The Splinter Cell Essentials Marketing Fracas

Videogame Media Watch has a breakdown on a developing story, yet another example of the sometimes less than stellar relationship game reviews/previews have with game marketing. In essence, Ubisoft used language from a GameSpy preview in their marketing, combining words to get the result they wanted. From the article: "As the 1up article notes, the UbiSoft ad probably does need an ellipsis to note where words were removed from the GameSpy preview. This is hardly the main issue, though, as the difference between 'one of the best games on the PSP' and 'one of the best games we've played on the PSP' is not all that important. A somewhat more salient question: how can a game turn from '...one of the best...' on a system to a 2 out of 5 review in a matter of two-and-a-half months between preview and review? "

Because all the games are shit?

[twoflower]

A somewhat more salient question: how can a game turn from '...one of the best...' on a system to a 2 out of 5 review in a matter of two-and-a-half months between preview and review? "

Easy. If all the games on the console are shit, and this is one of the best, it could easily rate 2 out of 5 and still be one of the best on that console.

Sucker born every minute.

[B5_geek]

That is why you should NEVER believe quotes on books, movie reviews, games, etc. Even if it is in print it is far too easy to take out of context.

Take this for example:
"The main-chase scene in Matrix 2 is the best I have ever seen; it's too bad the rest of the movie couldn't keep pace."

Spin enabled: "...Matrix 2 is the best I have ever seen.."

Anybody with half of an education should know this stuff.
Demo the ****ware, if you like it buy it!

Re:Because all the games are shit?

[arakon]

No kidding, I keep getting hopeful that a game will come out that will turn my Sony Paperweight(TM) into an actual game machine and I keep getting Severly disappointed. The most Severe crippling of a system in a long time, loading for everything.
Got Untold Legends, load times from hell, hard as hell to see and generally just not fun.

Got Metal Gear Acid, it wasn't Metal gear but some weird ass card game.

Got Rengoku boring as hell after 20 minutes of beatin on the same damn robots over and over...

Got Lumines was entertained for a while.

TOOK a long break from PSP software.

Got YS VI Ark of something.... holy crap at the god aweful 10 second load times. COuldn't play it any further when I cross a map in 5 seconds and wait 10 for the next area to load.

Got Generation of Chaos, which would be an okay game if there was a better story and a better explanation of what the hell it all was. I really liked Disgaia I guess I got my hopes up to far.

SO over-all my PSP has yet to have ANY serious gaming done on it. The games for it, just suck. Maybe that should be the PSP slogan.

"PSP, for games that just suck" Oh and watching that free spiderman 2 UMD you got with it when you are really bored.

Re:Sucker born every minute.

[Minwee]

Looking at just who is being quoted can be informative too.

For example, if you pick up an SF book with words of praise on the back cover from Anne McCaffrey and Marion Zimmer Bradley, then you might just want to put it down and walk away quietly before anybody sees you. Those two were the most pathologically nice people in the industry, and would have found a way to describe The Eye of Argon [pale.org] as "Delightful" and "Breathtaking". On the other hand, seeing a back cover quote from Orson Scott Card really means something, as a book has to really have something to get him to read past the first ten pages, let alone write a quote for it.