Did a player review of CoD over at Gamespot...

[MD_Wild_Weasel]

i hope your right nearmiss.. i see great potential in COd, but not without Oleg or ilya

[Fritz X]

Originally Posted by ICDP

So let me get this straight, you wrote a review and gave CoD 9.0 based on what it "could be in the future, IF the developer decides to fix it"? Being a bit pressumptious and to be frank a bit of a blinkered fanboy there.

Who in their right mind gives a score based on potential fixes that might not even see the light of day.

Believe me, this even happens with "professional" reviewers then and now. Over here in Germany we have a game magazine called "Gamestar" (no advertisement intended, you just about to see why...), which I used to buy and read for many years. Then the test of "Gothic 3" came, and they rated it 90%, even if it was full of bugs, game breaking glitches and obvious design flaws, that rendered the game almost unplayable at first. Their argument: Yeah, it's full of bugs, but we're sure they'll be fixed via patch.

I never bought another issue of that magazine afterwards again.

CoD does have potential but potential is not a tangible measurable thing, it is definatetly not something you can use to artificially bump up the score for what is essentailly a bug ridden mess right now.

At most CoD should be getting around 50% for effort and no more, certainly not 90 based on what might be and what you want it to be.

Absolutely agree on anything you said. There is lot of potential, but due to its' crucial status it's simply not worth any rating over 50%, yet. More, it's simply unfair to rate higher for things that "might happen". I can understand that people want to support Oleg and his crew, but what about first time customers who buy a game only because of such ratings? Yes, their money will end up at Oleg/1C/Ubi, but once they find out that things are not working properly, they'll most likely feel cheated (remember: New costumers might not know about the original IL-2 got treated with updates). In the end, they'll not only dislike the game, but also the community who advertised the product in an "un-honest" way.

Of course I'm more than willing to change a personal rating after the major flaws are ironed out, but that'll take some time. I just hope the game will get the chance to show it's full potential eventually.

[MD_Wild_Weasel]

i guess well have to wait till tomorrow and see if luthier can deliver the first patch with an official reponse. Fingers crossed gents.

[Mauloch]

Mazex, thumbs up on the review!

I have never been on a forum with opinions ranging from one extreme to the next like this one. People shooting fast from the hip with a "take no prisoner" attitude. Just fantastic reading these last few weeks guys, and hell, I don't even have my copy yet. One things for certain though, I will be getting my hands on one!

Cliffs of Dover has to be a masterpiece... nothing short of pure evil or greatness can come from such a release.

Never has so much been crowed by so many, to so few!

[nearmiss]

I said it before and I'll say it again.

The people that are into software piracy are mad as hell.

They have been driving us nuts talking down on the forums, since the release of BOB COD on steam.

The future will require piracy protection... and the future is now.

All the bit about "I won't buy it, etc" --- LOL ---- They weren't planning to buy it anyway.

Hang on the ride maybe a bit bumpy. The end will be an awesome BOB COD.

Just check on the stats on some of the pirate sites how many illegal downlaods of IL2 there have been.
I remember reviewing such a site several years back, on that one site they had downloaded over 1/2 million copies of IL2 sturmovik 1946.

That is an astronomical theft...

So yeah! something has to be done, done, and done again to protect intellectual property.

[Chivas]

The low reviews are a total travesty and have accomplished nothing but drive people away from our already weak genre. I'm a huge fan and have alot of respect for what Maddox games has delivered over the last 10 years for our community. I have no respect for those people who have shown absolutely no foresight, with their rating. They will be proven wrong in spades, but much damage has already been done to our community and genre. Luckily a few of the professional reviewers have shown some intelligence and have delayed their reviews until the game is patched.

[GnigruH]

9.0 superb
When they fix the premature birth problems that make it almost unplayable, this will be THE ultimate WWII simulator.

LOL, I wouldn't call this thing you wrote 'a review'.

[ICDP]

Originally Posted by Chivas

The low reviews are a total travesty and have accomplished nothing but drive people away from our already weak genre. I'm a huge fan and have alot of respect for what Maddox games has delivered over the last 10 years for our community. I have no respect for those people who have shown absolutely no foresight, with their rating. They will be proven wrong in spades, but much damage has already been done to our community and genre. Luckily a few of the professional reviewers have shown some intelligence and have delayed their reviews until the game is patched.

So to save the flightsim genre we should accept bug ridden feature lacking software that was 7 years in the making?

Lets review what was supposed to make in the final release according to Oleg's own information over the years.

Dynamic Campaign: Didn't make it and might never make it.
Dynamic Weather: Didn't make it, a WiP that may or may not make it someday.
Hundreds of planes in the air at once: Didn't make it.
AI that won't see through clouds: Didin't make it, AI can see through thick clouds as well as they can in clear weather.
SU26: Didn't make it, was removed at the last minute and people didn't find out until after purchase.
New sound system: Didn't make it, instead we have what is probably the very worst collection of sounds to ever grace a game.

Add to this the fact that Force Feedback stick are not supported. Only every sim released in the last 10m years has this feature. No mater though they didn't promise this feature and can't even be arsed to inform us if they ever will.

Now lets look at what made it in to the game.

Highly detailed tanks and vehicles that we can't even see while flying around. I remember seeing the screenshots in the weekly updates and thinking why do they think modelling every rivets and gear knob on these vehicles and guns is important in a flightsim.

Spitgirl (wow this one is a real head scrathcer, they don't have time to add FFB but they do have time to add a girl to your Spitfire cockpit).

Pleceholder sounds... oops sorry I remember repeatedly being told the sound we were hearing were only "placeholders". It reminds me of the time Oleg said IL2 sounds were great, you just don't have good speakers.

It sounds like I hate CoD but this is not the case, I am actually enjoying it and can see that Cliffs of Dover might be a great sim in 3 years. Right now it is mediocre at best, it should be reviewed and scored based on what we have now, not on what it might be or on what we hoped it would be.

[Komrad]

Originally Posted by Chivas

The low reviews are a total travesty and have accomplished nothing but drive people away from our already weak genre. I'm a huge fan and have alot of respect for what Maddox games has delivered over the last 10 years for our community. I have no respect for those people who have shown absolutely no foresight, with their rating. They will be proven wrong in spades, but much damage has already been done to our community and genre. Luckily a few of the professional reviewers have shown some intelligence and have delayed their reviews until the game is patched.

The only people responsible for driving people away from this game (if that happens) are the same people who made the ill judged decision to release this game in the condition that it is in at the moment.

Sure there are fun things about it, no doubt about that, but there are too many things wrong with it for the average gamer to just pick it up and say wow I must recommend this to my friends.

It's almost as if UBI or MG or 1C or whoever is responsible for this release said to themselves lets just release it anyway, we know the flight sim community trust us to patch the game to standards they expect.

Well that's all very well for the established community, but if they think that will bring new players into the genre then forget it.

People are entitled to review a game how they see it, ultimately the reviews wont lie, it's as simple as that.

p.s, personally I would rate this game at the moment a 6.5, after the next few patches it could well go up to 8 or 9, lets hope it does.


Bryan.