Why The Sun's epic fail Max Payne 3.5 score is bad for business

The Sun's Max Payne 3 review score was apparently a "mistake" no harm done then, or is there?

[NYC_Gamer]

Reviews are nothing but someones opinion anyway...i have disliked plenty of high rated games before and enjoyed low scored ones...

[bunt-custardly]

The Sun, as a supposed professional publication should know better. Although mistakes do happen, and yet once the print has been distributed there isn't any going back unless they print something in another edition.

[MrDead]

The Sun hasn't reviewed the game yet

This is from the Sun website

"Clarification: In the paper this morning, you will've noticed that we gave Max Payne a score of '3.5' - or 70% as it'd be online. We'd like to clarify that this was a mistake, and that we have NOT reviewed nor marked the game yet, and won't do so until May 18th, its release."

Also the Sun is not a professional publication. It be News Corp slime oozed from the teat of the evil Murdoch

[Winter47th]

Still, reviews might be some individual's opinion, but that's not what the masses understand. Review scores can hurt a game even if minimally, that's just a simple fact. they're not just some guy's opinion, but they're influential and effective.

[Eamon]

The Sun... a professional publication?

ROFLMAO.

The Sun is probably the shittiest newspaper in the UK and it's a subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corp.

It's known to never check their sources and have outrageous headlines and journalists with the literacy skills of a GCSE student.

To take anything The Sun reports with a grain of salt is giving them more credit than they deserve. The newspaper is worth less than toilet paper.

[MrDead]

@Eamon

It’s funny how the Sun can ignore the most things said in the Leveson inquiry one of the biggest stories in the country because the Murdoch's are being shown as either incompetent or liars

[abc1233]

@Eamon: I utterly disagree with you...saying that they have the literacy skills of a GCSE student is severely overestimating them.

[jony_dols]

The Sun & the words 'professional publication' does not compute.

[SnakeCQC]

lol the sun is far from professionally about anything its a generic sensational tabloid

[Eamon]

@ MrDead. lol yeah, if anything major is revealed in the Leveson inquiry, it's probably get a nice small space in the corner of a small font column somewhere in the pages of the Sun where its readers run out of steam and lose interest - probably page 6 or something.

@ abc1233, ROFLMAO. Bubbles for the humour. I apologise for overstating their intelligence.

[Kopite_2020]

A professional publication!!!! That's a fuckin laugh

[dredgewalker]

I doubt it would affect the sales of the game. Do people who love to play games still read the newspaper? It's the digital age and I get my news on the internet. And if you're a gamer you'd go online or buy a gaming mag for your game reviews.

[gatormatt80]

This is totally off topic.. Sorry guys I just wanted to say R.I.P. to Adam "MCA" Yauch. You will be missed!!

On topic.. This supposed "mistake" or even if it is going to be their actual review score means absolutely nothing to me. There are only a few publications that I really trust, and I usually look at multiple reviews of a game I'm not truly sold on yet.

[MrMister]

Who was he?

[smoothdude]

Adam was part of the beastie boys.

[bacrec1]

Kane and Lynch 2

[Gamer1982]

@NYC_Gamer well said! I love dynasty warriors games but a lot of people really dislike them. They always get scores like 6-7/10 and sell under 1 million with each game but it doesn't stop me buying each one with every release. There is also the flip side all reviewers loved GTA IV and I thought it was the biggest pile of crap I have ever played yet I LOVE saints row 2 and 3. Its all about opinions and what we love. The key to sales is hitting the opinions of the most people.

[mcstorm]

Nyc_gamer i have to agree with you here. I buy games because i want them not because they score 10 out of 10.

Im still unsure on this game though. I really enjoyed the 1st 2 but im not a fan of any of the rock* games. Ive never liked gta could not get into rdr or la noire and i think this looks like it is going down the same lines. I hope its not but i think ill give the demo ago before buying the game.

[kevnb]

who cares? Reviews dont have nearly as much wait as people around here seem to think they do.

[Baka-akaB]

Indeed , if review were that important these days , crap like Enslaved would be selling millions , kinect star wars would fail , and the Witcher would start at 800k on 360 .

Most people from the general public , only check if a sequel is considered better or inferior to the previous game .

[WrAiTh Sp3cTr3]

Enslaved...crap? I now look at you as a light bulb that doesn't work, lmao.

[Baka-akaB]

Well if you knew me , you'd be thinking that eons ago . So yeah again i find Enslaved mediocre , like actually quite a few people around .

[TheBioLover]

Enslaved wasn't crap.

[dredgewalker]

Enslaved was boring for me. It wasn't really crap but I simply did not enjoy it. So I agree with Baka that it was mediocre at best.

[cjflora]

Enslaved was mediocre. It wasn't bad, which apparently everyone assumes when you don't say something is great. It's not a bad game, just not that good of a game. Good story and interesting setting but the graphics and gameplay were lacking.

[Cajun Chicken]

But, what happens if it actually isn't any good? After all the nearest game this gen to MP3 has been Stranglehold and that got slated despite being fantastic.

[kevnb]

Stranglehold was pretty bad actually.

[Hellsvacancy]

If you go to The Sun newspaper for serious reviews (or anything for that matter) you should shoot yourself!

[abc1233]

Well there is a certain page number which is interesting ;)

[ritsuka666]

I don't know but probably this game will disappoint a lot of people.. i bet just my 2 cents.

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Every game seems to disappoint people these days.

[mttrackmaster38]

Yep. Pleasing gamers nowadays is a monumental task. Someone will always find something to complain about.

[admiralvic]

While this is true, they're not always outlandish or stupid problems. Thus it could lead to bigger/better games down the road. That is at least the ideal situation.

[nik666uk]

Tabloid newspaper doesn't print the truth shock horror!!!

[ThatEnglishDude]

This is The Sun we're talking about here. The Sun. Enough said.

[SilentNegotiator]

The youth doesn't even read newspapers, so no one cares. They could give Max Payne 3 a 'banana out of five' and no one would even know unless it appeared online.

[PirateThom]

The Sun is pretty popular with the youth, all the tabloids are.

[Eamon]

A certain 'Page 3' is probably what attracts a large number of its readers.

[pandaboy]

popular with the working class i.e. scumbags

[jakethesnake]

From the Sun "We didn't actually rate the game a 3.5 because we haven't reviewed it yet. But we did hear that it was a 3.5 from some hacked voicemails we accessed."

[Eamon]

I see what you did there.

+1 Bubble.

[tigertron]

The Sun has got to be one of the worst tabloids ever.

Just a giant turd from Rupert Murdoch. The only good thing about it is page 3.

[bunt-custardly]

Yeh we (us being here on a gaming website) all know the Sun is drivel and its reviews wouldn't sway any real gamers, but the Sun's readers obviously enjoy it hence why it's one of the most popular tabloids in the UK.

[Series_IIa]

I notice The Sun were quiet about the elections today...

All of that Tory arse licking has got them with egg on their chins.

[Lord_Sloth]

So they should just lie about their opinions like Gamespot wanted to with Kane and Linch? If they didn't like the game, that's their business. The Sun has more issues to worry about other than giving a game a low score which a 3.5/5 isn't.

You must be that guy that complained that a 9/10 was too low for ME3.

[Raider69]

+1 too you!Since when is a 3.5/5 a bad score?!The problem with most youth gamers this days is that a game must have 4.5/5 or a 9/10 to get the buy seal even if the game turn to be average in every way.Most of this young generation of reviewrs and there publications are all sold out to greedy companys like EA,R*,ACT....what they want is the pay check.3.5/5 its a great score!

[portugamer]

Lord,
If only ign and gamespot could do the same error, with cod games, 1 month before release:
'Ohhh, sorry, dear readers, that 1.5/10 for Call of duty X game was a big mistake.we are sorry, we didn't review or mark the game yet, so don't focus on that score please, specialy because Activision told us they are still on alpha testing, and still have 150 major bugs to solve,however, they admitted they would still release it the day they announced, as they promised their shareholders would have 1 billion$ , 3 weeks after they release the game'

[madcow60]

Well said, bubble to you. Best comment of the week,lol.

If only that could happen.unfortunately, 1 year before the game is out, reviews are already copy/pasted, with 10/10 scores, ready to be published.

[honkyjesus]

No review outlet is allowed to give Rockstar games bad scores.

[chukamachine]

Strangely enough THE SUN did me out of 5k.

I won the lottery when they were doing it a few years back, had 5numbers and bonus. Rang up and they said it was past the allotted time. I'd bought the paper coming out of work, and looked at it later on. Rang them to say i'd won. They would not pay out,lol.

I haven't bought THE SUN since or any other paper.

I mainly use the net or s2 with vuse for news.

True story.

As for them reviewing games, or not as the case maybe, there probably as bad as teletext,lol.

[Pintheshadows]

Murdochs rag can do one.

[Moncole]

How is 3.5/5 a bad score, I thought they made it 3.5/10 that's why they are mad. I don't think this will be better than the first two Max Payne games.

[Hurricane43]

Don't worry IGN will give it a 10 just like GTA's, which don't deserve a 10, or any game for that matter.

[MattyG]

I kind of agree, but at the same time I don't. IGN's 10/10 score doesn't mean it's perfect. It just means that it is one of the best at what it does, and it would be hard for a game to be any better. I dont agree with all of the 10's IGN has given, but it's also their opinion.

[JakemanPS31994]

the last time ign gave a game a ten was for uncharted 3 and Mario galaxy 2 before that, so saying that they give a lot of tens is baloney. Also hurricane they have only ever given GTA4 a ten; No other gta has gotten a ten by them

[MattyG]

@jakemanps31994 I never said that theyve given alot of 10's. when I said "all the 10's that've given" I meant all the 10's since the sites inception. that in no tay means that I think theyve given alot. on a side note, Skyward Sword got a 10 this year too.

[Kwertie]

Really? REALLY? They are complaining about 3.5/5? When I read the headline I thought they gave it 3.5/10! This is not cause to complain.

[Jayjayff]

Most pointless article in n4g, stating the obvious.

[IWentBrokeForGaming]

Well R* did make State Of Emergency... remember?

Even then... as excited as I want to get for Max's return, I've seen enough gameplay videos to saddly kind of feel like it all looks pretty repetative!

[Slapshot82]

Good point, but horrible wording for the piece here at N4G! Just sayin'.

[LFC1EE]

You mean the scum! not sun the biggest liar and hackers including rupert murdoch, i wouldn't believe them if they told the time i would check my watch?
I don't read it, it's banned in our house.

[Winkle92]

Holy crap. I thought this article was about a 3.5/10. A 3.5/5? Who cares?! That's frickin' decent. Above average even. This shit happens everytime a big game comes out and it never means anything. Whatever.

[Garrison]

Ok!!!! So we have a website calling out a newspaper on a bad review and saying "it's bad for business". Wait... What???
Everytime these "reviewers" that swear to god their actually journalists come out to defend their BS paid for and agenda driven POS reviews they tell ya to "relax"... its just an opinion. "You make up your own mind".

Now it's about the harm being done by a bad score.

The sad truth about it all is that almost every fugging review you read out there is really just propaganda, simple as that.

People read game magazines and verify reviews because they want a PROFESSIONAL opinion, period. Reviews are what even most fugging fanboys fight about 24/7.

It's not just an opinion, it's given a score in a place where consumers compare scores with other products.

People look for professionals because they regard those professionals as "the best and highly valued" individuals in what they do. You watch the nba because it has the best basketball players around, it's not just fugging basketball... it's not the same as going to your local court and watch kids play.

It's all just an opinion is the biggest bullshit anyone ever said. It's the bs these fucks say all the time when they wanna push one systems games or hardware down your throat more than another.

[Neko_Mega]

Yeah, because a high score game that has alot of bugs and problems doesn't mean a thing if the score is high.

Sorry but I play what I like, not some random person that thinks my game blows and a game that has bugs is the best in the world.

[TBONEJF]

The Sun are a bunch of dumb asses. they remind me of Gamespot. They probably only look at the video and not even played a full level of the game

[LFC1EE]

BUBBLES FOR YOU M8,well said.

[Neo-Axl]

"Looks at title" .. The Sun? seriously guys? Moving on..

[Gigawatt25]

Ha! I knew it would fail. Looks like Rockstar couldn't pay their way out of this one.

[wiggles]

LOL, I am sure so many people read The Sun for their video game reviews.

[Godz Kastro]

Its not that serious... move along folks

[darren_poolies]

It wasn't a review score it was a score from the PREview he played, learn to read.