Batman Gets The Score He Needed
Earlier this month, The RAM Raider claimed that Eidos was attempting to attain a high review score for their upcoming game, Batman: Arkham Asylum, in a less than honourable fashion.
According to the blog, several magazines have review code for the game but aren’t allowed to publish their reviews until an embargo expires at the end of the month. But, if one of these magazines were to dedicate their cover to the game and award it at least a 90% then Eidos would allow them to publish their review early.
Eidos has, of course, denied the whole thing. However, Games Master now has an exclusive review with Batman all over the cover. The review is completely positive, awarding the game a 96%, with the only negative aspects being “that it has to end” and “waiting for the inevitable sequel”.
If Games Master did indeed alter their score in order to get an exclusive review then, obviously, that sucks. It’s also possible that they genuinely liked the game that much. We’ll never know but it certainly is suspicious.
Where’s this all going then? Nowhere really. Eidos does seem to get themselves in these situations a fair bit though. It will at least be interesting to see how Arkham Asylum scores elsewhere.
I’m still not too trusting of the Ram Raider, but I must say, I hope this game is awesome, regardless of what Eidos may or may not have told gaming mags.
I haven’t any interest in what Games Master has to say in regards to videogames, but if they did whore themselves out, more fool them.
This practice has been around for a long time as far as I know. Most early reviews are ignorable, since they could only break the embargo if they gave it a good score.
Lets be honest, a glowing review (tainted or not) is not going to hinder my want for this game, is it? As it was looking fantastic to begin with.