I'll drop the C&VG guys a line and let them know to change it. I didn't know it had gone up online, as the review is in the current issue of the magazine. I don't honestly know how much Richie played of the game (obviously I couldn't review it) but I was kinda expecting a score of low to mid 70s, but admittedly the review does seem to read a little better than the score. However, score wise in Zone BD beat Lionheart, Sacred and Nightshift, so that's pretty good going (although I think Sacred was underscored at 65%). At the time Zone got the code for BD I believe, it was considered to be finished and subsequently for a number of reasons Larian made the wise decision to hold back the game and tweak it some more, by which time the review had gone to print anyway, so there was little that could be done in that respect. It's certainly going to be interesting to see how the other UK PC mags (Gamer and Format) score BD when their reviews come out, as both of them gave the original DivDiv scores in the 50s/low 60s as I recall.
It may interest you to know that many games are not completed when the reviews are written, at least in my experience of UK games mags. This obviously depends on a number of factors: the game in question of course...it's much easier to finish Max Payne quickly than Baldur's Gate II, how familiar the reviewer is with the game in the first place (have they place preview code previously? Are they an expert at evaluating games in that genre? etc) the space they've got to fill in the magazine, a 6 page review will probably demand more time than a 1/4 page one, the state of the code itself, the gaming platform and of course the time a reviewer is given to actually play the game and turn in their copy, which is much less than you might imagine.
Personally, I don't think it's at all necessary for a reviewer to finish a game before they review it and certainly not practical when working to tight deadlines. With a book, film or DVD you might conceivably sit through the whole of it to see it the end makes the over all experience any better. But with a game you can get usually get a good feel for it after a certain length of time depending on reviewer/game etc certainly if you're an experienced reviewer. It a game hasn't hooked a player in...whether their a reviewer or not they're unlikely to spend the time working at it to see if it gets any better 20 hours or so down the line. they have been games I've finished before I wrote the review such as Freedom Force, but I certainly didn't have time to finish all 200ish hours of DivDiv when I reviewed it. It may not be ideal, but that's how things tend to work.
Rhi
