Reader Discussion: Do Late Reviews Affect Your Purchasing Decisions?

Many people use reviews to decide if a game is worth their time. In the current gaming climate, it's getting harder and harder to have reviews at launch due to day-one patches and online components, such as servers requiring testing under real-world conditions. Years ago, not having a review at launch made people suspicious that the publisher was trying to hide something, usually a less-than-stellar game, but that's not always the case.

As we saw with The Division, being an online-only title, Ubisoft opted to wait  because the game is meant to be played with a populated world - something impossible to create for the press only. Bethesda also decided not to let reviewers play Doom early, which is why our review is currently in progress. Reviews are meant to help the consumer make their purchasing decisions, which begs the question: How do late reviews affect whether or not your buy a game day one?

Do you wait until the game is assessed by critics before buying it, or does it not matter to you? In a day and age where servers can make-or-break a game, are you hesitant about games that require an online connection that can't be tested beforehand? Has a game having late reviews ever made you wait on a purchase or avoid one altogether?

This is a complex topic with many different situations at play, which is why we felt it would be a good discussion to have with our readers.   Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.