News Early Alone in the Dark reviews upset Atari

[CardJoe]

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2008/06...-upset-atari/1

Atari is claiming several major sites have published faulty reviews of the game based on pirated versions.

[Paradigm Shifter]

So the new reason for a game being crap will be "you were testing pirated code"?

Yeesh.

[Tris]

seems rather a pointless endeavour if they are trying to get rid of negative reviews - i mean, how many games really make it big based solely on reviews? A good review in a few places may be good for initial sales, but when bloke A who bought it on release plays it for a few hours, turns to Blokes B C and D and tells them its shite, sales arent gonna continue to be high.

[LeMaltor]

Is the legal version still crap?

[Jokkocze]

I've heard that the pirated version is really, really filled with bugs, but then again, that's only rumors. Bugs can probably lower the % that a game gets when reviewed...

[Timmy_the_tortoise]

What do you mean "Piracy on a console???" Piracy on consoles has been rife since the release of the PSX in '95.. You chipped your playstation, you could get brand new games for £5.. Then again with the PS2.. and with the original Xbox you could download games, burn them to disk, and run them if you installed the right software on the Xbox beforehand.. Heck, if you installed the right alternative operating system you could rent a brand new game for £3 and install it to the hard drive to keep.

Even GTA IV was released to torrent sites before it was released.

[adamc]

Well the game is out now, and when publishers don't release review copies early that usually means they know the game is not up to scratch.

[Veles]

Originally Posted by Tris

seems rather a pointless endeavour if they are trying to get rid of negative reviews - i mean, how many games really make it big based solely on reviews? A good review in a few places may be good for initial sales, but when bloke A who bought it on release plays it for a few hours, turns to Blokes B C and D and tells them its shite, sales arent gonna continue to be high.

Umm, you haven't met the average gamer obviously, the one who goes into nerd rage because Twilight Princess only got 6.8 or whatever, they people who never buy a game if it scores below 8 on IGN.

I've played the first portion of the game and have just got into central park, I struggle to see how this game would score under 7.

[CardJoe]

Originally Posted by Timmy_the_tortoise

What do you mean "Piracy on a console???" Piracy on consoles has been rife since the release of the PSX in '95.. You chipped your playstation, you could get brand new games for £5.. Then again with the PS2.. and with the original Xbox you could download games, burn them to disk, and run them if you installed the right software on the Xbox beforehand.. Heck, if you installed the right alternative operating system you could rent a brand new game for £3 and install it to the hard drive to keep.

Even GTA IV was released to torrent sites before it was released.

Sigh, I was being sarcastic.

[impar]

Greetings!

Another DRM infection. This time with a twist:
To install the game on a different computer, players must revoke the serial number when uninstalling from the first machine (this is an automatic option during the uninstall process).

So, next time you format to reinstall the OS, dont forget to uninstall all the DRM games that have this option before the format.
Makes a lot of sense...

PS: That would mean that you only get an installation credit???

[liratheal]

Originally Posted by LeMaltor

Is the legal version still crap?

As far as I can tell, yeah, it's still pretty 'eh'.

Definitely not worth the money I parted with for it.

Better than a 3/10, but not going to make the replay list..

[DougEdey]

OK, I agree with what is said about the controls, 3rd person feels reallllly sluggish and movement in fights is a bitch

[[USRF]Obiwan]

there you have it.. a 3rd person first person shooter. That aint working. Thats the way you do it on your mtv...

[freedom810]

I feel really bad for atari they need a new franchise to get back up there.

[themax]

I've read that the reviews aren't too bad for Alone in the Dark. It's 1 or 3 low scores (3/10, 4/10). Eurogamer has it at 7/10 I believe. So take those scores with a grain of salt if you will. Let's give this more time before we go into a frenzy against another oppressive Publisher fighting against bad reviews =P.

[mikeuk2004]

Originally Posted by Timmy_the_tortoise

What do you mean "Piracy on a console???" Piracy on consoles has been rife since the release of the PSX in '95.. Y.

Even earlier than that mate, there was alot of piracy with the snes by using a special floppy drive and running the cart games off floppys. a friend of mine had one when I was at school and had every snes game released at that time.

Originally Posted by CardJoe

Sigh, I was being sarcastic.

I knew that but still there are some that dont lol

[DougEdey]

Don't you guys remember tapes?

[mikeuk2004]

Originally Posted by DougEdey

Don't you guys remember tapes?

which console had a tape drive?

[CardJoe]

One of the Ataris. And some old thing we had when I was a kid and which we used to play Bobsleigh on. And a game called Punch and Judy.

What was the question?

[LordPyrinc]

This reminds me a bit of the whole Iron Lore issue about the pirated versions of Titan Quest being critiqued on forums before the game was officially released. I forget the article on Bit Tech specific about it, but the gist of it was that the company got a lot of bad rep for bugs that were really in place to prevent a pirated version of the game from running properly. I wonder if this is a similar issue here?

I think Atari is well within their rights to take legal action against reviewers that obtained the game through other channels regardless of what their rating ended up being. Unfortunately, the lawyers as usual will end up being the only true winners with the money they will rake in from both the winners and the losers of the lawsuits.