Jeff Gerstmann - Vindicated?

Eidos Rewrites Reviews for Kane and Lynch

Ok it's a given. The video game industry is too big and the stakes too high to be honest.

Still on the warm heels of Jeff Gerstmann's firing, word comes out that Eidos has been caught "rewording" or simply making up reviews to save their game.

"It's not like the relationship between Kane & Lynch and review scores wasn't messy enough. But now this? Visitors to the game's official site will notice, once the page's flash intro is done, that two review scores for the game are flashed for your perusal. One from GameSpy, one from Game Informer. Both look positively glowing!"

Read more here at kotaku.com

Career Suicide and Biting the Hand that Writes Checks

Telling it Like it is Will Get You Fired

As the paragraph title suggests; for every honest flame, you can expect to get soundly singed.

It's interesting that in the two cases below one man rails against game reviews and the next writes a game review - both men end up severely singed.

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Career Suicide?

In the case of of Harvey Smith, Creative Director of Midway (Austin), he had allot of real bad things to say about his development experience with Blacksite: Area 51. May a hard way to make a case against bad reviews Harvey.

Just some of the more notable quotes - "This project was so fucked up" and "I wasn't excited about this Area 51 game". You can read more on his views here.

Of course Harvey goes on in more detail about how this published debacle ended up being what it is but why stop at a potential reprimand when you can go for a sure sacking . Unfortunately for Harvey, it looks like a sacking - with a lead weight, concrete shoes and deep river.
No surprise Harvey Smith is no longer working for Midway. Read more here

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Biting the Hand that Writes Checks

Now on a more scandalous note - A Game Reviewer Canned after giving a low score for a game.

It looks like Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot may have weighed in rather honest but critical review of Kane and Lynch. It turns out that this delivery had spurned Eidos who publishes the title to seek his ouster. Eidos has paid allot of money in ad space for Kane and Lynch on the site and the immediate if not obvious conclusion was made about the firing.

Of interest is the video review that Jeff made of Kane and Lynch which is no longer available on GameSpot. See it here on YouTube.
No doubt that Jeff doesn't pull any punches in that review, but the fallout from this sacking has just started.