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

[mazex]

Originally Posted by baronWastelan

9.5? Reminds me of the Nobel Prize being awarded to a US president, based on the expectation that he won't go around bombing small countries that pose no significant threat...

Hey - I am from Sweden, so what do you know - maybe I'm in the Nobel Prize committee? I actually think it was rather clever, even though it was too obvious that it was done for the purpose you describe above But after thinking a while, I did lower my score on Gamespot to 9.0 as I don't think they will ever reach 9.5 which I had hoped for.

In this case people write reviews over at Gamespot giving the game between 1.5 and 2.5, claiming to have waited for the title for years - and when you read it you realize that one of them has even not bought the game yet! He gives it 1.5 on rumors! What good on earth is that for the future willingness to fund patching of this game by 1C? When the "normal" users goes to Gamespot and reads this on the US release - will they buy it? No way, and they will not wait a few months which I respect that some people do when reading of the bugs - they are lost.

As it is now Cliffs of Dover has a PC rank of 17 on Gamespot, so there are a lot of people reading this. But I am sure that Ilya is not. So if the ones givning it the axe over there really want them to fix the bugs - is this the best way to achieve that? They just kill the product, but I guess it's their way of saying thank you to the team that has struggled for six years with this and got pushed out on the dance floor by 1C/Ubisoft before getting their pants on. Yeah, we are real flight sim fans - so let them die for having that stuttering on the release day. They maybe fix it next week but that does not matter for us long time fans. They must die.

The thing is that IF the manage to completely fix the stuttering and gain 20-50% fps (which may happen as early as next week) - it WILL be a completely other game, even if there are many other things on the list to fix. In that case, will those persons that have given it 1.5 on a rumor go there and update their score? No way, it will stay there for all time to come. So if no one posts about the good stuff which is obvious to many of us that have an attention span of more than a few hour, who of the Gamespot readers will ever know that? Today it maybe has the highest hit ratio at Gamespot it will ever have? And sites like Gamespot and IGN are the major "recruitment" channels for new pilots to fill out the ranks of pilots lost over the channel

[nearmiss]

Put it where it hurts...

Two months ago know one knew Jack about when we could get the BOB COD.

I've read thousands of postings for the past six years, from the earlier days when UbiSoft and SimHQ were the principal voices on IL2 and it's successor.

During the past two years we have had a constant barrage of members on this forums hanging on every word from Oleg or Luthier. Any word about the BOB SOW from either of them brought a rush of discussion.

Everyone wanted the release, and many members haven't made an issue about a so-called "incomplete" BOB COD. These people are glad it is released, because they know the "REAL BETA" testing is in process.

The real testing begins when things get fixed that affect all kinds of system configurations. Already we are reading where performance variations don't make sense... yet the BOB COD is working well with some strange setups.

Strange things are happening. LOL

I love it, we have the BOB COD released. The BOB CD boxes are flowing out and the developer is in a frenzy to make as many people happy as possible... post haste.

-----------------------------------
Some fixes may take awhile, but I venture to say within 60 days we will have an awesome CFS.

[MD_Wild_Weasel]

i agree with you on that nearmis, but ive heard that oleg has left 1c?. So if our beloved Oleg has left hasnt his brainchild?

[nearmiss]

Oleg hasn't gone anywhere.

The IL2 BOB COD will be the benchmark ww2 air combat simulator.

Just wait...
don't speculate....
it will be your wisdom...

There is nothing to compare that is even close, and until that day comes I doubt Oleg will even take an extended vacation.

MSFT has the money and resources to build a competitive product, but they don't have the leadership to really listen to people and build what people want. That was proven "in spades" with the CFS3.

Oleg reviews the boards and will have discussions with anyone to achieve his desire to build what people want. He has proven that thousands of times in dozens of forums on the internet.

[[RS]Boomer]

Great review Mazex, I couldn't have said it better. I just bought Cliffs of Dover yesterday morning and spent the whole day playing with it. I finally got it to run very smooth, averaging about 50 fps. I don't know why all these people have to bash the game and give it 2.0 score. Yes it has some problems but I know they will fix them. I couldn't have been happier about my purchase, Thank you 1C for this great game! And thank you to the person who posted about Justflight info(thats the only place you can get this game in the US), so I don't have to wait two more weeks

[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!