As much as I hate to continue fanning the flames of the inFAMOUS vs. [Prototype]/backlash of Destructoid's review of inFAMOUS situation, I do want to say something as a member of the community.

As the above blog title says, Nobody Should Be Surprised. Let me elaborate.

1) Nobody Should Be Surprised... that inFAMOUS and [Prototype] are facing such comparisons in reviews and in forums. As much as people on each side can argue that the games are not the same because of moral choices or design intentions, so on and so forth, these two games have been released within a month of one another and posit very similar concepts: taking control of somebody who was an average person and then receive powers as the result of a singular cataclysmic event. It's not just the sandbox-style similarity of the games, or else you'd be getting more invitations to Red Faction Guerilla as the third partner for this ménage-à-trois. The basic story concepts are the same, at the most base level, and as long as there are people who are with it enough to notice, there will be comparisons from the most in-depth all the way down the line. It's a bit foolish to suggest that the comparison not be made at this stage.

2) Nobody Should Be Surprised... that Destructoid gave inFAMOUS one of the lowest scores the game has received since its release. Destructoid has a reputation for taking big-name games into the review room and taking them down a couple pegs based on their honest experiences with the titles. This is part of what I love about Destructoid and the community versus other big-name game sites on the 'net. Some might call it a bid for "indie cred" on the part of the editors here, but I trust this site far more than most.

Personally, I purchased inFAMOUS on the first day and have loved every moment I've had playing it. It's one of the first games I've completed all the way through in a while (for all manner of reasons) and it's the first sandbox game to have collectibles (in the form of Blast Shards) that I actually took the time to collect all of. I've finished a "Good" playthrough on "Hard" and have since begun an "Evil" playthrough.

But I can respect the opinions of the three reviews tasked with reviewing the game, especially considering they had to know what they were getting into.

That being said, however...

3) Nobody Should Be Surprised... by the backlash in the Destructoid community in the wake of the review being posted. Especially since one of the persons tasked to review the game (Jim Sterling) posted a "feature" the day before going through ten tongue-in-cheek reasons why [Prototype] was better than inFAMOUS.

It is this series of events that truly prompted me to write anything on the matter. Everyone has known for a while that inFAMOUS and [Prototype] were similar games coming out in a similar release window and people have chosen their sides in advance based on console preference, story preference, design preference, whatever. As anyone with any knowledge of an internet community can appreciate, this means that people will fight and argue and flame anyone going against their side.

With this basic knowledge, it seemed more than a little inflammatory for the "feature" from Jim Sterling to be posted in the first place. It seems to be a decision based in drumming up hits because it was tailor-made to get both inFAMOUS and [Prototype] fanboys alike to read it and leave comments and tell their friends and just generally create a cluster. As evidenced by the huge comment response, this turned an already-volatile situation into a true calamity.

I'm not trying to say that we need to oulaw humor if it's going to offend people, because on the internet 9 out of 10 things offend somebody and I'm not a fan of censorship just because. However, there is a responsible way to do things when you could potentially inflame a situation further, and it doesn't seem like that was exercised in this case.

With the review being posted the very next day, the calamity exploded out of control. Now, instead of just a meant-for-humor sarcasm piece on the debate, there was a full review with a score and with reviewer comments to pore through.

This is why every other community blog post (it would seem) is weighing in on this issue. Would there be such a backlash without the "feature" story coming out before the review? Possibly; okay, probably. The internet is what it is. But the existence of the "feature" certainly didn't help anything, and I can imagine that many people in the community at the moment are more than a little upset at this giant diversion from other things they are interested in; perhaps so much so that they're willing to leave Destructoid for whatever amount of time is necessary for the situation to resolve itself.

Which, should the [Prototype] review make an appearance anytime soon (and contain any more flamebait for the argument), likely won't be anytime in the near future.

A quick round-up of my points:

1) I respect the Destructoid review teams and the difficulty of their work, especially when concerning highly-charged properties in the fandom.

2) While I disagree with certain points of the Destructoid review of inFAMOUS based on my own experience with the game, I respect the review as the opinions of other gamers.

3) I would suggest that the Destructoid community be aware of such circumstances and encourage their editorial crew to avoid creating circumstances that explode beyond anybody's control if possible.

4) I actually did purchase [Prototype] for the PS3 today and have put around an hour and a half into the game, so I can't make any sort of comparison between the two yet (and such a point would be detrimental to my writing here anyway).

Just some thoughts from a proud member of the community.

Edit: It would seem as though the inFAMOUS review has temporarily been taken down; it is no longer accessible from the front page or the list of reviews. Sorting reviews by PS3 does, however, bring up a link to the video review in the sidebar. Looks like this whole mess is far from over yet; hopefully the initial review has been saved in the meantime.