It's his job as a reviewer to finish the games he reviews.  No ifs or buts about it.

" @BD_Mr_Bubbles: Why is it that when someone rates a game that they have not finished people throw a fit? You don't have to play a game from start to finish to know it sucks.  Like there is something at the end of the game that makes up for the game being shit. And I am not saying that FF XIII is bad but if I play for an hour or two and don't like it then I doubt my view will change if I play it to the end. And remember it's someones OPINION not fact. "

" @Funzzo said:

" @BD_Mr_Bubbles: Why is it that when someone rates a game that they have not finished people throw a fit? You don't have to play a game from start to finish to know it sucks.  Like there is something at the end of the game that makes up for the game being shit. And I am not saying that FF XIII is bad but if I play for an hour or two and don't like it then I doubt my view will change if I play it to the end. And remember it's someones OPINION not fact. "

It's his job.  It's what he gets payed for. "

" @Funzzo said:

" @BD_Mr_Bubbles: Why is it that when someone rates a game that they have not finished people throw a fit? You don't have to play a game from start to finish to know it sucks.  Like there is something at the end of the game that makes up for the game being shit. And I am not saying that FF XIII is bad but if I play for an hour or two and don't like it then I doubt my view will change if I play it to the end. And remember it's someones OPINION not fact. "

It's his job.  It's what he gets payed for."

I've never finished WET but I could certainly tell you that it's a piece of shit that you shouldn't play.  I'm not going to deny that it certainly helps to finish the game you're reviewing, but so long as you can make a sensible argument that provides clear examples as to why you're arguing what you're arguing, what does it matter?  Especially in an RPG like this, if the end last five hours is awesome while the first thirty sucks, why should anyone play that when the average audience is only going to play through some of that horrid first thirty hours?  It's why I would never tell anyone unless I abjectly hated them to play Persona 3: The Answer. 
 
I'd need to read the review before I could decide if it was any good, but since it's been pulled, I'm going to guess it just wasn't a good review.  Though I'm with Funzzo on this - the tenor of this thread would be VERY different if he had given it a good review... by which I mean this thread wouldn't even exist.

" @FluxWaveZ said:

" @Funzzo said:

" @BD_Mr_Bubbles: Why is it that when someone rates a game that they have not finished people throw a fit? You don't have to play a game from start to finish to know it sucks.  Like there is something at the end of the game that makes up for the game being shit. And I am not saying that FF XIII is bad but if I play for an hour or two and don't like it then I doubt my view will change if I play it to the end. And remember it's someones OPINION not fact. "

It's his job.  It's what he gets payed for."

So if he had done his job and played through then he would have rated the game higher? I know the ONLY reason this thread was started was because someone thought the game should have been rated higher. If I was a food critic and someone brought me a plate of shitty food I would not have to eat the whole plate to know it was bad!!!!!! "

" @Funzzo said:

" @FluxWaveZ said:

" @Funzzo said:

" @BD_Mr_Bubbles: Why is it that when someone rates a game that they have not finished people throw a fit? You don't have to play a game from start to finish to know it sucks.  Like there is something at the end of the game that makes up for the game being shit. And I am not saying that FF XIII is bad but if I play for an hour or two and don't like it then I doubt my view will change if I play it to the end. And remember it's someones OPINION not fact. "

It's his job.  It's what he gets payed for."

So if he had done his job and played through then he would have rated the game higher? I know the ONLY reason this thread was started was because someone thought the game should have been rated higher. If I was a food critic and someone brought me a plate of shitty food I would not have to eat the whole plate to know it was bad!!!!!! "

Holy crap.  First of all, that metaphor is total shit given the comparative topic.  And you're taking my response totally out of line.  I said it's his damn job.  He's not being payed to half-ass his work and post a review.  Imagine if all reviewers played half of every single game they reviewed.  That would make them no better than user reviewers.  If you think that he should be payed to half-ass his job, then you are an idiot, pure and simple."

Im not talking about him doing or not doing his job, he reviewed a game he played through halfway this we know.  What im saying is that givin the low score of the game I doubt he would have givin it a higher score had he finished the game.  And I think the food critic metaphor fits well. A game is something that has many catagories to be judged upon as do food. And another thing wont a game usually have the same play mechanics throughout the game. If there had been some massive change in the gameplay or something like that then I could see people getting angry over a half-assed review but then again why would they be getting mad in the first place if they see it's a half-assed review.

If Square-Enix sent them a borked review copy, then it is Square-Enix's fault.

" @BD_Mr_Bubbles said:

" Looks like they realized they screwed up  http://news.teamxbox.com/xbox/22240/Editors-Letter-to-TeamXbox-Readers/  I respect that they did this I dunno how the rest of you feel just my thoughts. "

Thats a pretty crappy editorial line to take. If even Andrew Fitch the creepiest weeaboo around can't give the game more than 5 after playing two thirds of it then I imagine it doesn't matter if he plays the final few hours. "

I think the part that particularly hurt that review was that he just flat out bashed Final Fantasy XII from the get-go.  When you have to bash another game in a game review, you're doing something wrong.

Seems the review has either been removed or the site's been hit by so many clicks that it's not working properly (more likely the former as all the other pages are loading though). 
 
Guessing they realised that publishing a review when your reviewer hasn't finished the game is just bad practice - Ryan refused to do it for Dante's Inferno and with good reason. 

I've been pretty critical of this game but I think I might cave and buy it!... looks okay.

Is this the same Fitch on the Geekbox?  If so that guy is a hater he doesn't do anything but hate all the dang time on anything and everything.  I am also pretty surprised he didn't finish the game before putting his review up.  In my opinion that is pretty crappy game journalism when you don't even finish a game before reviewing it.  It is rare but a game can do a complete 180 towards the end.

I probably won't buy it first day because the games that came out since Christmas and the ones coming out now make it like Christmas in March and I do have limited funds.  But as someone that enjoys a good JRPG I will probably give it a shot.

LOL TeamXbox removed the Final Fantasy XIII review from their website. 

" It is rare but a game can do a complete 180 towards the end. "

" @DeShawn2ks said:

" It is rare but a game can do a complete 180 towards the end. "

Which is unacceptable for a game.  Even if the game is only four hours long (which this game isn't), why should I or anyone else have to suffer through two of those hours to get to the fun two hours?  It's one thing if the game starts off strong and then becomes terrible but again, the only reason this thread exists is because got a lowish score. "

They removed the review because all the copies Square sent him didn't work, it was apparently a "debug" disc whatever that means :S 

i dont think you always need to finish a game to knw you dont like it though. 

In rpg reviews do you actually believe on usual they play through the entire game?

They seem to have deleted the review. 
 
EDIT: Found a cached link of the deleted review from metacritic. 
 
 http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=final+fantasy+xiii+teamxbox+review&d=715453890794&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=c8ffc63f,9acafd1

" In rpg reviews do you actually believe on usual they play through the entire game? "

Even so, if the reviewer played 30hrs of the game and didn't like any of it. That's a pretty damning indication of how bad the game probably will be. Big review sites won't give FFXIII low scores because they're in the pockets of SE's marketing dollars. I find it ironic that a lot of the high scored reviews out there for FFXIII give a long list of what's wrong with the game, but at the end of their reviews they still say it's a good game. I canceled my pre-order in favor of Yakuza 3 this week. Next week it's God of War III.

" If a game sucks it sucks, you know how the story is going/how the game plays way before 30 hours. "

That or, you know, it's just one person's opinion.
 
Also, if reviews dictate what games you buy then you probably shouldn't be playing video games.

" so the game sucks and thats it.. can we get over it now? "

" Even so, if the reviewer played 30hrs of the game and didn't like any of it. That's a pretty damning indication of how bad  the game probably will be. Big review sites won't give FFXIII low scores because they're in the pockets of SE's marketing dollars. I find it ironic that a lot of the high scored reviews out there for FFXIII give a long list of what's wrong with the game but at the end of their reviews they still say it's a good game. I canceled my pre-order in favor of Yakuza 3 this week. Next week it's God of War III. "

I am starting to hate review scores entirely. Metacritic only amplifies that hatred, and the fact that some devs actually get paid or get bonuses based on Metacritic rankings is horrible and moronic. My wildest fantasy is a day and age where people actually start reading what's written in a review, instead of giving a passing look at the score and going "OMG THIS GAME SUX" / "BEST GAME EVARRRR."  People also need to remember that reviews are the opinion of the writer, not fact.

Ten point scales with decimals are also friggin' annoying. Riddle me this! What exactly is the difference between, say, an 8.3 and an 8.4? Hmm? Yeah, I thought so. I can't believe people actually think that if a game gets a 7, it sucks. In a 10 point scale, wouldn't 5 be middle of the road? Average? Hmm?
 
Reading message boards sometimes seriously makes me ashamed to be a gamer...  End nerd rage.
 
Disclaimer: This is no way a response to TeamXbox and their score. Nor is it a response to anyone in particular in this thread. I just needed a place to vent, and I was here. So yeah. Also, I love you.

Yeah he shouldn't have to finish the game to review it. But I say ditch the review based on the debug copy and wait on the one on the retail copy. If they're saying the debug copy is messed up then they shouldn't post a review. 
 
Another thing is I'm really getting tired of scored reviews. For my regular reviews I'm sticking to Penny Arcade and Kotaku. Sorry Giant Bomb.

If I may, a direct quote from Team Xbox in relation to the review and why it was pulled from the site. 

" The review was based on 30 hours of gameplay on a reviewable "debug" copy provided to TeamXbox by Square Enix. However, due to an unfortunate manufacturing error in that build (as well as a subsequent copy also supplied by Square Enix), the reviewer wasn't able to completely play through FFXIII to the end. "

    

" They seem to have deleted the review.   EDIT: Found a cached link of the deleted review from metacritic.    http://cc.bingj.com/cache.aspx?q=final+fantasy+xiii+teamxbox+review&d=715453890794&mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&w=c8ffc63f,9acafd1 "

" Yeah he shouldn't have to finish the game to review it. But I say ditch the review based on the debug copy and wait on the one on the retail copy. If they're saying the debug copy is messed up then they shouldn't post a review.  Another thing is I'm really getting tired of scored reviews. For my regular reviews I'm sticking to Penny Arcade and Kotaku. Sorry Giant Bomb. "