Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews under 8/ ...

Eidos UK PR firm Barrington Harvey has confirmed that British sites are being asked not to post Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews with scores lower than 80 percent until Monday.

The game releases today for 360 and PS3.

Gamespot UK journalist Guy Cocker revealed the tactic in a Twitter post on Wednesday that said: ''call from Eidos%26ndash;if you're planning on reviewing Tomb Raider Underworld at less than an 8.0, we need you to hold your review till Monday.''

Said a Barrington Harvey rep on the phone this afternoon: ''That's right. We're trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos.''

When asked why, the spokesperson said: ''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 site Eurogamer has already gone live with a 7/10 score, an act the rep said had caused ''problems''.

OXM UK has also posted a 7.0 score.

The news is unlikely to go down well. Eidos's efforts at controlling review scores are still fresh in the mind: it was a row over Gamespot's 6/10 review of Kane %26 Lynch that cost popular US journalist Jeff Gerstmann his job.

Tomb Raider: Underworld's Metacritic average stands at 78 percent.http://www.videogaming247.com/2008/11/21/uk-tomb-raider-underworld-reviews-under-810-silenced-until-monday/ Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews under 8/ ...
As a result....I ask you not to buy this game. If they're trying to embargo reviews under an 8/10, the developer clearly doesn't have confidence that their game is going to score above an 8 by its own merits.



And that in addition to the basic corruption/stifling of creativity/stifling of expression. This is score inflation at work, people.Tomb Raider: Underworld reviews under 8/ ...
Yes these are common tactics, the MTV gaming website had a pretty good series of articles regarding this last year. Anybody intersted should look those up.Link for ya
This is why I always wait for a few reviews to stack on gamefaqs before buying anything based off of ratings.
Sony did not do this type of crap with LAIR. instead, Sony sent them a guide on how to review LAIR. :lol:
[QUOTE=''MightyMuna'']Sony did not do this type of crap with LAIR. instead, Sony sent them a guide on how to review LAIR. :lol:[/QUOTE]

wait...how did LAIR come into this thread....?
I hate Eidos... they never make good games. These are the same people that made Kane and Lynch... enough said.
[QUOTE=''DJCUEBALL'']I hate Eidos... they never make good games. These are the same people that made Kane and Lynch... enough said.[/QUOTE] Hitman isnt good?!?!?
Eidos needs whatever help they can get I guess.
[QUOTE=''DaBrainz'']Yes these are common tactics, the MTV gaming website had a pretty good series of articles regarding this last year. Anybody intersted should look those up.Link for ya[/QUOTE]That was a good read.



And yeah, it's not that big of a surprise, I remember there was talk about this with AssCreed and it prolly happens a lot more often we know.
wow now that's just blatant bullying on the part of Eidos, can't handle a less than 8.0 review? well maybe you should have made a better game! i hope most sites tell them where to shove it, scores are meant to be impartial ratings to keep people informed. NOT the PR tool of a generally average developer. this is why i don't trust review scores any more, the developers and especially the powerful publishers have to much riding on them. they can lean legally and unfairly on those who give unfavourable reviews and make life difficult for smaller sites that score them low. The industry out-guns most sources of reviews so expect to see more of this under-hand score inflation for more average 'big' games.
This proves two things:

1) Eidos is not confident that they can release a quality product and,
2) Review scores have become padded so much that anything lower than 8/10 is deemed ''bad''

I cite Eurogamer's review guidelines in response: 6/10, 5/10 and 4/10 is the turning point between ''good'' and ''bad'' while passing over ''average.''

Game developers should not be scared of reviews effecting their game sales. They should spend more time providing a quality product. And didn't Eidos already get in a huff about review scores this time last year? Which got Jeff fired?
[QUOTE=''DJCUEBALL'']I hate Eidos... they never make good games. These are the same people that made Kane and Lynch... enough said.[/QUOTE]did you just start plaing games this gen? Eidos has made good games int he past
[QUOTE=''gamespot4life''][QUOTE=''DJCUEBALL'']I hate Eidos... they never make good games. These are the same people that made Kane and Lynch... enough said.[/QUOTE]did you just start plaing games this gen? Eidos has made good games int he past[/QUOTE]

I agree Hitman and Soul Reaver were good, but that's pretty much it for me. Never liked the TR series.
[QUOTE=''DJCUEBALL''][QUOTE=''gamespot4life''] [QUOTE=''DJCUEBALL'']I hate Eidos... they never make good games. These are the same people that made Kane and Lynch... enough said.[/QUOTE]did you just start plaing games this gen? Eidos has made good games int he past[/QUOTE] I agree Hitman and Soul Reaver were good, but that's pretty much it for me. Never liked the TR series.[/QUOTE] Lets not forget an old game of the year Deus Ex
OMG not Eidos again. I want to shoot the manager of that company.
I remember lems said this would be an Uncharted killer :lol:



This is pathetic, it isn't the reviewers faults that their game us crap.
Ugh, Eidos just loves negative review news in November, don't they?
[QUOTE=''foxhound_fox''] And didn't Eidos already get in a huff about review scores this time last year? Which got Jeff fired?[/QUOTE]



What is surprising is that next week would be one year since Jeff Gertsmann was fired from GameSpot. This is really bad timing on Eidos' part.
This proves that this website has no credibility or integrity. What a sham, man.