The
Video Game OmbudsmanPeople on GameFAQs have recently been noticing that PSP Reader Reviews with any hint of negativity in them have been getting deleted, and people have been speculating on a CNET/Sony GameFAQs-takeover conspiricy.
A guy named Chris Buzan decided to test things, and wrote this deliberately "good but negative" review of the PSP.
Quote
Dubbed many things by the media, including a portable PS2 and the iPod of gaming, Sony set expectations very high. Did they deliver? Well that depends on how much you like Spider-Man 2 and Sony’s backlog of first part games I guess. No Ratchet and Clanks or God of War’s here, although a port of Gran Turismo 4 is on the way. No, instead they opted to go ahead with some of their older standbys such as Wipeout, Twisted Metal, and the 989 sports line (Which I‘ve never played personally, but I‘ve also never heard anything good about these games). While these games are still good, they hardly represent the best Sony has to offer in my eyes. If you’re already a diehard fan of these games though, then this is a definite must-have. Third parties once again make up the majority of noteworthy titles for a Sony system, with titles such as Ridge Racer and Metal Gear Acid, although I don’t have any interest in either. Personally, I bought my unit because of all the hype around Lumines, which I can attest to being a very good game, although lacking much “Meat”, as in value beyond trying to improve your high score and a small puzzle mode in which you build objects out of the blocks.
The screen is big and beautiful, but the system design is highly overrated and smudges at even the lightest touch. Unbelievably, I actually have a dead pixel on my screen. It’s in the upper-right corner and it doesn’t get in the way during gameplay, but when I was watching Spidey 2 it became pretty distracting. And correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t this thing basically look like a GBA? Anyway, video playback is rock solid, as I’m sure you’ve been told numerous times already (But yeah, right now SM2 is the only movie available). MP3 playback is good too, but this thing will hardly compete with the iPod. The storage medium is Sony’s expensive memory sticks which range between 32MB to 4GB (The upcoming Memory Stick PRO). Compare that to the 20GB and 40GB versions of iPod and you’ll see my point. One can store a few songs while the other can store an entire collection. Sure, PSP can do other things, but aside from gaming there are simply better stand-alone devices out there. Yes, it does many things, but it’s a jack of all trades, and master of none. There was one pleasant surprise though, and that was the battery life, which so far hasn’t been an issue at all for me.
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Launch Lineup- 6/10- It has it’s rudimentary “killer-app” (Although it‘s no Halo as in being a true must-have in my opinion) and a few other noteworthy titles, although I wouldn’t recommend any of them myself.
Future Lineup- 3/10- Pretty slim pickings for the rest of the year. Sony made the launch very top heavy, leaving very few interesting games to be launched later in 2005. When Hot Shots Golf is the bright spot on a release calendar, you know you have problems. GTA might turn my opinion around, but currently nothing is known about it.
Battery Life- ?/10- As mentioned earlier, it hasn’t been an issue.
MP3 Playback- 5/10- It gets the job done, but the memory sticks are an unattractive medium for me, and it doesn’t curb my desire for an iPod any.
Movie Playback- 8/10- Good quality (Aside from distracting dead pixels which appear on some units), but the selection of movies right now is lacking if I do say so myself. If you’re playing your own stuff then you’ll be A-OK though.
Aesthetics- 4/10- I’ll probably be lynched for this, but I really don’t like the way this thing looks. The screen is big, but I’d say that it might.
Value- 4/10- $250 for a handheld (Even with extras) and $40-$50 for games seems ridiculous to me. If you’re looking into buying a PSP, I strongly recommend holding out for a non-Value Pack option unless you have a lot of disposable income.
Overall- 5/10- It has some decent media functions, but the outlook on games is less than stellar. Coupled with a crippling price point and load times, and you have a somewhat disappointing system on your hands.
Note that this is actually the second version of this review. There were two that were deleted. The first version contained some comments like "You'd basically be paying 300 dollars to play a puzzle game" which were rejected by GameFAQs as being false (since the PSP is $250, not $300, even though Chris was including the price of Lumines), so he rewrote/deleted some things to make it more favorable to them, and it was still deleted.
This Video Game Ombudsman site was
contacted by someone claiming to have been the one who deleted the review, who offered a bunch of nonsensical reasons for it's deletion. "The review contains blatantly false information, and is on the verge of being a joke review, obviously making it at a minimum a troll review." "Now, while the PSP is an Mp3 player, it isn't comparable to the iPod. Just like comparing the Ps2 or Xbox to a Toshiba or Panasonic DVD player is taboo, applying the same to the PSP via the iPod is forbidden in the same degree." "As a small side note, the mention of slim pickings for movies available is laughable at best. Did people blame the Ps2 when DVDs were a new breed of entertainment? No, they blame the movie studios and DVD release corporations."
Then
CJayC, the founder/admin of GameFAQs, wrote in to the Video Game Ombudsman, saying that he doesn't know who that other person was (perhaps one of the people who complained about it), but they have no authority and aren't the ones who pulled the Reader Review, as only CJayC and one other guy can do that.
He explained that the reason it seems that negative PSP reviews keep getting deleted is because GameFAQs doesn't read every review, they just respond to complaints. And the PSP fanboy crowd on GameFAQs has been whining the loudest.
He said nothing about what merited this review's deletion (aside from the presence of complaints), but he did say that he deletes reviews like this that "bash" the PSP all the time, and that people are making too big of a deal about it.
Topic: GameFAQs deleting "negative" PSP Reader Reviews (Read 18628 times)
