Bethesda allegedly pulls negative Fallout: New Vegas review

WorstUsernameEver

WorstUsernameEver

But best title ever!
Dan Hsu, which you may know as co-founder and editor at BitMob and former editorial director at 1up, has tweeted extensively about Bethesda pulling negative reviews due to the ongoing advertisement campaign. <blockquote>One site was forced to pull its Fallout Vegas review because advertiser Bethesda was unhappy w/ score. Sad this crap still goes on.

Heard (but haven't confirmed) two more sites delaying publishing poor review scores for Fallout Vegas until Fallout ad campaign is done.

To clarify, the site's boss pulled that review because advertiser wasn't happy, against writer's wishes.

Sorry, I know how this sounds, but I can't say which site cause this guy would be fired for telling me (they'd know).

[Response from current 1up editor] To be clear, 1UP has not published a review because both the reviewer and I felt he needed more time with the game.

Guys, I did not say it was GameSpot. Please don't put words in my mouth. Thank you.

I did get a 2nd, independent confirmation on this, tho. The review was pulled by CEO, then put back up when ad campaign was over

[In response to revealing this information]...I have this dilemma all the time and know the possible messy results. But i can't name names because I would

[In response to the potential consequences of making this public via Twitter]...get someone fired over it. At the same time, I can't keep quiet about it. So yes, I have a big, irresponsible mouth. :) </blockquote>Thanks Ausir.
 
it wouldn't make much sense to give people money at the same time they're saying your game is crap- but to threaten the reviewer into giving your game a better review is way too much.

i would find it totally understandable if Bethesda said, "hey, we're paying you for advertising, can you at least wait until that's over to publish your negative review?" But they shouldn't be able to have the power to totally control the reviewer.
 
This is how we know our Bethesda. And for a moment I thought, this times are over. :salute:
 
This is the moment where someone's got to do a 'Bethesda, Bethesda never changes' joke, right?

To be fair, Dan Hsu seems hell bent on tackling the subject in the worst manner possible.
 
To be fair, this isn't a game Bethesda play on their own, it's a reflection of the sorry state of game journalism today. Money talks, bitches.

Let's hope we don't have another Jeff on our hands.
 
Zaii said:
To be fair, this isn't a game Bethesda play on their own, it's a reflection of the sorry state of game journalism today. Money talks, bitches.
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I don't think that 'the other publishers do the same!' counts as a decent justification.
 
WorstUsernameEver said:
I don't think that 'the other publishers do the same!' counts as a decent justification.
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No, you're 100% correct in that. There's no justification in it whatsoever, Reviews and marketing should be two very seperate things. I was just reiterating that Bethesda weren't the only publishers guilty of this.
 
This is very disappointing. I actually had some hope that, if this game did better than Fallout 3 critically, then Beth would license Obsidian to make another Fallout game. I just can't help but think of King Todd Howard on his throne of shit boasting about how his Fallout is considered more superior because metacritic has tallied it a higher review score than NV's is.
 
They were taking action against that review that broke the embargo, the one made by a guy who didn't actually play the game past the first few hours, he deserved his butt kicked, but can't seem to find proof regarding the accusations. Still I respect Hsu, he's been right many times in the past, so I will keep an eye on this.
 
Briosafreak said:
They were taking action against that review that broke the embargo, the one made by a guy who didn't actually play the game past the first few hours, he deserved his butt kicked, but can't seem to find proof regarding the accusations. Still I respect Hsu, he's been right many times in the past, so I will keep an eye on this.
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You mean the Attack of the Fanboy one? Can't think of any other review breaking the embargo.

EDIT: And also, I can't honestly see why they would even waste their time on such a small website.
 
ZeusComplex said:
This is very disappointing. I actually had some hope that, if this game did better than Fallout 3 critically, then Beth would license Obsidian to make another Fallout game. I just can't help but think of King Todd Howard on his throne of shit boasting about how his Fallout is considered more superior because metacritic has tallied it a higher review score than NV's is.
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But reviewer after reviewer is talking about better writing, quests, and environments. These were major points that should have been panned in FO3 but seldome were. Now that NV has shown the sort of writing Fallout could/should have - FO4 will be held to that standard. So, either Bethesda ramps up the effort in those areas, hires Obsidian to consult, or a number of reviewers will dock FO4 for the things that FO3 failed at that NV pulled off.

Also, mainstream players will be better educated, as NV will have pretty decent sales and they will demand some improvements from Bethesda. I think even if this was Obsidian's last touch on the series, it will help direct the series future.
 
WorstUsernameEver said:
smber2cnma said:
Now that NV has shown the sort of writing Fallout could/should have - FO4 will be held to that standard.
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I somehow doubt that.
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Bethesda are not capable of it. They've already proven they don't exactly "get" Fallout and that they're shite as writers. Fallout 4's gonna have a fuck-ton of convincing for me to even consider playing it.
 
WorstUsernameEver said:
smber2cnma said:
Now that NV has shown the sort of writing Fallout could/should have - FO4 will be held to that standard.
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I somehow doubt that.
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There will certainly be some sites and journalists who just praise whatever Bethesda offers, but there are many gamers who never knew Fallout could have good writing. Fallout was just a stat based Wolfenstein. I've little doubt that if Bethesda's effort in FO4 results in a FO3 like story/quests, there will be many more complaints by their fans then last time.
 
smber2cnma said:
There will certainly be some sites and journalists who just praise whatever Bethesda offers, but there are many gamers who never knew Fallout could have good writing. Fallout was just a stat based Wolfenstein. I've little doubt that if Bethesda's effort in FO4 results in a FO3 like story/quests, there will be many more complaints by their fans then last time.
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Thing is, Morrowind had some pretty decent writing, with a strong setting. Nothing in the way of branching, but the script was much much tighter than Oblivion.

...do you remember reviews calling them out on the decline in writing?
 
smber2cnma said:
WorstUsernameEver said:
smber2cnma said:
Now that NV has shown the sort of writing Fallout could/should have - FO4 will be held to that standard.
Click to expand...

I somehow doubt that.
Click to expand...

There will certainly be some sites and journalists who just praise whatever Bethesda offers, but there are many gamers who never knew Fallout could have good writing. Fallout was just a stat based Wolfenstein. I've little doubt that if Bethesda's effort in FO4 results in a FO3 like story/quests, there will be many more complaints by their fans then last time.
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Agreed. If FO4 doesn't improve on FNV, then people are going to bitch enough and pan the game.

That being said, my hope is the same as yours: either Bethesda ramps the fuck up and maintains Fallout's moral ambiguity and highly philosophical/political themes or they continue hiring Obsidian to do the grunt of the work.

I think it was unofficially announced that Fallout 4 was already going through the pre-production stages even while FNV was being developed, so chances are Bethesda is making it in-house. However, I highly doubt Obsidian isn't at least consulting on the project.
 
Bethesda should give any future fallouts to obsidian and be done with it. If Bethesda is making Fallout 4, it will fail once again.
 
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