Bethesda Sending Out Games For Review One Day In Advance

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Bethesda announced today that, just as it did with DOOM, the company will be sending out review copies of Skyrim Special Edition and Dishonored 2 to the media one day in advance. Obviously this means that you are just going to have wait for reviews to come out before you buy, positive word of mouth from your guinea pig friends or roll the dice and plop down your cash on day one. Yay.

With the upcoming launches of Skyrim Special Edition and Dishonored 2, we will continue our policy of sending media review copies one day before release. While we will continue to work with media, streamers, and YouTubers to support their coverage – both before and after release – we want everyone, including those in the media, to experience our games at the same time.
 
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Well, what is anybody expecting different on Skyrim? It is mostly just a remaster, correct?

Still, one day in advance seems kinda silly. And reviews by review sites are usually very subjective and don't generally mean a lot anyway unless the game is complete and utter trash.
 
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While Bethesda has a good track record for releasing mostly-good games, I still refuse to purchase anything until I know it will run properly on my system and isn't just a patched-together console port.

This is where livestreaming is set to shine. You can bet on release day that I'll be watching streamers play the game (assuming I'm interested in it) to help determine whether or not I purchase it.

Perhaps review websites should start giving out scores for the first 2 hours of playtime - then adjust the score when a full playthrough has been completed. It seems sad nowadays that we have to assume that a game is a mess until proven otherwise.
 
To be fair in both cases we pretty much know what were getting - what we got before but better. But yeah I agree with Prisoner849 - waiting a few more days never hurt.
 
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So you wait until all the first looks come out... no big deal. There literally is no game out there that someone "needs" to have on day 1.
 
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This is Bethesda, it is a tradition to have buggy releases. Heads will be rolling around and around. I want to say this leaves no time for the release day reviewers to do a proper review, but then I just laugh. You know why; they are a complete waste of time nowadays. I agree with everyone else, don't give any company your money until well after the release.
 
blkt said:
This is Bethesda, it is a tradition to have buggy releases. Heads will be rolling around and around. I want to say this leaves no time for the release day reviewers to do a proper review, but then I just laugh. You know why; they are a complete waste of time nowadays. I agree with everyone else, don't give any company your money until well after the release.
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Hell, I'm still waiting to buy FO4. I figure by the time they release the GOTY edition they'll have most of the kinks worked out and modders will have fixed what they havent. I've just come to accept this with Bethesda, and most companies if I'm being honest, but especially Bethesda.
 
Yeah, but the console streamers got their copies already. It's really more like a NDA as they can stream but not review it. Unless the streamers are lying.
 
I've never had too many Bethesda problems. I just make sure the drive has plenty of space and keep an eye on my ram usage. Last problem I had with one of their games was back with GOTY Morrowind came out on the Xbox and there was some random disk reading problems. Can't wait for these two to come out.
 
DukenukemX said:
Can they send me a Linux version of Skyrim Special Edition?
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I don't really think it matters. It'd be nice to see what Dishonored 2 had in it so I could see if it was something I wanted to pick up on release but waiting a few days really doesn't matter that much. People who can't wait a couple days for reviews and gameplay video to get an idea of what kind of experience they are going to have deserve to lose their money on bad games. As far as Skyrim goes, it's been out for 5 years. If people don't know basically what they are getting with the "remaster" then they've been living under a rock. Skyrim SE is really only being made because of Xbox One anyway. It adds mod support and the high res textures PC versions already had. Yay...

They need modders to make it work. That's one of the main reasons they are giving it out for free to anyone with the complete version of the original game on Steam. They want modders to convert their Skyrim mods to the new version so they work with consoles. Making the game free for those that already had the full package makes it more likely that will happen.

Loose Nut said:
I don't, not after Fallout 4 anyway
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Same here man. FO4 had one of the most pathetic stories I've seen in a while and there was very little RP in the G. It was basically a crappy action adventure like FarCry 4 only with more annoying characters.
 
Prisoner849 said:
Nobody should be buying a game until it's been out at least a week anyway.
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If your wish would come true, then there would be nobody to test the game or cause problems with servers. So if everyone buys it one week later then they'd still be the first guinea pigs.
 
And I'll continue my policy of not buying anything until well after it's been released, has all the bugs worked out, has positive word of mouth, and is on sale somewhere...

Shrug...
 
just saw since i have skyrim and all the dlc on steam, i get a free upgrade to the special edition for free.. Not bad considering i got it on sale last christmas for like $8.99
 
M76 said:
If your wish would come true, then there would be nobody to test the game or cause problems with servers. So if everyone buys it one week later then they'd still be the first guinea pigs.
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WTF? That's kinda what the QA/QC divisions in a software company are SUPPOSED to be getting paid to do.

Enjoy being a sucker all you want, but you can take that backwards-bending ideology where everyone paying money for a game should be okay with being a "guinea pig" when testing should've been finalized before the final product's release.
 
Xinmosni said:
WTF? That's kinda what the QA/QC divisions in a software company are SUPPOSED to be getting paid to do.

Enjoy being a sucker all you want, but you can take that backwards-bending ideology where everyone paying money for a game should be okay with being a "guinea pig" when testing should've been finalized before the final product's release.
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If nobody buys the game there is nobody to discover the problems with it and give you real world feedback on it. QA can't test the effects of millions of people logging in at the same time. And QA consists of people who have been grinding the game for months or even years. A new set of eyes will always come up with new problems. If everyone just waited after the release the problems wouldn't even be apparent, until people start playing the game. You can wait all you want, but if everyone waited the game would never get fixed.


Obviously I'm not talking about basic QA here, why would you even think that? Oh I know I know. Paint the "opponent" in a false image that you can then easily rip apart.
 
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DeathFromBelow said:
Does Skyrim SE have a Linux port? That would be good to see, I'm getting rid of all my Windows boxes.
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I'd also like a Fallout 4 Linux version. I only own Skyrim and no DLCs, cause LOL DLC. But I have tons of mods, and some of them won't play nice with Skyrim Remastered, so what point is there for me to get this version of Skyrim, unless it's ported over to Linux? Modded Skyrim makes remasterted Skyrim, pointless.
 
If you don't mind disc versions, and you have Amazon Prime, you get 2 weeks after release to place your order for 20% off, I believe. Unless I get a free Win10 copy of whatever game is in question I don't really mind having discs, there's no pre-order bonus worth risking $60 anymore....companies need to re-adjust their thinking back to "If we make shit, we're going to get burned for it". That smells of the 80's console crash all over again....
 
I am actually looking forward to playing Skyrim on vanilla. Mods destroyed all the time I would've spent PLAYING the damn game.
 
DukenukemX said:
I'd also like a Fallout 4 Linux version. I only own Skyrim and no DLCs, cause LOL DLC. But I have tons of mods, and some of them won't play nice with Skyrim Remastered, so what point is there for me to get this version of Skyrim, unless it's ported over to Linux? Modded Skyrim makes remasterted Skyrim, pointless.
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Except the special edition is 64-bit, which should be a great thing for mods. It also allows on mods on consoles in the first place.

Anyway, sorry to interrupt you with the thread topic. Back to Fallout 4 on linux...
 
It would be entirely unfair to have a review of a shitty or buggy game prior to release.

I completely see where Bethesda is coming from.

I'm so far behind on games, I can wait months, not an issue here.
 
Bethesda's games are notoriously buggy...but not in the typical "this shitty console port runs horribly" type of way. It's usually in-game and engine-related stuff that affects the consoles, too. Stuff they will strive to fix because it affects everyone.
I'm more willing to give that kind of thing a pass since it's not usually a matter of laziness or negligence. Their games are just simply so massive and complex that things go wrong.
In my case, I'm willing to jump on a new release within 24 hours as long as the port itself isn't busted. To me that's a bad, bad sign and could be something that might not ever be fixed.
 
Ehh, the amount of time I spend on new Bethesda games actually playing them has been falling steadily with each release.

Oblivion: hours and hours
Fallout 3: just hours. Did beat the game though. Last game from them that I really enjoyed.
Skyrim: quit after just 30 hours, because the NPC I had was the only one I wanted, and level cap. Also, dragons got ludicrously overpowered fast.
Dishonored: put me to sleep, game-play was worse than stealth in Skyrim (and more boring, because small areas).
Fallout 4: quit after just 20 hours, because it's The Sims 4: Fallout Shelter Living, with a crappy FPS attached.

Doom is the only standout for this mess. I'm 20 hours in, and still want to keep playing. I'm happy to see SOME signs of life in shadow of all this disappointment.

I'm never again paying release day price for a Bethesda game, aside from games that come with a demo (Doom demo sold me when I was hesitant). They stopped trying about a decade ago, so they're not the instant-purchase they once were.
 
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I believe this is just going to be the new normal. Why would a game publisher send out a game to some corporation-owned advertising-laden website that reviews games........and then be accused of payola or what have you, when today's gamer doesn't go to the web for that stuff, they go right to the people on YouTube. Those are still individuals, usually, which means the publisher has all the power in that relationship...like back when game-review websites that offered video-reviews were still a new (and bandwidth-intensive) thing.....a good decade+ ago at this point. You send your game to review on like GameSpot, you're dealing with a corporation now, maybe there are legalalities that have to be addressed (shrug) and of course the whole 'If you accept advertising you have a conflict of interest" stuff. Today, a good run of Negative Publicity on the internet can really affect sales, you know the whole "Sheep follow the Herd" thing.

But I mostly think its because publishers are shipping beta-code to meet agreed-upon dates with retailers and etailers, and frankly sending out demos for 'professional review' is a thing of the past......better to go back to the grassroots and let Joeh4rd0n give a negative review....the company never sends him a demo copy again and nobody notices cuz those channels can come and go, interest in a particular person ebbs and flows, less risk than a big-name website giving your game the thumbs-down.
 
M76 said:
If your wish would come true, then there would be nobody to test the game or cause problems with servers. So if everyone buys it one week later then they'd still be the first guinea pigs.
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Nice try, but problems with servers are a separate issue from bug-riddled or over-hyped games. Wait for reviews from reliable sources and don't get caught up in the hype. You aren't missing anything that won't be there a week or three down the road.
 
Prisoner849 said:
Nice try, but problems with servers are a separate issue from bug-riddled or over-hyped games. Wait for reviews from reliable sources and don't get caught up in the hype. You aren't missing anything that won't be there a week or three down the road.
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Somehow I never experienced the issue you're talking about. The serious problems that really made games unplayable at launch were all server load related.

Sure if you're not sure about a game don't buy it. No one says that you must buy every game at launch. But I don't understand why you need to advocate that everyone should hold off? You can wait on your own if you want, we're not telling you to go pre-order games.

I know the notion that somehow not pre-ordering games will magically make every game bug-free at launch, but that's nothing more than wishful thinking. The only thing you can achieve by boycotting a pre-order for games is that the developer will allocate even less resources to it, because of the lack of interest. The money flowing in from pre-orders can even be used to finance an extended bug fixing period, that would otherwise be financially impossible. But money flowing in can persuade publishers to give more room to the developer of games that's already producing a return even before release.
 
Nah...the games will come as they did before pre-ordering become a thing. Not pre-ordering isn't about bug-free games, it's about getting devs to show their wares before they see my money. I don't expect a bug-free experience, just the one promised; in this age of the bullshot and pre-rendered 'gameplay' vids, it's come to that...I don't trust most of them. Pre-ordering serves no positive purpose for consumers.

As for "unplayable at launch" being entirely server-related, well I'm not much for online play myself, so maybe we are coming at this from two different vantage points. I will however continue to make a distinction between a server issue and a game issue; a game full of client-side bugs is far less forgivable than server-side issues. The implications of both problems are quite different as well, the former of which I want no part.
 
IcePickFreak said:
Except the special edition is 64-bit, which should be a great thing for mods. It also allows on mods on consoles in the first place.
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Wouldn't that be a free update in most cases? Why are they re-releasing a game with a 64-bit feature and thinks it's worthy of another purchase?
Anyway, sorry to interrupt you with the thread topic. Back to Fallout 4 on linux...
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Exactly. This would be the only reason to pay attention to anything Bethesda has to say. Vulkan, DX12, or Linux are the only things I want to hear from Bethesda. Did you know I still can't play Fallout 4 on Linux through Wine? That's bullshit. Time for Bethesda to get with the times and port their games over to linux.
 
DukenukemX said:
Wouldn't that be a free update in most cases? Why are they re-releasing a game with a 64-bit feature and thinks it's worthy of another purchase?

Exactly. This would be the only reason to pay attention to anything Bethesda has to say. Vulkan, DX12, or Linux are the only things I want to hear from Bethesda. Did you know I still can't play Fallout 4 on Linux through Wine? That's bullshit. Time for Bethesda to get with the times and port their games over to linux.
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DukenukemX said:
Wouldn't that be a free update in most cases? Why are they re-releasing a game with a 64-bit feature and thinks it's worthy of another purchase?
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IcePickFreak said:
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It's free if you already have Skyrim and all the DLCs - at least on PC. Not sure about consoles.

However, reports seem to indicate that it's a pretty lazy "special" edition. They basically just ported over the game into the FO4 engine with no real bug fixes or anything. Still locked to 60 Hz for the physics as well.
 
DukenukemX said:
Did you know I still can't play Fallout 4 on Linux through Wine? That's bullshit. Time for Bethesda to get with the times and port their games over to linux.
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I seriously can't tell if you are serious lol. At least with steam reporting 0.93% are linux users, out of that group how many buy fallout? It wouldn't even be worth it for an intern to write the code. Hell there is more people running windows xp lol.
 
DukenukemX said:
Did you know I still can't play Fallout 4 on Linux through Wine? That's bullshit. Time for Bethesda to get with the times and port their games over to linux.
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While it's not an ideal situation, it's not bullshit, it's TO BE EXPECTED. Going by Steam surveys, Linux has less than 1% of the gaming market, so Bethesda isn't going to support it or even factor it into development, it's that simple. Stuff like this is at the heart of why I never consider the "switch to linux" arguments very realistic for people who do a lot of gaming. As for "getting with the times", it could be a couple more decades, if ever, before the biggest game publishers are catering to Linux. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see MS's hold on gaming die, but being shocked a game doesn't work on Linux is a bit comical, since that's hardly an unusual thing.
 
I trust Bethesda with making good games. However, I will wait for good reviews to be posted. Either that or from experiences on [H] (which rarely do me wrong) or from watching live streams. I won't go in blind anymore. Been burned too much. This policy makes me even more hesitant. Even if it is Bethesda with the excellent track record, it makes me nervous.

They send out the game for review a day before? I'll wait a week or two, then. Works for me. If very positive reviews are released, I'll buy it. If not, I'll pass....... until the Steam sales, which grab my wallet by the balls and tears the money out even on a mediocre game.
 
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