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Dave Halverson is the founder of numerous publications about video games including GameFan and Gamer's Republic. He also founded Fusion that publishes both Play and Rocket magazines which cover games on multiple platforms, as well as anime, manga, film, DVD, comics, TV, toys, music, and media. (not to be confused with the UK-based Play, which covers Sony's PlayStation product line). Fusion also publishes the Girls of Gaming and Anime magazines, and it's also in charge of the Play Online website.
Dave Halverson is also a ghost in the game Fatal Frame II.
Controversy
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Halverson has been criticised before for giving unusually high scores for games rated far lower elsewhere in the industry. For example, in the past few years he has not rated a game lower than 7.0 for Play magazine. Some of this can be explained by the fact that he can choose what games he wants to review. He has also been accused of showing particular favoritism to Sega. In multiple issues of Play Magazine, Halverson himself reviewed Sega games including Sonic Unleashed, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Golden Axe: Beast Rider. Each of these games received negative reviews except for Halverson's where they were lauded with praise. Halverson even went so far as to criticize other reviewers for their scores of Golden Axe. Additionally Sonic the Hedgehog was named Best Action Platform of 2006 in their February 2007 issue, Play magazines June 2007 issue had a "Best of Sega" section, and Sega Licenses had the most number of cover stories than any other company.
While writing for GameFan, Halverson maintained two review persona, "E. Storm" and "Skid." GameFan's review system involved small reviews from three different reviewers. On occasion, Halverson would write two of the three reviews under his two pseudonyms. This allowed Halverson to "double his opinion" while the readers were led to believe that the opinions where those of two separate people.
While reviewing the Atari Jaguar game Cybermorph, Halverson was unknowingly under the influence of the hallucinogenic drug, LSD.[1]