Review embargo has now slightly lifted for those with first impressions access to the game, and IMMEDIATELY there's problems.
First off, all of the new articles are taking great care to avoid talking about gameplay, story, or anything tangible and are instead talking about the graphics and how the game has over "60 accessibility features", features that they then don't go on to list. And these articles are all coming out within hours of each other, sometimes even spamming the same shit over and over and over again, nearly word-for-word. And if that wasn't enough to make you wary of this game's impending reception: all of their comments sections in these articles have been immediately opened and closed upon being made, at Naughty Dog's request. With some just wholesale ripping off Digital Foundry's video and completely misrepresenting the video's points (to give one example: how they said the lighting was great...even though they didn't and was one of the main problems both DF and their comments section pointed out), and others just copying what's being said in other articles that are being released, like one big incestuous journalist stew.
www.eurogamer.net
Controller mapping, text-to-speech, and a high-contrast mode were some of the more technically challenging
www.gamesindustry.biz
Also at Naughty Dog's request, the Washington Post pointed out that they were only allowed to review the 2-hour portion that was only seen in the "never-before-seen" gameplay trailer from the State of Play (i.e. they were only allowed to spend two hours in that single area alone from the demo, and weren't allowed to progress anywhere else) and are only able to write about that section in this specific article and must not release anything else
under any circumstances: a rule that was apparently also given out to the other reviewers of this game listed above. And they are to stay this way until their final reviews (which are already written up) are able to be released on the 12th.
