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Atari goes on the offensive to protect Alone In The Dark legacy photo

Word on the net has it that a few reviews of Alone In The Dark are based on illegally obtained code for the game, and Atari is none too happy about it. They're so displeased, in fact, that their lawyers went on the offensive -- causing at least one Scandinavian site (as reported by Kotaku) to temporarily pull its lowball score within minutes of its debut on the Internet.

Fast-forward to the present, and German gaming site 4players comes forward with a similar story of being under Atari's glare, and accused of reviewing a (supposedly) illegally obtained copy of the game. In other words, Atari didn't send them a review copy personally, yet they were able to post a review on it. Sound suspicious? Maybe not, as the site claims that they simply walked into a local store and obtained their copy the old-fashioned way -- by purchasing it.

The common theme among all involved seems to be scores that are less than flattering. The million-dollar question remains: Is Atari doing the right thing in their attempt to preempt negative publicity surrounding reviews of unpolished versions of the game, or is something sinister going on here? Atari isn't exactly in the strongest of financial positions, and we're sure they were counting on Alone In The Dark to provide some much-needed relief. As of now, scores for the game are hovering around the 70th percentile, so there's still time to recover. As someone who's been looking forward to playing this game since its inception, I hope those scores are indeed flaky. Who do you believe?

[Via Next-Gen and Kotaku -- Thanks, Jonathan]


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23 comments | showing # 1 to 23

bluexy's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 17:01
bluexy
You have to consider that if they really thought their game was great, they wouldn't need to try and get rid of these bad reviews.

Seems to me they want the gaming press to shut the hell up until they can make their profit off of unsuspecting buyers at launch. Chill out Atari, let the game speak for itself!
Brahms's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 17:58
Brahms
Bluexy hit the nail on the head. As pretty as those trailers were, I think we're looking at a flawed gem at the very best.
DaedHead8's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 18:39
DaedHead8
Yeah, I blame Atari too. I'll still be looking into this game as I still have high hopes for it.
Dexter345's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 18:49
Dexter345
The scores that have them near 70% (which, by the way, should mean it's above average, right?) are from pretty reputable sources. I'd trust those as much as any other review, but I won't necessarily blame illegal copies for a low score. Perhaps those reviewers just didn't like it?
brainderailment's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 18:57
brainderailment
I hope it is good, but I'm not naive enough to think Atari don't want to avoid scorn before the game launches.
WhiteX's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 18:57
WhiteX
most are 4 out of ten, so, no 70%.

they are trrying to prevent the game from tsnking in the US after bad reviews appear in europe.
ian_esq's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 19:03
ian_esq
I knew this game would be shit
Rigor Mortis's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 19:06
Rigor Mortis
Reviews are useless as often as not, I'm still interested in the game. Besides, any reviewers who are using illegal copies to scoop the competition are obviously just looking for page hits, which leads me to question the integrity of the review itself.

And in what bizzaro-world should 70% be a terrible sales-killing score? I buy games based on my taste first, and other people's numbers last.
David Boring's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 19:06
David Boring
well, there is a prestory. it seems that 4players trashed aitd from very early previews on. i think both sides wre a bit bitchy since then.
anyways i really dont like the way how 4players present themself in this dispute. they stylise themself as the only keeper of the freedom of speech with sentences like "hello? where do we live, in china ? or even iran ?".
fact is, they broke an embargo on online-coverage of the game, by 3 days (the embargo was then lifted for others sites). these embargos are there for a reason and are a common thing in journalism.
big filth's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 19:07
big filth
what a shame that this games seems to suck so bad. I was kinda looking forward to it.

I was hoping it would be at least as good as Condemned 2. I guess not?

I will rent it for sure.

cant be as bad as the incredible hulk game.
The Amazing Shenazin's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 19:34
The Amazing Shenazin
aw man, don't tell me this game disappoints? :(
Sharpless's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 19:47
Sharpless
Well, if Professor Pew's review is any indication, "70" is being extremely generous.
Zlimness's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 19:58
Zlimness
The game looks like shit. No surprise about the scores.

Too Human looks equally mediocre and will get the same scores. You heard it here first! woooo
foxhound009's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 20:29
foxhound009
I've read those articles (2 of them)
what I see is some really frustrated reviewers about the controlls some say it reminds one controlls from
resident evil 1,2 and 3 as opposed to 4
the 1/3'rd of the article is about bad controlls and glitches.

Since I like the controlls of re 1,2 an 3 :)
and I own reasonably good pc
those above won't mather as much...
I'll just wait for the patch..
and make some macro's on my logitech g15 :)

I think I'll buy it....
the only thing that I care about here
is that it can bring some tension building terryfying experience as you expect from an survival horror game..
I'm hoping for some Alone in the dark :)
foxhound009's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 20:31
foxhound009
Just read the reviews you'll see that the xbox36o controll of this game will make you give this game an low low score :P
hmmm good old pc...

read the reviews!
cybereality's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 21:03
cybereality
I think the game looks cool, especially the interactive environments. Even if the game sucks, its probably still gonna be fun setting stuff on fire. That never gets old!
Volomon's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 21:08
Volomon
I'm confused I thought it wasn't out yet. I don't see what we can get from really really early reviews either.
Milkman519's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 21:56
Milkman519
Is Alone In the Dark out earlier in Europe because I know in the U.S. it's not released for a couple more days.
Professor Pew's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 22:01
Professor Pew
This game is a true abomination of next-gen gaming. Setting stuff on fire does get old and the controls do indeed suck. It sounds like RE if you describe it, but it's really not. If you're gonna try it, please wait a little or rent it first.. It might control better on the PC though, but that doesn't fix a terrible camera (unless it's free in the PC one), TERRIBLE driving and most of all a lack of any suspense or fear.

4Players are idiots for publicly using a pirated copy on their site that has ads and everything. Atari are idiots for trying to contain it in this way, since people will only take a sharper look at reviews and game community feedback than they might have done before. I hear Atari even tried to cover it up by saying that the leaked copy was unfinished code, which is... unlikely.

The game does look cool in the vids and the ideas are nice. Too bad they weren't implemented and the game feels as finished as Halo 9. I can't believe that sites give this a 7 or even an 8.2 in german mags. They really do seem to use a 7-10 scale. More than anything, I really really want to see Rev Anthony's take on this game :)
Catmurderer's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/20/2008 23:01
Catmurderer
Apparentartly Atari ran out of ideas in the middle of the game and ***SPOILERS***













They decided to give the main character psychic powers... ok... but in order to do this you have to >>>grind<<< killing evil trees in order to be able to use the powers. The review I read said this would take an hour or more of straight grinding. So, that kinda kills the game... (probably more flaws but that one seems to be the biggest one I've read)
mistic's Avatar - Comment posted on 06/21/2008 00:16
mistic
Well if they are actually reviewing illegal copies, I think Atari is justified in forcing them to remove it from their site, however, if they actually bought the game, its a whole other deal...

Makes you wonder what Atari would've done if they would've given it a 9/10...
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