Jeff Gerstmann's Kane & Lynch Video Review Before it was Pulled

Found on digg:

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FuJ81sDR2o[/media]

It's a tough review but from what I see it seems pretty accurate. The graphics seriously look last gen.

I still think he looks better if he gained more pounds.

Jeff didn't review K&L any differently than other games he has reviewed. Saying he was fired for "his tone" in this one is utter bullshit.

this bullshit is bullshit

thats a pretty standard review.i could see if he went all angry videogame nerd then yeah fire his ass but nope. unless the guy has a past history of doing things in the office that we publically dont know then it sounds like maybe he could have been fired over a not too favorable review.

Ok, if we can put aside the whole advertisers can not affect review scores, thing for a minute...

You know what.
I played Kane and Lynch last night for about 2 hours. And it is a fun game.
I robbed a bank, killed some people, blew up some cars.
It was great fun.

I think maybe he SHOULD have been fired. He trashed K&L like it was a piece of crap and it is not. Its not GOTY but its a good game.
Too much cursing? Duh... and Disney movies are too cute too..
Ugly graphics? Look again. What every game's gotta be GOW now? graphics are fine.
Ugly characters? Umm.. that's the point.
No heroes root for? Umm.. that's the point.

K&L gets an 7.9 in my book.. (8.2 if the advertisers pay me lots of $$) just kidding..well maybe not entirely kidding...

-Mike

Characters that no one can relate to? It's funny that he didn't mention that in his Halo 3 review.

[quote name='linkpwns']Characters that no one can relate to? It's funny that he didn't mention that in his Halo 3 review.[/QUOTE]

In his defense, Halo 3 wasn't as much of a story driven game as Kane and Lynch. Furthermore, you're at least interested in what happens to the characters in Halo 3, if not connected to them. After playing about 3 hours of Kane and Lynch I couldn't agree more with Gerstmann's review.

[quote name='lokizz']thats a pretty standard review.i could see if he went all angry videogame nerd then yeah fire his ass but nope. unless the guy has a past history of doing things in the office that we publically dont know then it sounds like maybe he could have been fired over a not too favorable review.[/quote]

Given the lame excuse issued and after watching this review, I feel as if advertisers had to have played a part in his firing. Why else would they pull the review?

I played this game this morning. I did the Fragile Alliance thing, it was pretty cool, but the gameplay was flawed, just as he said. I must agree with this review.

I don't understand how the game could have gotten as high as a 6 from that review.

The graphics seriously look last gen.

Click to expand...

have you even played the game? I'm assuming not. Granted, the graphics don't look awe inspiring or as good as Gears of War (which I'm assuming is the standard to most people because when games don't look like that, people get all hot and heavy and start denouncing the graphics) but it's not a bad looking game. The animations are fluid, it runs really smooth and the graphics are decent.

Jeff didn't review K&L any differently than other games he has reviewed. Saying he was fired for "his tone" in this one is utter bullshit.

Click to expand...

can you please point me to another game that he acted like it was dog shit in the review? His tone wasn't needed and he made the games seem like it's the horrible piece of trash and eidos should be ashamed to make it. Please, please tell me the difference between this game and gears other than the graphics. what does have gears have that K&L doesn't? A slightly better cover system and slightly cooler looking guns? Gears still has a short story, language, unrelatable characters and an extremely slow moving pace. I fail to see how Gears is "end all be all" third person shooter.

Straight up, I played the game. I played a great deal of and enjoyed it. It's not worth $60, but at $40, i'd certainly pick it up, possibly even $50. It's a decent game. The animations run smooth, fire fights are fun, the story is interesting, the character development over the course of the game is really good, it's got very good voice acting and the actual gunplay is decent. And, you also have to love how the only level they showed in the video is the first chapter of the first level. yeah, I'm guessing Jeff didn't even bother to play this one.

I've played the game, and I think the review is pretty accurate. My biggest complaint was inconsistent game play. Playing on the hardest difficulty it was way too easy, then I hit a brick wall at about the 3 hour point.

As far as the firing goes, with no employee rights, they can fire you for anything. Get on someones bad side, and you can be gone. I've been there.

[quote name='SL4IN']have you even played the games? I'm assuming not. Granted, the graphics don't look awe inspiring or as good as Gears of War (which I'm assuming is the standard to most people because when games don't look like that, people get all hot and heavy and start denouncing the graphics) but it's not a bad looking games. The animations are fluid, it runs really smooth and the graphics are decent.



can you please point me to another game that he acted like it was dog shit in the review? His tone wasn't needed and he made the games seem like it's the horrible piece of trash and eidos should be ashamed to make it. Please, please tell me the difference between this game and gears other than the graphics. what does have gears have that K&L doesn't? A slightly better cover system and slightly cooler looking guns? Gears still has a short story, language, unrelatable characters and an extremely slow moving pace. I fail to see how Gears is "end all be all" third person shooter.

Straight up, I played the game. I played a great deal of and enjoyed it. It's not worth $60, but at $40, i'd certainly pick it up, possibly even $50. It's a decent game. The animations run smooth, fire fights are fun, the story is interesting, the character development over the course of the game is really good, it's got very good voice acting and the actual gunplay is decent. And, you also have to love how the only level they showed in the video is the first chapter of the first level. yeah, I'm guessing Jeff didn't even bother to play this one.[/quote]

kane and lynch is one game, IIRC.

what does gears have that kane and lynch doesn't?

THE COLE-TRAIN BAY-BEEEEEEE.

[quote name='SL4IN'] Straight up, I played the game. I played a great deal of and enjoyed it. It's not worth $60, but at $40, i'd certainly pick it up, possibly even $50. It's a decent game. The animations run smooth, fire fights are fun, the story is interesting, the character development over the course of the game is really good, it's got very good voice acting and the actual gunplay is decent. And, you also have to love how the only level they showed in the video is the first chapter of the first level. yeah, I'm guessing Jeff didn't even bother to play this one.[/QUOTE]


And 6 is a decent score.

[quote name='Mr Unoriginal']And 6 is a decent score.[/quote]

I must have missed the point in the video where he said the game was a 6. because that's what I'm referring to. IIRC, he never gave a score in the video, but simply bashed the game he IMO, didn't play much of, or atleast, enough to make an educated review rather than pan the game the way he did.

At least now, he has time to go on that diet everyone has been advising him. Anyway, he should have been fired. He was fun to watch by if you try to be a rebel and lose your company thousands of dollars, its stupid not to fire him. Jeff should have been more professional and got it approved beforehand. Its not like they would have gave it an 8.5 , but they could have added .3 points and niced up the review. Anyone agree?

[quote name='mm07']Ok, if we can put aside the whole advertisers can not affect review scores, thing for a minute...

You know what.
I played Kane and Lynch last night for about 2 hours. And it is a fun game.
I robbed a bank, killed some people, blew up some cars.
It was great fun.

I think maybe he SHOULD have been fired. He trashed K&L like it was a piece of crap and it is not. Its not GOTY but its a good game.
Too much cursing? Duh... and Disney movies are too cute too..
Ugly graphics? Look again. What every game's gotta be GOW now? graphics are fine.
Ugly characters? Umm.. that's the point.
No heroes root for? Umm.. that's the point.

K&L gets an 7.9 in my book.. (8.2 if the advertisers pay me lots of $$) just kidding..well maybe not entirely kidding...

-Mike[/quote]

You should be fired because I don't like your review.

[quote name='SL4IN']I must have missed the point in the video where he said the game was a 6. because that's what I'm referring to. IIRC, he never gave a score in the video, but simply bashed the game he IMO, didn't play much of, or atleast, enough to make an educated review rather than pan the game the way he did.[/QUOTE]

I'm not quoting word for word, but I'm pretty sure he mentioned that it was worth checking out for shooter fans and that it had quite a few good ideas that he felt didn't pan out in the final game. Sure, it's not a glowing review, but it sounds like a game that will appeal to some and not to most. That seems consistent with a score of 6 to me.

The graphics are pretty ugly. I guess it gets the job done but in a post-Bioshock/Halo 3/CoD4 era, you can't put something like this out and expect it to get good scores. From what I've read and now seen, I'll happily skip this one.

[quote name='SL4IN']Please, please tell me the difference between this game and gears other than the graphics. what does have gears have that K&L doesn't? A slightly better cover system and slightly cooler looking guns? Gears still has a short story, language, unrelatable characters and an extremely slow moving pace. I fail to see how Gears is "end all be all" third person shooter.[/QUOTE]
You just completely lost any and all credibility.

Seriously, are you ing insane?

The ing difference? You want to know the ing difference between Gears and K&L??? One sucks balls and is mediocre at best, the other is one of the very best games released in 2006. Try and guess which is which.

His review was spot on for it being a 6.0 game, at least when Jeff reviews a game (most of the time) the review matches the score it was given.

Check this out: http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3164354&sec=REVIEWS

Read it, and check out the score. Now how the hell did it get a 5.1 when in the review it sounds like an 8.0 game? I can't stand that inconsistency but apparently I'm in the minority here.

[quote name='PyroGamer']You just completely lost any and all credibility.

Seriously, are you ing insane?

The difference? One sucks balls and is mediocre at best, the other is one of the very best games released in 2006.[/quote]

please tell me how your life in any way relates to marcus phoenix from gears. I'm dying to know.

[quote name='SL4IN']please tell me how your life in any way relates to marcus phoenix from gears. I'm dying to know.[/QUOTE]
Who the mentioned "relating" to ANY CHARACTERS WHATSOEVER.

Wait: I can answer that question: YOU.

Cut the straw-man bullshit.



I admit, I've never played K&L, so my opinion is just based on EVERY ING REVIEW OUTLET EVER, but based on that, I'm able to say with a fair amount of certainty that Gears is, you know, of just a tiny ing bit higher quality than K&L

Now you, on the other hand, you haven't played Kane and Lynch, NOR HAVE YOU EVEN PLAYED THROUGH GEARS!!!

And the extremely tenuous solidarity of the gaming community begins to unravel yet again, just in time for Monday.

I watched that review a couple days ago, and I got the not-so-subtle sense that he was retaliating against the mandate that his superiors must have given him about the stakes involved with this game. They probably warned him about his tone. Basically, they were Marsellus Wallace telling him to " Pride" and take a fall. I think this review was his proud retaliation. Notice how he snidely gets in right at the end how it's not a game worth paying full price for? That really came across as a big middle finger to Eidos and his taskmasters at GameSpot.

I can almost imagine the 'suit' that lectured him in advance seeing that review and rubbing his temple before pounding his desk and uttering "That's it. it. He's done here." Neither one listened to Marsellus' two-word bit of advice, methinks.

[quote name='PyroGamer']Who the mentioned "relating" to ANY CHARACTERS WHATSOEVER.

Wait: I can answer that question: YOU.

Cut the straw-man bullshit.[/quote]

he said in the review, which I'm assuming you watched, that the game has unrelateable characters. Which granted, is an extremely piss poor reason to speak negatively of a game. If that holds true, than every game should get the "well the characters are good, but they're unrelateable" line because I can't tell you the last time someone told me how much they're life is like that of X video game character....... oh wait, because that doesn't happen.

Lets keep discussion all in one thread, please.

http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=161585