The Crew will not have pre-release reviews, says Ubisoft

[Admire]

"Can we please wait until after christmas to tell everybody you dumped me?"

[Kamil]

This is a fairly valid game to not have previews of; it's basically an MMO, so playing it without the other players would be a sub-optimal experience at best.

But it's worth noting that Ubisoft has done this with single-player games in the past. I don't know about most others, but Shadow of Mordor at least had no pre-release review copies (well... excluding reviewers who could guarantee a positive review, but that's a whole 'nother issue) without any good reason, and I wouldn't be surprised if most if not all of their other recent games were the same.

[Jarro]

I understand how playing the game without thousands of other players would detract from the full experience, but game reviewers are smart enough to take that into account.  They are smart enough to take it into account, right?

[Tygron]

Played the beta. Watch_Dogs vehicle physics. Not enough car customization options (sure I can tune the car I think but... give me NFS Underground 2 asthetic customization too. Two bumpers, maybe a spoiler and three mirrors isn't enough)

The only cool thing was it took me like 15-20 minutes of driving to get from the starting area to the Florida airport in the game. But that isn't a good enough reason to get it.

[Jarro]

People already have them under microscope criticising their every move. They don't need anymore attention.

Sadly I feel like this isn't true.  The gaming world is much larger than those of use who pay attention to news and reviews.  There are still a lot of teens with little to no concept of money who still buy games based on release trailers.  

[XxKINGxX40]

They just keep on digging.

[DigiKing]

Well this is sad. You know I once had ambitions of working for Ubisoft because I live in Montreal. I guess not now.

[evinta]

Im starting to wonder if they are doing this not to annoy us but to gain attention. People are talking about it, making menes about them digging and yet they don't have to pay a cent for all this free advertisements.

[pmarion427]

I think I'm going to have to buy a shirt...

[theam123]

How can you say it's awfull? Have you tried the beta or atleast seen videoes of it? You can't say just by some quotes from the devs that a game will either be good or bad. So don't just hate on ubisoft for their previous failures and expect them to be horrible all the way through. 

[TheEpicCanadian]

And here I am having just used my Nvidia free game coupon on The Crew...

[TW1ST3R]

Do they have the memory span of a goldfish when it comes to how deep their hole is?

 

 

Jokes aside, at least it partially makes sense from the server and logistics side of things.  But still it would be nice to have reviews to show some good faith to the community after the ongoing Unity debacle, but to most this will probably come across as even more of their current hyping and money grabbing business model.

 

Though I suppose they wouldn't want IGN reviewing it - they might give it a bad review for simply having too much water...

[MasterJV]

It's an online game. You can't review it without having others online as well. Isn't that the point of this game, to have a crew that you can race with online? It's called "The Crew" after all.

Even performance reviews from before the game launched are almost useless since nobody knows how it will perform with 10,20,30 or more racers in the same area.

Edit: What monsters have we created. It seems as though the 12 year olds see a ubisoft post and immediately post a keep on digging meme.

[NICKT]

"It's an online game, it's an online game, it's an online game."

 

As if that somehow absolves the point, as if it somehow provides an apt excuse as to not give your consumer base an insight to the quality of the game that is genuine and not a theatrical and controlled presentation that is doctored to be the best and optimal visual experience but not necessarily translate into a realistic experience.

I'm sure that there have been many multiplayer games where review copies have been sent out early.

 

As for those who believe that we shouldn't judge a company on their previous actions, get the fuck out. It's a logical cause of action to assume or interpret a company's future actions based on their prior ones.

It's not some otherworldly idea, not some misguided illusion or a stupid conclusion to make that you can't logically and intellectually assume the nature of a company based on prior experiences.

From what we've seen from Ubisoft, I'm sure we all, memes aside, can take for a fact that at least when it comes to the PR side of things that we're to take everything they say with a grain of salt.

 

Hope for the best, expect the worst.

[pk-man]

lol it's obvious that game is going to suck or be mediocre at best.  Remember this game will also feature a ton of microtransactions so it's essentially a F2P game at full retail price.

 

Come on guys. Stop letting Ubisoft fuck you in the ass.

[KE2012]

Yes, I understand that the full 'online experience' won't be the same,it doesn't take Einstein to work that one out, but after ubis recent releases I need to know if my rig is capable of pushing more than 2fps.

[PortentousLad]

OK so the hole is big enough now, so can this company just release all of their game IPs and lie down and I'll gladly cover up for them.

[frostin1990]

It's their new AAA IP guys remember what they said when most of their new IPs like watch_doge etc etc failed miserably..They are going to come up with the same statement again.

 

 

"It's the same thing with Watch Dogs: it was difficult to do everything at the right level, which is why we took more time," he said. "The time we took was definitely useful—it allowed us to release the game without compromises and do everything that we wanted. We also kept parts of the game we felt didn't fit with the original for the sequel."

 

 

[Redpalmtree]

I would gladly give you the torrent for this. Ubisoft just can't stop digging. I'll just wait for Linus' review/opinion about this before even considering buying this game.

 

So in other words, the game is going to be awful, and they don't want people cancelling their pre-orders before release.

 

"Ubisoft believes that the racer must be played to get a true feel for the game"

 

What a load of bullshit. I know, how about I pirate it first to get a true feel for the game, Ubisoft? Then when it turns out to be shit, I'll uninstall it and won't proceed to buy it either.

 

Source:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a612274/the-crew-wont-have-pre-release-reviews.html

Don't even download it, you're still supporting ubisoft.

 

Just watch youtube vid

[TW1ST3R]

From what we've seen from Ubisoft, I'm sure we all, memes aside, can take for a fact that at least when it comes to the PR side of things that we're to take everything they say with a grain of salt.

 

Hope for the best, expect the worst.

Well said - realistically that's how we should view everything that has some financial motivation behind its marketing - the primary goal of most large businesses is to make money, with the least amount wasted in the process.

 

 

 

Anyway...  Realistically as far as I'm concerned I don't really have any care for online gaming.  As far as a pre-release review, all I would expect is whether the engine is at least half-way optimised, how functional the interface from a PC standpoint (cause we all know how awful Skyrim's Vanilla interface is) and whether the gameplay mechanics are enjoyable.  I suppose you could garner any of that information from unofficial reviews of the betas, but it would be nice to know in advance of release how well they have refined the game in comparison.  Yeah ok it's an online game, and a closed server review would somewhat remove the core aspect of the game, but you could easily get a half-way decent feel for that sort of functionality through a local lan.  

 

 

It's an online game. You can't review it without having others online as well. Isn't that the point of this game, to have a crew that you can race with online? It's called "The Crew" after all.

Even performance reviews from before the game launched are almost useless since nobody knows how it will perform with 10,20,30 or more racers in the same area.

Edit: What monsters have we created. It seems as though the 12 year olds see a ubisoft post and immediately post a keep on digging meme.

 

 

I do agree that wouldn't be representative of a game designed to (hopefully) function with multitudes of players online on the same server at once; a large company like Ubisoft (and many others) are likely subject to many other factors including shareholders, etc., etc. to rake in as much money as they can, as fast as they can; therefore it makes sense for them to avoid allowing reviews that are unrepresentative of the game.  However my joke from the previous post and my initial point is that these sort of actions are probably hurting them more in the long run.  Like EA before them, many gamers are getting sick of their nonsense and are voicing their opinions in whatever way they feel, be it satire, logical discussion or otherwise.  Unfortunately, a lot of the hate is just jumping on the bandwagon, but not everyone posting a meme or hating on Ubisoft is a 12 year old keyboard warrior, and some people do have legitimate opinions on the matter.

 

 

 

tl;dr - this makes sense from a business standpoint, but it's probably not the best action for regaining the trust of the community and instilling confidence after a range of new games that did not live up to their marketing hype.

[Brett Taggart]

Well Ubisoft, I thought they may have had a small redemption with The Crew, but it seems the hole will be never fully dug

[Fiodorek]

After what I got with Assassins Creed Unity, I'm not buying any Ubisoft game before reading at least 5 different reviews...

[AlRayes_BRN]

Ubisoft are really getting on my nerves, they keep on launching broken games and take a lot of time to fix them!

 

and as always guys: "Resolution is only a number"

[MisterZero]

I personally would love to see a port report of TotalBiscuit saying he can't play the game because as always the Ubisoft services and servers crash on the release of a game and since it's an always online MMO... well playing the game becomes pretty much impossible.

 

Would also love to hear another Linus rant on the WAN Show

[HippY]

"It's an online game, it's an online game, it's an online game."

 

As if that somehow absolves the point, as if it somehow provides an apt excuse as to not give your consumer base an insight to the quality of the game that is genuine and not a theatrical and controlled presentation that is doctored to be the best and optimal visual experience but not necessarily translate into a realistic experience.

I'm sure that there have been many multiplayer games where review copies have been sent out early.

 

For Fuck sake, there was a PC beta in July and a console one not so long ago

 

PC ran fine, had a 30FPS lock but it will be unlockable with no artifacts

as an early beta it was well optimized, run fine for me, Fx 8320 HD 7770

it is an arcade racer so do not expect it to became a simulator

 

I just love how people jump on the bandwagon, posting memes, and forgot everything

Yes, ACU is a piece of crap, Watch Dogs were unoptimized, but FFS, you could play this game, I played this game, there was basically an early review copy for everyone!!!