Im waiting the SDF review...

Even if we pretended that it was done with other mediums as much as it is with videogames (you won't find giant movie ads covering Variety.com), does that make it any less pathetic?

I'm sure Sony, Nintendo, and many others have done it in the past. (Though if they're doing it now, they suck at it.) But with Halo, it's become sort of a joke.

Most sites do not release bad scores on any game until after it ships.  It is not just EA and Microsoft...  Kengo: Legend of the Nine, Fatal Intertia, and Dynasty Warriors are just a few recently released games that don't have many actual reviews right now...  This is because they have average or below average scores and the sites find this the best way to release bad scores without tanking sales.  For the most, part you don't see the negative reviews until a week after launch.  It is not a conspiracy...  It is the way the industry works.

And by the way, if you put out a game and a review site gave it low scores, would you continue to advertise (send checks) to that site?  Wow, they gave us a 6/10 on Halo 3, let's advertise Mass Effect on their site, hopefully it will do better...

same here im pumped for it

Most sites do not release bad scores on any game until after it ships. It is not just EA and Microsoft... Kengo: Legend of the Nine, Fatal Intertia, and Dynasty Warriors are just a few recently released games that don't have many actual reviews right now... This is because they have average or below average scores and the sites find this the best way to release bad scores without tanking sales. For the most, part you don't see the negative reviews until a week after launch. It is not a conspiracy... It is the way the industry works.

And by the way, if you put out a game and a review site gave it low scores, would you continue to advertise (send checks) to that site? Wow, they gave us a 6/10 on Halo 3, let's advertise Mass Effect on their site, hopefully it will do better...


You're explaining exactly why the system is broken. It isn't the job of reviewers to stop "tanking sales." It's their job to objectively tell people what is worth their money. If a game sucks, they're supposed to WANT it to tank saleswise. Advising people to avoid bad games and buy good ones is supposed to be how they create value with readers, who are supposed to be their customers.

Readers aren't the customers, though. They're the product. Gaming publications produce excited fans, who they deliver to the games companies that pay them. Looking at things like the 1Up review, I'm convinced Halo is the best example of this.

Of the campaign and versus multi:
No surprise
So depending on your mood, campaign mode either delivers what's expected or delivers that very well, but anyone would be hard pressed to call it mind-blowing. The same goes for versus multiplayer. Like campaign mode, it's also really refined and built very well from top to bottom, but it doesn't hold any big surprises for fans of the last two titles

And of the co-op?
The only drawback is every co-op game we've played over Xbox Live, whether it's two, three, or four players, has been fairly-to-incredibly laggy.

Maybe if they just faulted one of these portions of the game, a perfect score would make sense. But they faulted the campaign, the versus AND the co-op, and gave the game a perfect score. Huh?

^^ every game has a flaw, so every perfect score ever given needs to be taken back then

There's no need to pretend, it's done in other mediums just as much as in videogames. 

In the past?  Nintendo did it with Metroid Prime 3, that was released when, in August?  It's done by pretty much everyone so why single it out for Halo 3?

There's no need to pretend, it's done in other mediums just as much as in videogames.

Actually, with movies, if the studio knows it sucks, they don't even show the movie to reviewers. They withhold pre-release screenings entirely, because they don't have the power to control the review scores! Within the last few years, some studio got busted for making up a fake reviewer to give good scores. This is a different type of corruption entirely from what we see with videogames.

I hadn't heard that around Metroid Prime 3, though it doesn't surprise me; I believe that game initially meta-scored higher than it's current 91. They were pretty prominent with Madden, though. No reviews below 90 were allowed until release. Look at Madden first week sales: by the time of release, the damage is done.

To Kain: 1up said the campaign "wasn't mindblowing," said the same of the versus, and said the co-op was "fairly to incredibly laggy." That's not one small flaw in my book. If two parts of the game aren't "mindblowing," the much-hyped new feature better at least not be "incredibly laggy" to get a *PERFECT* score.

Well... I've made my point...

wasnt mind blowing because its not that different from halo 2, why change something they know is successful, they just tweaked it why it not mind blowing.

ive yet to see anywhere else where its been really laggy co op

again no scores are perfect so dont just deal the blow to halo 3

The average is 96.7%. So far it is the second best game of all-time.