They did mention the printed manual...complaining that it cost $45.

They just were sent a Retail box (I assume) and I'm sure they never even went to the Strategy First product page for DW to see that the spiral-bound manual could be purchased for $19.99 (or $14.95 if you buy DW from the site as well).

They were reviewing what the average Best Buy, CompUSA, EB, or Gamestop consumer would get... which is, a product without the manual.

Now... The sidenote of all of that is that we pitched DW *with* the spiral-bound manual in an expanded box (for $49.99 instead of $39.99) to every single Retailer we talked to and EVERY SINGLE one of them laughed at us. They didn't want to pay the extra shipping costs, they didn't want to afford the box the extra shelf space it needed (since it would have been slightly deeper and wider), and they didn't want to sell any PC game for over $39.99 unless it was some Collector's Edition of a game that they KNEW was going to fly off the shelves at $49.99...

In this instance, we're not the problem... neither is our publisher, really... there's a heckuva lot more to getting a game on the shelves than what they know and the Retailers play a HUGE part in that process (Walmart especially).

Anyway... I still got a chuckle from the review. They said exactly what I thought they would say, and there's something to be said for a humorous dose of predictability (it's comforting, in a small way). ;)

Those retailers are thinking poorly IMHO. If you want to generate better sales, you have to deliver a more superior product. DW is already a superior product IMO. But it's hard to see that unless you get it into people's hands and create interest in it. A printed manual has always been a plus because it gives you something to dig into right away. Who wants to open up that PDF manual and read it for more than 15 minutes? I mean how much shelf space are we talking here? How much more in shipping would it be?

And yes, the video was good. I actually didn't know that G4 looks at games of depth like DW. I always thought of them looking at console first-person shooters only and such. Glad to see they looked at it. :cool:

Every once in awhile X-Play reviews a game that's more than just another twitch.

You should check out the Silent Hunter III video review they did. I almost lost consciousness from laughing the first time I saw it. Watch the video - I think it's here:

http://www.g4tv.com/xplay/features/5...II_Review.html

Hmm.. maybe no video :(

What does Walmart think makes a game desirable?

they said it would cost that much to print the .pdf themselves.

I like this sentence from the review: "This is an uber-hardcore naval sim for hardcore fans of hardcore naval sims.".
Now I feel special... :smug:

Like, uhhhhhhh, whatever dude.....:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: TOO FUNNY!

I don't know, if I should laugh or cry.

They were really shocked when they've learned that the manual has 500+ pages. Probably this is more than all other games, which they've reviewed so far, had together :lol:

This is the biggest manual I have seen since Homeworld and that thing was huge when it came out.

To be honest you could eliminate a good 30 % off, since the sub stations are all the same, minus cosmetic changes.
Learn how to operato one, know how to operate all.

Now the Falcon 4 manual, that was a real brick.
Almost 600 pages of very concentrated tactics/ procedures/ tutorials/brief lesson on aerodynamics/ and of course the inner workings of the f-16.

I don't think there will ever be a manual for a commercial pc game that can top that of Falcon 4.
Not even Flight Simulator. :p

What about Falcon 5 ? :rotfl:

Damn Dr. Sid stop hittin' the nail in the coffin. :rotfl:

I remember Falcon 4. When I first bought it, the darn thing won't work on my computer. If not for the very valuable manual, my investment would have been a total loss...

Yep, most unfortunate situation. :yep:
The software was light years ahead of the competition in terms of features and gameplay, and so were the thousands of bugs present in its code.
But the release of the game couldn't be postponed, it already had been in development for nearly 6 years so it had to get out no matter what.