Where are all the Black Ops 2 reviews?

[Savagezion]

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

Of course there is!

I was going to post something else, but your video cracked me up. 'Twas awesome. 3:39 minutes of hilarity.

 

[Cavan]

I remember going to a job interview once. The guy asked me what my hobbies are, I mentioned gaming..his face lit up as he asked "Do you play Call of Duty?" and was similarly disappointed when I said no and mentioned how he didn't know many people who played CoD.
I strongly believe I would have been hired for a job just so the guy could have somebody else who played CoD in the office with him.

Call of Duty is so bad it 'tuk mah jerb'.

And that is fact.

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

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.

 

[putowtin]

Here's a review for you:

"COD Black Ops II will be bought for teenage boys, by parents who have no idea and ask stupid questions in the game shop like 'can the blood be turned off?' Said teenagers will don headsets and call everyone in the world a 'fking noob!' in their annoying squeeky voices, giving those of us who play the Assassin Creed and Mass Effect multiplayers a break!"

What do you think?
(It'll still be more realistic that the IGN review!)

 

[Baron_Rouge]

if you're not a fan then...well, a review wouldn't change your opinion or buy the game.

A review doesn't change your mind? How do you make up your mind on whether or not you should buy a game?
I know that I'll not buy this one, but that's only because I just hate the way Activision set higher prices for their games, and don't lower the price for years (Black Ops is still $60!).

I meant change your opinion on buying THIS particular game. Of course I go through all the views before buying any game/product, but Call of Duty is one of those franchises which you either love or you hate. A hater will never like it, and a lover will never hate it, reviews are irrelevant.

Not necessarily...I've only played one CoD game (Modern Warfare 3), and it was good fun. That makes this entry a consideration, but certainly not a must buy. My purchasing decision is largely based on reviews. I'm sure there are other people who are interested, but not enough to guarantee an automatic day-1 purchase.

 

[The White Hunter]

Does anyone know? The games comes out tomorrow and even IGN doesn't have a review for it. Usually reviews come out several days before a game comes out. I'm wondering if Activision is pulling a warfighter on this.

I wouldn't worry about them pulling a Warfighter with it, a CoD game does what it say on the tin I very much doubt they could fuck up as bad as Warfighter, I'm hoping my copy actually comes tomorrow!

 

[The White Hunter]

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.

I'm expecting the major additions to be baby steps in the right direction myself, I don't expect huge changes but I expect the campaign to be a bit more varied than usual. I pre-ordered anyway for split-screen fun and games.

 

[Loud Hawk]

As far as I can tell, there are 2 reasons for it, one affecting all publications and one only affecting the slightly smaller ones. Both of which probably mean that Black Ops 2 is not as good as they hoped it would be. (It was fun, but nothing special when I played it at Eurogamer and Gamescom)


The 2 reasons are as follows:

1: The review embargo has not been lifted yet, so no publication is allowed to release a review, not even the big ones like IGN. Usually the embargo is one or two days before release. Very rarely is it on the actual release date. (Not a good sign)

2: This one only really affects the smaller sites, but it seems that Activision is being quite tight with review copies for Black Ops 2. Personally I have not been able to receive one, but have had little problem getting review copies of other Activision games and games from other publishers.

Well, that is my reasoning for it.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Holy crap that is coming out tomorrow? No one I know has mentioned it at all.

Same here. Not a single person in my life knows or cares about BO2 release. Yet somehow it's going to be the best selling game ever.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

When there's uniformly no reviews from any of the major sites, you can bet on it being an embargo.

IGN says review coming on the 13th.

 

[StrangerQ]

As not being part of "hey lets hate modern military shooters and whine about them 24/7"
I have gotten quite curious since things they do with CoD:BO2 seem bit innovative.
I do not have interest in genre but i hope for future that they do something innovative and start moving current shit standard of their chosen genre foward.

 

[aguspal]

I still have to try it out. But not now, busy with another game right now.

Captcha: chuck norris. Well, that was unexpected.

 

[Cabisco]

I was really hoping for an advanced review, they seem to be trying new things with this game and it made me interested in COD again (which I thought would never happen). If I find out the pacing of the game has slowed down (MW3 was horrific for this) I be seriously considering buying it instead of halo 4.

interesting, the captcha is 'let go', does it know something I don't?

 

[Netrigan]

And if you're not a fan then...well, a review wouldn't change your opinion or buy the game.

As someone who is in between being a fan and not caring about the franchise, I do pay attention to the reviews. I have a list of things I like and dislike about the franchise and you the reviews can tell you if the game is playing up stuff you like or concentrating on stuff you don't.

Such as, I don't play MP. I'm in it for the single player and if I hear talk of a coherent story, it edges toward my buy pile. If I hear talk of a bunch of disjointed set pieces where people slowly walk through the Pentagon in endless cutscenes, then I make up my mind not to bother.

But it's still going to sell twice as many copies of Halo no matter what, so I'm a drop in or out of the bucket.

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

You want a review? Ok, here it is!

Have you played CoD? Yes? Cool, then BO2 is just the same with some new stuff add and some old stuff changed. New medals, ranks, weapons and maps and a silly story with at least 20 explosions per minute.
Also you can shout at people online!

Happy now?

 

[Doom972]

if you're not a fan then...well, a review wouldn't change your opinion or buy the game.

A review doesn't change your mind? How do you make up your mind on whether or not you should buy a game?
I know that I'll not buy this one, but that's only because I just hate the way Activision set higher prices for their games, and don't lower the price for years (Black Ops is still $60!).

Rule of Retail: If it's still selling, why lower the price?

OT: I'm starting to warm up to the Call of Duty games. I find them to be very cheekily amusing when I'm just looking to kill 20 minutes. I don't give a shit what some hardcore-brats are going to say about "Lol, ur a cod kiddie!" these games are fun if Jason Bourne crossed with Wolverine sounds cool to you.

It can't be selling that well. No game stays full price for that long. It's not even the latest game of the CoD franchise.

 

[lapan]

if you're not a fan then...well, a review wouldn't change your opinion or buy the game.

A review doesn't change your mind? How do you make up your mind on whether or not you should buy a game?
I know that I'll not buy this one, but that's only because I just hate the way Activision set higher prices for their games, and don't lower the price for years (Black Ops is still $60!).

I for example am not a big fan of military FPS games in general, so a review is not likely to change that. I think that is what he meant to say. But people who are on the edge about buying it might find the reviews interesting, see below.

And if you're not a fan then...well, a review wouldn't change your opinion or buy the game.

As someone who is in between being a fan and not caring about the franchise, I do pay attention to the reviews. I have a list of things I like and dislike about the franchise and you the reviews can tell you if the game is playing up stuff you like or concentrating on stuff you don't.

Such as, I don't play MP. I'm in it for the single player and if I hear talk of a coherent story, it edges toward my buy pile. If I hear talk of a bunch of disjointed set pieces where people slowly walk through the Pentagon in endless cutscenes, then I make up my mind not to bother.

But it's still going to sell twice as many copies of Halo no matter what, so I'm a drop in or out of the bucket.

 

[T_ConX]

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.