Well, they're sticking to their word with reviews for The Crew! There will not be a post-release embargo in place! Instead, Ubisoft has no embargo time since it seems as though they aren't giving out advance copies of the game to the media for review purposes. So, there could be a review up at midnight but that's assuming you're a-okay with the reviewer spending just one second playing the game, and the rest of that minute typing up a review and posting it.
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.
For this very reason, The Crew will be available to media to begin their reviews when the game launches on December 2. There will be absolutely no embargo on any type of coverage once the game is available for sale. While we fully anticipate that you might see some reviews immediately at launch – largely built around the preview sessions we facilitated during the past months or the limited content of the closed and open betas – they won’t be based on optimal conditions or reflect the finished game. We sincerely hope everyone will take the time to customize their ride as they progress through all five regions, explore every corner of the map solo and with friends, dive into our competitive and cooperative mechanics, race to the end of the main campaign, choose a Faction and compete with your crew in Factions Wars, and so much more.
For this very reason, The Crew will be available to media to begin their reviews when the game launches on December 2. There will be absolutely no embargo on any type of coverage once the game is available for sale. While we fully anticipate that you might see some reviews immediately at launch – largely built around the preview sessions we facilitated during the past months or the limited content of the closed and open betas – they won’t be based on optimal conditions or reflect the finished game. We sincerely hope everyone will take the time to customize their ride as they progress through all five regions, explore every corner of the map solo and with friends, dive into our competitive and cooperative mechanics, race to the end of the main campaign, choose a Faction and compete with your crew in Factions Wars, and so much more.
Well, I guess technically they're sticking to their word about not having post-release embargo times.
(via Ubisoft)
I'm fine with waiting for reviews to come out to include launch day woes if they feature an online component, but this is essentially no better than what they did with Unity's 12-hour post-release embargo.
I would stay clear myself...oh wait
If there are pre-order bonuses or if you just really need to pre-order for whatever reason, having reviews up before the games release is extremely useful. I'm happy to wait for reviews on this one because the car handling in the beta was pretty poor, the developer went into detail on how you can change handling in the options but that seems strange to me, nobody complains about what driving in Forza Horizon feels like.