You can't have it both ways. There were plenty of vocal beta testers that said that it would be near suicidal to launch the game in the current state. They were right. The trick is to really objectively evaluate the feedback instead of (as Brad himself admitted) having the blinders on due to passion. The buck has to stop someplace and that place is not in beta.
I agree with Heavenfall. Considering there is currently no multiplayer, the weak campaign is almost mind boggling. I think the 're-release' idea is a good one and I'd take a peak Q1 2011 to see if this game is shored up. My thoughts are it really does need a lot of work. As others have stated, there is definitely some good ideas here, but they need SERIOUS attention and in some respects to be completely redone before we have a game that is worthy of Stardock.
6 or a 7? I'm sure you would have been fine with that, but I would have felt betrayed by gamespot and felt they were giving this a huge pass. A 6 or a 7 is a 'decent' game. This game is broken and feature incomplete. 'Decent' is VERY forgiving.
Somehow I doubt that gamespot would be garnering such scorn if the review was an 8 or a 9... Guess it all depends where it is received.
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