Eidos lost a lot of credibility among gamers with the way it handled reviews of Kayne & Lynch. But it looks like the publisher is up to its old tricks again and has been trying to temporarily block low reviews scores for the upcoming Tomb Raider: Underworld.

The news was revealed via a Twitter post by GameSpot UK editor Guy Cocker, which said "call from Eidos—if you're planning on reviewing Tomb Raider Underworld at less than an 8.0, we need you to hold your review till Monday." Public relations company Barrington Harvey—which represent Eidos—then confirmed to videogaming247 that it was true.

"That's right. We're trying to manage the review scores at the request of Eidos," a company spokesperson said."We're trying to get the Metacritic rating to be high, and the brand manager in the US that's handling all of Tomb Raider has asked that we just manage the scores before the game is out, really, just to ensure that we don't put people off buying the game, basically."

It doesn't look like the tactic is working though, as the game currently has a Metacritic average of 78%. This includes sub-80% reviews from publications like IGN, 1up, Eurogamer, and Official Xbox Magazine UK. But given the negative reaction that the Kayne & Lynch incident inspired, it's surprising that Eidos would even resort to these kinds of tactics again.

Ben's thoughts

This is the dumbest thing I've ever heard... what is Eidos going to do, stop sending review copies to sites that don't comply? Do they really think reviews of Eidos games bring in enough readers for this to be a valid tactic?

It most cases being told you can't review the new Eidos game is something of a relief more than it is a punishment. Here's a hint at the best way to "manage" review scores: make good games. It's just that easy.