Review copies of Borderlands 3 have only been provided to a select few media outlets ahead of the game's launch on Friday, September 13. The game's publisher, 2K, says that this is all due in part to some unspecified "security concerns" over the game.
As Kotaku points out, most review copies are provided to outlets roughly a week or two ahead of the public launch. These review copies can be physical offerings or, as is more common these days, a digital download through Steam, Epic Games Store, or even directly through the PlayStation Network for PS4 reviews. For the most part, these review copies are usually identical to what you will get at the game's launch. To note here: Yes, Epic Games Store does allow for reviewers to put in a game code to download review copies early. I can personally attest to this.
However, things are being done quite a bit differently with Borderlands 3. According to reviewers, 2K provided select reviewers with special Epic Games Store accounts that had a work-in-progress build of Borderlands 3 included on it. Polygon's Ben Kuchera shares the specifics about what their review copy entailed.
"2K Games and Gearbox didn’t send out review codes for Borderlands 3. Instead, they set reviewers up with new Epic Games Store accounts with the game unlocked, and gave us a few warnings about the game being a work in progress. They asked us to stay away from the DirectX 12 implementation, for example, and told us that our progress in these builds may or may not carry over to the final game."
Kotaku, in asking for a review code for the game, said that they would not get access to the game until just one day prior to launch. A representative for 2K cited "security concerns" over access to the game. Other outlets, such as VG247 and other non-US based sites say that they also haven't gotten codes for unspecified security reasons.
If you are someone that bases their purchase off of what reviews say, I would maybe suggest you wait a little bit until after the game's launch to see what the general consensus is. Limiting the reviews to a select number of US-based outlets is incredibly bizarre.
