Brian Crecente’s “explanation” of why the version of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim he played was so glitchy.

My complaint here is two-fold, and is primarily about “the PR folks”. Don’t worry, Crecente isn’t exactly innocent, but I’ll come back to him later.

Skyrim is currently lsated for a November 11th release. For those of you who aren’t particularly calendar-savvy, that’s 25 days away. We’re less than a month from being able to play Skyrim - there is absolutely no fucking way that the version Crecente played was “pre-alpha”. That’s lunacy.

Furthermore, Crecente is an industry professional. He’s the Editor-in-Chief of one of the largest gaming news sites on the internet. He’s not an idiot, either. He knew he wasn’t playing “pre-alpha code”. So why not call the PR person out on their bullshit? Why go to the lengths of including actual, provable bullshit in his review?

I am absolutely sick to death of reading about journalists playing “pre-alpha code” this close to a game’s release. It’s a term used by PR types to deflect criticism of certain flaws or glitches in pre-release code, and it’s infuriating that it seems to have become acceptable not just among PR types but among the press. It’s bullshit, and any game journo worth his pay should know that it’s bullshit. Certainly they shouldn’t attempt to regurgitate that bullshit for reader consumption. That puts them on the same level of the PR scumbag who used the misleading term in the first fucking place.

Few of the things I write about here on the blog actually make me angry, but shit like this makes me feel genuine, palpable rage. I’m so furious I could just shit.