Gerstmann speaks and Eidos is accused of fabricating Kane & Lynch endorsements

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By Stevie Smith Dec 4, 2007, 6:34 GMT

While irate gamers across the Net stamp their collective feet and ‘demand’ that advertisers and online traffic boycott GameSpot.com following the sacking of long-serving editorial director Jeff Gerstmann, Jeff himself is remaining admirably professional and diplomatic regarding the whole affair while other parties are perhaps scrambling in terms of damage limitation. Fired GameSpot editorial director Jeff Gerstmann speaks out while Eidos is accused of fabricating Kane & Lynch endorsements. Credit: Eidos Interactive.

Fired GameSpot editorial director Jeff Gerstmann speaks out while Eidos is accused of fabricating Kane & Lynch endorsements. Credit: Eidos Interactive.For those who’ve been unconscious for the past few days, Gerstmann was unceremoniously booted from the ranks of GameSpot after publisher Eidos Interactive reportedly complained about the ‘tone’ of his review for ("ugly") third-person shooter Kane & Lynch: ("ugly") Dead Men, and even threatened to pull their ("ugly") advertising if ("ugly") action was not taken.With Gerstmann promptly shown the door, his text review edited, and his video review rant removed from the site completely, gamers have promptly reacted by wheeling out the popular ‘we hate GameSpot’ bandwagon and accusing the site of willingly bending over the editorial table at the demand of those businesses bringing in its advertising dollars. Incidentally, the day Gerstmann (an eleven-year GameSpot veteran) was fired, Kane & Lynch advertising was plastered wall-to-wall throughout the site.Speaking exclusively with Joystiq, Gerstmann offered that while he was certainly shocked to have lost a job he held for over a decade, he staunchly defends his contributions to the videogame industry, including the pivotal Kane & Lynch: Dead Men review:"I stand behind my work, regardless of where I do it," said Gerstmann via e-mail. "If there was content that I felt I couldn’t support, it wouldn’t see the light of day."While nimbly sidestepping details directly concerning his departure from GameSpot, Gerstmann did move to quash rumours suggesting that he did not play through Kane & Lynch before penning his somewhat acid review. "For the record, I saw both endings in Kane & Lynch before writing about it," he insisted, while also adding that, "A reviewer’s Xbox Live Gamercard is rarely a good place to look for answers about how much that reviewer has (or hasn’t) played a game."In summing up his future from this point, Gerstmann outlined that he believes current chatter labelling videogame writing as "ethically bankrupt" simply holds no water and that he is "in contact with interesting people" while also keeping his "options open," regarding where to go from here.Meanwhile, the Internet is buzzing anew concerning Kane & Lynch: Dead Men, with supposed endorsements for the game being called into question by popular game blog Kotaku. Citing glowing feedback taken from the game’s official Web site, Kotaku highlights "fabricated" five-star quotes taken from respected review portals Game Informer and GameSpy. However, after a perusal of the reviews for Kane & Lynch, no such quotes are in evidence, and the official review scores offered up by Game Informer and GameSpy are not five stars but three-and-a-half stars (7/10) and three stars (6/10)… while the accompanying quotes are anything but glowing.Check out the video review that caused all the ruckus, by clicking below.

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ProtoInvaderDec 4th, 2007 - 15:41:30

I would just like to point out that the evidence of eidos having a dirty hand in this is overwhelming. The thing that annoys me most about this is that it shows the kind of reveiws we are getting. They aren't true reviews they are just reviews based on how much money you have. I can think of another game offhand that I have recently played that was HUGELY dissapointing. Assassins Creed, I only wish someone like Gertsmann would have spoke up about that game.

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Eidos HaterDec 4th, 2007 - 21:52:30

Ahhh.... shut up, your games suck anyway. Even if he made a great review about your game, it would still be up to the community of gamers that determine if the game is great and before gertsman even made that review, there were already poor ratings from gamers already.

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Gerstmann speaks and Eidos is accused of fabricating Kane & Lynch endorsements

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