Where are all the Black Ops 2 reviews?

[Lucky Godzilla]

This is a mistake. Reviews dont mean anything anymore, they are all bought. A bad review means a bad relationship with a publisher, and that means less money for the journalists. They may have majored in writing, but they know how to do simple math.

Saying that reviews are 'bought' is a half-truth at best. It suggests that the publisher is directly paying for a 9/10 or higher review. That isn't happening. The relationship is a little more complicated, and a lot more disgusting.

Suppose you run a Game Journalism Blog. You need revenue to stay afloat, and that comes from advertisers. Not just ads for games, but... well... think of any non-game related ad you've seen on any gaming site before a video. Hell, I'll go try and find some right now...

Wow, way to go Escapist! I started up FIVE different videos, each from a different series and didn't see one ad. Stay classy!

Okay, different site. I decided to go over to GameTrailers and BOOM, right at the top of the home page is the CoDBLOPS2 review. I get an ad for Spike TV! Of course, the sides of the page are ads...

Back to my point. In order to attract advertisers, Game Sites need traffic, and lots of it. How do get it? They get exclusives from publishers. Teasers, trailers, interviews, hands-on time. If a site gets it's hand on a trailer before their competitors, they get the traffic. If it's a trailer for a new game from a series with a huge fan-base... Cha-ching!

So how do they get these exclusives? They have a cushy relationship with the publisher. One doesn't outright shower the other with cash, but they do scratch each-others back.

Think about it. If you're doing promotions for Activision, who do you give the EXCLUSIVE 20 second long Call of Duty 10 teaser to? The site that gave Call of Duty 9 a 8.1/10, or the site that gave it a 9.8/10? When E3 comes around, everyone gets to see the big stage show, but who gets invited to the private room and with the special sneak previews and hands-on demos?

Who gets the early review copies?

Don't believe me? Don't want to think the publishers regularly exchange access for favorable press? Don't want to imagine a world where publishers pre-screen potential reviewers? Refuse to believe that some reviewers are willing to sign NDA's concerning product flaws just to get their hands on an early copy?

These are not isolated instances. In theater, they teach you the importance of 'maintaining the illusion'. Actors have to stay in character, costumes have to be consistent, stagehands have to be virtually unnoticeable. If something fucks up, the illusion is broken, as well as the audiences immersion. That is what keeps happening to us. Every two months or so, something breaks the illusion, and before we all wake up to realization that what we're watching is a staged production, a publisher comes along and says 'This isn't our policy!' and dumps the PR group responsible for the mess in the first place.

The only hole in your argument was resident evil 6. Ads were plastered all over every major gaming site, yet it still received mediocre views. The same could be said of warfighter.

 

[Baron_Rouge]

not a must buy. My purchasing decision is largely based on reviews.

This is a mistake. Reviews dont mean anything anymore, they are all bought. A bad review means a bad relationship with a publisher, and that means less money for the journalists. They may have majored in writing, but they know how to do simple math.

OK, firstly, reviews tell me what features the game has. They tell me about all the modes, and they show me gameplay. That's all largely inconsequential, but it does help my purchasing decision a bit. However, I place more importance on reader reviews. If I can hear what normal people who have actually played the game think of it, that's gonna influence my purchasing decision a lot more. Case in point, Black Ops Declassified. I saw a trailer, looked awful. I was sure it was gonna suck, especially since it was being developed by Nihilistic. However, I recently saw some user reviews, and people seem to really like it. I'm gonna wait for some more, of course, but it's pushed it from a "definitely not" up to a "maybe", at least. User reviews, which are also reviews, I might add, influence my buying decision a large amount.

If you discount reviews entirely, you're discounting the opinions of both professionals and everyday people. What do you base your purchasing decision on then?

 

[JochemHippie]

No idea.

Doesn't matter much though, I'm only waiting for TB to tell me whether the port is actually half decent of not.

 

[Cranky]

What do you mean there's no IGN Black Ops 2 review?

Of course there is!

Man, you killed me. That was the funniest thing I've seen on Youtube in months.

OT: I'm totally waiting for reviews on this. I'm going to check ones not obviously on the payroll to see if the whole "major additions, choices in the campaign, growth for the series" is really legit or just gimmicky stuff. I've always liked COD zombies but I'm not dropping 60 bones just for that.

Accurate depiction of the IGN review, for sure.