You can't do a review before a game is even released. Because there is no 256 players that even own the game yet. Even if there were, you still need to earn points in order to play with 256 players, which takes a lot of time. Oh and these reviews came in before Zipper released a patch for the game.

Full patch notes can be found below:

Gameplay

• Added ability for player to use knife during a reload animation.
• Applied significant tuning adjustments for all weapons and armor.
• Increased sprint duration before tiring by 30%.
• Lowered XP requirements for levels 2 thru 4.
• Lowered level-entry restrictions for Sabotage from Level 3 to Level 2.
• Lowered level-entry restrictions for Acquisition from Level 5 to Level 4.
• Lowered level-entry restrictions for Domination from Level 10 to Level 8.
• Enabled proper level requirements for unlocking headgear, facegear, and uniforms.
• Fixed problem with recoil/firing animation that kept playing for a few seconds after the player fires an automatic gun and uses knife swipe simultaneously.

Interface

• Fixed bug where incapacitated players’ nametags would occasionally disappear.
• Repositioned onscreen weapons for improved field of view.
• Armory items (facegear/ headgear/ uniforms) reordered.
• Removed helmets from “Loadout 3” for all factions.

Graphics

• Made significant increase in framerate during player-heavy games.
• Changed light settings for all environments.
• Polished recoil effect for better realism.
• Fixed offset muzzle flash effect.
• Tuned camera to shake more realistically when hit by bullets.
• Adjusted “blur” effect for both normal sights and iron sights.
• Added alternate reload animation.
• New “light scatter” treatment for all skies.
• Repaired various “weapon clipping” issues.
• Enacted several particle fogging adjustments.

Audio

• Switched first-person weapon sounds to true stereo.
• Moved first-person character interactions and weapon switches to true stereo.
• Tweaked sounds effects relating to landing on surfaces.

Technical

• Added error display and queue panel updates to notify player when they’ve encountered a “join game” failure.
• Made various server stability fixes and tweaks.

By next week we should have real reviews of the actual full game.

Source: http://blog.mag.com/blog/2010/01/mag-beta-vs-final-game/

You need to provide a link...

I don't think this affected the scores that much.

... Are you mad that it isn't a "9/10" average game?


Does it fcking matter! I can see how you might be mad, if you are a huge fan of the game, but don't get too worked up over it. Maybe it was just the "!" in the title, but that's how you came off.

Who ever said i was mad?

I believe reviewers review games on launch, well most do.

It shouldn't effect the score and the overall response to the game...its really going come down to word of mouth...haven't seen alot of advertising for this one...

But this game is different. I just explained on top. A lot of reviewers are taking their time to give us a fair review.

That funny guy is doing ads for them, I've seen it a few times recently.

I agree that it's a bit weird to review a game that's main selling point is having a huge battle with 256 players, when there wouldn't be 256 players to play with based on retail code. I'm assuming most of them are basing their opinions on the beta, which is IMO stupid and potentially misleading. Imagine someone reviewing an MMORPG before the MMORPG even goes live.

Here's a pretty positive first day impression from Kotaku's Brian Crecente: http://kotaku.com/5458225/mag-first+day-impressions-of-a-burgeoning-war

They'll give us the full review when he's had time to, you know, play the game, unlock the 256 player mode, and get a feel for the community. Instead of trying to be the first review out, based on the beta, and without giving the game a fair chance.

When a game is this multiplayer focused, the community that develops is essential to the experience. Anyone could play the beta. Only people who want to play the game buy it. And I'm willing to bet that the people playing and the game as a whole is a lot better than the beta was.

Teamwork and communication is so key to this game and that will depend on the community that develops. It would have been nice to have a commander and squad leaders in every beta game I played. That way, when my team was dominating our objectives, we could siphon off some of our squadmates to help other teams that were having a much harder time. It was disappointing to see that we had captured our 2 objectives, but every other squad was strugging to even unlock the objectives (if you have played the beta, you know what I'm talking about). It would have been awesome if we had a commander who would speak up and ask if our squad leader could send over 3 or 4 guys to help take some other objective instead of our "default" objective.

That's why I'm waiting on the game. I want to see what kind of community develops. SOCOM has a great, dedicated community. Although some people can be assholes to "noobs," the overall community I thought was great. Hopefully MAG can get the same kind of following.