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How Should Driveclub Be Reviewed?

It was recently announced that the PS4 exclusive game "Driveclub" will not launch with weather effects in the game; they will be added later via a patch. It's also been announced that the Xbox exclusive game "Forza Horizon 2" will have weather effects included on the game disc. Since these two driving/racing games will inevitably be compared to each other based on their close release dates and similar arcade-racing styles, I offer the question:

How should Driveclub be reviewed?

This may seem like a simple question. A game journalist pops in the game disc, plays the game, and writes a review. Unfortunately, I doubt it will be so simple. How do you handle the lack of weather in the initial review?

Naturally, without the weather system present, it's impossible to judge it in any way. There's no way to know how it plays and affects the game. So, with weather effects present at the competition's launch, how should reviewers rate Driveclub with no weather?

Mark my words. When the reviews start rolling in, N4G will explode with criticism of any review that deducts points for Driveclub's lack of weather. "We all know it's coming", they will scream. "You can't penalize them for it when it will be here soon". Many will take it even further with comments similar to "that biased reviewer was paid by MS to criticize a PS4 game".

So, should a reviewer review what's actually there, or should they hold off on criticism because a future patch will add the missing elements? Besides, what about the millions of people who don't have internet, and therefore can't download the weather patch? We know there are millions because people here used that number when Xbox One was announced to be always online.

There are options, but none are ideal. Some will say that points shouldn't be deducted for lack of weather because we know it's coming, but that would mean intentionally ignoring an important omission from the disc that many people will be buying, as well as a feature that the competition offers immediately.

Some will say the game should be re-reviewed when the weather patch is released. This would open a can of worms because no other games are re-reviewed when content is added. Look at Forza 5 for Xbox One. One major criticism in initial reviews was it's lack of content. Since launch, there has been a lot of free content added to the game. Yet there has been no re-review of Forza 5 to include the new content.

People who complain that Driveclub should be re-reviewed will speak of the supposedly biased media singling out a Sony game for criticism, when in reality they want an exception to be made for a Sony game that is not made for any other game. The same thing happened at Gran Turismo 5's launch. After a few patches corrected some initial issues, people were screaming for a re-review (mainly because it scored lower than it's main competition).

Besides, what about the non-internet gamers? If they read a review that includes weather, that weather won't be on the disc that they buy, nor will they have access to the patch. That would be very misleading to a lot of potential buyers.

My feeling is that the game should be reviewed in it's launch state. EVERY other game is reviewed this way - there's nothing special here that deserves an exception. Whether reviewers want to deduct points for certain missing elements is entirely up to them, and their feeling about how important each game element is to the final score. It does, however, need to be addressed in any serious review. I would greatly oppose an effort to re-review ANY game. In the era of DLC, this would simply be a dangerous precedent to set.

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WilliamUsher4285d ago

That's an interesting observation. A lot of the reviews may depend on how good the actual game is, and how quickly the content arrives post-release.

-Alpha4285d ago

You can't review something that's not there. Reviews are meant to help consumers assess a product before they purchase it.

It's not the fault of reviewers if DriveClub's weather is unaccounted for. If reviews praise Forza's weather effects, that's because it is available to review.

It's difficult today with patches and DLC support that improves games past the date of a review... but people looking to criticize reviewers for failing to review something that is not there are being unreasonable.

colonel1794284d ago (Edited 4284d ago )

"You can't review something that's not there. Reviews are meant to help consumers assess a product before they purchase it"

Exactly. The best way to review the game is about what is in the disc. It's not just for the weather effects, but it is also not fair to say, 'Forza has this and Driveclub doesn't' (or vice versa) unless is a critical feature.

The weather effects will certainly make the game better. There are updates every time for digital software. Sometimes making it better, and some times worse. I think it is the job of the reviewer to update the review when those changes happen, and that applies to every game not just Driveclub.

The downside of that, is that even when the reviewer updates the review, most of the time they don't update the score.

With that said, I think Sony is dropping the ball by letting the game being released without every feature included. Maybe they don't want it to be delayed again, but it WILL affect the score from some media outlet, and it could harm sales, specially when there's competition releasing the same year.

-Alpha4284d ago

The problem with a Polygon-style review system is that often times, the initial score is what most people remember. It's also a really slippery slope of games constantly needing updates, and it even excuses launch games that may or may not be made to the best of a developer's ability.

You are right that everything should be released at once with Driveclub (at least with weather). I feel that weather could be a significant score booster, but I also expect reviews to review the very basics (immediate gameplay, social features, graphics).

dotwithshoes4283d ago

To review it with the thought "The weather will eventually be there", would be unfortunate for people who do not have internet access.

Kavorklestein4283d ago

He should review it. The same way games are reviewed, in whatever style or method he sees fit. Reviews are just glorified opinions anyway. Stop worrying about what people think. Especially if you are in the know about the weather being added, then what do you have to worry about some review score affecting your experience?

Ohhh.. I get it... You're worried about how it will make the Playstation look?
Sad. Just play it, don't worry about how people view something YOU have already established as valuable to yourself.

e-p-ayeaH4283d ago

It will be reviewed like any other game dont expect that simple updates will mark a huge diference in the game because it wont.

memots4282d ago

did forza 5 have points knocks down for no weathers effect ? or night cycles?

70°

Microsoft Gaming Revenue Drops 7% Year-on-Year, Content and Services Down 5%, Xbox Hardware Down 33%

Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.

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Jin_Sakai1d 22h ago (Edited 1d 22h ago )

Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.

dveio1d 15h ago

To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.

Jingsing1d 13h ago

The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.

Tanktopmaster921d 14h ago

Once they re-evaluate exclusive all will be fine….

S2Killinit1d 14h ago

Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.

Jingsing1d 13h ago

15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.

Tanktopmaster921d 12h ago

These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse

Tanktopmaster921d 12h ago

Let me be clear. This is sarcasm

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Games Done Quick is coming to Europe for the first time with 3 days of Gamescom speedruns

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Report: Injustice 3 in Development at NetherRealm Studios

Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.

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