RUMOR #4: The version of BREED CDV shipped to stores was not the same version submitted by Brat Designs.

Source: An expansive and vitriolic post on the official BREED forums.

The official story: No comment.

What we heard: Once billed as a potential Halo rival, BREED has received almost universally dismal reviews since it was released last week. According to the GameSpot review, the main sticking points with the game are its "flimsy writing, atrocious voice acting, generic enemies and settings." However, one of the game's animators is reportedly claiming the game's problems are not the fault of the developer. In a series of posts on the CDV forums, someone claiming to be Brat Designs' Billy "Bli" Allison claimed that "we (Brat) finished BREED, but the released version wasn't the one we had finished." The person then leveled a series of charges against CDV, claiming the publisher re-wrote and re-recorded the dialogue, "'brightened' up" subtle lighting, ruined textures, changed level scripts, and shipped a build of the game several generations behind the one submitted by Brat. The poster even claimed that CDV is holding back a patch submitted by Brat "several weeks ago" which fixed many of the game's technical issues. When confronted with the laundry list of allegations, CDV's American reps forwarded GameSpot's requests for comment to the publisher's German headquarters--who never responded. Attempts to contact UK-based Brat were also unsuccessful.

Bogus or not bogus?: In this case, the silence was deafening--and damning. Not bogus.