http://www.cubed3.com/news/10321/

A handful of early reviews for Alone in the Dark have caused publisher Atari to request removal or be faced being sued.

Various websites published reviews for the game this week, and according to Kotaku have been confronted due to illegal copies being shared via torrent websites. GameReactor was first to comment, awarding the game an abysmal 3/10. Soon after, Atari jumps in to pull the review with press copies only being issued the day before, supposedly.

4Players.de, a German gaming site hands out a slightly more forgiving mark at 68% - again faces accusations of "breaking the law and violating the rights of their client (Atari)". Gamer.no was third in the firing range, also giving the game 3/10 - supposedly from an early retail copy.

Atari claims the pirated versions use incomplete code that likely affect the game's performance. Could it really be a company ensuring outlets receive legal copies, or an excuse to hunt down on poor ratings?

The game hits stores today, June 20th for all next-generation consoles.

My impression - if Atari had full confidence in this game then they would have released it early enough to be reviewed and not insist they must be playing "illegal copies" as it's a day before release.  This now reakes of a company trying to rip people off and ensure first day sales aren't affected.  This is pretty low.

<sarcasm> Boycott Atari </sarcasm>

atari got screwed there, bad reviews reviewers using downloaded game, but i think they are more pissed at bad reviews.

If they succeed, reviews are officially meritless.

the 360 got cracked fairly easy.
The same happened with GTA4, though that game was highly rated, both by the media and the pirates them selvs to the point of them actually saying that the game is good enough to be bought and not pirated.

Well ONM (Official Nintendo Magazine) UK presumably have a finished copy, and gave it something in the late 60s

From what I've heard, a mark in the 60's seems justified. The game definitely could have used an extra few months of polishing.

Damn, whats going on with all these early reviews bashing games. First it was Haze ( dont care for it but still) and now Alone in the Dark ( dont care for it either). It seems like companies is trying their best to kill these games before it comes out, and they know alot of people check reviews before they buy games. I personally don't reviews to tell me a game is great or not.

well i would like to know if teh game is bad or if they were playing a bad copy....hmmm

Uh oh, that's not good considering this game has been in development for a pretty long time.

Geez. It seems bad reviews can't come out without having some kind of legal backlash. The game is bad, period. Don't run around canceling reviews and tricking the public into not thinking it suxxors.