Insomniac responds to 4/10 all 4 one review

Quote :

Moments before yesterday's review of Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One went live, I received a message from Insomniac via Twitter. It said, "We will still love you, though you realize as a dev it's terrifying knowing Jim S's wit/snark/hate is about to crash down on us."

So yeah, that made me feel bad.

It's a common misconception that reviewers love to give negative reviews. Perhaps the sociopathic ones do. The rest of us are gamers, and it gives us no joy at Destructoid to have a bad time with a game and then write about it, especially with the rage that follows from both gamers and developers.

Except in this case, the anger came from only one of those sources and it wasn't Insomniac, a studio that may well be the classiest developer in the whole bloody industry.



After the review went live, I came to learn that I had just awarded Insomniac the lowest review score in its 17-year, 15-game history. The review is also the lowest-scoring non-port Ratchet & Clank review of all time. It's not a record I'm exactly thrilled about, but there it is. However, rather than get angry or upset, the message I received from Insomniac was one of dignified acceptance.

"It's bound to happen at some point," said the studio during our exchange. "No hard feelings. You backed up [the] score with your thoughts."

By no means is this an endorsement of the review by Insomniac. Nobody likes getting slammed by the critics, and Insomniac is certainly not pleased with what I wrote. Did it get upset, demand a rewrite, or complain about the score? I received nothing of the sort. Not from Insomniac, nor from Sony -- a publisher that has always treated me with respect and friendliness, despite the litany of criticisms I've written about the company before (and still stand by, I might add).

Insomniac has been one of my favorite developers for a long time. I've long admired the way it respects its workforce and I love its ability to craft truly endearing characters. It's unpleasant taking a dump on someone's hard work at the best of times, but when it's a studio you truly value, it's all the worse. Nothing's worse than souring a relationship with people you like.

Recently, we had Epic Games' Cliff Bleszinski whine about 8/10 reviews for Gears of War 3, claiming to be "upset" by criticisms and implications that Gears of War 2 might have been slightly better. He is another developer I've always liked, but he now refuses to talk to me, ever since I asked him to justify his Gears 3 outrage. When I see that kind of behavior over a positive, very high review score and contrast it with the dignified, adult response from Insomniac, I am astounded. One side is cheapening the entire idea of a review system and encouraging melodramatic fanboy backlash, while the other -- in my opinion -- reacted with the professional responsibility that so many more studios need to adopt.

We have the same problem with gamers themselves. I've received a few hateful messages from people furious over the 8.5/10 score I gave Batman: Arkham City, and there are communities almost obsessed with crying over our critiques. Yet while the members of N4G and GameFAQs go on the attack within seconds of any of our reviews going live, looking to undermine our writing and whip themselves up into a childish frenzy of emotional convulsion, it's cheering to know that people who have a better right to be angry than anybody else can take criticism on the chin and move forward with their lives.

As someone who has received phone calls and emails from all manner of folk upset by my reviews, I can't tell you what it means to me on a personal level to have such polite discourse and understanding from a developer who really had no impetus to be polite at all. If more developers had the grounded grace of Insomniac, this would easily be the best industry in the world.

Insomniac Games' attitude should serve as an example to everybody working in videogames and ought to shame many of those same people

- Jim Sterling destructoid.com

I think the article speaks for it's self

When you post a "news thread", it is best to include the URL of the article, not just the name of the Website.

On-Topic:
I still think that Jim Sterling reviewing games is a bad idea, as he seems to write "Troll" reviews just to get more attention on Destructoid.

Deadly Premonition 10/10

Assassin's Creed II 4.5/10

Assassin's Creed 2- 4.5/10
Get the fuck out, you have no credibility.

Assassin's Creed II isn't a very good game but it's not so bad as to get a 4.5/10. But hey, maybe he liked it even less than me.

That was cool of Insomniac to not bitch over a score that low. I wasn't sure if Cliffy B. was joking or not about the 8/10 review because it's so trivial and it seems out of character for him.

TRF wrote:

Assassin's Creed II isn't a very good game

That's where you went wrong

TRF wrote:

Assassin's Creed II isn't a very good game, it's the perfect game. If I were to die today I would be o.k. with it since I played Assassin's Creed 2. Sometimes when I get the urge I'll take it out of it's box and make love to the game. The story in that game is so unique and the way they tell it is so seamlessly integrated w/real world events I almost converted to the cult of the piece of eden. It's where I learned that Thomas Edison was a thief and Henry Ford was friends w/ Adolf Hitler. All that aside the ways you took people's lives makes you feel like a bad ass every time you click the assassination button. In short this game is the only thing I care about and I've quit my job, dumped my gf, and sold my car so I could buy every system it runs on so I can play 24/7 and enjoy every different way the game is played.

That's what you wanted to say

Epzaos wrote:

When you post a "news thread", it is best to include the URL of the article, not just the name of the Website.

On-Topic:
I still think that Jim Sterling reviewing is a bad idea, as he seems to write "Troll" reviews just to get more attention on Destructoid.

Deadly Premonition[/url] 10/10

Assassin's Creed II[/url] 4.5/10

im a new member so it wont let me, i also had to remove the links in your post, which seems pretty insane

Epzaos wrote:

TheVolusBioticGod wrote:

Epzaos wrote:

When you post a "news thread", it is best to include the URL of the article, not just the name of the Website.

On-Topic:
I still think that Jim Sterling reviewing is a bad idea, as he seems to write "Troll" reviews just to get more attention on Destructoid.

Deadly Premonition[/url] 10/10

Assassin's Creed II[/url] 4.5/10

im a new member so it wont let me, i also had to remove the links in your post, which seems pretty insane

What do you mean "it won't let you"?
Just copy and paste the URL.

it says members who have only been a member for under a week cant post links

Meh, I still don't like the reviewer guy. It seems like he purposely gives games the score they shouldn't deserve.

Insomniac needs to make an Ratchet and Clank HD collection. It would please a lot of gamers.

TRF wrote:

Assassin's Creed II isn't a very good game but it's not so bad as to get a 4.5/10. But hey, maybe he liked it even less than me.

That was cool of Insomniac to not bitch over a score that low. I wasn't sure if Cliffy B. was joking or not about the 8/10 review because it's so trivial and it seems out of character for him.

So that's the Assassin's Creed series and Mass Effect series you think are bad, yet you love Deadly Premonition . . . . . .

TRF wrote:

Assassin's Creed II isn't a very good game but it's not so bad as to get a 4.5/10. But hey, maybe he liked it even less than me.

That was cool of Insomniac to not bitch over a score that low. I wasn't sure if Cliffy B. was joking or not about the 8/10 review because it's so trivial and it seems out of character for him.

AC2 is the best in the series and one of the best games I have ever played.

Stoney wrote:

So that's the Assassin's Creed series and Mass Effect
series you think are bad, yet you love Deadly Premonition . . . . .
.

Deadly Premonition was fucking genius.

Pizzy3C wrote:

TRF wrote:

Assassin's Creed II isn't a very good game, it's the perfect game. If I were to die today I would be o.k. with it since I played Assassin's Creed 2. Sometimes when I get the urge I'll take it out of it's box and make love to the game. The story in that game is so unique and the way they tell it is so seamlessly integrated w/real world events I almost converted to the cult of the piece of eden. It's where I learned that Thomas Edison was a thief and Henry Ford was friends w/ Adolf Hitler. All that aside the ways you took people's lives makes you feel like a bad ass every time you click the assassination button. In short this game is the only thing I care about and I've quit my job, dumped my gf, and sold my car so I could buy every system it runs on so I can play 24/7 and enjoy every different way the game is played.

That's what you wanted to say

Oh shit I made a typo. Thanks for correcting me.

TRF wrote:

Stoney wrote:

So that's the Assassin's Creed series and Mass Effect
series you think are bad, yet you love Deadly Premonition . . . . .
.

Deadly Premonition was fucking genius.

Pizzy3C wrote:

TRF wrote:

Assassin's Creed II isn't a very good game, it's the perfect game. If I were to die today I would be o.k. with it since I played Assassin's Creed 2. Sometimes when I get the urge I'll take it out of it's box and make love to the game. The story in that game is so unique and the way they tell it is so seamlessly integrated w/real world events I almost converted to the cult of the piece of eden. It's where I learned that Thomas Edison was a thief and Henry Ford was friends w/ Adolf Hitler. All that aside the ways you took people's lives makes you feel like a bad ass every time you click the assassination button. In short this game is the only thing I care about and I've quit my job, dumped my gf, and sold my car so I could buy every system it runs on so I can play 24/7 and enjoy every different way the game is played.

That's what you wanted to say

Oh shit I made a typo. Thanks for correcting me.

That's a lot of typos. I suggest taking a keyboarding class.

Old_Spice_Guy wrote:

That's a lot of typos. I suggest taking a keyboarding class.

i dnot now hwat your takign abotu