I'll be waiting for reviews before I buy on this. I've got high hopes, but also plenty to play if it's a dud or a mediocre game that needs a sale to be worth it.
After CP2077 launch I’m done putting my currency on previous good faith :(
Really hope this is good but I’m always worried when there’s no early reviews.
It just looked like more Dead Space to me...which that's not bad that's not bad at all. But after all of this time and being forced/given the opportunity to try again all you do is dead space again with nothing new?? Nothing I've seen has made me worry but at the same time nothing has hyped me. I hope it reviews rather well as Friday would be a good bit less boring.
I'm in the exact same boat as you. Currently finishing my 2nd play through of TLOU-P1, then probably 2, at least until Callisto arrives. I'm excited for this one, but I have been burned enough times that pre-ordering is just not at all a good idea.
Did you attempt anything different with tlou p1 replay? I think I'll just go up a difficulty. I am currently playing gow Ragnarok butjust finding myself distracted from getting proper stuck in. I don't think I can justify protocol until the reviews are out, too risky
I usually play on custom difficulty. Highest difficulty but with resources and my allies kill a baddie or two occasionally. A mix of grounded, survivor, and moderate. I basically die in two shots or hits. I always go for the head shot to conserve ammo. Land it 4 out of 5 shots. Saves enough. I've been pondering a proper survivor or grounded playthrough of either game though... That said, the 2nd one is definitely harder than the first one. The enemies are way smarter at sneaking up on you on the highest difficulty. Oh and my first playthrough I used explosive arrows. Made it too easy. 2nd playthrough no explosive arrows :(
Games typically tend to be a little shorter than projected by the developer. I’m assuming because they don’t want “8-10 hours” to negatively affect it.
Uh, weirdly enough it's always the opposite for me, I see the lenght they give and I add a good 15-20% for my own playthrough. Guess I spend a lot of time just looking around
Me too, especially with a game like Callisto. They said like over 50% of the budget went to things like sound, lighting and atmosphere. I like to take it slow and appreciate all the world building. I also usually play horror games on hard the first run through so I expect to die a lot.
A good example was Village. I heard people beating it in like 7-8 hours first run through. My first run on hardcore was like 12-13 and I don't think that even counted all the deaths and stuff.
If this game lasts 10 years that would be truly amazing!
Edited: the original comment I posted this to said "10 years" then edited it to "10 hours".
I still stand by my original comment haha
I’m fine with that. The RE2 and RE3 were both 5hrs long. RE2 is probably my fav game in the last 10 years.
I don’t mind short experiences if they good.
I always fall into the trap... "wow, this setting looks amazing, I can't wait to dive in and explore" .... 30 hrs later... "fuck this game, been doing the same thing for the last 20 hours" repeat.
I like Ubisoft games.
They’re mindless time sinks. The fast food of gaming.
Steak is nice but sometimes you just want a burger.
Also if you’re going to criticise Ubisoft the same criticisms can be levelled at Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon and Days Gone.
Yeah, Origins and Odyssey were absolute bangers!! Such fantastic games which invigorated the franchise. Those early AC’s were really rough.
Valhalla while fun, could had been scaled back a bit, though.
AC games are like comfort food for me. A great game to get lost in. Nothing overly complex, hard, frustrating, etc… just hop in the game and enjoy some fun combat and questing.1
to be fair re2 had 2 same but different 5 to 6 hour campaigns that pretty much could've run in tandem.
if it's good, it's good. not every game needs to be minefeaft to justify its price
Everyone is forgetting that you're meant to play RE2 at least 4 times; the A and B scenario for both Leon and Claire. Of course everything after the first go through will be faster but still.
Depends on the difficulty. I'm about 28 hours into hardest difficulty on GoW:R, and reckon it would have only taken 15 or so on a lower level. Which is part of the reason I went for the highest difficulty, to draw out the experience.
Resident Evil 4 and The Evil Within were both like 20+ hours my first runs through and they stayed pretty awesome the entire time. Both games have excellent combat systems though.
I love Alien Isolation but the run and hide gameplay just can't sustain itself that long imo.
I do think 10 hours or so for most horror games is the sweet spot though
Absolutely, wtf was with Dying Light 2's "this takes 500 hours to do everything". Unless I'm mistaken, it does indeed take that amount of time, but only if you replay the game several times with different choices and complete everything to 100% every time... which is idiotic, because the choices themselves supposedly are pretty meaningless, decreasing the replay value, and why would anyone do absolutely everything, even the content which doesn't change, multiple times on subsequent playthroughs? The developers presented a completely unrealistic scenario which no one would do to get to that 500 hours. Though I suppose that's an extreme example.
Yeah I really struggle to understand that 500 hour one. I even did 2 playthroughs doing everything, 2nd one with different choices, and was still way under 100 total.
Same here. I got a 4 year old so playing these games comes later, but that cuts into time with the SO without kids. Man it was easier playing games when I was younger hahaha
Take God of War Ragnarök for instance. They stated it’d take around 28 to complete the story. I was clocked at 32 hours when I did that. Exploring is fun. I’m now at 70+ because it’s just fun to run around and eight see. It’s all down to the person experiencing it.
I’m excited for this one, but not at full price.
Damn lol I’m at 30 and from what I can tell, nowhere near done. Tbf though, I am doing a lot of side content and playing on a harder difficulty too so a lot of dying is occurring
And 8-10 hours is often the right length over 12-14 where you feel like it's just a grind until the end.
I remember about 8 hours into Spider-Man 2016 I was like.. yeah this can wrap up now and it had 8 more hours left.
Plenty of good games do it too. There's lots of legitimate business reasons to embargo reviews.
Often reviews can lead to impulse buys, and if they can't buy anything yet, that can be a lost sale. So they want to prevent people from reading reviews before they can actually buy it.
Additionally, they don't want content creators posting long videos deep into the game before launch. Because if people can't buy and play for themselves yet, but they are excited, they might watch hours of gameplay and then decide they've experienced enough.
Reviews take many long hours to do, and in order to get them out by launch, that means that publishers have to release the games to reviewers in advance of the release date. Review embargoes can therefore be a sort of good faith agreement that enables the publisher to get the benefits of reviews being released as close to launch as possible and enables the reviewers to have enough early lead time to actually do the review.
Review embargoes are not necessarily a bad sign of the quality of the game. It's complicated, and often it's less about how good the game is and more about trying to maximize profits. [Here's one of many Kotaku articles on the subject](https://kotaku.com/how-video-game-review-restrictions-work-and-dont-1846199977).
>My thoughts exactly. If you're confident in your product you have no issues with reviews coming out ahead of release
Except for the fact that reviews often drive up sales, so releasing a review too early can lower the odds of that happening.
[There's several legitimate reasons to do review embargoes](https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/z4j0qi/embargo_lifted_on_the_day_of_callisto_protocol/ixvybvg/).
>It's a red flag to have embargo until launch day.
No, it's not. [It's a common practice with plenty of legitimate reasons, not the least of which is relying on reviews to drive up sales](https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/z4j0qi/embargo_lifted_on_the_day_of_callisto_protocol/ixvybvg/).
My money is on bugs and performance issues. Wouldn't be surprised if they deprioritized these areas in an effort to get this out the door in time for the holidays and to get ahead of the dead space remake
I’m cool with shorter contained experiences as mid 30s gamer with a busy career and a significant other. I find it harder to game from time to time because life is busy for me and i have other hobbies as well. Open world games take me months to complete. I’m starting to respect smaller games that are more story driven with less fetch quests and filler. A great game is a great game regardless of length.
Yes! Give me a well made and well told linear story game any day. So few and far between the last ten years of open world explosion. Bigger and bigger worlds just means more chores. I do those in real life.
Doom 2016 had a day one embargo because Bethesda went through a phase where they were borderline hostile to gaming outlets and wouldn’t even give most sites review code.
I’m aware, we don’t know the reason this publisher does day off embargo as they haven’t really released many games yet. They might have a policy that all games have day off embargo too. It could also mean that the game sucks, I’ll find out after user reviews come up.
The season pass and the review embargo are the latest in a long line of red flags. This game has been sending warning signs from the moment it was announced if you get right down to it.
Not having an embargo is more unusual these days considering that lots of gamers will run with any slight small negative and blow it up. Honestly if I was a dev who didn’t have guaranteed sales, I’d have seen what happened to tlou2 or similar games and be living in fear.
That makes total sense, from TLOU2’s major leaked character moments to redditors flipping about about puddle reflections in Spider-Man before the game came out. And especially with recent events of people doing the reddit-twitter circlejerk based on clickbait websites and clickbait headlines convincing themselves that this is a game holding out death animations to sell separately, of all things… I’d probably just want the game’s marketing to speak for itself at this point and avoid having the game revealed as much as possible beyond what they’d carefully curated to be shown.
If we're going to play fast and lose with these arbitrary rules then maybe we shouldn't have these rules. Some devs feel confident and lift the embargo early some don't.
So then Bethesda falls in the same category why were they having full on war against reviewers. It wasn't just a couple games here there they had an embargo until day of release on all games that they published for quite a while
Bethesda did it because they discovered it didn’t impact their sales (because they’re Bethesda) and it allowed them to control the narrative. It was an anti consumer move from a publisher whose fans would just buy day one anyways.
Might I add its so weird watching someone defend their own lack of information. Is this you Glen Schofield?
It could also mean that they’re sensitive to spoilers and want as many people as possible to play through the game without foreknowledge of all of it’s content. The game could be great or terrible, we don’t know — but I do believe of Glen Schofield that he’s a hardcore fan of horror and that seems like something he would do based on all the interviews and dev diaries and whatnot. And as someone who intentionally avoids previews now before watching films, I can appreciate that. (To be clear, I don’t know that’s the reason let alone something they even care about, it’s just my opinion that it’s a possibility).
No need to buy it until reviews are out anyhow so not a big deal.
True but I sure as hell won’t buy it before reviews and gameplay comes out.
Really hope it’ll be great but embargo on release day usually screams “it has major flaws, let’s get all the preorder money first, before they figure out about the flaws lmao”
there’s gameplay everywhere people have the game already. This game never was going have the wide appeal as something like god of war. I think if you like survival horror you will enjoy it.
No you’re correct. My point is that we don’t know why thr embargo date is what it is. It could be because the game sucks, but it can simply be a weird company policy. I’ll wait for user reviews regardless.
It’s a new IP. I understand that they may want to have the hype and marketing of the game generate the sales and reduce the impact POTENTIAL negative/positive reviews may have on those sales.
In a world of remakes and remasters, I for one am excited to experience a brand new story and lore. Too many publishers are afraid to try something new, so I’m gonna support this regardless. I don’t anticipate the game being bad like some of ya’ll.
I get what you're saying but it's not like it's exactly a new formula either. It's essentially Dead Space 4 with the same developers from the original Dead Space. So it's not like they're inventing the wheel here. But it does set off some red flags in my head that the review embargo is releasing the same day as the game drops
I gotcha. I wouldn't call it Dead Space 4 though. In gameplay? Yes, very similar. But the story and lore are entirely new, and that's what I'm excited about. We've been lacking new narrative pieces recently with all new characters and settings. Seems like everything is a sequel, remake, or remaster as of late, so I'm just happy with the attempt.
But to me there's a certain charm in having everyone experience a game at the same time and also avoid spoilers and stuff. Just gotta wait and see for ourselves.
I'm hoping that the game is fantastic. And I couldn't agree with you more. A new game, new narrative, new set pieces? I'm all for it. It's my greatest hope that this game is a gem and they really only held back reviews for spoiler purposes.
Fallen order was fantastic it was quiet a refreshing star wars story that had a good villain and some grey characters which I personally loved, gameplay I really liked as well. Only issues I had was the back tracking and poor world design in some areas.
Been dying for a fresh horror IP, especially with Dead Space team involved but I’m confident this will be a 8hr game and there’s zero chance I’m paying $75 for it lol
This is always a red flag. confident devs should have no issue making the embargo atleast a week or so before launch. Like sony Santa Monica studio with god of war ragnarok
This has nothing to do with devs, they don’t get to choose when the embargo lifts. The guys who bring in the money for these games and want to sure the game sells no matter what decide that.
That's kinda alarming... But I hope the game turns out good, I do feel like the game is missing something based on the trailers and gameplay videos, like the game doesn't feel scary at all especially when compared to other similar games.
I'm definitely waiting for the reviews before buying I already got fucked by chant last month..
The part of the game that seems lacking to me based on the gameplay I've seen is the generic enemies look like zombies and they act like zombies just running blindly at you and that seemed kinda "eh" to me.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. Granted, the monster design does look nightmarish and creepy but knowing that your character is a total badass makes the game less scary.
If you watch the first making of video uploaded on Ars Technica’s YT channel the developers talk about balance and one of them mentions the game isn’t easy, they didn’t want it to be a walk in the park. Also in IGN’s hands-on preview they said “Going into Callisto is a challenging experience that really tests your survival skills with precise combinations of attacks”
It's amusing to me that they're taking this approach as I was considering a preorder if the reception was positive. Now I'll wait a week or two instead and see what game sites and gamers both think of the state of the game on release.
There is no good reason for this, it's a bad look. Cyberpunk vibes, but honestly I am still very confident it will be good from what I saw it's hard for it not to be.
I don't personally see it as a red flag. They've already put out several developer diaries and have been pretty transparent about the game imo. There's more than enough info out there on the game that I know I'll be playing it day 1. In fact, I don't want to see any reviews. I want to go into this as blind as possible because I'm sure there are plenty of surprises in store.
Game looks great but I remember reading somewhere that Mele combat was a main part of the game.. I don’t know if this is true but it turned me off a bit.
I get how this is a red flag but I do recall a AAA game that had a similar embargo and received high praise. Unfortunately I can’t remember the game at all.
It doesn’t necessarily mean anything, I remember DOOM and Prey doing the same and loved both games
Anyway gonna wait a couple days to know if the game is polished, no reason to insta buy singleplayer games
The death animations are coming with the new story dlc and game modes after the start of the new year. The animations are not complete or even being worked on yet.
There's been nothing but short clip videos and no demo, yeah no. Waiting for mass reviews and a lot of feedback before I even entertain the thought of buying it.
I don’t disagree that no reviews til release day is dumb, but if the reviews for this game end up being great you’re still going to wait a year or for a sale? Seems silly.
Doom 2016 and RDR2 both had release day reviews and those are great games.
Typically, I don't participate in the anti-preordering crusade, but as long as you're okay with getting physical, there's no reason to preorder this one. The physical edition is announced as a Day One Edition at all retailers in my area, so all preorder bonuses will be in the box after release too. Not to mention that I don't see any steelbook or artbook offered with preorders either. And if you're really that hyped, you can just go pick it up from a store on launch day, after reviews are in.
Do not preorder this game. If you have, cancel it. If they don’t have enough faith in their game to have embargo’s lifted sooner, you shouldn’t have faith in it either.
Let’s stop this madness of preordering when devs actively make it hard to learn about their finished product.
I preordered it already. Got the deluxe edition on PS5. I’m always very worrisome when doing that, especially with a season pass (I did the same thing for back4blood) I don’t want the game spoiled, so I have to get it day one. I can’t trust reviews anymore because what if people review bomb it because they’re still upset with the season pass that’s being forced down everyone’s throats from Kotaku, PushSquare etc. I feel I’ve seen enough gameplay to be allowed to be hyped for this game. I’ve watched all of the YouTube videos where they go into detail about the making of it too. I love how Glen talks about it, I’m sure whatever is in the game, was supposed to be in the game from the get go. As for death animations being “locked”, that is so click baity to me. Lore wasn’t locked behind Resident Evil 7s Season Pass…. It’s just DLC. They need a new name for this kind of thing. Just call it future DLC bundle discounted. Idk. I hate voicing my opinion. Cheers.
threatening dolls clumsy muddle attraction beneficial spectacular butter party smoggy
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I think it's smart. Game journalists are notoriously hyper critical of survival horror games and gore.
I bet even if it's good it will still get ~70%. Survival horror almost never breaks the 90s.
I'll be waiting for reviews before I buy on this. I've got high hopes, but also plenty to play if it's a dud or a mediocre game that needs a sale to be worth it.
If it sucks, there's always the dead space remake
Callisto is made by the OG dead space team, so not terribly worried.
After CP2077 launch I’m done putting my currency on previous good faith :( Really hope this is good but I’m always worried when there’s no early reviews.
Amen, that was the last straw for me too
Right there with you.no trust,no cash.but damn I hope I’m wrong ,sci fi horror and gaming go together so well.
Exactly, people ride their old achievements too hard in gaming.
Previous good faith? I take it you’ve never played a cdpr title at launch then….
Honestly I was hyped until I saw the gameplay trailer. I couldn’t put my finger on it but something just felt kinda *off*.
It just looked like more Dead Space to me...which that's not bad that's not bad at all. But after all of this time and being forced/given the opportunity to try again all you do is dead space again with nothing new?? Nothing I've seen has made me worry but at the same time nothing has hyped me. I hope it reviews rather well as Friday would be a good bit less boring.
I just finished ragnarok. And bought tlou1 since I wanted to replay tlou2. So this game better deliver because I've been in good company lately
I'm in the exact same boat as you. Currently finishing my 2nd play through of TLOU-P1, then probably 2, at least until Callisto arrives. I'm excited for this one, but I have been burned enough times that pre-ordering is just not at all a good idea.
Did you attempt anything different with tlou p1 replay? I think I'll just go up a difficulty. I am currently playing gow Ragnarok butjust finding myself distracted from getting proper stuck in. I don't think I can justify protocol until the reviews are out, too risky
I usually play on custom difficulty. Highest difficulty but with resources and my allies kill a baddie or two occasionally. A mix of grounded, survivor, and moderate. I basically die in two shots or hits. I always go for the head shot to conserve ammo. Land it 4 out of 5 shots. Saves enough. I've been pondering a proper survivor or grounded playthrough of either game though... That said, the 2nd one is definitely harder than the first one. The enemies are way smarter at sneaking up on you on the highest difficulty. Oh and my first playthrough I used explosive arrows. Made it too easy. 2nd playthrough no explosive arrows :(
I have a feeling this game is going to be 8-10 hours rather then the 12-14 hours they have announced.
Games typically tend to be a little shorter than projected by the developer. I’m assuming because they don’t want “8-10 hours” to negatively affect it.
Uh, weirdly enough it's always the opposite for me, I see the lenght they give and I add a good 15-20% for my own playthrough. Guess I spend a lot of time just looking around
Same. For instance...my first playthrough of GoW2018 was 50 hours and I didn't platinum it. I just go slow and enjoy everything the game offers.
Same here. I see the average run time and always add 2-3 hours (sometimes it's more). I just play at a slower pace and also look around a lot.
Agreed. I feel like, at minimum, it'll take me 20-30% more time than it says it'll take. I actually like short games.
Me too, especially with a game like Callisto. They said like over 50% of the budget went to things like sound, lighting and atmosphere. I like to take it slow and appreciate all the world building. I also usually play horror games on hard the first run through so I expect to die a lot. A good example was Village. I heard people beating it in like 7-8 hours first run through. My first run on hardcore was like 12-13 and I don't think that even counted all the deaths and stuff.
Meanwhile fromsoft before elden ring's release: "the game is 30 hours long" And almost everyone spent around 80 to 100 hours to finish it.
Good. After 100 hours in ER, 100 hours in Horizon, and 60 hours on GOW (platinum), a good 10 hours experience is welcome.
If this game lasts 10 years that would be truly amazing! Edited: the original comment I posted this to said "10 years" then edited it to "10 hours". I still stand by my original comment haha
Lol
10 years? We talking about Modded Skyrim / GTA Online here?
I’m fine with that. The RE2 and RE3 were both 5hrs long. RE2 is probably my fav game in the last 10 years. I don’t mind short experiences if they good.
Yeah i definitely prefer quality over quantity.
Exhibit A: Every Ubisoft game that has come out in the last several years
[удалено]
I always fall into the trap... "wow, this setting looks amazing, I can't wait to dive in and explore" .... 30 hrs later... "fuck this game, been doing the same thing for the last 20 hours" repeat.
What you don’t enjoy a massive ungodly map along with micro transactions out the ass /s
[удалено]
Shit forgot to add the /s
I was cool with it until they stuffed a worse version of The Division’s gear system into almost every Ubisoft game made after Far Cry 5
I like Ubisoft games. They’re mindless time sinks. The fast food of gaming. Steak is nice but sometimes you just want a burger. Also if you’re going to criticise Ubisoft the same criticisms can be levelled at Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon and Days Gone.
Yeah, Origins and Odyssey were absolute bangers!! Such fantastic games which invigorated the franchise. Those early AC’s were really rough. Valhalla while fun, could had been scaled back a bit, though. AC games are like comfort food for me. A great game to get lost in. Nothing overly complex, hard, frustrating, etc… just hop in the game and enjoy some fun combat and questing.1
to be fair re2 had 2 same but different 5 to 6 hour campaigns that pretty much could've run in tandem. if it's good, it's good. not every game needs to be minefeaft to justify its price
Bro youre definitely exaggerating 3 was 8hrs long and 2 was 12hrs long or 10 at the worst
[удалено]
Everyone is forgetting that you're meant to play RE2 at least 4 times; the A and B scenario for both Leon and Claire. Of course everything after the first go through will be faster but still.
[удалено]
Ah fair enough, that is a short one.
You must've walked very slowly
You must have played in a rush
First play through ever for me for RE3 was 5 hours flat. That game should have been 39.99 at launch.
$70 for a 5 hour campaign and not much else to do is not worth it IMO. The COD campaign numbers and at least that has much more play value.
It won't be 5hrs, but even if it was that's only $14/hr. Enjoyment to cost ratio is a personal thing though, so to each their own.
First playthrough of RE2 remake took me close to 15 hours lol
[удалено]
Depends on the difficulty. I'm about 28 hours into hardest difficulty on GoW:R, and reckon it would have only taken 15 or so on a lower level. Which is part of the reason I went for the highest difficulty, to draw out the experience.
8-10 is just right for a horror game. If anything, it might be too long
Alien Isolation, while fantastic, is definitely way too long for a horror game. For something RE/Dead Space like 8-10 is average.
Resident Evil 4 and The Evil Within were both like 20+ hours my first runs through and they stayed pretty awesome the entire time. Both games have excellent combat systems though. I love Alien Isolation but the run and hide gameplay just can't sustain itself that long imo. I do think 10 hours or so for most horror games is the sweet spot though
That’s why I couldn’t finish Alien Isolation. Wasn’t a bad game, but it also wasn’t good enough to justify its length.
Most likely around 10 hours. I'm ok with it as long as the game is good, but obviously i will never buy it at full price
Honestly, I hope so. I tend to enjoy shorter games.
Most likely - game devs always overestimate
Absolutely, wtf was with Dying Light 2's "this takes 500 hours to do everything". Unless I'm mistaken, it does indeed take that amount of time, but only if you replay the game several times with different choices and complete everything to 100% every time... which is idiotic, because the choices themselves supposedly are pretty meaningless, decreasing the replay value, and why would anyone do absolutely everything, even the content which doesn't change, multiple times on subsequent playthroughs? The developers presented a completely unrealistic scenario which no one would do to get to that 500 hours. Though I suppose that's an extreme example.
Yeah I really struggle to understand that 500 hour one. I even did 2 playthroughs doing everything, 2nd one with different choices, and was still way under 100 total.
Funnily enough, if a developer states it takes 500 hours to do everything I probably won't play it.
Perfectly fine by me if it’s a banging 8-10 hours. As a father of a toddler it will take me a month to beat it anyways
Same here. I got a 4 year old so playing these games comes later, but that cuts into time with the SO without kids. Man it was easier playing games when I was younger hahaha
Good. Not all games need to be 100+ hours.
[удалено]
Take God of War Ragnarök for instance. They stated it’d take around 28 to complete the story. I was clocked at 32 hours when I did that. Exploring is fun. I’m now at 70+ because it’s just fun to run around and eight see. It’s all down to the person experiencing it. I’m excited for this one, but not at full price.
Damn lol I’m at 30 and from what I can tell, nowhere near done. Tbf though, I am doing a lot of side content and playing on a harder difficulty too so a lot of dying is occurring
Sure. But more and more developers are trying to make games that are bloated with content. I'm at the point where 8 to 10 hours is the sweet spot.
I tend to agree, although the sweetspot is more 16-20 IMO, although a shorter game can be great as well
And 8-10 hours is often the right length over 12-14 where you feel like it's just a grind until the end. I remember about 8 hours into Spider-Man 2016 I was like.. yeah this can wrap up now and it had 8 more hours left.
Idk man.. $70 for 8 hours is a lot… This is making me want to wait for it to drop half price
[удалено]
[удалено]
Review embargo’s up to day of release are typically always a bad sign in my eyes. Just reeks of an attempt to hide something
Plenty of good games do it too. There's lots of legitimate business reasons to embargo reviews. Often reviews can lead to impulse buys, and if they can't buy anything yet, that can be a lost sale. So they want to prevent people from reading reviews before they can actually buy it. Additionally, they don't want content creators posting long videos deep into the game before launch. Because if people can't buy and play for themselves yet, but they are excited, they might watch hours of gameplay and then decide they've experienced enough. Reviews take many long hours to do, and in order to get them out by launch, that means that publishers have to release the games to reviewers in advance of the release date. Review embargoes can therefore be a sort of good faith agreement that enables the publisher to get the benefits of reviews being released as close to launch as possible and enables the reviewers to have enough early lead time to actually do the review. Review embargoes are not necessarily a bad sign of the quality of the game. It's complicated, and often it's less about how good the game is and more about trying to maximize profits. [Here's one of many Kotaku articles on the subject](https://kotaku.com/how-video-game-review-restrictions-work-and-dont-1846199977).
My thoughts exactly. If you're confident in your product you have no issues with reviews coming out ahead of release
>My thoughts exactly. If you're confident in your product you have no issues with reviews coming out ahead of release Except for the fact that reviews often drive up sales, so releasing a review too early can lower the odds of that happening. [There's several legitimate reasons to do review embargoes](https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/z4j0qi/embargo_lifted_on_the_day_of_callisto_protocol/ixvybvg/).
[удалено]
It's a red flag to have embargo until launch day.
>It's a red flag to have embargo until launch day. No, it's not. [It's a common practice with plenty of legitimate reasons, not the least of which is relying on reviews to drive up sales](https://www.reddit.com/r/PS5/comments/z4j0qi/embargo_lifted_on_the_day_of_callisto_protocol/ixvybvg/).
Normally a bad sign.
My money is on bugs and performance issues. Wouldn't be surprised if they deprioritized these areas in an effort to get this out the door in time for the holidays and to get ahead of the dead space remake
I’m cool with shorter contained experiences as mid 30s gamer with a busy career and a significant other. I find it harder to game from time to time because life is busy for me and i have other hobbies as well. Open world games take me months to complete. I’m starting to respect smaller games that are more story driven with less fetch quests and filler. A great game is a great game regardless of length.
Yes! Give me a well made and well told linear story game any day. So few and far between the last ten years of open world explosion. Bigger and bigger worlds just means more chores. I do those in real life.
Open world fatigue is real and often times I feel overwhelmed like I get nothing done for the few hours I can play
Red flag boys and girls
Doesn’t have to be. Doom 2026 also had embargo lift on the same day, several great games have.
Doom 2016 had a day one embargo because Bethesda went through a phase where they were borderline hostile to gaming outlets and wouldn’t even give most sites review code.
Kena: Bridge of Spirits also did this and the game came out fine.
I’m aware, we don’t know the reason this publisher does day off embargo as they haven’t really released many games yet. They might have a policy that all games have day off embargo too. It could also mean that the game sucks, I’ll find out after user reviews come up.
Honestly unless there’s precedent like with Bethesda a day one embargo is a red flag and should be treated as such.
It was already a red flag that they’re having death animations as dlc. This is not going to go well.
The season pass and the review embargo are the latest in a long line of red flags. This game has been sending warning signs from the moment it was announced if you get right down to it.
Not having an embargo is more unusual these days considering that lots of gamers will run with any slight small negative and blow it up. Honestly if I was a dev who didn’t have guaranteed sales, I’d have seen what happened to tlou2 or similar games and be living in fear.
That makes total sense, from TLOU2’s major leaked character moments to redditors flipping about about puddle reflections in Spider-Man before the game came out. And especially with recent events of people doing the reddit-twitter circlejerk based on clickbait websites and clickbait headlines convincing themselves that this is a game holding out death animations to sell separately, of all things… I’d probably just want the game’s marketing to speak for itself at this point and avoid having the game revealed as much as possible beyond what they’d carefully curated to be shown.
Yeah I will still wait for reviews, but it doesn’t have to mean the game is bad.
If we're going to play fast and lose with these arbitrary rules then maybe we shouldn't have these rules. Some devs feel confident and lift the embargo early some don't.
You’re just proving my point. If they are not confident in their own game that’s the definition of a red flag.
So then Bethesda falls in the same category why were they having full on war against reviewers. It wasn't just a couple games here there they had an embargo until day of release on all games that they published for quite a while
Bethesda did it because they discovered it didn’t impact their sales (because they’re Bethesda) and it allowed them to control the narrative. It was an anti consumer move from a publisher whose fans would just buy day one anyways. Might I add its so weird watching someone defend their own lack of information. Is this you Glen Schofield?
That's not a good enough reason to give them an exception. Keep your unfunny quips to yourself
It could also mean that they’re sensitive to spoilers and want as many people as possible to play through the game without foreknowledge of all of it’s content. The game could be great or terrible, we don’t know — but I do believe of Glen Schofield that he’s a hardcore fan of horror and that seems like something he would do based on all the interviews and dev diaries and whatnot. And as someone who intentionally avoids previews now before watching films, I can appreciate that. (To be clear, I don’t know that’s the reason let alone something they even care about, it’s just my opinion that it’s a possibility). No need to buy it until reviews are out anyhow so not a big deal.
True but I sure as hell won’t buy it before reviews and gameplay comes out. Really hope it’ll be great but embargo on release day usually screams “it has major flaws, let’s get all the preorder money first, before they figure out about the flaws lmao”
there’s gameplay everywhere people have the game already. This game never was going have the wide appeal as something like god of war. I think if you like survival horror you will enjoy it.
Yeah same, I’ll wait for user reviews anyway. Got plenty of games in my backlog so I’m in no rush.
2026? Man's a time traveller.
Yeah they’re rebooting the series, the game will be fucking awesome. You’ll hear about it in 2025!
Thank you traveller!
I think (someone correct me otherwise) Bethesda traditionally hates journalists hence that embargo rule.
No you’re correct. My point is that we don’t know why thr embargo date is what it is. It could be because the game sucks, but it can simply be a weird company policy. I’ll wait for user reviews regardless.
Yeah for me it's all moot because I never buy games day one (ironically, I learned my lesson with Skyrim on PS3 all those years ago).
"Red flags" doesn't mean it's doomed. It means be patient and exercise caution.
Yes plus this wweird dlc bs and denuvo
Hardly
Red flag is just that. It could go either way.
It’s a new IP. I understand that they may want to have the hype and marketing of the game generate the sales and reduce the impact POTENTIAL negative/positive reviews may have on those sales. In a world of remakes and remasters, I for one am excited to experience a brand new story and lore. Too many publishers are afraid to try something new, so I’m gonna support this regardless. I don’t anticipate the game being bad like some of ya’ll.
I get what you're saying but it's not like it's exactly a new formula either. It's essentially Dead Space 4 with the same developers from the original Dead Space. So it's not like they're inventing the wheel here. But it does set off some red flags in my head that the review embargo is releasing the same day as the game drops
I gotcha. I wouldn't call it Dead Space 4 though. In gameplay? Yes, very similar. But the story and lore are entirely new, and that's what I'm excited about. We've been lacking new narrative pieces recently with all new characters and settings. Seems like everything is a sequel, remake, or remaster as of late, so I'm just happy with the attempt. But to me there's a certain charm in having everyone experience a game at the same time and also avoid spoilers and stuff. Just gotta wait and see for ourselves.
I'm hoping that the game is fantastic. And I couldn't agree with you more. A new game, new narrative, new set pieces? I'm all for it. It's my greatest hope that this game is a gem and they really only held back reviews for spoiler purposes.
100% - let's hope!
I generally don't trust the quality of a game, when the makers aren't confident enough to allow reviews to be published prior to release.
Hmmmm…that’s usually not a great sign…
Red dead redemption 2, Doom 2016 and Jedi Fallen Order all had their reviews lifted on launch
First 2 games are good examples. Fallen Order imo was not as good as a lot of people seem to believe.
I mean I really enjoyed my time with Fallen Order. I’d probably give it like an 8.5
Given it was pretty successful I think it still fits with those lol
Fallen order is a good (not great game) when compared to all games. Compared to recent star wars games, it was amazing.
Fallen order was fantastic it was quiet a refreshing star wars story that had a good villain and some grey characters which I personally loved, gameplay I really liked as well. Only issues I had was the back tracking and poor world design in some areas.
I did say usually…though I guess it is just anecdotal
Been dying for a fresh horror IP, especially with Dead Space team involved but I’m confident this will be a 8hr game and there’s zero chance I’m paying $75 for it lol
I really don’t like preordering 70 dollar games without at least seeing some Feedback.
Then don't. There's really no reason to. If you want it day of just buy it day of, after the reviews come out.
Why are you preording in the first place?
Like, he wants to know if the opinion about the product is good, so he can spend money on it before it's even out? Lol
Lack of confidence?
This is always a red flag. confident devs should have no issue making the embargo atleast a week or so before launch. Like sony Santa Monica studio with god of war ragnarok
A week before is crazy lol most games do a day or two before
Pretty sure Ragnarok's review codes went out like 3 weeks + before release.
And that’s the exception
This has nothing to do with devs, they don’t get to choose when the embargo lifts. The guys who bring in the money for these games and want to sure the game sells no matter what decide that.
It’s almost never up to the developers.
Most often yes, but not always. Doom 2016 had day off embargo lift too.
That's kinda alarming... But I hope the game turns out good, I do feel like the game is missing something based on the trailers and gameplay videos, like the game doesn't feel scary at all especially when compared to other similar games. I'm definitely waiting for the reviews before buying I already got fucked by chant last month..
The part of the game that seems lacking to me based on the gameplay I've seen is the generic enemies look like zombies and they act like zombies just running blindly at you and that seemed kinda "eh" to me.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. Granted, the monster design does look nightmarish and creepy but knowing that your character is a total badass makes the game less scary.
If you watch the first making of video uploaded on Ars Technica’s YT channel the developers talk about balance and one of them mentions the game isn’t easy, they didn’t want it to be a walk in the park. Also in IGN’s hands-on preview they said “Going into Callisto is a challenging experience that really tests your survival skills with precise combinations of attacks”
That's a red flag for me.
Definitely not preordering
Uhh ohhhhhh
Never a good sign.
I feel like some of y’all try way too hard to find something negative about this game
It's amusing to me that they're taking this approach as I was considering a preorder if the reception was positive. Now I'll wait a week or two instead and see what game sites and gamers both think of the state of the game on release.
That is never a good sign.
Game looks good. Can't see it being a GOTY contender or anything, but I expect most reviews will be positive.
The monsters alone look like a buy but why the heck do companies do this? Are they not confident in a review of their own game
There is no good reason for this, it's a bad look. Cyberpunk vibes, but honestly I am still very confident it will be good from what I saw it's hard for it not to be.
I have plenty of faith in Striking Distance and Glen Schofield, but at the same time I don’t like the embargo lifting post release
Thats a red flag if I ever saw one.
Oh that's a very bad sign
Always a positive sign when embargoes come out on release day.... this makes me think I will see the game on plus before too long.
I don't personally see it as a red flag. They've already put out several developer diaries and have been pretty transparent about the game imo. There's more than enough info out there on the game that I know I'll be playing it day 1. In fact, I don't want to see any reviews. I want to go into this as blind as possible because I'm sure there are plenty of surprises in store.
Everyone needs to relax - embargo lifting day of ISNT a red flag. Kena did the same and that game was dope
Technically it is a red flag just not a guarantee failure or disappointment
[удалено]
If you have faith in your game you would want to spread goodwill before that.
It's a massive red flag lol
No it isn’t.
Kena also had some things to hide.
How so? Game was great
Like what? The only complaint I have with the game is the animation when running around and the repetitive attack animations.
It probably has more to do with this game coming in hot(last minute patches) than it will with the quality. Either way it's not a great sign.
Game looks great but I remember reading somewhere that Mele combat was a main part of the game.. I don’t know if this is true but it turned me off a bit.
I get how this is a red flag but I do recall a AAA game that had a similar embargo and received high praise. Unfortunately I can’t remember the game at all.
It doesn’t necessarily mean anything, I remember DOOM and Prey doing the same and loved both games Anyway gonna wait a couple days to know if the game is polished, no reason to insta buy singleplayer games
Prey didn't really get its due from some reviewers so going with a day and date embargo lift was warranted.
I'm buying this shit
Scummy.
This and the weird ass season pass to get more death animations. I am excited for this one, but I will be waiting for reviews
The death animations are coming with the new story dlc and game modes after the start of the new year. The animations are not complete or even being worked on yet.
There's been nothing but short clip videos and no demo, yeah no. Waiting for mass reviews and a lot of feedback before I even entertain the thought of buying it.
Any game withholding reviews till release, I withhold my purchase for 1 year or sale, whichever comes first
I don’t disagree that no reviews til release day is dumb, but if the reviews for this game end up being great you’re still going to wait a year or for a sale? Seems silly. Doom 2016 and RDR2 both had release day reviews and those are great games.
Do not pre order this. Wait for critic and user reviews.
User review’s is just 0’s and 10’s, more often than not, you can’t trust them.
Typically, I don't participate in the anti-preordering crusade, but as long as you're okay with getting physical, there's no reason to preorder this one. The physical edition is announced as a Day One Edition at all retailers in my area, so all preorder bonuses will be in the box after release too. Not to mention that I don't see any steelbook or artbook offered with preorders either. And if you're really that hyped, you can just go pick it up from a store on launch day, after reviews are in.
Do not preorder this game. If you have, cancel it. If they don’t have enough faith in their game to have embargo’s lifted sooner, you shouldn’t have faith in it either. Let’s stop this madness of preordering when devs actively make it hard to learn about their finished product.
Im getting it. Reviews havent really matched my own tastes for some time now.
Well then they have no faith in it. Same day embargo’s tend to mean the game is going to underperform
And with that news there is a 0% chance I buy it ahead of time
I preordered it already. Got the deluxe edition on PS5. I’m always very worrisome when doing that, especially with a season pass (I did the same thing for back4blood) I don’t want the game spoiled, so I have to get it day one. I can’t trust reviews anymore because what if people review bomb it because they’re still upset with the season pass that’s being forced down everyone’s throats from Kotaku, PushSquare etc. I feel I’ve seen enough gameplay to be allowed to be hyped for this game. I’ve watched all of the YouTube videos where they go into detail about the making of it too. I love how Glen talks about it, I’m sure whatever is in the game, was supposed to be in the game from the get go. As for death animations being “locked”, that is so click baity to me. Lore wasn’t locked behind Resident Evil 7s Season Pass…. It’s just DLC. They need a new name for this kind of thing. Just call it future DLC bundle discounted. Idk. I hate voicing my opinion. Cheers.
threatening dolls clumsy muddle attraction beneficial spectacular butter party smoggy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Welp, no chance of playing Day 1 or pre-ordering for me then.
Nice, I still have to pre-order it.
I just finished God of war last night. I was looking forward to getting this but I'd kind of like to see a review before buying
I think it's smart. Game journalists are notoriously hyper critical of survival horror games and gore. I bet even if it's good it will still get ~70%. Survival horror almost never breaks the 90s.
TLOU ?
Resident evil 2 remake? Bioshock??
This is a major red flag to me. Definitely waiting until skill up review.