In a bad-vibes moment, they’re denying a huge outlet like IGN a review code. No matter what I think of IGN in particular (nothing good tbh), that’s not something I can find a real explanation for other than “We made DC’s Gollum and want to avoid bad press as long as we can”.

    • Katana314@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I have seen it happen before when review outlets don’t get copies, but the game still turns out awesome. I think it happened for Doom Eternal.

      It feels pointless to play devil’s advocate here though, since one way or another, I’m basically sure it’s going to be terrible. I just don’t like consigning internet opinion based on anything other than gameplay and actual reviews.

      • ThunderingJerboa@kbin.social
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        10 months ago

        You are referring to Doom 2016 actually. While that turn out decent, one of their key arguments was due to it being online focused. We all know Doom 2016 had rather generic multiplayer.

        With that said, it feels silly not to have issues when publishers refuse to send out review keys. Its a huge red flag for a game, this doesn’t mean it will be bad but its a trend we shouldn’t be happy about. Its only done to help preserve preorder numbers.

        • Whirlybird
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          10 months ago

          Its a huge red flag for a game, this doesn’t mean it will be bad but its a trend we shouldn’t be happy about. Its only done to help preserve preorder numbers.

          We shouldn’t care about it at all, because you shouldn’t be preordering games. There is literally no need to in this day and age. When was the last time a game actually sold out and anyone was unable to buy a copy? The PS2 generation maybe?

          • ThunderingJerboa@kbin.social
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            10 months ago

            I agree with you but that sort of ignores the reality that many people preorder fucking games. Also you think its better there is less material out there in the world before a game releases? What kind of bullshit is this, I rather have fucking reviews out than letting the fucking companies just do as they may. Suppressing reviews is bad, having companies trying to weaponize gamers against reviewers is also bad. This isn’t to say reviewers can’t be shit but this braindead take I keep hearing is “reviewers bad, so this isn’t a loss” is fucking stupid, I rather we have more voices than less voices in this discussion and reviews are awesome if you find the right reviewer who has the same taste in games as you, hell looking at reviewers you disagree with is also awesome since maybe something they like you will hate and you will be alerted about that in the game. People don’t have infinite time to watch fucking streams of a game they will play especially a story driven game. Hell relying on the 2 hour refund policy of steam is also not sufficient since games can be quite fun for the first few hours but slowly becomes a slog. Dead island and Dying light are fantastic examples where you get a great first few hours then just so much fucking filler until you get some better stuff near the end of the game.

            • Whirlybird
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              10 months ago

              but that sort of ignores the reality that many people preorder fucking games.

              It doesn’t, I’m saying that people that do pre-order games need to stop doing it because there is no real reason to do it.

              What kind of bullshit is this, I rather have fucking reviews out than letting the fucking companies just do as they may.

              You can just not buy the game until after reviews come out even if they don’t come out til after the game releases. Crazy, I know.

              • ThunderingJerboa@kbin.social
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                10 months ago

                It doesn’t, I’m saying that people that do pre-order games need to stop doing it because there is no real reason to do it.

                Who knew telling people to stop preordering video games means they will stop preordering video games. Its almost like this shit has been said for well over a decade now with no impact at all, if not the problem getting worse due to volume.

                You can just not buy the game until after reviews come out even if they don’t come out til after the game releases. Crazy, I know.

                And those reviews have to come from the people who bought the game on day 1 especially if review copies aren’t given. Crazy, I know. So someone has to bite the bullet to actually say what a game is like.

                Edit: Again really, are you pointlessly supporting the act that corps will just hide their game’s dirty laundry until launch day, this helps noone besides the suits, we should strive for more voices before a game launches, not cheer for the silencing of voices because we find some of them obnoxious.

                • Whirlybird
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                  10 months ago

                  And those reviews have to come from the people who bought the game on day 1 especially if review copies aren’t given. Crazy, I know. So someone has to bite the bullet to actually say what a game is like.

                  Yeah, the people and companies who review games for a living.

                  Again really, are you pointlessly supporting the act that corps will just hide their game’s dirty laundry until launch day

                  I’m not supporting it at all, I’m simply saying that if you’re of even average intelligence it shouldn’t make any difference what they do.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I’ve read somewhere else a couple of days ago that the official explanation is that without the public servers being live, reviewers would not get the full experience.

      Not defending WB (I’m not interested in that game at all), just giving context.

      • caseofthematts@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        That’s just an excuse. WB choose when to activate the servers. They could have easily put them online for reviewers.

        • ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de
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          10 months ago

          So they could be in a game world with like 50 other people?

          *turns out it’s just a 1 to 4 person game.

          • heyoni@lemm.ee
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            10 months ago

            Reviewers getting copies a week before launch are generally netting like 40-50 hours of game time in a short timeframe. Combine that with the fact that it’d be more like hundreds of reviewers and you might actually have a decently active community.

        • JJROKCZ@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Unless they’re having trouble getting them working, which isn’t encouraging for launch.

          They at least have some working, they flew a bunch of streamers to LA for an event and had them stream the game a few weeks back.

          Looked like a crackdown-ish game with DC character running around. Think like the Spider-Man games of the last few years but without the beloved characters

        • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Well, now they’ll be reviewing a fully Denuvo’ed copy, so the version actual buyers get to play.