Kyle Orland over at Crispy Gamer drops his latest installment in his Press Pass column, in which he rounds up comments from games journalists who discuss their feelings on the impact pre-release hype has on review scores for blockbuster and heavily promoted titles.

The general consensus is that pre-release hype does affect game review scores, with some games affected negatively by intense hype (some journalists noted that they felt Spore was taken to task for not living up to everything Will Wright claimed), while other titles are beneficiaries of their pre-release hype, perhaps unjustly (Halo 3 and Grand Theft Auto IV were given as recent examples). Also, one journalist expressed objection to the way hype forces reviewers to give huge amounts of coverage to games they believe are not worthy.

“I object to big marketing campaigns because they effectively tell us what to cover in the first place,” said game blogger Rachel Webster. “If enough money backs a title, and if the fans and publicity force it onto our radar, then we have to review it prominently, even if it’s Too Human. … The press should always have the power to ignore. Even when we deal with blockbusters.”

What I personally found most interesting was a detail contained but not discussed within the column. Note the following excerpt:

Another game journalist, who asked to remain anonymous to protect his relationship with Rockstar, called the company’s crime simulator the “one shameless, ultimate example of hype influencing review scores … Virtually every publication — print and online — rubber-stamped GTA IV with a perfect score, and once the dust settled, it became increasingly clear that GTA IV was actually fairly disappointing.”

Isn’t that a shame? A journalist who feels compelled to remain anonymous when negatively speaking his/her mind on a game - even long after its release - because of developer pressure and the possibility of being blacklisted. And if you’re a frequent reader here, you’ll know that blacklisting does indeed occur.

Read the full article here.

Source: Crispy Gamer