Reasonable said:
Sorry, that doesn't cut it for me. A review of hardware like Kinect is a review where the reviewer has the hardware and can test it in various scenarios, not in some mall that's been set up by the supplier. That's a review. Not the reviewer queing to try it at Macy's. Two, while I know MS are continuing to work on Kinect with one month to go the hardware for launch has to be set. Otherwise they are not behaving sensibly and risk releasing something buggy. I don't get any need to hide Kinect though as it's been tested lots anyway and clearly the basic tech seems to work. As for the games, that's where they seem to be playing coy and the main focus for me. Again, unless they are risking releasing buggy titles, most games should be locked in now this close to launch, or very, very close to it. In short, unless they are rushing the games to market - which I wouldn't support for other reasons - then there is no way they shouldn't be able to get reviewers copies of the games. I actually don't think MS is looking to do much except avoid some low scores for the games in the same manner that some Move titles got, at least in the sense they won't be available at launch, but I don't like that and it simply destroys the whole notion of a valuable review. The bottom line is they do seem to be tawdry in gettings games into reviewers hands (and by extension slow to get them the hardware, too). |
The tech Demos have been out for a while. They are not the final iteration of the unit or games. MS appears to be really making several last minute adjustments to the hardware and interface. Not necessarily a good thing, but at the same time we can expect more at launch. To review the games now would not be a justice to the device. In any event, new consoles do not give many hands on reviews before a launch and MS is treating the launch of Kinect just like that.
