First @ TSSZ: Did IGN’s Unleashed Reviewer Play the Whole Game?
Tristan Oliver | December 4, 2008
Alleged Profile Shows…Not Even Close
Hilary Goldstein–male, not female–is not a popular figure in the Sonic community right now. His 4.5 out of 10 score for the XBOX360 edition of Sonic Unleashed on IGN, one of the top gaming sites in the world, has caused quite a stir.
Now, evidence has surfaced that claims Mr. Goldstein may not have completed the base game for his review. In fact…he may not have even completed half the game.
TSSZ News has obtained images that are circulating on the Sega and GameFAQs message boards. The image is alleged to be the XBOX profile of Mr. Goldstein–with the nickname “killhil.”
The statistics he has for Sonic Unleashed, if true, are quite eyeopening–only a 190 gamerscore with only 12 out of 50 achievements unlocked, only 24% of the game’s goals reached.
It gets better. The image shows his latest major achievement as it pertains to the game’s progress was “Picking up the Pieces”–completing the fourth continent. The image shows Goldstein’s latest achievement being the level-up on his Lightspeed Dash on Monday. Another image suggests, as of Monday, he has not restored the fifth or sixth continent, and has not compelted the game.
Right now there is no information to suggest this is false, though we are still working to verify the authenticity of the imagery. In light of this coming out, there have been several calls for Mr. Goldstein to be fired, or at least review the game once more upon its completion. A petition has even been established for the latter effort, though with very little signatures to show for it at the moment.
We want to know your thoughts on this drastic turn of events in the row involving Unleashed’s poor showing in the mainstreaming gaming media. Let us know in the comments section below.
Filed Under Sonic Scene
This is common in reviews…it’s not just for SU. It just shows that people should listen to the opinions of their friends and community figures before scores by random journalists. And that has been solid, so I go with them here.
This isn’t just a Sonic thing, guys. This happens with other games, too. I saw it happen with another game recently…
Oh, and NP lied about having to replay stages in the Wii version of Unleashed multiple times. You don’t. The missions are small levels with alterations in level design(except for Time Attack levels…though some of those are different, too). Check out some secret missions on youtube. You even get a Chun-Nan mission where you run on the dragon…unlike the actual level. If they made these missions actual levels…the game would have had a better balance. It’s a shame. But yeah…you actually have replays more in the 360 version since medals are required and bad players may have to repeat stages to get them all. The Wii version only uses medals to unlock Gaia gate doors…not additional levels(at least, not required levels).
HANG HIM, BURN HIM AT THE STAKE
That’s fairly normal when you reviewing as many games as they have to. At any rate most of the reviews were mediocre to negative so its not like his review was that much different from any of the others out there.
Man when I saw him play that on the video he kept messsing up so yeah the 360 version needs a better score like a 7 or a 8
Ha! Hahahaha!
I do notice this:
He showed his own footage of the game and it looked awsome and he called it all sorts of things. He didn’t even give a good example of trial and error. The idiot jumped over a speed ramp!
I’m no ranter but that was pathetic. People typically dislike things that they are no good at and this girl/man/thingamabob is in this scenario.
The guy with a girls name sucks at this game hes like oh I know how to play it but lets mess up and do stuff that will make the fans get mad YOU SUCK IGN
I think he has right to not finish a game he hates. You can make an accurate review. -_-
So because he hates the game, he tries to make a majority of people hate the game?!
Break out the torches and pitchforks!
Oh brother, is it really mandatory to complete a game in order to review it? Most professional journalists don’t do this anyway so this isn’t a new thing. I say despite of what you think of his review, I think it’s fair to say he got far enough even though he didn’t enjoy himself that it would have been a decent accessment of the game to write it.
And that petition is as lame as that ban 4KIDS one that dealt with the VAs. People in this fandom can be really pathetic.
@SLJ: he has the right, alright, but it doesn’t make for a very good review when you have to complete most the game to enjoy it.
I think the point of contention here is that he may not have even completed *half* the base game.
-T
Just so you know, the rate at which you finish the continents is not consistent. I could manage two in an hour then later it takes 4 more hours to get enough medals to finish the last two continents. And it’s not like the gameplay magically changes, if anything the final stage would be too tough for this guy. He might have given it a 3.5 if he finished it…
That’s it. I’m gonna kill him.
The amount of the game he completed could most likely be finished in a single sitting. It’s not much of a stretch to imagine this guy played the game once (twice, if you want to be generous), and then wrote his review based off of that.
There’s also the question of the video used in the video review of the game, which shows footage from the first hour or so, by somebody doing a comedically horrible job at playing the game.
I dunno about a petition, but it’s fairly clear that this guy didn’t really try to give this game a chance. The video captured on the game reflects poorly on it as well, perhaps on purpose.
My question is: Given the legacy of the franchise, should he have given it a chance? It’s sort of his job to, yes, but given that this is the christmas rush and all…
JJ’s got it right. Actually, no Hypo. I’ve played games that only got worse the farther in you got. He played enough to make a good judgement. It’s HIS opinion. People need to stop going crazy over a few reviewers who don’t like the series that much anymore. We’re all entitled to our own opinion, y’konw? Nobody’s opinion is fact, and no one should take offense from another persons. There’s too many whiny, bitchy, annoying, emotional fanboys/girls in our fanbase. I feel like I’m surrounded by idiotic jerk-offs. I’ve met very few sane fans, and that’s saying alot, since I’ve met a very large portion of the fanbase…
“Right now there is no information to suggest this is false”
There’s no information to suggest it’s true, either.
Anyone can pull a Photoshopped Gamercard out of their bottom. Considering the current angry mob status Sonic fans hold at the moment, it wouldn’t surprise me if that’s the case.
NintendoBrad: That’s where my favorite word “alleged” comes in. =)
The thing that leads me to think this was not faked was that it appears the imagery did not originate from a Sonic community area proper. But again, if it’s false, the story will be corrected.
-T
From D’harhan at the Sonic Stadium Message Boards:
“I don’t mean to stir shit here, but I showed the picture of the HillKill Unleashed achievement thing to a few people earlier, while I mulled it over, and I’ve heard back from the tech savvy member of that bunch (the only person bothered, really)…”
“You might never want to trust that picture’s source again.
The gamertag you link to is private so none of it’s details are public. That screenshot didn’t come from the gamertag you mentioned. It was taking from another one (and carefully cropped to remove all the locked achievements above it, for all the other worlds) or photoshop’d entirely.
Or does the source have a special way of seeing private gamertag details?”
He doesn’t provide a direct source, but he’s not the the type who lies about things like this. Make of it what you will.
NintendoBrad: Two flaws in your source evidence.
First, I found D’harhan’s original entry, and it stated:
“The gamertag [HillKill - D] you link to is private so none of it’s details are public. That screenshot didn’t come from the gamertag you mentioned. It was taking from another one (and carefully cropped to remove all the locked achievements above it, for all the other worlds) or photoshop’d entirely.”
The shot above states the tag to be “killhil.” That’s quite different.
Second, even if it’s a goof on D’harhan’s part, we can date these images to be at least 24 hours old, and these have circulated on a lot of message boards before I decided to pick up the story. I’m not 100% on how gamertags work, but I have to think it’s not entirely out of the question for Mr. Goldstein to have privatized his profile since, as a means of denial or damage control.
That, plus no source cited, pared with the comments Blaze provided above…I think the story’s gotta stay as is for now.
-T
The pics “ARE” real.
(If you have a gamertag, you can compare your achievements with hilarys here)
https://login.live.com/login.srf?wa=wsignin1.0&rpsnv=10&ct=1228448000&rver=4.5.2135.0&wp=HBI&wreply=https:%2F%2Flive.xbox.com%2Fxweb%2Flive%2Fpassport%2FsetCookies.ashx%3Frru%3DhttpZ3AZ2FZ2FliveZ2ExboxZ2EcomZ2FenZ2DUSZ2FprofileZ2FAchievementsZ2FViewAchievementDetailsZ2EaspxZ3FtidZ3DZ09Z5DZ3BcnZ2Dn8Z7FpZ26compareToZ3Dkillhil&lc=1033&cb=B001033httpZ3AZ2FZ2FliveZ2ExboxZ2EcomZ2FenZ2DUSZ2FprofileZ2FAchievementsZ2FViewAchievementDetailsZ2EaspxZ3FtidZ3DZ09Z5DZ3BcnZ2Dn8Z7FpZ26compareToZ3Dkillhil&id=66262
Fair enough. If this really is Hilary’s Gamertag, I stand corrected.
This is the kind of crap we’ve come to expect from “professional” reviewers these days. And to think these guys affect the overall scores of places like GameRankings. If IGN’s staff can’t handle the job of reviewing games properly, they need to hire more people to take care of other things so we don’t get half-assed reviews. I KNOW that people like IGN fail to give quality reviews all the time, it’s not just with Sonic games like this. And I’ve wasted money because of it. This is just low of them.
A GUY NAMED HILARY?
Nuff Said.
Yo, writer, ya don`t even got through the game!!! And you writing review?!!!! WHAT A SHAME!!
I think if you’re not interested to review a game, just give it for other one. Official reviews are jornalism! Is his job, not a forum message board where you can write anything that pops out your head…
Also, LOL @ the Aqua Team comment:
“A GUY NAMED HILARY?
Nuff Said.”
ROFL, well remembered.
I dont really give a flying crap. I love the way us fans love to single IGN out as the most bias review site and say “I dont listen to IGN they are bias” then next mintue petitions are flying out.
So he didnt do the later half of the game… thank god he didnt because if he reached the last level he might of score this game 2 points less. From what I have heard sonic team didnt even send review copies out and you know what that means when companies dont do that.
This is ridiculous. If IGN had given SU better score nobody would care how much time they spent with it…
In my opinion you have to finish the whole game and then make review. I don’t really care that much, but I think people that plays a game in 30 minutes or less can not make a review. Ok if it takes 20 minutes to finish a game you can do that.But you know what I mean.
Ugh, you are all acting ridiculous.
But fake or not about completing the game, I have a feeling that IGN will not refuse to change the score and make a better review.
Ign you piece of garbage I hope your site gets destroyed
Seriously, do we even know if this is true? For now I’m going to sit back and see if this story happens to develop.
If he finished it he would have played more awesome daytime stages, and how can the Werehog bring the score so low if the daytime stages are ‘perfect’?
@Hypo Prower and everyone else who still thinks its fake.
This is his achievements directly from xbox.com! All you have to do is login with your gamertag. You cannot view it without a gamertag. Its real not fake. This confirms it. End of story.
https://login.live.com/login.srf?wa=wsignin1.0&rpsnv=10&ct=1228448000&rver=4.5.2135.0&wp=HBI&wreply=https:%2F%2Flive.xbox.com%2Fxweb%2Flive%2Fpassport%2FsetCookies.ashx%3Frru%3DhttpZ3AZ2FZ2FliveZ2ExboxZ2EcomZ2FenZ2DUSZ2FprofileZ2FAchievementsZ2FViewAchievementDetailsZ2EaspxZ3FtidZ3DZ09Z5DZ3BcnZ2Dn8Z7FpZ26compareToZ3Dkillhil&lc=1033&cb=B001033httpZ3AZ2FZ2FliveZ2ExboxZ2EcomZ2FenZ2DUSZ2FprofileZ2FAchievementsZ2FViewAchievementDetailsZ2EaspxZ3FtidZ3DZ09Z5DZ3BcnZ2Dn8Z7FpZ26compareToZ3Dkillhil&id=66262
Fanboys/girls are hilarious these days. *Throws popcorn in microwave* And to think, I was gonna switch my loyalty to Lost, rofl.
What kind of parent name thier male child “Hilary”
Does that really matter?
[...] notable that this poll was still conducted when evidenced surfaced of IGN’s Hilary Goldstein potentially not completing even half of the base [...]
[...] 360 version. While this baffled me, I wasn’t too upset until I found out that the reviewer DIDN’T FINISH THE GAME! That’s right, Hilary Goldstein’s gamertag spills the beans, just 4 of the 7 continents [...]
[...] 360 and gave it 45/100, one of the lower scores according to Metacritic. But then someone found the reviewer’s Live Gamertag, and checked his achievements. It appears that the reviewer didn’t finish the game, and had [...]
Simple answer: he played the game for review on a debug unit. Then, he played some of it on a retail unit to make sure there weren’t any problems with it. They do it all the time.
I knew this just by watching his videoreview. All of his footage is set in the first half of the game, and the level of skill he displays is even more telling: he obviously hasn’t gotten much practice, or else he’s sucking on purpose.
That his review doesn’t feature any information relating to anything in the game’s second half, well, that’s the clincher.
Does he deserve to be fired? Maybe… If I’m reading a review by a paid employee… they should have at least finished it. Have you ever watched a movie review where the reviewer did not finish the movie? I haven’t. If you’re employed and getting a pay check please do your job.
I don’t blame him for stopping before he beat the game. The werehog segments were garbage. Sega should stop adding gimmicks and stick with the original formula they had with the genesis versions. In fact, I think that it would be better if they just made a hedgehog engine version of the genesis games…
You do know that the games they play are not full games but are some sort of debug code. This will not count your achievements. I’m sorry, but as far as your allegations go there is no proof that he hasn’t beat the game.
[...] their reviewer couldn’t be bothered to play through half of Sonic Unleashed. Then, the gaming megasite had to apologize for treating [...]
It’s one thing for a gamer, who plunks down their presumably hard-earned coin, to partially play through a game and decide that their experience thus far does not merit further play. No one, save for friends with similar tastes, is holding us to a high standard; we’re allowed to say things like, “Y’know, I only played part of the game and didn’t dig what I experienced.” On the other hand, it should be the friggin’ *job* of a so-called professional reviewer to actually play the core game to completion to let us know whether or not there is *anything* salvageable in the final product, to let us know if the development team has hit on something worth our time. If they didn’t enjoy their experience, that’s fine; they’re certainly allowed to say so in their review, They still need to objectively report on the core experience, from beginning to completion, and if they don’t complete it, they need to say so from the beginning.
[...] Sonic the Hedgehog, a game almost universally panned by critics. You may remember that TSSZ News uncovered evidence that lead many to believe one of the IGN Unleashed reviewers, Hilary Goldstein, stopped playing the [...]
[...] the mainstream gaming media site has given Sonic or Sega the short stick. In December, TSSZ News showed you evidence that IGN’s Hilary Goldstein may not have finished half of the next-generation Sonic [...]
He still hasn’t gotten any further… even if you hate a game, at least have the decency to play it half through.
[...] Editor in Chief Hilary Goldstein, who could stand to change his own personal review methods, announced changes to the whole of the media megasite’s [...]