Why no reviews of COD: Black Ops

DerryRed

Anyone else noticed that it's been next to impossible to find a review of COD: Black Ops prior to last night's launch. The cynic in me is saying that they don't want people to know how bad it is, in case it has an effect on the launch sales.

FatherLen

everyone who has it is too busy playing it

Ravage1616

everyone who has it is too busy playing it

Defo, and for the few hours i played online it was good craic!

DerryRed

Weepsie wrote: »

activision had reviewers sign non discloure agreements so reviews could not go live til after 8am this morning, gamecentral in the uk metro site gave it 9/10 and a glowing write up. they tend to give the best, most honest reviews too i think.

No review copies were sent out either, journos were all brought to hotels for a day to get to play it.

That should answer your question.

Is this usual practice? Has this happened with other games? I know that this happens from time to time with films, but it is usually always a really poor film that won't allow reviews to be published in advance of release.

The site I go to for reviews is IGN and their review this morning gave it an 8.5. Personally I won't part with my hard earned cash until I've had a chance to read a review. For the most part I only go for games that IGN give a 9.0 or higher, so I think I'll be giving this year's COD a miss, and wait for next year.

Firefox11

Just after reading the Eurogamer review:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010-11-08-call-of-duty-black-ops-review

humanji

It's generally more common with big games like this, that the reviews are withheld. First day sales will count for the majority of this games profits. Since there are so many fans of the series, there were millions of pre-orders.

If a bad review comes out then these profits would take a major hit as people say they'll hold off for a while to see other peoples opinions, and pre-orders will be cancelled. Even a review score of 7 or 8 out of 10 can lose a company millions of dollars in revenue. And there's the fact that the more sales they get, the more free advertisement they get. I saw an article about it on the news last night. I don't remember the last time I've seen them talk about a game unless it was mired in controversy.

It's also a fairly cut-throat industry and beating their competitors, EA, is a must in order to stay at the top of the market. If a million copies were to be sold, for example, it would be better to have them sold on the first day as opposed to a few a day over an extended period. It looks better on the balance sheets and can make a game appear more popular than it's rivals

TheMooseInNam

Posted this on the IRL Black Ops thread.

"Graphically very rich and very slick. Enough details on the maps to make them interesting without being cluttered. Sound is good but probably not as good as BFBC2 or MoH which were outstanding. Some excellent features on the mas ie. Missile cilos that open and close randomly allowing access to flags easily... when a missile launches in the background, everything shakes like crazy.

Controls and handling, exactly as you'd expect from CoD but without the "quick" scoping.

Leveling up is challenging without being too hard. Reached level 15, I think by 5am and basically passed out! Love the credit system.

Found the Famas to be awesome at medium to close ranges. Accurate and mindblowing rate of fire! Also very impressed with the semi-auto M14 with reflex scope, a very solid battle rifle. Thought the SMG's were a bit weak but once I've unlocked hardcore mode, that'll be sorted.

No experience of the single player yet. First impressions are very positive but have only touched the tip of the iceberg, loads left to explore. Very hard to knock what I've seen so far but it's still early days"

marco_polo

DerryRed wrote: »

Is this usual practice? Has this happened with other games? I know that this happens from time to time with films, but it is usually always a really poor film that won't allow reviews to be published in advance of release.

The site I go to for reviews is IGN and their review this morning gave it an 8.5. Personally I won't part with my hard earned cash until I've had a chance to read a review. For the most part I only go for games that IGN give a 9.0 or higher, so I think I'll be giving this year's COD a miss, and wait for next year.

Not having a go at you, but it is a bit strange to base a decision to buy solely off the review rating of a single website, IGN are hardly the be all and end all.

Anyway the point i was going to make is that this it is exactly the reason why embargos are more commonplace nowadays. Even with very decent reviews day one sales could plummet on the back of a percieved 'poor' 7-7.5/10 rating from the top websites.

DerryRed

marco_polo wrote: »

Not having a go at you, but it is a bit strange to base a decision to buy solely off the review rating of a single website, IGN are hardly the be all and end all.

Anyway the point i was going to make is that this it is exactly the reason why embargoes are more commonplace nowadays. Even with very decent reviews day one sales could plummet on the back of a perceived 'poor' 7-7.5/10 rating from the top websites.

I take your point and it's a fair one, however games are not cheap and I'd rather spend my money (and time) on something that is going to be a quality game. I know I don't speak for everyone but personally I'd rather hold off on buying a game, watching a movie, watching a TV show, or even reading a book until I know it's worth my time and money. I've consumed too much mediocre content over the years, hence this philosophy.

As for basing my decision on a review of a single site, again a fair point, however I do trust IGN as I've always found their reviews to be spot on in the past. At the end of the day everyone has their go to place for reviews, and for me it's IGN.

P.S. The fact that Eurogamer has only given Black Ops 8/10 is another sign that this is not the best effort.

DarkJager

DerryRed wrote: »

I take your point and it's a fair one, however games are not cheap and I'd rather spend my money (and time) on something that is going to be a quality game. I know I don't speak for everyone but personally I'd rather hold off on buying a game, watching a movie, watching a TV show, or even reading a book until I know it's worth my time and money. I've consumed too much mediocre content over the years, hence this philosophy.

As for basing my decision on a review of a single site, again a fair point, however I do trust IGN as I've always found their reviews to be spot on in the past. At the end of the day everyone has their go to place for reviews, and for me it's IGN.

P.S. The fact that Eurogamer has only given Black Ops 8/10 is another sign that this is not the best effort.

8/10 is a bad score now? Also, I wouldn't ever trust a review score from Eurogamer again. They gave MOH 8/10 when it was an utter ****fest (Black Ops literally destroys it in every single way). They also gave Mafia 2 4/10 when it was clearly deserving of at least a 7. I've given up on reviews to be honest, if I'm interested in a game I'll play it and make up my own mind. Too many reviewers these days who don't even care for the genre they are reviewing and give a half arsed attempt at commenting on it.

Fingleberries

Why take review sources from a single site? There are a few great sites (like Metacritic) that get you the average review scores from across the board.

Black Ops currently has a 90% reviewer rating (7.3/10 user rating)
to compare with previous CoD games: MW has a 94, MW2 has 94. World at War has 84 rating.

Hope that helps.

marco_polo

DerryRed wrote: »

I take your point and it's a fair one, however games are not cheap and I'd rather spend my money (and time) on something that is going to be a quality game. I know I don't speak for everyone but personally I'd rather hold off on buying a game, watching a movie, watching a TV show, or even reading a book until I know it's worth my time and money. I've consumed too much mediocre content over the years, hence this philosophy.

As for basing my decision on a review of a single site, again a fair point, however I do trust IGN as I've always found their reviews to be spot on in the past. At the end of the day everyone has their go to place for reviews, and for me it's IGN.

P.S. The fact that Eurogamer has only given Black Ops 8/10 is another sign that this is not the best effort.

Oh I am fairly fussy myself, I just look around at few more sources, and wouldn't consider 8/10 to be a bad score.

Anyway don't mind me, your game buying decision process is none of my business.

RealistSpy

How to unlock hidden games in Black - Ops