There is both good news and bad news about reviews for next gen games.

We will be seeing "Most" PS4 reviews in the next week or two.

For what ever reason it looks like MS have embargoed reviews until the release of the game or the release of X1.

We will be seeing the PS4 review of Assassins creed next week but not the X1.

The next gen is only a couple of weeks away but more road blocks keep appearing for both consoles. This neogaf thread has been mentioning problems with X1 Esram and comparing it with the PS3 Cell architecture. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=703729&page=19

I guess this answers questions about journalists not seeing previews for X1 games like we have been seeing from PS4 games this week.

What a crazy year it has been.

Arthur Gies is my number one source for not that clear information that he is "hearing".

also yeah they holding back on the x1 version. 720p!!! ESRAM!!!!

@artisanbreads: To be fair, Sessler was expressing his distaste for something yesterday too and this seems the most likely.

I don't mind him saying it, really just busting balls. He just always talks like this without saying much. And he annoys me in other ways.

@mariachimacabre: I saw the sessler stuff as well he seemed really pissed off about something it could be related to this. Apparently Sessler ,Gies and Mitch Dyer from IGN were throwing around error codes on twitter.

720p.

They're coming in hot!

Battlefield 4 review for PS4 on Monday. Looking forward to it. Hopefully I'll be satisfied with what I hear.

Yeah, looks like they're gonna try to hide the fact that they have the worst next gen versions of these games. They must think it's a big deal since they're being so secretive about it. Everything they do is so shady.

If it's honestly because of graphical performance being less impressive, what do people expect? It is a weaker console. Stupid reason if you ask me.

Oh I just made a topic about this. I'll delete mine. Didn't even see this one.

But anyways yeah that doesn't sound too good. Possible it's not a HUGE deal, but doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in the Xbox, which is already severely lacking. Also I'm sure Arthur is crying tears because his precious Microsoft has been getting battered all year. V_V

He's calling Microsoft out to the best of his ability and you're calling him a fanboy?

Fail, they need the extra hype so badly at this point. 1 great review could sell a few consoles but obviously they are afraid they won't even get that. Obviously this confirms what we already knew about the XBOne being inferior. Less than a month to go and they haven't even sold out anywhere near me.

I wonder what he could mean by "more stupid than platform differences"?

Those tweets are just specific enough to send the internet in a frenzy and just vague enough that no one actually has any idea what the fuck he's talking about.

I'm not sure that it's worth reading too much into this. I'm sure that on some games there likely is a performance gap that might not be favorable, but there are any number of reasons that game reviews get embargoed.

@seppli: When it comes to multiplayer games like Battlefield, I'll read the reviews for tidbits of info, but never take the praise or critique too heavily.

Unless the reviewer has 1) Played earlier games 2) Plays a lot of games of same genre.

The problem isn't that the Xbox is weaker, the problem is that it is releasing in the same time frame as the PS4. MS is afraid they'll lose the battle with reviewers stating which version looks and performs better; if they lose that fight a month before launch how big of a struggle will it be for them to recover from that? Hell they still haven't recovered from the E3 mess of used games and always on requirements.

Fact is that Sony is so far ahead in the PR front that MS can't afford another hit such as reviews stating things like "When it comes to the new next generation of consoles, the PS4 looks and performs better than the Xbox One" (not a real quote, just something a review might say).

@village_guy: Sounds to me like it's more of a policy issue, or MS just failing at getting the games out to reviewers. Basically something completely unrelated to how good/bad the games are.

This makes it look like there is a lack of confidence and that is a bit concerning.

Are there any number of reason that one particular version of a game would be embargoed, while all other versions would not?

Maybe a Microsoft policy. But once this embargo conspiracy gets them bad press, maybe they'll just reverse yet again.

Because Microsoft would have the power to embargo those reviews?

I don't care about what they have to say about it gameplay-wise. For the most parts it's Battlefield, and DICE does a killer job with that everytime. For me, it's the minutia of everything that makes me love or hate it, and I'll find that out for myself. I know I love Battlefield games already. I just don't know how and how much I love BF4. I just hope it's not the same love-hate-relationship I had with BF3.

What I'm looking forward to, and hoping to hear what I want to hear? The technical aspect of it. How does it run? What's the rendering resolution? And so forth.

You're not very familiar with him are you?

But hypothetically speaking, why might that be? Why would it be in Microsoft's best interest to not allow anyone to review next-gen multiplatform titles on their console?

I don't care about why... The SOLUTION is not to embargo reviews after the fact, the SOLUTION Is not to send review copies to anyone. Once you send a review copy out to be played that horse is out of the barn, down the street, over the tracks, and ...oh crap the horse is dead and that milk truck is totaled. Anyway, yeah, don't send out review copies is the point.

You mean review them early, right? My best guess is that there isn't a lot worth getting for either system at launch.

I really can't imagine either Sony or Microsoft shipping consoles out to press prior to the official release. Maybe one or two very select press outlets, but it certainly isn't going to be widespread. The access that press will get to these games prior to release will be at pre-release events, where they will be buttered up and bombarded with marketing designed to get the best scores possible. Whilst I don't believe that any of the mainstream gaming press would actively be biased - this is not the ideal conditions to be reviewing a game. I would tread very carefully over any reviews prior to the launch of either console (or first thing on release day, for that matter).

I wonder if they are doing this with the mindset that if they have their reviews out the same day as the launch of PS4 it hinders their ability to hype those games for their launch. Thinking along the lines of 'our system's reviews will be lost in the shuffle, may end up adding as advertising for PS4 inadvertently since the only next-gen version one could buy associated with the 'next gen' review is the PS4 version, etc. etc.' With that logic, I can see what they are getting at. I don't know if they lifted the embargoes earlier or at launch either would effect sales. But I get the logic. I don't see this being some hidden thing about performance or resolution though. The difference probably won't be apparent until later in the console generation.

I could've sworn that places have already received consoles. Hell, Arthur's tweet implies that a PS4 review is already done.

At launches a whole lineup of reviews is usually prepared. I can't see those all being done at that "Launch Celebration" on November 11-12. It takes some project management to review a launch line up.

Sadly, I feel like social media has really affected gaming more than anything. I clearly acknowledge that the PS4 is the more powerful console, no doubting that, but the Xbox games and overall infrastructure appeals to me more. This is coming from a guy who owns both a PS3 and 360. I'll definitely be getting a XONE first and hopefully a PS4 in the next year or two. Whatever is going down with Microsoft though with the mystery isn't helping them though. I feel if they were straight with everyone, it would be better.

I kinda want the X1 to do alright just because a lot of unappealing people are rooting for it to fail, but it sounds like this is going to be one hell of a fucked-up launch.

@video_game_king said:

But they're already going to be reviewing them early on PS4. As said, the PS4 version of Call of Duty: Ghosts will be reviewed a full 10 days before the PS4 is available.

So are you suggesting that MS thinks that the launch games aren't very good, but they think that their customers are going to bury their heads in the sand, rather than read a PS4 review of a multiplatform title? Either I don't understand what you're getting at, or that doesn't make a lot of sense.

Sony being afraid of bad Knack reviews, or MS fearing bad Ryse reviews? That makes sense, but this does not.

So I ask again, why would it be in Microsoft's best interest to not allow anyone to review the Xbox One versions of next-gen multiplatform titles?

@ares42: how about this theory. X1 is currently not able to run games, because of the essential day one patch that removes always online. That would be quite a stupid reason.

If both reviews come out before PS4 launches and the games are the same on both then people will get the game for their PS4 because it's out first. If the review comes out after the PS4 launch then they can get people to hold off on purchasing the multiplatform games until after they've already bought their PS4 games.

You could make a similar argument about any review embargo, and yet they happen on damn near every release, both good and bad. I imagine that to some degree it's probably just a marketing strategy. Having reviews hit after the PS4 release and before the Xbox One release is probably better for the purpose of building hype.

Yeah some already got Ps4s and Jeff also said that GB knows already when they get theirs as well. As for Microsoft. It is a totally different situation than last gen. Last gen everything was demoed at events on 360 consoles so far at these events people only can play the PS4 versions. Latest example was NBA2K14 which only had the PS4 version at their event.

Reviewers have played the Xbox One versions, they just aren't allowed to write about it yet. Most games are likely fine, and offer parity with PS4 - though I suspect some don't. However minor or major that'll be? We'll know once the embargo is up.

No they have not that is the problem. As I said for example at the NBA2K14 event there was no Xbox One version at all. That does of course not mean that every game will be worse on Xbox One but rather that the situations most likely will be reversed from this gen. When all these events mostly or only had 360 versions until close to the release.

Bf4 was the same with the latest BF4 footage which was also on PS4 instead of Xbox one.

But game reviewers won't be writing two separate reviews for each multiplatform title, just because their respective consoles launch a week apart. Reviews of multiplatform titles will not be hitting after the PS4 release, and before the Xbox One release. They'll be hitting BEFORE the PS4 release, and possibly see minor updates before the Xbox One version is released.

This may hurt the Xbox One.

Its fucking video games, not Watergate. Jeez

How dare you imply that Watergate was more significant than the Xbox One early review snafu we've found ourselves in.

Or it could be this:

From Jeremy Conrad, former IGN editor.

It is pretty funny that launch games are still not running at 1080P and even having frame rate issues. How does that even happen? I've been playing games in 1920x1200 (so, above 1080P) since 2007 for fuck sake. Many a times on by today's standards, ancient video cards.

This is all making me happy that I am holding off on a PS4 until 2014. And this isn't even a master race thing, it's just utterly bizarre that 720P is still happening.

This happened with Nintendo as well. If you spend a lot of money on an gimmick device you have to compensate it with less powerful hardware.

Do you guys remember back during the first year or so of the Xbox 360...it took Microsoft a half-dozen system updates to even support 1080p. I know this is only tangentially related, but still. All of this is getting really interesting and fast. Canceling my preorders for both systems was probably a good move.

@naru_joe93: this is more like finding out that Kanye West called his son North, or that George Clooney might be gay.