This week's top rental charts from U.S. game rental company GameFly, representing the most requested games for the week ending December 3rd, highlight both to-be-released and already released games in a unique demand-specific chart.

This week's top five all-platform requests show little movement once again, after last week saw the list barely ruffled. Assassin's Creed still takes the top spot for a third week with Mass Effect in second for its second week in a row.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, which spent the last two weeks at number four, slips a bit to the fourth spot to make room for Kane and Lynch: Dead Men to move up one spot into the fourth spot, but that's the only movement -- Uncharted: Drake's Fortune stays at number five, where it entered last week.
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It seems like Eidos was making a false advertisement about Kane and Lynch.

Kotaku:With review integrity in crisis, who can you trust? Not those score whores at Kotaku, that's for sure. Not only did they give Kane & Lynch a glowing endorsement in their exclusive review, they went and gave it a perfect five star rating! Or, least Eidos seem to think so. For those curious, the quote actually comes from Joel's hands-on time with the game at E3. In July. Where no stars were handed out. Not even one. Oh Eidos.
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It's not like the relationship between Kane & Lynch and review scores wasn't messy enough. But now this? Visitors to the game's official site will notice, once the page's flash intro is done, that two review scores for the game are flashed for your perusal. One from GameSpy, one from Game Informer. Both look positively glowing! Both give the game a very encouraging five stars! Thing is, both are...well, not real. They're fabricated. Lies, if you will.

GameSpy did not say "It's the best emulation of being in the midst of a Michael Mann movie we've ever seen" in their review of the game. They said that in their E3 2007 coverage. In other words, a preview. They also did not give the game five stars. They gave it three.

As for Game Informer, same deal. The highlighted quote does not appear in the review of the game. Nor do they give it five stars. Game Informer don't even score in stars. They gave it a 7/10.
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Kotaku's Brian Crecente has a leaked copy of the National Institute on Media and the Family's annual Media Wise Video Game Report Card, set to be officially released tomorrow. This year's report card is broken into five parts:

¿ The MediaWise Video Game Report Card
¿ The Buying Guide
¿ The ESRB Rating System and Ratings Education Efforts
¿ The Retailer Ratings Education and Enforcement Surveys
¿ Annual MediaWise-Harris Interactive Poll of Kids and Parents

Kotaku gives a quick summary for each part.
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"Losing a job you've held for over 11 years in an abrupt manner is shocking, yes."

While the above quote should perhaps win Jeff Gerstmann the 'understatement of the year' award, the former Gamespot editorial director is still staying silent about the specifics surrounding his recent firing (citing the previously mentioned "legal reasons," among others). He has, however, told Joystiq that he still stands behind his controversial review of Kane & Lynch.
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Developments have slowed down a little bit over the weekend, but there is still plenty of chatter around the web about Gamespot's controversial firing of Jeff Gerstmann. Among the juicier bits from around the intertubes:

* In response to a Gamespot forum thread, the new Gamespot Manager of Community Development said he is "eagerly anticipating the official word to be released on Tuesday."
* Gamespot freelancer Frank Provo: "Personally, my respect for CNet is shot, and writing for GameSpot is going to feel like a chore for quite some time going forward."
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The author of the petition writes: "We the games community, based on the recent events that have transpired with the game review conglomerate GameSpot.com hereby present the following petition to Metacritic's chief operations officer in charge of content.

On November 29, 2007 GameSpot.com fired its chief editor in charge of game reviews Jeff Gerstmann. Because of a number of issues relating to game reviews, a number of employees left GameSpot completely even while their reviews are still up on that site. In the process, it became immediately clear that GameSpot's reviews are largely inconsistent as well as possibly fraudulent for certain games across all platforms.

We as gamers can not, and will not tolerate shady business practices in the video games industry as in the end that ruins gaming for everyone who will not tow the line".
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ValleyWag reports that Eidos is "freaking out" over l'affaire Gerstmann; top management there, an insider says, sincerely believes they didn't prompt CNET to fire Gerstmann, but fears they'll get the blame anyway.
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Not all advertisers are headed out the door, over the Gamespot controversy. Several companies, like Mountain Dew (Pepsi), Dell, and Sony are devouring the now available inventory left by the exodus of game ads.

From the article: "Despite boycotts and canceled subscriptions, it seems at least some companies recognize a hot topic when they see one. Unfortunately for those companies, many gamers are taking mental notes."

"If they want to support Gamespot's total breakdown in editorial credibility, then they have to understand that there are consequences involved," said 'HulleyToe', a gamer from San Mateo, CA. "It may not hurt them now, but just as advertisers use their dollars to influence companies like Gamespot and CNET, I can use my money to influence the advertisers."
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A number of Ziff Davis staffers (including a few writers for 1UP, arguably GameSpot's biggest competition) recently crafted an uplifting banner and marched to the GameSpot offices just two blocks away. The demonstration was a response to the recent unexplained firing of GameSpot contributor Jeff Gerstmann. After hearing the rumors that Gerstmann was fired due to pressure from advertisers following his lackluster review of Kane and Lynch, the ZD staff decided to show their support for their fellow gaming journalist.
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Joystiq just got off the phone with Sarah Cain, a CNET spokesperson who wanted to amend CNET's previous statement to Joystiq on the recent firing of executive editor Jeff Gerstmann. While reiterating that CNET does not discuss personal employee matters with the press, Cain said directly that "we do not terminate employees based on external pressure from advertisers." When asked specifically about whether any such pressure was even attempted on Eidos' part, Cain had no comment.
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Who says the average Joe is powerless against "the man"?

From the article: "And now, a cry that could end up hurting Gamespot even more than any of the above. A boycott is being organized, a very, VERY creative boycott."
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1UP confirms through their own source that Jeff Gerstmann was fired for his negative review of Eidos Interactive's Kane & Lynch.

According to 1UP, Gerstmann already came under fired from Sony for scoring Ratchet & Clank Future a 7.5, for which he as the (former) GameSpot editorial director was responsible for overseeing and defending.

1UP's source also points to CNET's new management under the new executive VP Stephen Colvin as the real catalyst for the firing.
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Apparently gamers aren't very pleased with Gamespot's removal of Editorial Director Jeff Gerstmann.

From the article: "According to a forum thread on their site, more than 400 of Gamespot's paid subscribers have already cancelled their subscriptions in direct protest of the move, with many more vowing to do so if Gamespot and parent company CNET do not answer up to the fairly heavy charges of putting advertising dollars ahead of editorial integrity."
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Although GameSpot and publisher Eidos have not yet made public statements over what led to the firing of GameSpot's Editorial Director Jeff Gertsmann, the accusation of publisher pressure is exploding all over the companies' forums. GameSpot currently has numerous threads on the incident, with one thread in particular having thousands of posts. Eidos has taken a different approach, locking down all threads on their site after apparently purging derogatory posts from thousands of angry gamers reacting to the rumor yesterday night.
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Rumors have been swirling today that Jeff Gerstmann, executive editor at CNET-owned major video game site GameSpot, was fired after giving a generally unimpressed review of Io Interactive's Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Gerstmann awarded the game a 6.0. (Though Shacknews does not score its reviews, our own Kane & Lynch review was similar in its verdict.)

Shacknews can confidently confirm via its own sources that Gerstmann was indeed fired yesterday from his position at GameSpot.
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LOVEFiLM, Europe's number one online DVD rental service, expects Assassin's Creed to top sales and rentals this holiday season.

"Assassins Creed will definitely be up there; our audience have already heavily pre-ordered this and the sure scale of the experience is very cinematic, so will prove popular amongst film fans," Chris Bird, head of marketing services for LOVEFiLM, told GamesIndustry.biz.

"Kane and Lynch will also do well, as will Call of Duty 4. FIFA 08 and PES will also be 'must buy' for anyone getting a new console over Christmas."
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SCi's latest interim management statement states that the company remains in talks over a possible buy-out, while outlining its latest quarterly sales results.

For Q1 FY '08 (July 1st to September 30th), SCi unit sales were up 14 per cent compared to the previous quarter, with notable success Pony Friends a highlight.

The statement also revealed first week sales of Kane and Lynch: Dead Men to be positive, which expectations high that the US launch of the title over the Thanksgiving period would yield good results.
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Nov 15, 2007 Bruce Willis is reportedly in the running to take a lead role in the movie adaptation of Eidos' Kane & Lynch: Dead Men. Peep our review here. According to Times Online, Billy Bob Thornton is also in the crosshairs and could star alongside the Die Hard actor in the flick. The Kane & Lynch film is in the hands of movie studio Lionsgate, which is apparently fast-tracking the adaptation. Kane & Lynch presents us with the dark, gritty and violent tale of two men bound together by ... » Read More

Pacific Crest Securities' Evan Wilson says new version of Nintendo's portable complete; holiday release torrent creating retail woes.

Wilson notes that not all games will be affected by insufficient retail space. "Clearly, the end-of-year squeeze creates limited space at retail, which limits the size of initial orders of games with less publicity and reorders of games with lower quality." He anticipates games with high preorder rates such as Guitar Hero III, Call of Duty 4, Assassins' Creed, Mass Effect, WWE, and Rock Band to be less affected by insufficient retail space. "Titles that could be at risk of getting squeezed," he continues, "include Haze, Kane & Lynch, and Uncharted."
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