17-02-2003 00:41									#61
	Tired of ads?

Most every store says 2/25, so I'm inclined to believe that.

Which means it taking a whole month and a day to go from gold to store.

	17-02-2003 03:06									#62
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

You know EA did the same thing with command and conqueror some store actually had the game in there back but were not allowed to put it on shelves until EA told them to.

	17-02-2003 18:58									#63
	Tired of ads?

28th of feb for me, but then its been that way for ages

i still hope i'll wake up in the morning and find it on my doorstep =)

ooh sometimes the preorders get shiped early, so here's 2 hopeing

	18-02-2003 02:40									#64
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Well, I have a simple theory about that:

The game is crappy, and they have every reason to be afraid of the reviews.

Therefore they try to sell as many copies as possible everywhere at the same time within a small window of opportunity, before the reviews come out (and before the wave of angry complaints rolls over forums like this one.)

	18-02-2003 03:31									#65
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

If that were the case they would not have given advance copies to reviewers. If you look for reviews now you will find them.

	18-02-2003 04:40									#66
	Suffering from ads?

Not only that but the reviews have been danm good.

In chatting with the Beta Testers and some of the reviewers the more they play the more they understand and the better the game is.

That does not sound like a bad game to me.

Sammual - Master of X Fanatic

	18-02-2003 05:02									#67
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

I am more interested in the reviews of non-commercial sites (that don´t get any advance copies). I have often heard about the commercial mags being bribed someway or other. And Advertising is their life blood, after all.

	18-02-2003 06:36									#68
	Enter the AD-FREE zone

If they are blatantly false reviews those places will not last long. Nobody will bother reading there next review. Time will tell very soon if your theory is valid.

	18-02-2003 19:38									#69
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: I have often heard about the commercial mags being bribed someway or other.

Well, what you heard is wrong. In the six-plus years I freelanced for Computer Games magazine, I was never told what to write for a review or edited in any way that distorted my opinion of a game. This notion that the magazines are somehow in the pockets of the publishers is complete and utter bulls**t.

	18-02-2003 20:05									#70
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

'cept when it comes tme to get advance copies to review, then a bad review has you on the blacklist not to get the latest game to preview\pre-review...

The web has killed most gaming mags, and the rest will soon follow. Page counts are down, Ad counts are up, magazines have a lead time that leads them to be behind the times with any kind of news or info...

	18-02-2003 20:17									#71
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

quote: Originally posted by MitchDev 'cept when it comes tme to get advance copies to review, then a bad review has you on the blacklist not to get the latest game to preview\pre-review... The web has killed most gaming mags, and the rest will soon follow. Page counts are down, Ad counts are up, magazines have a lead time that leads them to be behind the times with any kind of news or info...

On the whole, I would tend to disagree. Gaming sites are usually unafraid to give games bad scores. While big titles usually score well, I have seen sites slam big titles as well.

I still remember when Tiberian Sun got roundly flogged.

On the other hand, sites and mags have been known to recieve huge amounts of pressure from publishers.

	18-02-2003 21:40									#72
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

Yeah, sorry, I forgot to specify primarily magazines in the first paragraph, but I'll believe "Real People" on the web before "reviewers" and their "official" brethren...

	19-02-2003 00:41									#73
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Barry whatsisname from IGN said in the IGMOO thread on his review that he's been kicked out of a couple of places for refusing to alter his review score to suit the request of an editor. Unless it's all one big snow job (which I kinda doubt, he'd have no reason to go to IGMOO in that case), I think you can believe that his score is honestly given.

	19-02-2003 03:53									#74
	Put an end to popups!

And it's not just the computer industry with gaming reviews. Cars, bikes, sporting goods, movies, books, etc. all can be readily influenced by advertisers, marketers, produces, etc. Will the internet change this? Maybe.

With so many people able to write reviews on products, you will invariably run across those who give both positive and negative reviews based on brand loyalty, popular opinion, and pure whimsey. It can be difficult to wade through the waves of bad information on the internet to find the good.

	19-02-2003 03:57									#75
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

Yeah, but once the game's access is limited to just the "priveledged few", the sheer number oif reviews wil allow people to check many reviews and by comparing the various reviews, get the true skinny on the game.

Infogrames sucks, and I hate them, I wish Quicksliver had found a more reputable distributor for their baby...

MoO3 has entered the "bargain bin" phase for me, I won't pick it up until I can get it for less than $30 at this point.

	19-02-2003 03:57									#76
	Put an end to popups!

BTW, Comrade Tribune, you may or may not be happy to know that the most common comparison of Moo3 is to EU. Those reviewers that liked EU liked Moo3.

But hey, you're welcome to believe the game will suck. You'll still buy it anyway. You'll just feel bad about doing so.

	19-02-2003 05:00									#77
	Full PM-box? Change here!

I'm sure its different thn EU, 1 or 2. Maybe some similarities, but there will be more differences.

	19-02-2003 05:07									#78
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

any guesses on why gamespot hasn't posted a review yet?

that's really my time table. I think gamespot has a pretty good history of posting reviews (regardless of what you think of them), within a day or two of actual availability in stores. Sometimes same day.

I just haven't heard a peep from gamespot about the game for a couple of months now.

I guess they are still playing a review copy...or something...

	19-02-2003 12:46									#79
	Inflate your Upload Space

I sent GameSpot an email asking them why the game was not being given an early review, seeing as numerous other sites have already received copies and done so...

The dummy at Gamespot that answered me hadn't even read my letter correctly, replying that they "had no information on that release date."

I re-wrote them and said, look fella, I was asking about your review plans, not the release date.

No reply as yet...but I do plan to cancel my sub to them, they haven't impressed me much anyway...