I doubt that I am the first person to notice or question this, but I didn't see anything else when searching for "EGM" or "Coach"...
EGM's opinion on EA's newest clunker is in the review section, but it's essentially buried as a stealth sidebar to the NCAA Football 07 review. Since both games look the same, anyone just flipping through the review sections looking at scores and screenshots might not even differentiate it as text evaluating a separate game. The background behind the text is the same color as the NCAA review, when normal EGM layout practice is that if there's two reviews on a page then they both have differently colored backgrounds (so that readers can tell there's two different games being reviewed).
The text is not a standard review either -- it's a transcribed dialogue between two editors who slam the shit out of the game, pointing out problems with basically every aspect of NFL Head Coach. If it were an actual review the game would probably be a 5.0 or below, given the tone of the conversation. But there isn't any score at all. The conversation just ends.
Normally, most of EGM's pre-review evaluation goes into the "Reviews Wrap Up" section when they don't have the time to review a game before going to print. This look at Head Coach (as already noted) is in the Reviews section. My knowledge of EGM is somewhat limited (only recently re-subscribed), but as far as I know, no other games have gotten this treatment in the past.
Cynical Explanation -- EGM is kowtowing to Electronic Arts. They are huge a publisher, big purchaser of EGM/Ziff Davis advertising, and the company that gave them this month's multi-page exclusive cover story on Army of Two. Negative text is blended with another more positive review of an EA game, and NFL Head Coach is saved from the humilation of being handed a very subpar score.
Journalistic Integrity Explanation -- EGM doesn't have the resources or time to print a full, fair review (read: none of their editors want to play this piece of crap game, or none of them feel equipped to fairly evaluate an extensive management sim). They still want people to get some evaluation of the title before buying, so they add this text next to a review that most fans of football games will be reading.
Your thoughts? If you subscribe to EGM, did you realize that the "review/opinion dialgoue" was there or did you just mindlessly flip by it after checking out the NCAA 07 scores?
EGM's opinion on EA's newest clunker is in the review section, but it's essentially buried as a stealth sidebar to the NCAA Football 07 review. Since both games look the same, anyone just flipping through the review sections looking at scores and screenshots might not even differentiate it as text evaluating a separate game. The background behind the text is the same color as the NCAA review, when normal EGM layout practice is that if there's two reviews on a page then they both have differently colored backgrounds (so that readers can tell there's two different games being reviewed).
The text is not a standard review either -- it's a transcribed dialogue between two editors who slam the shit out of the game, pointing out problems with basically every aspect of NFL Head Coach. If it were an actual review the game would probably be a 5.0 or below, given the tone of the conversation. But there isn't any score at all. The conversation just ends.
Normally, most of EGM's pre-review evaluation goes into the "Reviews Wrap Up" section when they don't have the time to review a game before going to print. This look at Head Coach (as already noted) is in the Reviews section. My knowledge of EGM is somewhat limited (only recently re-subscribed), but as far as I know, no other games have gotten this treatment in the past.
Cynical Explanation -- EGM is kowtowing to Electronic Arts. They are huge a publisher, big purchaser of EGM/Ziff Davis advertising, and the company that gave them this month's multi-page exclusive cover story on Army of Two. Negative text is blended with another more positive review of an EA game, and NFL Head Coach is saved from the humilation of being handed a very subpar score.
Journalistic Integrity Explanation -- EGM doesn't have the resources or time to print a full, fair review (read: none of their editors want to play this piece of crap game, or none of them feel equipped to fairly evaluate an extensive management sim). They still want people to get some evaluation of the title before buying, so they add this text next to a review that most fans of football games will be reading.
Your thoughts? If you subscribe to EGM, did you realize that the "review/opinion dialgoue" was there or did you just mindlessly flip by it after checking out the NCAA 07 scores?
