Gamespot review is up

[LlamaCat]

Gamespot.com now has a review of BTS. it's actually slightly worse rating than Warlords!

 

[anandus]

Ah, let's see what Gamespot has to say about this

This is the link, by the way:
http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/civilizationivbeyondthesword/review.html?sid=6175647

 

[Virulent]

They said espionage isn't useful. Did they play the same game I did? I haven't even played a full game yet and I can already tell you that they are wrong.

 

[Grimus]

8.5

Lol, silly Gamespot.

 

[goonie61]

that review sucks, it might as well be a preview

 

[Chode]

The game is broken right now and I don't see how anybody could rate it higher than 1 unless they only played it for 10 minutes.

 

[MisterBarca]

The game is broken right now and I don't see how anybody could rate it higher than 1 unless they only played it for 10 minutes.

I pretty much agree.

Espionage and corporation killed the game at Marathon setting for me.

 

[LlamaCat]

I agree that espionage is not required to still win the game and do everything successfully as before. I did notice they incorrectly stated that this expansion introduces some new leader traits, which is not technically true. anyway I think the review is probably a fair assessment... any Civ game is going to get an overall very high score, but after all the bug reports and the general confusion about some of the new features, it brings down the score in my book just a little.

I had thought BTS was a lock to be the best Civ IV expansion yet, and maybe it is, but probably only because there was just one other expansion so far! still, Firaxis gets major kudos for trying really hard. it's clear they did put some real effort into it, even if ultimately it's not all on target. how many expansions can you say that the company really added a lot of new stuff?

 

[HiroHito]

not trying to defend the game or anything, but I've noticed over the years how gamespot reviews have become overly critical, inexact and very belated, while IGN has improved a lot.

I am reading their review right now and already noticed this sentence: "The expansion also offers new options to create customized games to your liking, such as the handy "advanced game" mode, which starts you in a game about 10 turns in, unmolested." Sorry but this is wrong, you do get 10 turns of "Universal Peace" but with 720 points -I just tested it- I was able to get 4 cities + 2 techs and a religion, try to get so much within 10 turns champ... shows a lot about their understanding of the game's new features and how misplaced their judgement has become in general.

PS: a couple sentences later they add how corps. "spread" like religions which is false as well, IIRC they dont spread on their own... 0 comment on the Apopstalic (spelling?) palace, zero comment on how you can release colonies...a very illustrative review of how low gamespot has fallen imho.

 

[Reed]

To be fair, I think most people on this forum have an intimate understanding of the game mechanics and notice the needed changes in BTS. Novices on the other hand... might not notice much difference between vanilla and BTS, other than extra civs and leaders.

 

[phungus420]

This expansion is awesome, and it and fireaxis deserves much praise. But there are at least two fatal flaws right now, regarding corps and game speed scaling with espionage. Those need to be fixed before anyone being honest could rate this above a 9, or even 8.5 really. The fact is Espionage is broken at marathon and messed up at quick/epic speeds, and Corporations are fully broken. Espionage and Corps are the two main game changes, and having them not function properly, and with Corps being completely broken cuts most of the wind out of this Expansion Packs sails.

 

[Spearthrower]

There are some serious flaws in this release, I agree.

Is it a good expansion? 100% certainly, absolutely sure it is. Not just from the leaders and other elements added (i really appreciate the new map scripts), but from the modding perspective.... it's going to be the start of something beautiful I am sure!

For the record, I am looking forward to the much needed fixes. I'd also really like to see Espionage being made optional (same as random events) although I appreciate how hard that could be to implement and how different people's game experiences would become.

Some graphics need work.

Marathon setting needs some love.

A lot of good stuff and some really shoddy other parts.... I actually think that Game Spot's score is about right, even if they didnt hit all the nails on the head.

 

[V. Soma]

this review is crap - the reviewer obviously isn't into civ much

I agree that IGN will be more serious

 

[Danielos]

So espionage and corporations, the two major features of BtS is broken in Marathon? Nice going, Firaxis, were you rushed, arrogant or just lazy?

I was so looking forward to this expansion. Now I don´t think I will be buying it...at least not until it is properly fixed!

 

[Ashbery76]

I actually like espionage and think they designed it very well for a 4X game.I dont know what some people expected for spying.

 

[diablodelmar]

I didn't think it was a good review either - the reviewer didn't know his stuff, for instance he thought the "protective" and "imperialistic" traits were new to BTS, which they aren't.

 

[phungus420]

So espionage and corporations, the two major features of BtS is broken in Marathon? Nice going, Firaxis, were you rushed, arrogant or just lazy?

I was so looking forward to this expansion. Now I don´t think I will be buying it...at least not until it is properly fixed!

Well Espionage works fine in normal speed, and MP games (because they are almost always played in Quick mode). It's just two missions, foment unhapiness, and poison water that have a scaling problem in Marathon and Epic speed. With Corporations it's an oversight I can fully understand, it took the community about a weak to find it, because the broken part has to do with maintaince being calculated with inflation, which is hidden. To be honest I can see how this slipped through the cracks in game testing, but these things are definatly messed up right now. Overall though, it's a little unfair to come down so hard on fireaxis for these. But it's too bad, because an expansion that could full well be deserving of solid A+ is definatly busted down to a B- until these things are fixed.

 

[Phil Ken Sebben]

So espionage and corporations, the two major features of BtS is broken in Marathon? Nice going, Firaxis, were you rushed, arrogant or just lazy?

I was so looking forward to this expansion. Now I don´t think I will be buying it...at least not until it is properly fixed!

I'm sorry, but <snip>? You base whether you will buy a game/expansion on hearsay on forums?

<snip>

I personally think Gamespot <snip>, but even if they didn't, 8.5 is still a good score for an expansion.

Moderator Action: Warned for flaming.
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[Danielos]

I'm sorry, but <snip>? You base whether you will buy a game/expansion on hearsay on forums?

<snip>

I personally think Gamespot <snip>, but even if they didn't, 8.5 is still a good score for an expansion.

So you think it is better just to buy a game not reading any reviews, no forum discussion whatsoever?? Maybe preorder it? And then be a complete idiot for standing there with a buggy, broken game you never should have bought in the first place.

Maybe mommy buy your games for you, but if you have to pay for them yourselves, it´s really irritating if game companies feed us with buggy, badly tested software with broken game features. But what do I know? Maybe you love wasting your mom´s money...

 

[sneaky]

The game is not broken. Some features are broken in Marathon, but that doesn't make the whole game bad. Personally I think Marathon is a slightly unbalanced speed anyway.
The corporation feature, I don't know. It's hard but whether it was intended as us such remains to be seen.