What you wrote implies that backers with early access on qt3 have been asked to not discuss it here. I can post about my experience right here in this thread, can I not? If Tom (or you or anyone else who reviews for the front page) gets a review copy, they can write down their impressions in a forum post, correct?
You wrote that I’ve been asked not to.
Double Fine has said specifically that this is not the case.
OK, I’ll concede that technically, we can post reviews here in this thread all day. You and I know both know that the clumsily worded statement from Double Fine is really a bulwark against reviews that will go on Metacritic or Gamerankings, but they couldn’t actually specify that so they mealy-mouthed it with “being fair” and restricting “formal reviews” - whatever that means.
Double Fine is certainly free to embargo reviews if they want, but I’m not going to worry about it. I paid my money just like a regular schmoe, so I’ll discuss it as soon as I’m done playing it.
A little OT but, the whole Early Acess and “beta” period stuff is getting out of hand. I’m starting to lean towards calling things on sale for anyone to buy a release and eff the publishers and developers that say otherwise.
I agree with this, and I also think that the Double Fine statement is really weird. I mean if you’re going to do a review embargo (a concept that I dislike in general), you might have said so before asking people to put down their money.
Now, I haven’t backed this myself, and from what I can tell I can’t get access to the updates, so all I know about this comes from reading this thread, but it doesn’t sound to me like they’re requesting as much as demanding that people don’t blog about this until whatever date. It’s not a big deal to me, but I think it comes off as a somewhat shitty move, given that no one has apparently signed any such agreement.
Nobody in the press or any of the early backers can post a review until the 28th. As far as I’m concerned, that doesn’t leave much else on the table.
RPS has an impressions post up. And, indeed, they regularly do impressions before a full review, embargo or no. TouchArcade often does the same. It’s not so hard to distinguish between the two.
I’m starting to lean towards calling things on sale for anyone to buy a release and eff the publishers and developers that say otherwise.
Broken Age isn’t. If you didn’t back it already, you can’t get it until the 28th.
Which is why I said it’s “a little OT.”
Right. As I said earlier, their real concern is reviews that get on Metacritic and other aggregates. They just didn’t say that because they don’t want the press to get sore when Joe with a blog posts his review now. It’s a completely dumb restriction based on scoring, that they didn’t/couldn’t articulate.
Tom posts articles all the time describing his impressions before a review. (Case in point is the current one for Banner Saga.) I know the difference, Double Fine certainly knows the difference. The issue to me is that Double Fine releases their game to over 87,000 people and treats it like it’s some kind of press review exclusive. Goofy.
It’s all moot now, they just posted another update rescinding the request for an embargo.
Well thank god for that small favor, maybe we can talk about the game now. Or, you know, in a few hours when I get to play it.
Could someone please hurry up and play the game and write your not-a-review here, please? Otherwise I have to wait until the 28th.
As for the review thing…
Broken Age Review Embargo
Hey all, I just wanted to write and let you know that we have decided to go ahead and lift the embargo on Broken Age reviews. The decision to set this originally was not made with any sort of malicious or controlling intent, but rather to keep spoilers to a minimum and give press time to enjoy the game, reflect on it, and write a review without feeling rushed to get it out first. However, it’s clear the excitement will be difficult to contain.
So feel free to run your reviews and let’s play videos as soon as you’d like! Just remember to be careful about story spoilers, especially the ending! Thanks for being so understanding. Hopefully you guys dig the game!”
It’s sort of cute that they even thought this was a thing they could do, or that it would work at all. “We’re such a close, tight-knit community! Everybody will understand that this is in the best interest of the game, and play along!”. It’s like they’ve never heard of the internet. Which is weird, since the internet funded the game in the first place.
Anyway, I am pretty excited to check it out tonight. Been a lot of build up. I hope it is good. Well, to be more honest, I hope I like it. Sometimes there’s no relation between how good something is and how much I like it. That’s how I roll.
I can’t review Broken Age yet, but I can review Double Fine’s support: A++++
I originally created my Kickstarter account through a Facebook login, which was dumb because Facebook put a fake passthrough email address in my account profile without telling me and I didn’t realize that for like two months until I went to sign up for the DFA backer forums and couldn’t get it to recognize me as a backer, because it was checking against a database that had the Facebook email instead of my actual e-mail. At the time I emailed Double Fine support, they confirmed the issue and after making sure of my identity gave me backer access. Unfortunately, apparently that didn’t change their database so my key email went out to that address instead also. I just e-mailed their support again, and five minutes later got a response that actually they remembered that initial issue and here’s a key. (Mind you, that interaction was nearly two years ago.)
Now that’s service.
Just played a major chunk of the game and am really enjoying it. Puzzles have been pretty easy, but art, acting, and (strange) story have been great so far.
Agreed. Art, VO, and music are excellent so far.
Also, ICE CREAM AVALANCHE!
Not got my email yet. :(
Played about 4-5 hours so far.
The game is phenomenal in every regard.
I seriously can’t think of one single complaint.
Well, I guess the only thing is I wish it had controller support. As it stands now, I’m playing on my couch with a wireless mouse. The game should really be experienced on a big 1080p set with surround.
That’s promising!
Is there any interaction between the two worlds (in this half of the game?). I’ve only been playing Vella’s story so far, and haven’t felt any nudges to go to the other (like in, say, Ni No Kuni).
Not got my email yet. :(
Check your Humble Bundle account (and set one up if you haven’t). I didn’t get an email from DF. I thought I had a Humble Bundle account, as I’d bought a couple, but it turns out I just had an email address registered. When I signed up for a full account, the game was sitting there.