put in all the unneeded explicit language for shock value, so the naive 16-21 age group would be “blown away.” “Revolutionary” they scream! Of course to an adult, it’s just silly and really transparent that they just tossed all that in to appeal to a certain age group of moronic gamers as well as cover up the fact that the writer couldn’t come up with any strong dialogue because the story is a big joke. Anyway the point is the story is pretty weak, and the dialogue is so bad that they just compensate it with a lot of swearing. Most lines consist of “holy shit” “f%#k” “payback motherf$#k3rsssss” “get your ass over here” and stuff like that. In one part of the game when you and your 3 other friends see a ship explode, the following dialogue consisted literally of each character saying “DAMN!” “DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN” “DAMN DAAAAAAMN!” and saying it in other variations for almost a full minute. Sounds like a group of 14 year old boys looking over a playboy magazine to me. I was actually disappointed in this scene, because I expected f#%k and sh1t to be used more than a weak ass damn.
Anyway, let us look at how many franchises this game rips off, to try and appeal to it’s audience. First off the main score of the game seems to be inspired and almost ripped off by the Dark Knight score. I sent a email to Hans Zimmer about this, though other people have pointed it out already.
One of main bad guys is very Darth Vader like at times. I guess this one could be argued but there is some similarities.
Remember the train sequence in Gears of War? This game rips the whole thing off and expands on it, but you can totally tell it’s a rip… not to mention extremely boring. In my opinion it seems like this entire game was desperately trying to compete with Gears of War, but failed on every single level possible right down to the end credits. As far as console shooters go, Gears of War 1 and 2 are still the best in terms of good voice acting, good enough story, great cut-scenes and most importantly STRONG gameplay.
There’s also elements of UT that seem to be ripped off but it’s sporadic, like the military’s intelligence in this game.
Speaking of the military’s intelligence…The ISA are the “good” guys, or military in this game. Their level of incompetence is unforgivable. Walking into obvious traps, showing sequences where they are obviously about to die. The way the military in this game plans is similar to that of a child playing with action figures. On a side note, I’m a horrible RTS player, but if I had been in command of these battles in this game, everyone would have done a lot better and there would have been a lot less causalities.
As for the multiplayer there’s no real skill involved. I played shooters pro (I was an ex fragdoll before the stupid thing went to ubisoft) and Killzone 2 just doesn’t have pro level qualities I look for in a fps. Not to mention it’s on a console and not a pc (all the true fps players play on alienware pcs with razer mice. It’s not a stereotype it’s a fact. Email me I can provide tons of pictures of competitions I was in. Analog sticks for “real” fps skill? PLEASE. This game and the lead developer is a joke. Maxing everything out in multi didn’t take that long. Most people suck bad online since their aiming with a babies toy. This game is truly one of the worst. The people at G4 are complete idiots anyway. I’m curious what Tommy and Victor Lucas would have thought of this. I think Vic might have liked it but Tommy, I remember him talking about how “eh” the multiplayer was. I wish he would have reviewed it though.
Tits or GTFO
@Sup3rT3d: you get Gamer of the Month once and think you run the place.
@Madeline BloodDoll: I think you’ve basically said everything I think about the game, then added a bunch more, lol.
Hubris is my middle name :). (actually it’s Anselm, but you know what I mean)
Seeing as we’re bumping old posts; I had a lot of fun with KZ2. the problems i had with it were around the sensitivity of movement and aiming. Very jerky. Nevertheless it was a lot fun online for me and my clan-mates.
Damn, I’m sorry to post again so late on this, but I just read Madeline BloodDoll’s rant… LOVED IT! True, too true! I was actually dissapointed when your rant came to an end. Yet, understandably, one only has so much time to waste on poor quality games like KZ2.
Cheer!
Hey Chris Wanker, if you like my rants on games, look for me on XFire (tag BloodDoll) and add me to friends. I talk about games and other stuff all the time.