Gamespot published an article explaining why their review of NGII is being delayed, they have explained that they received a letter from Microsoft explaining why they should delay the Review.
Read for yourselves:
"Hi all! I've had several readers ask me about Ninja Gaiden II, and when they could expect to see a review post. The short answer, of course, is always the same: we will post a review when it is ready.
The long answer is that Microsoft did not send final code to review outlets. The build we received suffers from loading issues, visual glitches, and other noticeable flaws that may or may not be present in the game you buy. Here is the statement we received from Microsoft when we pressed them on the matter:
Just a quick note from Team NINJA below regarding the "Ninja Gaiden II" red discs. Please note that the delay in load times you may experience is not representative of the final game. In the final boxed copy of the game, which you will receive once the game ships to retail on June 3 in the U.S., you will not experience any lag in load times. Team NINJA is aware of the issue and requests your patience as you play through the review red disc.
Xbox 360 spins DVDR media slower than replicated media, so it's not representative of how final media will perform. Also, please keep in mind that this build distributed early to you guys for review purposes is not final retail code (emphasis added -- KV). While the build contains many final gameplay features, story elements, and graphical capabilities, it's a press evaluation build so it is not as fully optimized as a retail product. Generally, load time is one feature that improves between review builds and final product. While there typically is not a major noticeable difference between review builds and retail product, it can vary, so please keep this in mind while working on your review.
You may remember that we reviewed Lost Odyssey based on code provided to us as reviewable, and rightfully called out load times that lasted close to two minutes in our evaluation. The retail game did not suffer nearly as much as our review build did, and we replayed a significant portion of the game and adjusted our review text to reflect as much once the issue came to our attention. We do not wish to repeat that circumstance, and will only post our Ninja Gaiden II review when we know that it is factually correct.
Frankly, we aren't willing to accept any developer or publisher at their word when we're told that flaws in the review build will not be present in the retail game. While we want to bring you timely reviews, we are strongly committed to bringing you accurate reviews based on the same exact game that will be in the box. Games are expensive, and you deserve an honest evaluation based on the final product. Publishing an early review with potentially incorrect information (or one that glosses over important information because we take the publisher at face value) does a disservice to our readers.
We will publish our Ninja Gaiden II when we are fully confident that it reflects the game you will purchase. You deserve nothing less."
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Skewed and Reviewed have written an Opinion Piece covering issues in the gaming industry, how current issues were issues years ago, and what can be done to help restore consumer trust.
Nothing. It's up to the gamers to stop consuming content from companies that they don't agree with.
How do you know if you agree with it or not unless you play it? Which without conventions forces gamers to rely on trailers. Perhaps Demos should be made more frequently. But companies need to do better as well.
But is that not what they have now? Tons of gameplay or are you talking about watching actual gamers play it versus the trailers and streams? The big issue is that some companies pay streamers and influencers and they create content but for me; that is hardly a fair, unbiased, and factual look at a game.
They usually are attached to the money sadly. It would be nice to have gamers in charge but you have so much money invested that business people are needed. Hence the issue; you need people who know business but are also gamers who know have an eye to the community. It sounds simple in theory that if you give gamers quality games that they want to play; money will be made. But that is not always so.
I'm all for better scores on ninja Gaiden 2 but only if it deserves it. with all the problems plaguing the review world now does this lend itself to the problem or what? This is almost like Microsoft out and out bribing them to hold off for a good review. I know it's probably not but it would appear that something is going on here. It's sad when you can't even trust the opinions the so called professionals.
Why would they not send the reviewers the final build of the game? It makes no sense at all. And wasn't this rumor shot down already, there was a article posted on this site saying that the problem that plague ninja gaiden does show up in the final build. I think microsoft wants to make sure this game gets a good score from the media because they want to soften the blow that metal gear solid will do to them.
So they won't be reviewing it because the company that publishes it wants to make changes to it AFTER they've sent it to be reviewed?
So the flaws that are in it should just be ignored and brushed off as a bad build even though THEY,the Publishers,sent THE build to be reviewed,hmm?
Smell that,gamers?It's the scent of Moolah mixed with a whiff of corruption.
On one hand, I believe that games should be final when reviewed, so that they are playing the same version of the title, load times and all, the we consumers get to enjoy. At the same time however though, I never see this sort of courtesy being extended to PS3 games. So this definitely smacks of bias and pleasing the "winning console" fanbase.
I really hate game journalism. So biased.
Thing that makes me really go ho hum is that everyone's reviews so far have said the same thing that there isn't any innovation in gameplay and it's basically Ninja Gaiden sigma with new enemies and story that seems convoluted.
Is that going to make the review better here? I don't think they're going to send out a copy that is going to fix those problems.