Game reviewers: do they play throught the whole game?

[Cryoakira]

I've been working in VG press (in France) for 10 years now and my answer is : it depends.

Generally speaking, somewhere between 5 and 10 hours. More on RPG. Less on small games with easy grasping concept. So sometimes, it's enough to finish games, sometimes not.
But that's not alway relevant and since we're doing that all the time, since we're playing both great games and also all the shitty ones you'll pass, we can usually get a good idea of the overall quality of a game in a pretty "short" time.

You can have a good idea of a sport game (let's say Virtua Tennis 3) or car game (Motorstorm, Forza, Excite Trucks) pretty quickly because the mechanics are all there right from the begining. Most of FPS or action (God of War, DMC, Pirates) can be finished or at least 70% completed. At the opposite, it's really hard to have a solid opinion about MMO, RPG or RTS cause it may be great at the start, then show many flaws later (like FFXII).

Beyond that, it also depends on several other aspect :
- Affinity of the reviewer with the game (you'll spend more time on a game you like, of course).
- How long before (when not after) release date we recieve the game.
- Being a freelancer (or not), since you then need to work a lot (so faster) to earn a decent salary.

But don't forget one thing : 10 hours of playing isen't quite the same than 10 hours of reviewing a game.
In fact, I usually try to avoid reviewing games that I wish to play and finish.