While writing my review of Kane & Lynch: Crazy Caper Crooks, I noticed something strange about the box art. Here's the actual cover, followed by a screenshot from the game.
(A mysterious duo)
Kane they've pretty much presented as-is, other than his hair being a little thinner, and brown, not black. No, the real issue is with the depiction of Lynch. Not only has his hair undergone the brown/black switch, but suddenly he's got a lot more hair, bordering on a widow's peak. In case it's not clear enough in the picture on the right, here are a here are a few more shots of Lynch in his natural habitat.
(From L to R: Lynch about to kill someone. Lynch killing someone. Lynch after having killed someone)
It's plainly visible here in close-up, with his hairline highlighted.
I totally understand the need to put the best foot forward when designing promotional art, after all, studies show that up to seventy-five percent of videogame buyers do, in fact, judge games by their covers. But this case is a little baffling. It's already a game about two middle-aged men who murder strangers for next to no reason. Is it really plausible that an executive somewhere thought that a person who was planning on buying a game about characters who looked like this:
Would balk at the idea of buying a game starring characters that looked like this:
I wonder if different versions of the cover art were tested? Is there a projection of lost sales weighed by follicles divided by square inches of forehead? That's a chart I would love to see.
Oh, and I apologize for the crude, crude photo retouching. I promise I'll avoid editing pictures in the future.
Nothing relevant to this conversation, that's for sure! Because we're here to talk about (sorry, write and read about, respectively) GC_Danny, who's updating this profile for the first time in thirteen years!
So let's take a gander back at that time and see what's happened! In addition to writing hundreds of video game reviews, Dan produced a book that can be legally purchased by almost anyone! He also wrote two short films, two episodes of television, and two movies! Although, sadly, and through much fault of his own, the movies have yet to be released.
In addition to general game reviewing, he's also dabbled in more long-form work, writing some of the longest and most comprehensive game reviews of all time. Then there's his non-GameCritics blogging, where he's famous as the world's foremost expert on the TV show Criminal Minds, as well as the co-host of a weekly podcast - he's even working on a new videogame/critical experiment, which you can find out more about here!
If all that wasn't enough, just a few months ago he rebranded himself as 'The Hidden Object Guru', hoping to stake another claim of ultimate expertise, this time over a genre of casual games! Will he be successful? Only time will tell, but you're free to join the thrilling ride at his YouTube channel!
- Sniper Elite 5: Preview Follow-Up - May 4, 2022
- PREVIEW: Sniper Elite 5 Is A Dangerous Game - April 27, 2022
- Weird West Review - April 19, 2022
Heh heh heh
“studies show that up to seventy-five percent of videogame buyers do, in fact, judge games by their covers” – I hope this is part of the joke… :/