VG247 Journalist Mistakes Uncharted 2 for Uncharted 4
John Williamson / 9 years ago
Video gaming journalism isn’t the most trustworthy of professions and consumers can be incredibly skeptical of any professional critique from mainstream outlets. There can be a stark contrast between press review scores and user opinions, as shown by Mad Max. However, this is nothing compared to the absolute incompetence and tomfoolery which occurred in an Uncharted 4 preview by VG247.com. Despite being one of the gaming industry’s major websites, the article’s writer staggeringly mistook Uncharted 2 HD for Uncharted 4. Even more hilarious, the original article contains a sentence which reads:
“….Uncharted veteran in me immediately shimmied a sign post and leapt through a hole in a nearby wall.”
It does seem a little bit suspect that an “Uncharted veteran” couldn’t distinguish between 4’s press demo and the most successful game in the series. VG247 has removed the original article, but the internet never forgets so here is an archived version. Throughout the piece, there are criticisms about the game being “too formulaic” and overly similar to the previous games; the amount of irony here is just unbelievable.
VG247’s Editor Matt Martin, issued a statement and apologized for the misleading information:
“We’d like to apologise to Naughty Dog for a massive mistake we published last month.”
“On September 30 we published an article titled “Is Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End too formulaic?” based on what we thought was a hands-on session with Uncharted 4 at the Tokyo Game Show.”
“We didn’t realise it at the time; what we’d played wasn’t Uncharted 4, but the remastered Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, from the recently released Uncharted Collection. We were not aware of this until after the article went live.”
While some very loyal readers are defending this absurd situation, it’s one of the largest blunders I’ve seen in a long time. Surely, anyone who has invested time in Uncharted 2 can instantly recognize certain levels, voice acting or gameplay segments (or the title at that start – Pete). The traditional gaming press is struggling to compete with YouTube personalities and community media is becoming more popular via streaming. Honestly, this gives the impression that the writer is clueless and hasn’t actually played any of the Uncharted franchise. Also, the editor should have noticed this fairly quickly which shows a lack of care.
Thank you VG247 for providing us with this information.