Game Informer have just sent out their newest edition to American stores nationwide and this months' review scores can be found below. Super Mario Galaxy receives the game of the month award, while Rock Band also impresses. Time Crisis 4, Soul Caliber: Legends and Jenga were this months' worst games.

Rock Band (PS3/Xbox 360/PS2, EA): 9,25 / 9,25
F.E.A.R. Files (Xbox 360, Sierra): 6,5 / 7
Beowulf (PS3/Xbox 360, Ubisoft): 5,75 / 5
Kane & Lynch: Dead Men (PS3/Xbox 360, Eidos): 7 / 7,25
Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command (NDS, THQ): 8 / 8,5
MX vs. ATV Untamed (Xbox 360/PS3, THQ): 8 / 8,25
Scene It? (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 8,5 / 7
Viva Pinata: Party Animals (Xbox 360, Microsoft): 5,5
Bee Movie (Xbox 360/PS2/Wii/NDS, Activision): 6,5
Time Crisis 4 (PS3, Namco Bandai): 4,25 / 4,5
Super Mario Galaxy (Wii, Nintendo): 9,75 / 9,75 **Game of the Month**
Smarty Pants (Wii, EA): 7,5 / 6
Rayman Raving Rabbids 2 (Wii, Ubisoft): 7,75 / 8
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (Wii, Capcom): 8,25 / 8
Soul Calibur Legends (Wii, Namco Bandai): 4 / 4
Ghost Squad (Wii, Sega): 7 / 6,5
Battalion Wars 2 (Wii, Nintendo): 7,25 / 7,25
Endless Ocean (Wii, Nintendo): 6
Trauma Center: New Blood (Wii, Atlus): 7,5
Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (Wii, EA): 6,75
Dancing With the Stars (Wii/PS2, Actgivision): 5,25
Jenga (Wii, Atari): 2
» Read More 

Dec 5, 2007 Enter the US side of Eidos' official Kane & Lynch website, and you are greeted by an unintentionally appropriate quote taken from Game Informer magazine, which ends: "What could go wrong?". Well, cripes, where do we start? Even the most casual of internet-fed gamers must be aware of the firestorm raging around IO Interactive's new game. And Kane & Lynch's profile certainly hasn't been bolstered by accusations of Eidos allegedly falsifying review scores advertised on the official ... » Read More

The editor's note at the bottom of Jeff Gerstmann's controversial review of Kane & Lynch: Dead Men notes that "this review has been updated to include differences between the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions and a clarification on the game's multiplayer mode." While this is true, a comparison between the original and edited versions of the review shows that the edits went significantly further than that.
» Read More 

Kotaku reports that the official Kane & Lynch: Dead Men website has removed a series of fake five-stars reviews and ratings.
» Read More 

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.
» Read More 

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.
» Read More 

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.
» Read More 

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.
» Read More 

"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.
» Read More 

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."
» Read More 

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".
» Read More 

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.
» Read More 

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."
» Read More 

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.
» Read More 

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.
» Read More 

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."
» Read More 

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.
» Read More 

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."
» Read More 

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.
» Read More 

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.
» Read More