First German print reviews published

[Warhead]

It seems to me a good idea to tell you guys about the german print magazines that are publishing their reviews of GalCiv2 at the moment.

Let me say one thing first - I know why I rely on Gamerankings and online games platforms instead of listening to those incompetent "journalists" (well actually that seems to be the wrong word) from the printed area.

PC Powerplay: 69%
PC Action: 74%
PC Games: 75%

All of those magazines complain about the graphics and the sound of the game. WTF!

Who cares about graphics and sounds in an 4x game? Furthermore, I like the graphics, you have a superb overview of the situation, addicting shipbuilding graphic-functions and a innovative sound theme never heard before on a computer game.

I'm not sure, but are those low ratings (Powerplay claims to be an "old school magazine", lmao) a result that Stardock doesn't want to book any fullsize ads in those mags? Pretty bad games get really high scores if they are from EA and are covered by a hugh marketing machine. Pure gameplay fun doesn't seem to me an important aspect of those magazines ratings.

I'm really interested whether this is happening in other countries, too!?

Regards,
W

[Gufnork]

Most gaming sites have lost all credibility in their rating of GalCiv2 when they claim it has an incredible AI. That being said, I agree that the graphics and sound in GalCiv 2 is really great and graphics and sound isn't that important (I'd love a custom music folder ala Civ 4 though). But look at any site or magazine and you'll see that all games that has ads gets much better reviews than they should. That's the way the business seems to work.

[Shadowlord]

Check out http://www.galciv2.com/Journals.aspx?AID=107789

It (oversimplifies a bit, but...) talks about different kinds of reviewers, like the "drive-by reviewer," for example.

[oldstatesman]

Thanks for the link SL - good read.

Gufnork - I noticed there are a couple of hotkeys for Play previous track and Play next track when using a playlist - I wonder if the ability to add your own soundtrack is there but not documented....

[Gufnork]

Might be half made but didn't quite make release. With a little luck it could be implemented in a patch soon. But those hotkeys could also be to flip between the game tracks.

[Stecker]

You forgot about the most sold german magazine Gamestar.
They only gave a 62%.

The valuation is a little bit strange because they give 3 out of 10 points for balance and for startpositions and 5 out of ten for AI. Which sums up to lost 19% for mainly the same critics, that its somewhat unfair, the AI is cheating and that its difficulty (including useless tutorial).

The text itself is slightly more positive and didn't complains about the graphics. But also they give only 5 points for the graphics.

Strange, I would have expected the PC Powerplay and Gamestar giving the "fair" reviews for such a game.

[Amasius]

Oh, the infamous Gamestar-Review. Probably the worst worldwide. There was a very hot discussion about it in the Gamestar-Forum. Hot but a bit onesided after a while...