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No Half-life 2 Review Again In Gametm?

JoeK

By JoeK
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Jaysus

Jaysus

Posted
Posted
will you be reviewing any games in future that appear in absolutely every mag on the market before yours?

Well, we will always try. But sometimes things just don't go to plan, so who can say for sure?

Personally (and this is my opinion - I'm not speaking on behalf of the mag), after the comments received from genuine readers (avoiding those from people who hate the mag anyway and are using this 'situation' just to bash us), I don't want the mag to leave out any more reviews of this nature. It's clear our readers want our opinions no matter how late and this is the opinion I will be bringing to any internal discussions should similar situations arise.

But as I've said, who knows what the surrounding issues to any future 'situations' may be?

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Mogget

Mogget

Posted
Posted
If this debate is still going on, here's what I think.

I would like a review in the magazine however late it is. Loads of readers won't have bought it yet, partly because there were so many other big releases at the same time. I subscribe, and I keep old issues and reread them sometimes. I don't own a pc that I could play games on, but I'd still be interested in reading a half-life 2 review. I don't own a ps2, but I read reviews of ps2 games. I'll read good reviews of games I've already played. A review serves more purposes than just helping people to decide whether to buy a game or not.

If, as seems to be the consensus, it is a particularly important game, I would be interested to see what gamestm makes of it, as I probably will play it some time in the future.

They should have reviewed it late, they can bitch about the publishers in the editorial and whatever if they feel it's justified, but not reviewing it just seems silly.

Thanks for converting my babbling BS into something coherent :)

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Guybrush

Guybrush

Posted
Posted
Has it directly affected your purchase of said game?

I wouldn't say that's necessarily a robust argument.

That would imply that we read magazines soley to influence our purchases. Which is, of course, partly true. We buy magazines, we align ourselves with their judgements, which in turn inform us as to the Games To Buy.

But the Internet has shifted the goalposts: we can usually read a review (or First Impressions) weeks before we even read our trusted magazine's review. Hell, I bet you had Super Mario Sunshine or GTA:SA pre-ordered but still wanted to read the Definitive Edge Review.

In the case of hotly-anticipated games (Which are usually categorised as AAA before a playtest, never mind purchase) reviews aren't going to matter to the eager gamesplayer. Magazine editors are surely aware of this (and I'm sure Edge have acknowledged the Internet effect), and yet continue to review these games.

And we love them for it. We enjoy reading informed opinions from our favourite writers. And that is the primary reason we purchase games magazines. Consequently, the decision to refuse to review the game remains baffling.

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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted
Consequently, the decision to refuse to review the game remains baffling.

Come come. It's not baffling. We know the reason.

Games TM didn't like the way they were treated. And so, despite Half Life 2 being one of the most anticipated and frothed over games EVER, they decided not to review it.

So Games TM dig their heels in. Who loses out? The Readership. Great!

Well done to EVERYONE involved in this for your selfishness and lack of foresight.

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Stolly

Stolly

Posted
Posted

I made the point a few pages ago which sort of went by the wayside but with one hand how can they think spending time reviewing games that they give 3 or 4 out of ten (which frankly I have not even a bean of interest in) and yet not review this game.

GM 12 (as an example):

NHL Hitz Pro 4/10

Dungeons & Dragons Heros 4/10

UFO: Aftermath 4/10

Postal: Classic & Uncut 2/10

Why waste time reviewing these, really? Why not review Half Life 2 instead? Even now its not too Late. Can cover CS: Source and HL Deathmatch whilst they're at it.

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martTM

martTM

Posted
Posted
GM 12 (as an example):

NHL Hitz Pro 4/10

Dungeons & Dragons Heros 4/10

UFO: Aftermath 4/10

Postal: Classic & Uncut 2/10

Why waste time reviewing these, really? Why not review Half Life 2 instead? Even now its not too Late. Can cover CS: Source and HL Deathmatch whilst they're at it.

Worst. Example. Ever.

Way to pick out half-page reviews from well over a year and a half ago. Fancy digging out issue 1, while you're at it? <_<

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Stolly

Stolly

Posted
Posted
Worst. Example. Ever.

Way to pick out half-page reviews from well over a year and a half ago. Fancy digging out issue 1, while you're at it? <_<

Sorry just grabbed at random. I still have issues 1 -12 and most up to something like 22. I personally stopped buying following the review of FFXI. I'm sure most will have a smattering of 4's and 5's won't they?

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Guybrush

Guybrush

Posted
Posted
Postal: Classic & Uncut 2/10

Hey, thousands were waiting with baited breath for that score.

TRUFAX.

Of course, I'm being facetious, but tell me, how do you know a two's a two until you play it (which in turn raises interesting questions as to what games merit a playtest, whilst other gold discs lie strewn across the office unplayed: what's the criterea here?)? Unless you're advocating that all games received should be played, but only the most significant reviewed.

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SaintM

SaintM

Posted
Posted

A better example is:

Why use 12 pages on the look back at last year (which was a pain to read due to the decision to go landscape) when apparently

dedicating up to four pages to a game that most of our readers would already own would of been a waste of space
12 pages of games and news a lot of your readers would already of know about/own was a waste of space when it could of easily of been condensed into 8 pages, and also had a HL2 review.

Sigh.

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Stolly

Stolly

Posted
Posted

Of course, I'm being facetious, but tell me, how do you know a two's a two until you play it (which in turn raises interesting questions as to what games merit a playtest, whilst other gold discs lie strewn across the office unplayed: what's the criterea here?)? Unless you're advocating that all games received should be played, but only the most significant reviewed.

Good question - but certainly the line has to be drawn somewhere. Either way that line I'd imagine is comfortably below Half Life 2.

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Burai

Burai

Posted
Posted
I wouldn't say that's necessarily a robust argument.

That would imply that we read magazines soley to influence our purchases. Which is, of course, partly true. We buy magazines, we align ourselves with their judgements, which in turn inform us as to the Games To Buy.

But the Internet has shifted the goalposts: we can usually read a review (or First Impressions) weeks before we even read our trusted magazine's review. Hell, I bet you had Super Mario Sunshine or GTA:SA pre-ordered but still wanted to read the Definitive Edge Review.

In the case of hotly-anticipated games (Which are usually categorised as AAA before a playtest, never mind purchase) reviews aren't going to matter to the eager gamesplayer.  Magazine editors are surely aware of this (and I'm sure Edge have acknowledged the Internet effect), and yet continue to review these games.

And we love them for it. We enjoy reading informed opinions from our favourite writers. And that is the primary reason we purchase games magazines. Consequently, the decision to refuse to review the game remains baffling.

Well that's all fine if you're a bit mental. However, and as I pointed out pages ago, magazines aren't really here for that sort of thing any more.

All games magazines exist to do are act as an expensive catalogue for games with publishers willing to submit their code for advertisement.

If wanting to read advertisements is the end of the world for people then fine, but pretending that magazines exist for any other reason than to generate business for the games industry is hugely delusional.

What gamesTM have refused to do is run an advert for a game. Valve and Vivendi never bothered to make arrangements for the advert to be written, so it hasn't happened. They've exposed the "you scratch my back" nature of this business in the most stark terms possible, due to the game being as high profile as it is possible to be.

There are many people who take games magazines far too seriously and that includes many of those who work for them. In this day and age with the Internet perfectly capable of supplying better-than-print copy for free and the likes of Driv3rgate exposing the magazines for all they really are, I'd have kinda hoped that maybe people would have actually been able to see through it all. Yet still some people still have this slavish devotion to these things that I used to have when I was 10.

For those of you with nothing better to do than piss and moan about it, I'm sure it's been ace venting your spleen with your stupid conspiracy theories and what have you. I'm sure it's really hurting that you can't read the words or compare the numbers to what Edge did. But at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. Half Life 2 is a fucking great game. You don't need some bought review disguised as an "opinion" to tell you that.

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Burai

Burai

Posted
Posted
this argument goes on and on. it's really very simple. if they reviewed it those that wanted to read it would have. those that weren't interested wouldn't have. NO ONE WOULD HAVE COMPLAINED.

Yes they would.

The inevitable pages of vitriolic comparison to the Edge review would have made this bomb-site of a thread look credible.

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Spacehost

Spacehost

Posted
Posted
pretending that magazines exist for any other reason than to generate business for the games industry is hugely delusional

<_< So presumably features on games' development, various analyses of past games, interviews with games dev perosnalities, that's all to shift code?

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Dimahoo

Dimahoo

Posted
Posted

I go to Metacritic now - games mags are kinda pointless these days what with the advent of the internet.

So presumably features on games' development, various analyses of past games, interviews with games dev perosnalities, that's all to shift code?

You mean some person telling you how great something is, and in real life, its not (EG - Revolution).

TBH, i don't mind reading about game develpment, but don't care that much.

I've nothing to do with the industry.

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