GameSpot Review Posted Online

[Ed Kolis]

Hey! Nice to see you around these parts! You know, I'm kinda curious how you and Aaron Hall think of each other... have you ever talked with him before? He's going to be appearing in an IRC chat session in a couple hours, you know... he might be pleasantly surprised to see a fellow game designer show up!

[Yimboli]

Well I'll be damned. Look who it is.

[Jeff Lackey]

I logged on expecting to see dozens of posts telling me what an idiot I am for writing a review like that - glad to see that the fans of the game (and I am one of them) here are more mature than on most fan forums.

That was a tough review to write, and the policy at the places I write (CGW-which is now GFW, Gamespot, etc.) is to review the game out of the box. Which was version 1.0 They did allow me to mention the patch at the time (1.08.) I rewrote that thing 3 or 4 times trying to be completely fair and also such that people can make an informed decision. Some people will decide the depth is enough that they can put up with the bugs and trust the developer will eventually fix them. And you just can't give the game a higher score because the developer has always fixed them in the past - you have to review what you have on your PC, not what it could be.

I still have SEV on my system (along with Gal Civ II) and I'm looking forward to the mods, patches, etc. But I do think that developers ultimately kill themselves by releasing games too early. I don't believe the income from the early buyers can make up for the lost income from people who read negative reviews or posts on general gaming forums or even word of mouth.

FWIW

(Edit) - for the person who noted the incorrect caption, thanks for the heads up - it appears they mis-matched my captions with the wrong screens shots for all of them. I'll get them to change that.

[Atrocities]

It is extremely rewarding to read a solid and honest review of a game. You did a great service by being fair and honest and that I think is why most of use endorse it. I have to admit that I was a bit worried about what was going to be said, but was very relieved after reading the review. It was spot on.

[Q]

IMO this is a very accurate and fair rewiew of the game Jeff.

[President_Elect_Shang]

Jeff Lackey said:
That was a tough review to write...

I thought your review was accurate and generous. You could have been much harsher and even though we fans may not know all the restrictions you face writing a review I think we can at least guess at the general structure. As Atrocities said it was very fair and most of all honest. I would rather read an honest review that I can respect than one that is too flowery or otherwise obviously sugar coated.

[Mephisto]

Indeed, a fair and good review. I hope you drop in to the forum more often in the future!