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Forums - Gaming Discussion - Have review embargos ever been a good sign?

platformmaster918 on 11 November 2014

I was noticing this holiday that games like Destiny and ACU, while they may not have gotten horrible reviews, have scored below most expectations and had GLARING flaws that were covered up until just before or even after release.  I also noticed that games like Dragon Age and SoM did not have such embargos and seem to do just fine with the biggest critics just thinking it's boring or samey or something generic like that rather a real flaw.  Can anyone think of a big game with a review embargo that ended up doing better than expected?

BTW guys I'm talking about excessively late ones like the day before or a few hours after the release




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Jizz_Beard_thePirate on 11 November 2014

Lord of the Rings: Shadow of Mordor
They were acting fishy up the ass but then the game launched and the review copies/embargoes went out and it did asscreed better than asscreed

But generally, if a game has a review embargo up the ass, I usually wont get it until I see the reviews



                  

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Mr Puggsly on 11 November 2014

Most games have a review embargo, even good or great games.

When publishers don't send a copy to critics, now that's a bad sign.



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ethomaz on 12 November 2014

Even 90+ games have day one embargo em does great.

The review embargo is not the issue... the fucinho bad game is.

Anybody that do precederá didnt care about reviews BTW.



starcraft on 12 November 2014

I think you should specify you're talking about review embargos that end within a day or two of the release date!



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jlmurph2 on 12 November 2014

You know review embargos are on most games right? Do you mean have late embargos ever been a good sign?
GTA V was late I believe.



MoHasanie on 12 November 2014

Yeah I'm going to start avoiding getting games with review embargos at launch.



    

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Burek on 12 November 2014

If you follow film reviews, it's a similar case. Film companies arrange screenings for critics in advance, so the reviews can come out on time. Sometimes, certain films will not have a screening. Those films always turn out to be horrible.

Same here. (OP needs to clarify he's talking about release day embargo). Bayonetta, Sunset Overdrive, Dragon Age, Forza Horizon...all had embargoes lift well ahead of release. All ended up reviewing great. Destiny, AC, Driveclub...on the other hand all disappointed, but were embargoed until after release.



platformmaster918 on 12 November 2014
cycycychris said:

Almost every game has a review embargo. Most Nintendo game have an embargo on them. They all turn out to be fine. The embargo's just make it so the Devs can control when all the news about there game comes out. And to make sure reviewers don't try to put out a review in one day to be the first that reviews a game. By making them have the game a week or 2, they probably will give a better review.

But, if a publisher has the embargo for the release date of the game or sometime after, that is a bad sign.

Basically every game has an embargo.

I was talking about excessively late ones specifically.  I realize they all have them to some extent




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2Quick on 12 November 2014

I remember batman arkham origins hate a late review embargo... and that's what caused me to ultimately not get it. i had a bad feeling about the game, especially if the reviews were not out yet for it...



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