This guy does give a positive review, but he only seems to have a superficial knowledge of the game. It seems like he only played for a week before writing his review.
Speaking as someone who has written quite a few reviews in the past, that's not necessarily such a bad thing.
A lack of familiarity makes objectivity easier, though a lack of in-depth knowledge and/or intricate details can leave gaps in a review. It also makes scoops harder to get.
As long as the writer knows flight sims in general – and the competition that a particular product faces – he thus has a good basis for comparative value judgements and I don't think a lack of months of experience is harmful.
That said, I think any general articles about
Aces High are a good thing to let readers know about it and try the game for themselves. I would hasten to add that much of this sort of coverage isn't aimed at players who already very aware of the mechanics of the game and likely have pre-set opinions, but to present it to people who aren't familiar with it from their own experiences or have only heard of it in passing.
All journalism (even Web based writing, if we can call it journalism) is not about research papers, but about presenting facts in a palatable manner to people whom aren't already aware of them. Of course, it's very important to have an analytical and unbiased article, but readers who are already hardened players of
AH aren't likely to find anything new is such a piece… they'll either find support for their own convictions or take exception to it. It's the flight simmers that have never tried an online game, or a new gamer that has never even played a flight sim that will be the most intrigued and to whom it is really aimed.
Just a few of my thoughts.
Cheers,
phaetn
[Edited to add quoted block]
[This message has been edited by phaetn (edited 01-27-2001).]
