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Headhunter Redemption review in Official Xbox Magazine, 34, October 2004

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    #16
    I came here specifically to post that.

    Yeah, weird times.

    I suppose once we've wrung all we can out of this you can email Eurogamer to pitch an article on this little investigation. With the magazine shut there is also likely to be less resistance to examining old ghosts.

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      #17
      Perhaps they folded BECAUSE THEY SAW THIS THREAD! To avoid the fallout

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        #18
        OXM: "So you're telling me someone is looking into that old Headhunter review and they're close to rediscovering its content?"


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          #19
          [MENTION=2415]Sketcz[/MENTION]

          So, I recieved a mail delivery today. I can't sort out a scan till the end of the week thanks to the pandemic however I wish to deliver a Megaton development in the investigation to keep us budding detectives busy with developments. That Megaton is delivered in the form of two words:

          Andy Irving

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            #20
            Holy ****. That is a Megaton!

            Andy IrvingUK PR Manager, Xbox & Games for WindowsAfter leaving his journalist career to go down the PR route, Andy has never looked back. Stints at Lunch


            MCV’s 30 Under 30: Pt.2

            MCV Staff 7th November 2008 Business News

            Andy Irving
            UK PR Manager, Xbox & Games for Windows
            After leaving his journalist career to go down the PR route, Andy has never looked back. Stints at Lunch PR saw Irving launch some huge IPs from Activision, Capcom and Vivendi, before he moved in-house to look after Microsoft’s first party games line-up. After driving the incredible Halo 3 campaign last year, Andy now heads up the PR for the Xbox Platform, incorporating activity around Live and all associated brand campaigns. He’s helped to drive the appeal of the console to a wider audience, particularly with the Lips and You’re In The Movies product campaigns. Highlights include a reinvigorated music programme featuring an exclusive gig by Pendulum and the recent Xbox Presents: MyGig activity.


            Dude flat up fabricated a review and then ends up head of Microsoft's Xbox marketing?



            How would you define marketing?
            Truly understanding your audience and consumer, and intelligently talking to them in a way that's sympathetic to your brand. To drive sales, obviously.

            What was your first job?
            Games journalist. I was an intern on Official Xbox Magazine and pestered the editor until he took me on.

            What was your finest hour?
            Making up nonsense for a review in Official Xbox Magazine.

            What makes you angry?
            Laziness, apathy, cruelty.
            For the record, I edited some of the above interview and put words in his mouth. For the giggles.

            Is it him? Because he's friends of friends on Facebook. Should I message him, gently?
            Last edited by Sketcz; 30-03-2020, 16:01.

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              #21
              **** is getting real.

              Looking forward to the scan. This will be the highlight of my week.

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                #22
                Server currently under ddos attack from redmond based IPs.
                (joke obvs MS lawyers)
                Last edited by charlesr; 30-03-2020, 18:39.

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                  #23
                  Searching Gogle for "Andy Irving Headhunter Redemption" brings up only one news story that I could find:

                  Im Forum der englischen Ausgabe des "Offiziellen Xbox Magazins" (OXM) wurden Vorwürfe gegen einen Spieletester laut. Der OXM-Redakteur ...


                  it's German, but the Google translation states:

                  Again allegations against Games magazine this time OXM UK

                  September 13, 2004 Editorial News

                  In the forum of the English edition of the "Official Xbox Magazine" (OXM) allegations against a game tester were made. OXM editor Andy Irving is said to have written a test on Headhunter: Redemption in issue 34 of the magazine (October 2004) without even playing the game. In an open letter, which is said to be from developer Amuze, the author is also accused of misinformation. For example, Irving wrote that the cutscenes in "Headhunter: Redemption" could not be canceled, although this was not the truth. Furthermore, several readers expressed their opinion in the forum of the magazine that the test relates strongly to the press release about the game. Andy Irving opposes these allegations and refers to the incomplete review code of the game that was made available to him. If these allegations are correct, this would be the second inglorious case in recent months. Atari had previously been accused of buying positive ratings for their Driv3r or bribing editors.
                  The bolding is by me. It seems readers thought he'd written the review from the press release. Which doesn't sound far fetched. We wrote previews from press releases, but I can imagine an unscrupulous writer doing a review too. Fun fact: due to the difficulty of screengrabbing, many reviews would use the exact same PR assets as found on www.gamespress.com. That's why if you look at various mags from back in the day, you'd find that OPSM, Edge, GamesTM, and other mags, would all have the exact same screenshots for a specific game, and websites too would be using the same screens.

                  Unsurprising that it took a German news site to cover this. The UK press probably closed ranks to protect one of their own.

                  Since I have a Games Press account, with credits, i logged in to check the Headhunter Redemption press releases. The page, from 2004, is still on the website, but all the text has been scrubbed. Not because of conspiracies, but I think for server space they delete stuff once it's a certain age... Though it's weird. There's still all the screenshots, which I can download. It's just the press release text itself is missing! I might email them to ask why.

                  PRODUCT INFORMATION
                  Headhunter: Redemption

                  Formats: PS2, Xb
                  Out: Aug 2004
                  Publisher: SEGA
                  Developer: Amuze
                  PRESS RELEASES
                  Headhunter soundtrack 7/9/2004
                  Double CD now available of Richard Jacques's scores for Headhunter and Headhunter: Redemption.
                  Headhunter: Redemption 12/5/2004
                  Redeem yourself with this E3 fact sheet.
                  Headhunter: Redemption 12/5/2003 (PS2)
                  Grittier than economy muesli.
                  Headhunter: Redemption 22/4/2003 (PS2)
                  Jack Wade's adventures continue later this year.

                  SCREENSHOTS
                  10/9/2004
                  22 further screenshots.
                  12/5/2004
                  17 E3 screenshots.
                  6/5/2004
                  A single E3 screenshot.
                  12/3/2004
                  Heads up for these eight new screenshots.
                  26/2/2004
                  Eighteen new screenshots for you.
                  23/7/2003 (PS2)
                  Eight new PS2 screenshots to start the day.
                  3/7/2003
                  Ten new shots of Leeza (two Es, one Z) X hunting heads.
                  28/4/2003 (PS2)
                  Four screenshots.
                  PACK SHOTS
                  Xb 14/4/2004
                  PS2 14/4/2004
                  OTHER ASSETS
                  8/9/2004
                  A link to the game's website, where you'll find a batch of free mobile wallpapers for download.
                  12/5/2004
                  The logo.
                  12/5/2004
                  Two bits of artwork.
                  7/5/2004
                  A bijou Quicktime trailer.
                  12/2/2004
                  A healthy selection of character art.
                  23/1/2004
                  Four renders of lead character and sunglasses enthusiast Jack Wade.
                  9/1/2004
                  Three renders of Jack's HQ, by the looks of it.
                  19/12/2003
                  A selection of concept art. Might make nice Christmas cards.
                  EDIT:

                  Archived press release here, mofos:

                  Last edited by Sketcz; 31-03-2020, 09:45.

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                    #24
                    So, I need to wait until I can do this at home but I do now have a raft of scans ready to share which I'll set up and start posting as soon as possible. Some key details:

                    Irving was the only staff writer at the time, the other reviews are submitted by contributers including Rhianna Pratchett.
                    He wrote quite a large shareof that issues reviews and...

                    We. Have. A. Photo.

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                      #25
                      Bring on the update.

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                        #26
                        Hurry up please.

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                          #27
                          So, I've emailed Sketcz the full list of OXM evidence in PDF format but have created Jpegs of the scans of the two key items. Finally - I present@

                          Exhibit A - The Mugshot






                          and
                          Exhibit B - The Headhunter Redemption OXM Review

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                            #28
                            Amazing

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                              #29
                              And after everything the review in full does actually read not that far from what the game is like and what Sketcz thought of it having finally just tried it In a way, OXM's shadiness about it is the real mystery

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                                #30
                                Wow. This whole saga has gone in a direction I never expected. If I were a judge, I would find in favour of the defendant, Andy Irving.

                                I can 100% see what happened here. Especially after playing Headhunter: Redemption for the other thread.


                                HHR is a steaming pile of hot trash. The graphics, bizarrely, are in fact worse than those of the earlier (previous gen?) Dreamcast release. The real problem though are the controls and utterly broken aiming. I cannot tell you how much I despise the lock-on system here. I rage quit and deleted the game I hate it so much. The lock-on system is not so much fiddly, as it is the aborted remains of Hitler and Stalin's illegitimate love child. It is insidiously bad. I cannot over emphasise this. It is the worst lock-on system in gaming.

                                Also, remember how Amuze went to great lengths to claim there were no bikes even in the cut-scenes? I call shenanigans. I took them at face value, but after playing the game the first two in-game engine cut-scenes explicitly show Jack Wade's motorbike and him riding it. First when he rides up to find Leeza, and secondly when he and Leeza ride into the weapons factory.

                                Let me quote Amuze again:
                                NOTE: HH:R features no bike chases either in game play or cut scenes.
                                I suppose if you're a pedant, you could debate what constitutes a "chase" - was Jack Wade chasing Leeza in the first cut-scene, were the two of them chasing down enemies at a weapons factory in the 2nd? Or were they simply riding the bikes?

                                So much of this, in the absence of the scans, came down to how each side twisted the story. Based on Amuze's testimony I was led to believe there were no bikes, whatsoever, in any form, in HHR.

                                But this is all trivial. Let's examine the real cause of this fuss. The laser like focus on the sentence regarding the bike chases breaking up the on foot action.

                                A theory from a magazine production editor

                                After games journalism I actually worked as production editor on non-gaming mags for a Time Warner. And the answer to this whole fiasco is laughably obvious and simple.

                                In magazine production, assuming you're adhering to "The Elements of Style" guide by Strunk and White, and have any sense of what makes good layout, you will do everything to avoid widows and orphans:


                                This also means you will want every paragraph and column to fill space neatly and cleanly.

                                The fact this bit comes right at the end, in the last paragraph, looks like the following:
                                The editor, or the production editor, or more likely the junior sub-editor were taking their first glance at the page, spotted that the text ran short by a few lines and, perhaps having played or seen the original Headhunter on Dreamcast, thought they were very clever adding a few lines about bikes and on-foot sections, followed by the "Redemption" pun.

                                I honestly don't know for sure. Andy never replied to my message on Facebook. He never even read it. And besides, he started an entirely new job in 2017.

                                But this seems very plausible. Alternatively, it could have been written by Andy himself. Maybe the editor called him over and said: "Andy, you're short a few lines, fill the text."

                                And in a rush, again having seen the first game, maybe he just added a throw away line.

                                Honestly, the game itself is so wretchedly, hatefully awful, I feel no sympathy for Amuze here. If you were given this game to review back in the day, to meet weekly page quota, you probably had 1 day to play it and take screenshots, and that same day to write it. We had to write like 8 pages a week during my tenure, rising to 10 pages a couple years after I left. Magazines are kept short-staffed and all staff are underpaid. That sub-editor I mentioned? He probably had to sub 2 or 3 magazines each month, earning £12'000 per year. There's no finesse in that environment - it's all about making quota. It's why I left the world of games journalism. When I started as a junior sub at my new job I was on £24'000 a year, subbing one magazine, alongside a dedicated production editor.

                                I feel very under-whelmed by this. Amuze elevated something totally unimportant and throwaway, into some sort of grand conspiracy. When really they brought it on themselves by developing a game which was basically a basket of turds.

                                Andy Irving didn't kill the franchise, he didn't damage Amuze, in truth he probably wasn't even responsible for that last throwaway line. It blatantly looks like filler added by the sub-editor.

                                My verdict:
                                Not Guilty

                                Your mileage may vary. I was thinking once we had the full review we could dissect it and NEON could pitch a feature to Eurogamer, but in the end... There's nothing really here. Amuze's open letter is sort of a joke. And as NEON points out, the more interesting mystery is why OXM made such a big thing about trying to erase this. I'm sure a public apology and explanation as I've given above would have not only fixed things, but garnered sympathy from the public.

                                I'd like to thank NEON for taking one for the team by spending £9 on this, and making scans, despite the dangers due to our world gripped by a deadly virus.

                                It was a fun little investigation.

                                I suppose if we wanted to carry it on further you could scan the flat panel, or editorial page which lists all the staff. If we knew who was the production or sub-editor we could ask them. But... Meh. I dunno. I saw worse stuff during my time. I once had to write a 4 page review of Rainbow Six Vegas for the X360 by playing it over one night, after coming home from work, and writing it the next morning before work started again. That's games journalism.

                                EDIT:

                                I just wanted to add this bit which I sent to NEON in an email:
                                Thank you for taking the time to scan all of these. It's been a fun adventure.

                                Look at his other reviews... I can't say that I feel he was doing a bad job per say. Something like Samurai Warriors would usually get low scores from reviewers, but he seemed to like it. The same with the golf game. That's usually easy pickings for grumpy reviewers. Plus he reviewed two Vietnam games, and enjoyed them.

                                Honestly, look at everything, I have to agree with him. HHR is not a good game. It's not even average. It's just broken. And as I mentioned on the forum, that last sentence looks like it was added during editing to fill space.

                                My biggest take away from all this is: different sides will spin or twist facts to suit themselves, but as you can see, it's not quite as simple as Amuze's open letter made out. I think this is a good lesson for everyone to find the source of information and make an informed judgement themselves.
                                The bolded bit something we should all live by.
                                Last edited by Sketcz; 04-04-2020, 10:03.

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