Review Embargos?

steviec

Well I was just reading an article about Oblivion at 1up.com

At the top it says they aren't allowed to review the game due to an online embargo, which explains why there's no reviews out there for what is clearly the biggest release of the month, even though it's already been out for a couple of days in the US.

I can't help wondering why. A couple of print mags have reviews but that normally happens a month in advanced, once the game is on shop shelves(and assuming it's not a dog) surely having as many reviews out there as possible is worth far more to the publisher than any deal a magazine could have cut with them?

I'm hoping this game doesn't turn out to be worse than expected. As of right now the game as a single 95% review from Official Xbox magazine, which I'm inclined to believe is more of an extended advertisement than a review. Maybe I'm just too cynical

madrab

yeah i get worried if there isnt a review score out for a game before it is released, it always seems like they must be hiding something

Dont be at yourself

Embargos are usually either due to a publisher having signed an exclusive (:rolleyes:) deal with a print magazine, or because the game isn't very good. Sometimes both.

Retr0gamer

PC Gamer gave it 92 or 93 in a leaked review, although they aren't the best anymore. Wouldn't trust an official magazine either, especially the official xbox mag that was responsible for the 9/10 Driver 3 sham. Still I kind of doubt Oblivion is going to be bad.

BLITZ_Molloy

Didn't all of Future publishings magazines except Edge give reviews of around 9/10 for Driv3r?

koneko

Bwaahahaha, Driver 3/10? Yeah, that was classic.

I don't trust magazine reviews, at all. I've seen them give good scores to obviously bad games, too many times. Enter The Matrix and Driver 3/10 are good examples.

As far as Oblivion goes, I'd say they have some sort of deal with some magazines, the game is hyped so much that these magazines will make money on their little exclusive reviews. I doubt the game is going to be bad though, reviews from people online (it's out in the US since monday) are all extremely favourable.

KdjaCL

http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/927345.asp

Some website breaking the embargo.


kdjac

rainbow kirby

Oddly enough, the reviews only seem to be coming up now for Metroid Prime Hunters, even though it was out on Monday in the States...

DonkeyStyle \o/

koneko wrote:

I don't trust magazine reviews, at all.

Yeah, really when it comes down to it, it's just someone elses taste in games... or, as already suggested, a sweet deal with the publishers.
I have a policy of 'no demo; no purchase'... with the few exceptions of proven concepts... things like the GTA series.
Or something I've spent months reading about and waiting for.
Couldn't care less what some (let's face it) random reviewer gimp thinks... he may write all pretty and have played a lot of games, but I've seen too many ratings that I disagree with.

Mr E

Thats why I like sites like http://www.metacritic.com. Not all reviewers can be coerced into giving good reviews, so seeing all ratings together on one page will definitely give you an idea of whether a game is worth getting or not.

BLITZ_Molloy

Gamerankings and metacritic are a bit rubbish though. Some games have 3 reviews. Others take into account ratings from 100's of crappy little fansites.

Personally I have a couple of reviewers I keep an eye on. Stuart Campbell is definately my favourite one.

The problem with most reviewers is they aren't capable of justifying their viewpoint properly. I don't care if a reviewer writes something I disagree with if he explains where he's coming from and how he came to the opposing conclusion.

Here's an example of a review I found particularly annoying. It wasn't because I disagreed with the score but because the whole thing was a complete ****ing shambles. Stuart wrote an extremely accurate and incredibly funny critique of the review on the forum and was promptly banned by the reviewer because he couldn't face up to the pages of negative feedback the review got.

I really recommend everybody read that critique. It's hilarious.

Dont be at yourself

Stuart Campbell wrote:

"The draw distance brings a visceral delight"

No it ****ing doesn't. "Visceral" means, essentially, "to do with the digestive organs". Unless you're saying that the draw distance is so good it made you **** yourself and you liked it, of course.

I love Stuart Campbell.

Retr0gamer

Useless formula drivel. Except not that good.

How I miss Sega Zone

Lemlin

Doesn't bode well. The last release I heard of that had an embargo was FIFA on the 360.

CiDeRmAn

With the presence of decent return policies in most game shops reviews are not as essential before purchase as they once were, if a game is a pile of dung you can simply return it and get something better, reading reviews with a cynical point of view would do you credit however as you can usually sniff a dodgy review a mile away, and if you don't like a genre of game, you are never likely to like a new title of that type, regardless of review score.

monument

BLITZ_Molloy wrote:

Gamerankings and metacritic are a bit rubbish though. Some games have 3 reviews. Others take into account ratings from 100's of crappy little fansites.

Apparently, the "crappy little fansites" do not hold the same weight as say Edge when it comes to the overall score – at least with metacrtic.com.

KdjaCL

BLITZ_Molloy wrote:

Gamerankings and metacritic are a bit rubbish though. Some games have 3 reviews. Others take into account ratings from 100's of crappy little fansites.

.

Actually they dont, had you noticed that review sites get stars and only 5 star sites reviews count towwards the overall score. So the crappy little fansites mean nothing.


kdjac

BLITZ_Molloy

These sites just strike me as a lazy and innacurate way of gathering statistics. Scores alone completely void the text and context of a review. A 7/10 in Edge means pretty good. In plenty of other magazines they never go lower than 70% unless it's absolutely awful.

Is a 3/5 star review a 60% score? I guess technically it is but people tend to interpret 5 star rated reviews differently.

monument

Or a quick way of finding reviews from many mags/sites.