Don’t expect any early reviews of The Crew

Like Assassin's Creed Unity before it, Ubisoft's open-world, social-infused racing game, The Crew, won't have reviews ahead of launch. Well, there might be some reviews at launch, but Ubisoft warns these "won't be based on optimal conditions or reflect the finished game" since most will be "largely built around preview sessions" that have been facilitated during the past months "or the limited content of closed and open betas." So why no formal reviews based on the finished product ahead of the game's release?

To put it simply, Ubisoft isn't sending out any early copies. Instead, The Crew will be available to media the same day it launches on December 2nd.

Unlike Assassin's Creed Unity though, which required outlets hold their reviews until 12 hours after the game was released for seemingly no good reason other than hiding the lackluster quality of the game, Ubisoft claims to have good reason for not sending out early review copies of The Crew.

We also know that many of you will be eager to turn to experts for their professional advice. You want to read how the pros feel after their carefully considered road tests of The Crew. While we totally understand (hey, we read reviews, too!), The Crew was built from the beginning to be a living playground full of driving fans, so it’s only possible to assess our game in its entirety with other real players in the world. And by other, we mean thousands and thousands and thousands of players – something that can’t be simulated with a handful of devs playing alongside the press.

Good on Ubisoft. I don't mind waiting until launch to review a game. We've seen with numerous online, connected games — Grand Theft Auto V, Halo: The Master Chief Collection — that the multiplayer portion can often run into trouble, especially when you bring in millions of players at once. The problem with this, however, is when publishers try to force pre-orders down the throat of the consumer. Do they really expect gamers to pre-order their product without any sort of review? Sadly, they do.

Either way, we'll try to provide you with the best coverage of The Crew as time allows, so keep it tuned to GameZone.