Destiny review copies being sent out one day before release, impacting review dates

Iced_Eagle said:
No.

Diablo 3 was given to reviewer well in advance and reviews were embargo'ed until the day before the game released.

Obviously, in hindsight reviewers should have waited until launch day to judge the final game since it was always online and D3 servers were effed on launch day. However, my earlier point stands that they can definitely review the content of the game in advance, and then reserve a final rating to see how it holds up in the real world. Considering you can have 3-6 people in the campaign, and 12 players in multiplayer matches, you don't need thousands upon thousands of people to get an understanding on the campaign content for example.
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Ah yeah, I forgot about D3, it's just that I'm pretty sure reviews were late for HotS though.
 
Ridley327 said:
You can't even create a character without being connected to Bungie's servers.

As some have mentioned, this does seem like a case where Bungie wants a realistic environment for what they're trying to achieve. A couple hundred reviewers online at most and at different times does not seem like what they're trying to achieve.
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Yeah, that's a reasonable explanation.
I'm going to keep assuming it's a ruse because it was when EA did it, but that's a personal tendency towards cynicism.
 
LookAtMeGo said:
Maybe not but the game was fundamentally designed with those social aspects in mind. I guess they could have redesigned the entire game for the SP fans but they did not.
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I guess that's true. But I also wouldn't be surprised if Activision kind of encouraged that
 
Enough people must have cancelled pre-orders that I was able to get the physical limited edition from Amazon! w00t!

Cancelled my 'normal version', steel book version is mine!
 
Dangoesforth said:
Maybe Bungie and Activision don't want false reviews when the servers are just for reviewers as it will be a completely different experience without the shared world.
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Heh. Not really. Publishers don't care at all about giving a false experience when setting up review events. See games that end up being unplayable for VERY long time (ie: BF4, one recent COD I can't recall) without any mention of the problem made in reviews. Also, still remember how Activision treated pirates getting hold of some CoD weeks before media: they basically said "too bad, but if you really have to review it, give us good marks". Don't think if they saw some very positive and totally false review they would jump up and down to have it canceled.

While this kind of behaviour from publishers is usually something I consider the worst part of my work (the comic posted is pretty accurate :\ ), I have to say in case like this, not having prerelease reviews is probably for the best. And anyway, it's not like the game needs this much explaining, after two extensive public tests.

That said, love how Bungie is turning the table on that. "reviewing involves YOU, dear customer". Except you have to buy our game first, of course. Wish the preorder idiocy and the rush to buy everything day one would end. It would be so much better for media, players and all.
 
My first impulse is to say that they don't have enough faith in the game to allow early reviews...but frankly, after the BF4 bullshit I'd rather a game so dependent on online get reviewed after launch anyway.
 
Ooccoo said:
This game is a 7-8 /10 but people won't admit it because they either are blind or massive Halo fans. I've seen such a list before in the thread but I feel this need to be repeated:


  • Level cap of 20 to ensure years of DLC and sequels ($$$)
    One area per planet
    The usual "fetch, kill, retrieve" quests, but this time double it with faction-only items
    Poor selection of guns. Where's the sci-fi stuff? The FUN weapons? They don't exist
    Poor customization options
    No chat, no trade, no sense of community
    Loading screens aplenty
    You have a spaceship, but there's no space fights, so it's just cosmetic (probably planned for Destiny 2)
    Only one raid. These are the pinnacle of teamwork and challenge, yet we only get one for release. Pay moar later to get the others, same with basic features really
    Map design is mostly corridors from what we've seen so far (i.e. pretty linear)
    Monster variety is very poor from what we've seen so far (doubt the other factions add that much more TBH)

I could go on but I'll wait to play the game next Thursday. Overall I feel the game has potential but with Activision as a publisher I can't help but feel this will be a nightmare. There's already exclusive content behind paywalls (DLCs) or pre-orders offers. I feel like this will be a Diablo 3 in terms of content, meaning you'll have to wait a year before it has enough content to be satisfying.

The multiplayer is what will keep the game alive because honestly I don't see the story missions getting played that often. Destiny is a worse Borderlands from a gun/customization point of view and a worse Halo from a multiplayer/story angle. So it's an average game overall. Next week when reviews roll in it will be interesting to say the least.
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QFT
Am skipping this game maybe Destiny 2 will impress me
 
I dont think this means anything negative. tons of people here alone played the beta. If the game was jusy the beta repackaged with 5 more hours of content I would gladly pay 60.00 today. but we know its going to be alot more than that. For those needing a review before purchasing a game that has the greatest 1st hand word of mouth of any game in recent memory, heres an 9.2. or even an 8.0 if you thkink thats too high.
see everyone in old russia in about a week!
 
I'm gonna buy this anyways because there's not shit else out and I need something to play. However I wasn't that interested in the single player content and am less so after the alpha and beta because what I played was pretty boring even in comparison to mediocre Halo or CoD campaigns.

What sucks for me is all the multiplayer content which I am interested in is bundled with single player content into expansion packs that are more expensive than a map pack. I'm not gonna pay $20 for expansions every 3 months or so for a couple maps so I don't know if Destiny will have legs for me. It's just something to get me through the drought until Fall.

That being said the no reviews thing sucks for some people, who can't just drop $60 out of boredom. I had major red flags after the alpha and the beta didn't do much to ease those concerns. We've seen very little single player content and very little enemy variety, the eyeball enemies weren't in videos but that's it. You got your hive, fallen, big beefy guys, and robot guys, with a some variety in their ranks but their AI wasn't on the same level as Halo from what I could tell.

I just don't think this game is nearly as big as Bungie makes it sound and if the one area per planet thing is true they are smart not to let people review it cause it would cost them sales. If it wasn't true why not put people's concerns at ease and earn goodwill with skeptical fans, seems stupid not to. I could totally see them holding back single player content for the expansions and shortchanging their customers, wouldn't be the first company to do it. Still if there's not enough content in the main game they may be putting the cart before the horse. Ideally Destiny reviews were going to definitively answer the question of how much content was in the game prior to release and inform people's purchasing decisions, that's why people are upset and they have a right to be.
 
Smart play. Rushed reviews = NO PROBLEMS FROM WHAT I CAN SEE, GOTYAY, 10/10

Give them the game too early and you run the risk of someone actually playing it enough to offer critique.
 
Kinyou said:
I guess that's true. But I also wouldn't be surprised if Activision kind of encouraged that
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I dunno. It can't be denied that Bungie had been steadily adding more and more online integration with each Halo installment, so having a online-only game in this manner really doesn't seem like that much of a leap for them. I doubt much would have changed if they had partnered with a different publisher for Destiny.
 
I don't care about the reviews for my purchase decision in this case but it's still bs imo. The only reason I can think of to not get them out soon enough is because they're worried about the scores and what reviewers have to say.

I see people saying that Bungie/Activision are obviously confident because of the alpha/beta but what you're missing there is that it was an alpha/beta. Basically a demo. So the lack of content that some complain about is easily defensible there. It won't be in the "full" game though. Just my opinion. We'll see in a week (or so).
 
I'm surprised people are treating this with suspicion, they were confident enough with the game's quality that they released the alpha. It's hardly Colonial Marines.
 
Honestly - I can't see this game being accurately reviewed without a large community in place. The quality of your fireteam probably affects your experience greatly.
 
Kinyou said:
The game would work perfectly fine when played solo. There's no real reason to not give that option.
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There are plenty of reasons to not give that option, whether or not you like those reasons is another story.

disastermouse said:
Honestly - I can't see this game being accurately reviewed without a large community in place. The quality of your fireteam probably affects your experience greatly.
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Exactly. The game is far far better when you party up, BL was the exact same way.

Are the reviews going to play pvp? Strikes, raids, etc. Are they going to be able to do the 'world events', etc. How can they truly review the game?
 
Anybody thinking of canceling a GE preorder, I'll gladly take it off your hands. :P

I'm not worried about the game, I've played it, I know what it is, I know I like it, and that's enough for me.
 
Markitron said:
I'm surprised people are treating this with suspicion, they were confident enough with the game's quality that they released the alpha. It's hardly Colonial Marines.
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There were at least 3 early releases.

Pre-alpha, alpha and beta.

This late release of the final build is to try to end the rushed game reviews. For anything that lives or dies based on the online component, it would be a disservice for any reviewer to judge the game before the masses have a chance to dive in.
 
I honestly don't know how you could worry after playing the beta, if you didn't enjoy the beta, the discussion is pretty much over, the game is not for you, either it clicked and the game was amazing and you can't wait to explore more, or you are going to let some strangers tell you if you should spend money.

End of the day, reviews don't matter, if we went by reviews, then would make Titanfall the greatest game this gen, when in reality it got boring 3 weeks later for more than just me.

Got to judge for yourself, if you're a sony owner, you had a chance to do that twice already.
 
Quadraphonic said:
There were at least 3 early releases.

Pre-alpha, alpha and beta.

This late release of the final build is to try to end the rushed game reviews. For anything that lives or dies based on the online component, it would be a disservice for any reviewer to judge the game before the masses have a chance to dive in.
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this'll make them even more rushed, as the reviewers are in a competition to get it up first -- they'll play through it quickly and see what boxes they can check off.
 
After playing the Alpha and the Beta, I'm not too worried about the final product. The only thing that might bother me is length of the story mode and the missions being too repetitive.
 
Launch day reviews tend to give most games an automatic "9" with a blatant disclaimer about not being able use the online features, so maybe the Destiny reviews will be more accurate and help anyone that's truly on the fence.

After all the hours I spent with alpha/beta, I'm pretty confident that the game is worth my $60.
 
People act like there's some sinister reason for this. There's really not. It's becoming par for the course whether it be a AAA launch title or some obscure indie release. Most of the pre launch reviews are from industry shills anyway. You give warm fuzzy reviews? You get access. I'm not saying that reviewers don't perform a great service. A lot of them do. It's just that to me, the only review that is ultimately going to matter is my own.
 
This is a good thing, nothing worse than finding out an online component doesn't work after you actually buy the game *cough BF4 *cough*

Plus this is pretty much an MMO, so stands to reason that it should be played with others as to assess how good the game is.
 
I feel like it doesn't even matter if they get the review copy a day early or late. With a game like destiny, a review should take at least one week. You'll need to level high like in any MMO to fully tell your audience about this game. But I doubt a lot of sites will use much time, they will rush it out to be quick on the frontlines...
 
angrygnat said:
People act like there's some sinister reason for this. There's really not. It's becoming par for the course whether it be a AAA launch title or some obscure indie release. Most of the pre launch reviews are from industry shills anyway. You give warm fuzzy reviews? You get access. I'm not saying that reviewers don't perform a great service. A lot of them do. It's just that to me, the only review that is ultimately going to matter is my own.
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The bolded sentences do not compute with the rest of that post.
 
Seems like a bad call on Activisions behalf, pre-release reviews get the hype train into overdrive. That's one less free round of marketing.

Most likely due to servers in some capacity. Maybe they don't want the game to be reviewed in a vacuum and want them to evaluate the game with the same kind of in game player base that was there in the Beta, having all those ambient players certainly makes the game a lot more enjoyable.
 
reptilescorpio said:
Seems like a bad call on Activisions behalf, pre-release reviews get the hype train into overdrive. That's one less free round of marketing.

Most likely due to servers in some capacity. Maybe they don't want the game to be reviewed in a vacuum and want them to evaluate the game with the same kind of in game player base that was there in the Beta, having all those ambient players certainly makes the game a lot more enjoyable.
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Honestly though, do you really think they need anymore hype/marketing? Seen countless advertisements for Destiny, the Alpha/Beta did far more to hype the game than any other method.
 
I don't care for Destiny but the gameplay is solid.



I just feel there is going to be a huge lack of initial content for people that buy it.
 
I have it preordered for $35 so I'm not canceling. I will wait for reviews before I open it though.

I have a feeling this is going to be another Titan fall. Good first effort with decent review scores but lacking on content.
 
Hoping there's plenty of PvE content, I'm not that interested in PvP.
I'll be keeping my pre-order, I am getting a free headset with it from Tesco, yay!
 
Distresssss said:
I don't know how well that will go over because a lot of people didn't like doing it in Borderlands 2.


Will be fun to watch how well Destiny does.
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Which is kinda of surprising when you think about it. If you are not into a gear grind, don't buy a game that explicitly markets that feature as a major part of the content.

rrc1594 said:
A little suspect
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No, it really isn't, not even a little.

Even if the review copies went out Friday and they had all weekend to play/review it, how would they? PvP, Strikes, Raids, World Events, etc. All of these are meant to be played with a group of people. Would a weekend be enough time to get to max level, get on the gear grind treadmill and run all that stuff? Doubtful. Will the servers even be fully functional for the reviews? Personally, I think the review would be quite a bit better if they took a full week at release to review it...but we all know that isn't gonna happen. All major outlets will push to have the review up by Tuesday night, Wednesday night by the latest.
 
Arrogant Bastard said:
No, it really isn't, not even a little.

Even if the review copies went out Friday and they had all weekend to play/review it, how would they? PvP, Strikes, Raids, World Events, etc. All of these are meant to be played with a group of people. Would a weekend be enough time to get to max level, get on the gear grind treadmill and run all that stuff? Doubtful. Will the servers even be fully functional for the reviews? Personally, I think the review would be quite a bit better if they took a full week at release to review it...but we all know that isn't gonna happen. All major outlets will push to have the review up by Tuesday night, Wednesday night by the latest.
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They just post their impressions as they go along even if they aren't finished in time for the actual launch. IGN has done it multiple times before for longer games. Also it's not like by releasing it after launch, there won't be a rush anyway.

Now if their servers flat out aren't ready, that's a separate issue.

And no, you shouldn't have to gear grind in order to review a game.
 
It's kinda fu how fickle the gaming commuity can be. We saw what happens when a game is reviewed in a different environment. We saw the train wreck that was simcity, we saw the trainreck that was BF4. It's possible Bungie saw it too.
 
It's a weird one because I loved the beta/alpha so I don't need reviews to make my mind up on a purchase but I feel like I won't care about them by the time they hit. Which is a bit shit.
 
Activision uses to do the same with Call of Duty, just with part of the press. They invite you to save the day in a Call of Duty event every year. This event uses to be held just one day before the official release of the game. Moreover, it’s always an afterwork act, so, you always have your copy of Call of Duty near the midnight.

There is no chance to have your review in time.

This practice is not common for all the medias, unlike the big ones, others we have to wait and publish out of date…
 
I see this as a complete non-issue. With as heavily online integrated as Destiny is there shouldn't be a review posted day one to begin with.
 
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