PS3 Informer

Reviewgate! Sites Told to Change Fallout New Vegas Review Scores

It's not a practice that we like to see, but it's becoming ever more commonplace: a large video game publication changes its review score after pressure from the publisher of the game. The pressure to give good review scores is even stronger when the publisher also happens to be running an expensive advertising campaign across the website or magazine in question. According to Dan Hsu, former editor of Electronic Gaming Monthly, that is exactly what has happened with Fallout 3. Hsu announced via his twitter account on 21 October: 'One site was forced to pull its Fallout Vegas review because advertiser Bethesda was unhappy w/ score. Sad this crap still goes on.' He has not named names, claiming that to do so would endanger his source's job.

We know that Bethesda has been running an aggressive advertising campaign, because we've seen it on several websites. Hsu says that he knows of two more sites that are delaying publication of their negative reviews while they wait for the advertising campaign to end.

By and large, the reviews for Fallout New Vegas have been positive, although a number of issues continually crop up. One complaint is that the game doesn't feel very different in look to fallout 3, and this is particularly problematic when it comes to the graphics. Some reviewers have likened it more to an expansion pack than a full new sequel, since it runs on basically the same gameplay engine as Fallout 3. Despite being based on a 3-year old game, New Vegas also suffers from some really annoying crashes and bugs, which one would have hoped could have been smoothed out by now. Considering the valid complaints made by reviewers, it is somewhat surprising to see the game garner such astronomically high numerical scores: the game was awarded 90% scores from Eurogamer, IGN UK and Gamepro.

We're planning on playing fallout New Vegas, no matter what the mainstream review sites say. But those people still on the fence about the game might want to wait a few days and gather a range of opinions before jumping in.