Editors Note: Our reviews are changing

Since VideoGamer.com was formed 10 years ago, the way games are released, patched, tweaked and updated has changed dramatically. Day one patches and updates have made the release date (and the review embargo that goes along with it) less the mark of a 'finished' title, more the beginning of an evolving product. If games are changing in this way, our way of reviewing games has to change too.

For many years, the process of reviewing a game has typically involved one of the following scenarios:

• A) We are given access to a game in our office ahead of release that is only playable on debug hardware, often with online functionality limited to pre-release test servers.
• B) Publishers provide us with a copy of the game that is playable on retail hardware and is the same disc you'll buy in shops. Online functionality may or may not work at this stage depending on the status of the servers.
• C) We purchase a retail copy of the game ourselves. If this is acquired prior to launch, online functionality may not be available to test.
• D) We head to a location outside of our office to review a game, in what is often referred to as a 'review event'. These events usually comprise of a few days playing the solo campaign and then time set aside to test out online components. Code is either final retail or debug.

In all these situations we will test the game to the best of our ability, but there may be occasions where we are unable to assess certain components, be it a PvP mode or co-op missions. This isn't ideal for us and it's not ideal for you, as our experience is essentially incomplete.

There's also an increasing likelihood that the game we review will have changed by the time it's in your hands on 'Day One'. It now seems more likely than not that a game will receive a patch between the time the disc is printed and it goes on sale. We need to account for this in our reviews.

And then there is post-release support. Assassin's Creed Unity, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, FIFA 15 and more have all received substantial patches and fixes post launch, and sometimes this can extend to weeks or months after initially going on sale. If you're interested in buying a game three months after it was released, we want our review to reflect the state it's in at that point, so we need to account for these updates too.

We've taken all of this into consideration and these issues will now be reflected in review coverage on VideoGamer.com. Here are our new review guidelines:

• We will only award a game a score if we've been able to test all aspects to our satisfaction, offline and online.
• We will award a game a score based on the experience at the time. Review conditions will be stated in the coverage.
• Review text and scores may be updated once we've tested the game in consumer conditions, with the game released and online servers populated with real players.
• Review text and scores may be updated if a title receives significant and game-changing updates post release. This does not include DLC unless offered for free to all.
• If review text or score is changed the original text and score will be archived on the page.

We hope that this new system will make our reviews more flexible than they have been in the past, with scores and text updated to reflect the current state of the game. That doesn’t mean that all games will be continually re-assessed, but if a developer rolls out a substantial update or the consumer’s experience at launch does not reflect our experience pre-release, we’ll update our review should the game warrant it.

The first game we re-assessed under this new system is DriveClub. You can check out our new thoughts here.