PS3 Poll Police: Voice your opinion on the GameTrailers debacle

by Nick Doerr { May 11th 2008 at 7:30PM }

Finally! Something the Officers of Opinion can have pride in taking votes for has come to pass. Perhaps some of you are not aware of the most recent GameTrailers debacle, but it goes something like this: a new racing game called GRID got its chance at a video comparison on their site and from the video posted, the 360 was implied to have more dynamic and compelling footage. The PS3 version seemed like a prettied-up last-gen borefest. However! GameTrailers used PS3 footage for both sides of the comparison. Watch the above video, ripped from their site with some added narrative, to draw your own conclusions then tell us what you think.

What's your take on the GameTrailers debacle?
	It was on purpose -- this was to downplay the PS3.
	It's a pretty convenient "accident", but I'm not sure.
	It was an accident; there was a clerical error along the way.
	They messed up, but they probably feel bad about it.
	I don't know what to think about this!
	Comparison videos are stupid anyway.
	My opinion is different than those mentioned above.

pollcode.com free polls

First off, thanks to everyone who alerted us to this. The comparison video and all related comments have since been removed from their site, which is a telling sign they've recognized something had gone wrong. Whether it was their evil ploy foiled or an error in creating, posting, or citing the console for the video, we'll probably never know. But mass opinion is often heralded as universal truth for some odd reason, so your vote really does matter. Last week's poll results are also posted, so give them a look as well, if you're interested.

Yeah, our last few polls haven't been that grand. It's because when something interesting happens, it's either beaten to death before Sunday or nothing at all happened and we need to think of something on the fly. Other times, we're just flighty and forget to add choices. In any case, for those of you who experienced issues with the game, these are the results. As you can see, it doesn't really matter. Most of you didn't try their 12-step fix or own the game who voted. Either way, a true patch was issued since then, so many of your problems are probably solved. Thanks for voting!

Tags: poll-police

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

FURIOUS144 @ May 11th 2008 7:45PM

gametrailers...you dissapoint me

Jettic @ May 12th 2008 4:19AM

I really don't see what you people don't get. (those saying it's an accident)

How do you accidentally PICK UP a PS3 controller, start the PS3, go into the PS3's XMB, start the game FROM the XMB, and use the PS3 only, and record footage from ONLY the PS3 version?

And if it were just an accedent, there would have been a press release very soon after stating so, but GT has said NOTHING about this, leading me to believe even further that they knew what they were doing.

Based on the fact that they haven't said anything since the incident, only pulling down the video hoping no-one saw the footage, leads me to think they are simply going to try and let this one fade and say nothing about it. Sony should pull all PS3/PS2/PSP related content off the site. GT points out that the 360 version of every multiplatform game is better anyway.

Dave @ May 11th 2008 7:48PM

I think they did it on purpose. They always use the Xbox 360 box art when a game is multiplatform, when they could easily just use a neutral graphic. It's sad that a bunch of fanboys run a site that's supposed to be neutral. Obviously, a place like PS3fanboy or Xbox360fanboy has some biased coverage, but a place like gametrailers is supposed to offer even handed analysis.

Consolcwby @ May 13th 2008 5:47AM

Fanboys??!! I wouldn't call Viacom fanboys... shady dealmakers, yes, but not fanboys.

xs3ro @ May 11th 2008 7:52PM

that is what happens when money comes into play..
everyone knows that gt is ruled by mtv which is ruled by ms (something like that, hope you get the point).

that's what makes this consolewar the worst.. biased reviews, comparisons etc.

i wish gt had some balls... :/

Dan Bolas @ May 11th 2008 7:56PM

First Time Poster

I have recently started using Gametrailers for a number of reasons, the main one being the chance to video edit some clips together of PS3 Games. There is absolutly no denying that whilst some game sites, IGN and Gamespot seem to be pretty straight down the middle when it comes to the next Generation consoles, Gametrailers 100% lean towards X Box 360. All their GTA trailers are focused towards 360, with the majority of ads for GTA featuring the logo. Also, if you select the majoirty of multi format next generation games, and by this i mean games like Call Of Duty 4, The Darkness, Pro Evolution Soccer etc. they use the X Box 360 cover when speaking about the game.

In the above instances, there is no harm in pushing people towards one brand as opposed to the other, gamers are more than aware of which consoles are better, but when they start using doctored footage in order to try and give the PS3 negative press, it is not only false information, but it should give Sony the incentive to withdraw all PS3 related content from their site.

Eggy @ May 11th 2008 7:56PM

It's not the first time their is some criticism on gametrailers way of comparing titles though is it?

Anyway I really think sites should stop creating these comparison videos because it only creates more animosity among people on gaming forums. The whole console war thing has gotten out of hand. Sadly joystiq is a prime example of this.

leiwei @ May 11th 2008 8:09PM

For those not in the know, Gametrailers is run by MTV (owned by Viacom which has been in partnership w/ MS).

I use gametrailers a lot because they have many HD vids, though it's been found time after time on the net that they are clearly biased towards the 360. I'm labeling the Grid vid as a convenient "accident" because they pulled it moments after people found out about the button layouts and never put up an apology or anything regarding the issue.

Mein Bratwurst @ May 11th 2008 8:30PM

This is true.

I've lost all respect for Gametrailers.com.

/remove from bookmarks.

uh-oh polio @ May 11th 2008 8:26PM

ugh, fanboys will be fanboys, but all the press in the world isnt gonna make me think different about the system(systems) i play.

tristan88 @ May 11th 2008 8:26PM

i think it was an accident. i really like gametrailers and they are the easiest way to see all hd gametrailers if they are biased to 360 what can you do. they are one of the highest quality gaming sites i know and i respect them.

Pete @ May 11th 2008 8:29PM

Obviously just a mistake. Leave it to gamers to create controversy where there is none.

It is hard to re-create a crash identically in two different runs. So one crash wasn't as spectacular as the next. So what? Obviously the games are pretty much identical.

They just got their footage messed up. Meh. Big deal.

leiwei @ May 11th 2008 8:36PM

Sorry pete, but the comparison video wasn't about graphics, video smoothness, whatever visual delights. The comparison made by GT was to showcase that the 360 had more spectacular crashes & crash-handling physics over the PS3. =)

Pete @ May 11th 2008 11:20PM

Where did they say this?

leiwei @ May 11th 2008 11:28PM

Pete I saw the video on GT about 4-5am in the morning before they took it down the original. Someone on youtube also managed to capture the whole thing. Kotaku also posted about it on their site with quote "We've been hearing a lot of chatter about how they botched a comparison video of Race Driver: GRID. In an attempt to show cooler crash physics on the 360, they used PS3's instead — easily identifiable by the controller map in the lower left corner. Doh!""

evilfoxhound @ May 11th 2008 8:45PM

I think that some of their other comparision video's are worse. Some PS3 footage has obviously been altered to look worse in some of them. I own a 360 and PS3 and sometimes I download demos of multiplatform games to see which is the best one to get. They are usually almost idendical to the naked eye. But GT's comparisions of te same games always look like they have altered the PS3 version to look worse. They are such fanboy losers.

(Saying that though, most EA sports games do actually look better on the 360, but that's just lazy programming)

Stephen @ May 11th 2008 8:50PM

What I dont get is xbox fanboys are always very eager to bash the ps3, but I dont see it going the other way, ps3 fanboys dont bash the xbox... kinda odd,, perhaps ps3 owners are just nice and content with what they have, and xbox owners have small man syndrome?!

leiwei @ May 11th 2008 8:56PM

I think it's more 50/50, but there's definitely a higher amount of PS3 game bashing, e.g. KZ2 looks to gray has bad AI COD ripoff gun sounds pew pew pew, R&C has jaggies, LBP looks lame and gets boring quick, Home is boring, Heavenly Sword GOW ripoff, MGS looks brown/yellow bad textures Splinter Cell way better, etc.

AFAIK, Gears of War looked pretty gray to me, the new Banjo screens look a lil like R&C w/ jaggies/less poly count and background blur like LBP, Too Human looks to me like a GOW ripoff, and the new Gears 2 vid looked brown and blurry.

But you know you'll hear more negative spinnings for the PS3 games than you'd hear about the 360 ones. It's as if there's some double standard when it comes to 360 games.

Stephen @ May 11th 2008 9:01PM

It's not even so much just the games that I seem to find, but bashing the console itself, which I have to say a lot of them are amusing, (there was one on stuff.co.nz) a while back and a xbox fanboy putting the bash in had obviously never touched a ps3....

But then, I also dont care too much about comparison videos, I have a ps3, not a xbox360 so dont really care too much what it looks like on it...

FURIOUS144 @ May 12th 2008 2:50PM

speaking of BANJO...i cant believe nintendo to Microsoft!!!! now there making BANJO for 360 only...it would of been a great game for Wii...bummer

bs6268d @ May 11th 2008 10:28PM

I totally agree I mean there is nothing on 360 looking like uncharted

marauder800 @ May 12th 2008 8:13AM

Totally disagree. I wrote for another non-Joystiq affiliated web site until I gave it up two months ago. The reactions and comments of PS3 fanboys never ceased to amaze us. I'm surprised how they can have an inferiority complex in one sentence, then a superiority complex in the next. The PS3's time will come, but the fanboys are over zealous in their defense of their console as it stands now. My attitude...WHO GIVES A FU**? Enjoy your console and quit worrying about the other guys, or buy both and have the best of both worlds (as always, Wii doesn't count).

2Perfect @ May 11th 2008 8:50PM

LMAO. That's what I call OWNED. I mean obviously there will always be bias in any single person, but daaamn wtf were they thinking not making sure everything was hidden lol :P

Mikezula @ May 11th 2008 8:56PM

I don't see how during the start of the process of making the video to the very end that absolutely NOBODY saw the mistake.

It's sloppy work, whatever the inside story may be.

Abastus @ May 11th 2008 8:59PM

Oh sweet Jesus not this again.

I hate to disappoint the paranoid fan boys of the world (including the writers of the site who should seriously be above flame baiting crap like this) but it’s an error. Like when Kotaku accidentally posts spoilers to major games, or when a certain joystiq editor promised a Nintendo megaton that was revealed to be no news at all. Like when GT said new exclusive gears footage would be at 1 eastern and a glitch kept it from showing up. At least that's my theory. Or like when THIS site made a particularly low quality article that they had to take down.

Perhaps indeed Gametrailers and Microsoft are sitting in their villainous moon fortress plotting global domination while doctoring game footage and sipping Chianti. That makes much more sense.

Honestly, this is why people, PS3 owners like myself included, hate Sony fans. If something goes wrong: It has to be a conspiracy. If a Sony game is poorly rated, then its “teh bias.” Everybody is guilty except when we don't want them to be. I'd mention the story of the boy who cried wolf but it wouldn’t likely do any good.

I myself have used GT for awhile and found it to be one of the most meticulously transparent sites around. But for those who don't, GT does comparison vids. When the PS3 version scored wrong, Sony fans would swarm the video and downvote it while screaming bias. As though any company would willingly alienate what amounts to 70 percent of its readership just cause. But the complaints [persisted so GT started doing more in-depth comparisons using the exact measures the complainers asked for....and it did nothing. Yep, GT was biased. Never mind Geoff Keighley lobbing softball questions at Sony devs. Never mind the fact that GT actually scored Sony games HIGHER than average by a larger margin than the 360. Never mind the fact that GT repeatedly said they review the version of the game the publisher sends, which 90% of the time is the 360 version since it is usually the bets one. Never mind every concession they made to the fan boy hordes. GTs facts don’t make the ps3 look good so the facts must be wrong.

So am I disappointed with GT? Yes. An error like this is beneath what is normally one of the best sites on the web. But I’m not disappointed in this site because sadly, this kind of ‘journalism’ is what I’ve come to expect with a certain frequency around here. A few months back, I wrote in about my concerns that this site wasn’t exactly practising objective journalism. And to your credit, you responded to my concerns. But that means nothing if you are gonna pull the same crap again. Well I guess I am a bit disappointed…just not surprised.

emaxximus @ May 11th 2008 11:14PM

Get over yourself.

JaseH @ May 12th 2008 12:04AM

"When the PS3 version scored wrong, Sony fans would swarm the video and downvote it while screaming bias."

With all due respect, if GT were to give HALO 3 a lower score than 9 - even if it deserved it, which I feel it did - You would have had an even bigger uproar.

Please don't label one side & leave the other exepmt. With all said and done, this isn't GT's first mistake, and it doesn't take a genius to see the bias.

_________________________________________
JaseH.

VeganTnT @ May 12th 2008 4:04AM

while I understand your point there is something you're fotgettin to mention

In the case I kotaku, thats a legitimate error is something posts early or late

In the case of the joystiq editor, well that is misinformation.

What Gt did was make a statement and COMPLETELY FABRICATE evidence to support its claim on the 360's graphical prowess.

Thats inexcusable in my eyes. I have both a 360 and a ps3. If their site claims unbiased comparsions, I damn well better get them.

Chris @ May 12th 2008 4:31PM

Original poster:
You're right, but not completely. While there are definitely cases where the PS3 doesn't always come out on top and PS3 fans shout "Liars!" (e.g. read a few posts below: we all know Orange Box was not as good, yes people are claiming it was.), it is true sometimes. You just have to make your own mind up rather than buy into the hype. This video, for example, is 90% suspicious. You can't go through all the recording, analysing, rigorous editing of making a video, getting to the publishing stage and releasing it without seeing that you only analysed one platform. I was and still am skeptical, but I see bias in lots of other things they do and so don't see why they deserve the benefit of the doubt.
One of their videos about why, or why not, to ditch your wii, ended by saying (quote) "...or you could get a PS3 ... Nah! ".

Abastus @ May 14th 2008 8:53AM

That was a screwattack vid. GT does not own screwattack or make screwattack.It was literally a vid from another source that was completely unrelated to the ps3. You are an excellent example of people seeing bias where they want to.

And it still has nothing on how many softball questions Geoff keighly (who DOES work for GT) lobs at sony devs. At no point does he bring up the lack of games, or the fact that bluray hasn't made better games like they promised. Or the fact that they are still asking us to wait for things they promised for launch.

No, he just has them put their spin on things and lets it at that. Then turns around and asks MS if those same promises sony has yet to liveup to are somehow threatening.

Nate @ May 11th 2008 9:07PM

If this was the first and only time, I'd say no big deal. When you see this over and over again, its disgusting. I really hated the half-life video, where the ps3 version was entirely played while it was quicksaving - IE it looked like it had bad framerates. The xbox 360 version was of course flawless. I wish I could remember all the times I've seen gross bias like this, but honestly I think it saves space in my head just to not trust gametrailers.

Nintendo is Fail @ May 11th 2008 10:26PM

Blame EA for that, I believe the PS3 version of Half-Life was just a crappy port made by them. Or maybe i'm thinking of Portal, I may be wrong

Eggy @ May 12th 2008 7:26AM

You can turn the save function off which they didn't do on the PS3 version which caused the framedrops at certain intervals.

GRT @ May 11th 2008 9:09PM

Considering there's a demo for the game on both PSN and XBLA, the whole idea of a comparison video seems pretty stupid. If you own both machines, d/l the demo on each one and make up your own mind. If you only own 1 of the systems, then what's the point of a comparison video?

They're just flame-bait for Gametrailers. Lots of comments = lots of page views = lots of ad revenue.

Wayne @ May 11th 2008 9:14PM

GameTrailers are Xbots. Everyone already knew this, and now it's confirmed.

Meresin @ May 11th 2008 9:40PM

Their reaction to this mess convinced me that it was intentional. They didn't issue an apology for the mistake and/or fix the video. They deleted it and tried to pretend it never happened...Which leads me to believe that it was never true to begin with. If there was a mistake with the video and they were still right, that wouldn't change the fact, but it has simply vanished. That's very telling.

If what I've heard is accurate, they've also been banning people from their forums for talking about the comparison video in question. That might not be true, but it wouldn't surprise me either way.

I've played the demo and the crashes didn't impress me, but I've been playing too much GTA IV lately to be phased by just banging up a car.

Ninjakamster (PSN: Chin-Poh) @ May 11th 2008 9:51PM

How disgusting, and I really liked that website too.

Shows you that Xbox fanboys can be even worse than PS3 fanboys. They always complain we are so annoying and arrogant and yet they act even more like jerks than we supposedly too.

I still really like the 360 though and would like to pick one up later, I'm a Sony and Microsoft fanboy and would like to play the GTA4 DLC for one thing.

But yeah, I find Xbox fanboys now to be far worse than PS3 ones. UGH.....

Thomas @ May 11th 2008 10:03PM

they did the same thing with Assassin's Creed.. not putting the PS3 on its best settings for their comparison.

Dehshizknight @ May 11th 2008 10:34PM

This is a reason why I like the AOL/Time Warner network: small-time ads from gaming companies don't have any effect on there legitimacy. A bad review makes you take the ads away? Who cares, Time Warner is loaded.

Sure PS3Fanboy is blacklisted by some companies (Lol, heard it on PSNation), they at least keep their integrity.

PS3Fanboy, you rule!!!

usagi704 @ May 11th 2008 10:55PM

Those video comparisons, even when legit, are dumb and serve no purpose, but this one is the dumbest of them all! There is no way they can say it was a mistake when whoever edited this together had to have known about the obvious PS buttons in the lower left corner. As far as I am concerned, they deliberately tried to hoodwink everyone.

Ptrack_Git @ May 11th 2008 11:24PM

Could you imagine a world where people on the Internet would flame each other over, oh say... Zyrtec v.s. Clariton. They would say things like "the Z treat my indoor and outdoor allergy symptoms, why pay for half the medication" or "have fun driving into the back of an 18 wheeler idiot, I Clariton clear"...
i can

held225 @ May 11th 2008 11:32PM

This is just wrong.... IF it would have been GT's 1st mistake i would have said " its a convenient mistake" but since this seems to be happening o lot lately i have to say it was on purpose. And PS3fanboy should no longer post GT videos because of that, and Sony should pull ALL their stuff from GT and put a lawsuit on them for WRONG advertisement. A while back M$ was paying extra $$$$ to Gamespot.com for better game review and higher score. So from now on I only trust PS3fanboy or Japanese and some European Gaming websites .... its sad that it had to come to this.

Iridium @ May 11th 2008 11:56PM

Microsoft's gameplan since the 1980's has always been to trash the opposition to gain marketshare. They aren't going to stop now. Any company with any connection to them has to follow the plan or they lose the money.

Microsoft has legions of paid attack bloggers and are out to destroy all opposition. The EA and Microsoft world is a world where the only good competition is competition you bought.

Gametrailers comparison vids have always been 360 biased. They claim that they are run at the same settings with the same cables, but never are.

Big Easy @ May 12th 2008 12:17AM

Well I consider myself a Sony fan, love the PS1 and PS2. I'll be the first to admit that the Xbox did look better then the PS2. But I loved the PS2 cause it had better games and a larger library.

I'll also be the first to admit that most launch, and multiplatform games on PS3 didn't look as impressive either. But like most PS fans, I knew that better games are to come, and were to look impresive.

But now a days it is a different story, the PS3 is capable of having better looking games then the 360. This has been proven by developers who were willing to put in the effort to learn the new coding and make the games from the ground up for the PS3.

I don't know what is wrong with America, with the Sony hating. Even before the system had ever been released and nobody has ever played it, such a hatred was already expressed for it. It is selling better then the 360 all around the world except for America. Kind of reminds me of the HDDVD situation, were only in America was it selling.

Since GT is affiliated with MS, I have found many of thier "comparison" videos very deceiving. Plus, this is not the first time that they have been caught trying to dumb down a PS3 game. I remember the first couple of times they screwed with the settings, and were not using HDMI, which is full potential.

leiwei @ May 12th 2008 3:07AM

You don't know what is wrong with America? I'm gonna pull a funny.

I was w/ my gf once driving down a street late at night when I came across a billboard advertisement for an American car. It was an ad for a new hybrid car from them (I don't remember if it was Ford, GM, but definitely not Chevy). The only thing I could remember from that ad was what was written:
"American Hybrid. Think American."

AFAIK Toyota and Honda has had hybrids for quite some time with Toyota doing pretty well w/ em.

Bastard11 @ May 12th 2008 1:38AM

Of course it was intentional. Who doesn't have a bias against the PS3 these days?

renofury @ May 12th 2008 2:23AM

There is a strong rumor that gametrailers is biased towards the 360 but still in a research about review scores it has been shown that game trailers gives higher PS3 scores then other websites. Considering how much more blatenly Japs hate western products and give bad reviews to all western games, I cant feel sorry at all for the sony corporation.

The_Doctor @ May 12th 2008 3:22AM

what does that have to do with the fact that GT screwed up? It's because cocky of people like you that the Japanese don't like us westerners. The only reason they don't like our products is because their ones outlast ours 100 to 1. They won't choose an xbox360 over a PS3 just as they won't choose a Chevy over a Nissan/Toyota/Mazda.

NB @ May 12th 2008 3:54AM

Gametrailers is BENT. It is a front for Microsoft/Viacom.
Delete this trash from your bookmarks just as you deleted Shamespot.
Stand up for JUSTICE and INTEGRITY!
Delete this site from EXISTENCE.
Do not give MICROSOFT/VIACOMs GAMETRAILERS any more page hits.
Remember anything to do with the VIACOM/MTV BRAND IS BENT.

ihatebioshock @ May 12th 2008 5:24AM

I used to work at Codemasters, I may email some of my 'contacts' and ask them if they are actually identical dynamics/physics wise or if one system has the edge, I would think it unlikely though unless they were polling physics updates at a lower frequency to free up some performance headroom.

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