Uh... yes, we do care about the .5, otherwise it wouldn't be news, right? Uh, anyways, I say we call shenanigans!

That picture is made of paranoia and win. But mostly win.

Poppycock. It's the Anti-Gerstmann-bot (from Mattel!) going for a test run.

Glad to hear the check cleare... I mean they caught the bug. And Comic Book Guy's cat does not look pleased.

When it comes to Gamespot, that particular .5 difference is a pretty big deal. A ton of games have received 9.5's in the past few years, but there hasn't been a 10 since like 2001 or so.

Wait, are we back to caring about what GameSpot scores their reviews again? I thought after the whole Kane and Lynch thing...you know. I must not have gotten that memo.

meh doesn't matter either way since Gamespot is dead to me

Gamespot: Who needs journalistic integrity when you've got money?

Nit-picking? Although Rockstar Games are big enough douchebags, and Gamespot are big enough sycophants that it's more likely than you think.

Gamespot already had lost it's reputation as a good review site. They used to be good but they've been going down in quality for a long while now.

Luke still has some of that venom left over. LOL... I see what you did at the end there ;)

I vowed never to visit that site again, unless I really have to for like an exclusive

i can has gabe newells tin foil hat?

@QualityJeverage: Yes, but they didn't have a bandwagon to jump on and having game makers shovel their offices full of 100 dollar bills, either. I bet those GS guys are still swimming in all that Kane & Lynch money.

If you get a 9.0 from Gamespot you've made a damn good game (or paid a hell of a lot of advertising money...), so the difference between 9.5 and 10 is more symbolic than anything. An extra pat on the back. They're stingy with the 10s, but I'm glad to see that they're willing to dole them out occasionally when the situation warrants.

Whatever, the game would have had to be absolute shit to get anything less than a 8 from anywhere anyways.

@AqueousBeef: Ditto to that, minus the "if I really have to part".

@Lixie: I'm with you. Gamespot should be ignored until it goes away, after the Gerstmann fiasco.

Gamespot: Integrity? no thanks, I already had some...

I just got GTA4, it's running perfectly fine on my PS3 (60gb, nonetheless).

@ubiquitous: When the situation warrants? Yeah, I guess if Take-Two shoveled a few EXTRA million, on top of the money paid for a "positive toned" review, it does warrant a 10.

I don't visit GameSpot often, for obvious reasons, but wasn't there GTA IV ads? Ironic, the "bug" happened specifically to a game being advertised, eh?

"The more important question should be: how much do you really care about .5 of a GameSpot score?"

And an even more important question: who the fuck cares about GameSpot anyway? They are hands down the worst review site. There could be a site called wehatenintendo.com (probably is) and I would trust their score to be more representative of a Nintendo game's quality than GameSpot's. I seriously hate that site. And the layout is shit (I think, I haven't been there for about a year). Honestly, who still goes to that site. I mean, I know that big review sites are probably not the best sources for reliable reviews, due to the huge amounts of advertising money being thrown around, but at least IGN and 1up try too seem like they have some integrity.

OMFG IT DINT RECEIVE PREFETC SC0R3!!!?!?LOLZ
....Seriously, people, .5?!!?
Does the gaming media/populace NEED to see Rockstar make even more money than usual?

Haha, I don't visit to Gamespot for a good reason. A bug? I wonder how many other scores on their site will be increased because of this "$bug$"?

@Grimmjow Jeagerjaques: Good for you...

Back on topic....
This is an outrage, with the whole bouquet of 10s in my flower pot of GTA prowess. There's that one 9.5. It looks like this first dieing flower, the one that's going to rot at the stem and poison the water bringing the rest of the flowers closer to their demise. This fix changes nothing... nothing...

I could give a shit less about a .5 difference. What I do sort of give a shit (maybe two shits) about is nearly every AAA game that's released lately receiving average scores of 9.5 - 9.8. The number of critics saying GTAIV is a 10 is insane. The game has a good number of bugs and quite a bit of room still left for improvement in how it controls, etc. A 9 I'd buy. The game is growing on me the deeper into it I get, but I'd have trouble giving it higher than an 8 -- but that's personal preference. I'm not trying to pick on GTA, here. All the 10s for Smash Bros. Brawl? Ridiculous. For Halo 3? Outrageous. Mario Galaxy? Give me a break. They were all good games (well, in hindsight maybe not Brawl), but perfect? I sometimes wonder if game critics wind up reviewing the hype more than the game. A lot of AAA games that received very high ratings 4 or 5 years ago are considered critical and/or commercial flops now (Super Mario Sunshine immediately comes to mind). Like I said to a friend on Xbox 360 while we were both playing GTAIV: "Gamers should pop a Valium, calm down and get a little perspective before giving a title a perfect 10." Imagine if this many blockbuster movies received this many 10s. Critics would lose their position as purveyors of taste as they'd be victims of hype rather than reviewers of the end product. I fear that's what's happening to game critics. As recently as the RE4 days I would pick up a game just because of glowing reviews. Now I hardly bat an eye when I read these, "Best game since Ocarina of Time" comments. The number of, "Best games since Ocarina of Time" we've had since Ocarina of Time is staggering and more than a little embarrassing. What happened to most of those games? Why don't critics refer back to them rather than Ocarina? Because they didn't stand the test of time and once the hype died down the game faded away. I think this is in large part due to this still being such a young industry. Film critics go to film and journalism school. They learn the art of critiquing something and how to separate PR spin and hype from the latest popcorn movie. Some game critics have studied journalism but how many also studied game development, design, etc.? How many fully understand both journalism and what goes into making a classic video game? How many studied neither journalism or game development? I think it's a situation of fanboys who are paid to sing a game's praises using their "10 out of 10s" to sell the games to the fanboys who sing a game's praises for free. It's not the end of the world, but I really wish there'd be more professionalism in the way of video game journalism. Of course this negativity doesn't so much apply to Kotaku as it is a blog and as a blog it is an entirely different entity from your IGN or GameSpot. At least in theory. In actuality Kotaku is the one place where I still give credence to much of what is said as Crecente has put together one hell of a writing team that really does know its stuff. And no I'm not just saying that to get a star.

The game is AWESOME. but no perfect 10.

I would give it a 9.5 honestly, its not perfect. it is great though.

Anyone else having fun with the dissapearing stories and comments?

It's like I've traveled back in time AND I'm the last man on earth.

It's just funny that this has become such a big deal. Seems like Gamespot is just using this "controversy" to give themselves publicity.

@Smex: So what if a game is advertised on a gaming site? Movies are advertised in review sections of newspapers all the time. This is nothing new. Don't try to make it seem like there's a conflict of interest here. It's simply the wide world of advertising.

There's too much concentration on game reviews and scores. Play a game and see if you like it but not based on what someone else says.

@Smex: Hahaha, true. They did have full site integrated advertising, but that doesn't make them any more sleezy than IGN. But still, it's a damn good game, and if editors feel like giving it 10s, then fine. My trust of Gamespot reviews of high profile games is sanguine at best, but I still find that they review most games fairly, and my taste in JRPGs almost always lines up with theirs. Emphasis on my taste, though. All the game sites are tainted by advertising money, and if you're going to condemn one you may as well go after them all. Gamespot just went about it with a much more flagrant degree of stupidity.

Who still looks at GS for scores. Seriously after all that shit that has happened i don't even touch that site. Not that i did to begin with but blah...

I thought Gamespot were a bunch of shysters BEFORE the whole Gerstmann uproar, so this doesn't really change my opinion of them.

This reeks of sculpted manure. A "bug" gave GTA a 9.5? To me neither the .5 nor the rating score matter. But since so many outlets have given the game a perfect 10, the 9.5 tends to stick out (in a losing possible advertising dollars on your website way). In light of Gamespot's recent questionable journalistic integrity incidents, this "bug" to me stands out as highly suspect. This is why I call bullshit.

@Sloopydrew: I have to agree. (But use the Tab key, man! :p)

This isn't a 10 game. I'm loving the hell out of it so far, but it isn't perfect. I will say it's the best game I've played in years, definitely the best GTA yet, and easily the most technically impressive game this generation.

BUT... it's hard to turn a blind eye to some rather vicious pop-in at times, uneven difficulty (a staple of GTA), weird car suspension, and glitches a-plenty. Very small flies in the ointment, though. I think a 9.0-9.5 is what I'd give it.

Oh no! People are debating the 10 score again! That .5 difference get's 'em every tiem.

oh fucking PFFFT

It was an oopsee. Someone hit the wrong fucking button, said "oh shit" and then hit the right button.

Nothing to see here, move along.

Okay, if Halo3 was a 9.5, this is a 10.5. I mean, imho of course. Best game I've played (and watched) in many years, hands down.

I just watched an ad for GTA IV during The Daily Show and at the end it said:

Exclusive episodes coming to Xbox Live starting Fall 2008.

Kotaku's Comment Erasure Down To A "Bug"

and did you mean "due"?

Wait, bug? What kind of bug? Employee bug or technically intentional bug?

I'm not sure what kind of "bug" in a content management system can change a 10 to a 9.5.

0.5 difference in a score is not a big deal in relative terms, but it is a big deal when it's the difference between a really good game (and .2 lower than the highest GTA has ever scored there, IIRC) and a "perfect" game. I know, they say 10 is not "perfect" - what the hell else is it supposed to mean? If you give a game a 10, you're saying "this game is as good as it could possibly be." You're saying it couldn't be any better. That sounds like "perfect" to me.

Anyone remember this? [kotaku.com]

If anybody thinks Rockstar doesn't pressure reviewers on scores, read that, and the article it links to.

Gamespot caved. IGN caved as soon as they got their "exclusive" interview, for which they no doubt guaranteed a top score. Gamespot obviously has some other weak point, but they caved nonetheless.

I don't care about twenty 0.5's of any possibly Gamespot score.

@Sloopydrew:
So what if it had bugs. Oblivion has over 10000 bugs (that might not even be an exageration), but it still rocks. And Brawl kicks ass.

10 out of 10 get over it

@Arsenal:

Funnier yet is that they call it a bug but go on to say it wasn't a bug at all. They claim it was what the critic gave the game but AFTER talking with the editors -- who thought it sounded more like he really gave the game a 10 -- he agreed to change the rating from a 9.5 to a 10. Go read the article if you haven't. It's hysterical. Only Gamespot could try and get away with calling changing your mind/rating while under pressure from editors a "bug."

@ShaggE:

Sorry about that. I was initially typing a two or three sentence comment that sort of ... grew.

From [www.the-magicbox.com] :
"- Rockstar Games reported that both Xbox 360 and PS3 version of Grand Theft Auto IV may crash. For PS3 crashes primarily on the early 60GB model; for Xbox 360 crashes occur on all the models."

It's like Assasin's Creed all over again...

-10 credibility. GameSpot is going pretty far into the negatives.

Really, why would any reviewer give ANY game a ten. GTA4 is totally incredible, but it still has some faults. Hence, if the game has any flaws at all, by definition it can't be a 10 out of 10.

I mean, give it a 98%, but all the perfect scores result from imperfect scoring systems.

Maybe the "bug" was that they had to actually change their entire scoring system from a 9.5 scale to 10 scale

It's not that gamespot sells out any more than the other "professional" game review sites, it's that they're comically inept in concealing it.

I don't understand why they don't change the 10/10 for THPS3. That was such a joke review I can't take Gamespot seriously anymore.

9.5 sounds pretty reasonable, but a perfect 10 should be reserved for only the best gaming has to offer. what happens when gta5 comes out? is gamespot going to give it 11/10?

@peAr_nectAr: @ubiquitous: Oh, I know a site is entitled to run ads on whatever they want. I was just referencing the fact that the last time there was a review score issue, Kane and Lynch, it was the advertising getting in the way of an honest review score.

Honestly, I don't think this is a "scandal" of any sort. My "anti-Gamespot" sentiments were vented in my last post. They wouldn't risk a bachlash for the sake of .5 points, I think. Rockstar and Take-Two can't complain about a 9.5 score. That said, it was ironic that it happened, but I think conspiracy theories are a bit of an overreaction.

@TinyLightning: 10 doesn't mean perfect. For reference, see every grading rubric ever devised by man.

@Sloopydrew: Just read it buddy, comedy GOLD. This sort of error never happened in how ever long the site's been around (but just their luck) it happens for the biggest game release ever. I must say though, that was one theatrical explanation of how the "bug" happened.

Multiplayer is really pissing me off. It's basically impossible to get a party working in any mode besides deathmatch. Other modes randomly will work, but 90% of the time the host gets booted, or the players or whatever. COD4 had the same issues. Patch for the Win!!!

By the way, the whole "Rawr! Let's put a site out a business because a couple corporate idiots offended by delicate sensibilities! Rage against the internet!" thing a really adorable. What better way to avenge a fired employee than to collapse the site, therefore causing the dismissal of the rest of them? None, that's what.