IGN US refuses to review MGS4 until it can play MGO

In a letter on the site, IGN US has said that it won't be reviewing Metal Gear Solid 4 until it can properly play Metal Gear Online.

In a hilarious dig at sites that have already posted reviews of the game - including IGN AU and IGN UK - IGN games ed boss Jeremy Dunham said, "I hope this clears things up for readers in search of our opinion before it comes out, or those trying to figure out why we have UK and AU reviews, but not a domestic article. We'd rather be right than be first."

By way of explanation, Dunham said:

"While we have already completed the game (Jeff has played through it twice, and Greg and Chris are playing through to the end as I write this), we've decided to hold off so that we can play the Metal Gear Online segment with real people on real servers when it comes out on Thursday (on June 12).

"The reason being that, with MGO being such a significant part of the package (and IGN USA's experience with that feature being rather narrow compared to our counterparts pre-release), we want to make sure that we play the networked portion of the game as much as possible before posting our review.

"So there you go -- the reason why you'll have to wait a few more days before we review Metal Gear Solid 4."

Metal Gear Solid 4 reviews have attracted a huge amount of attention in recent weeks, with Eurogamer's 8/10 being published on the same day as IGN UK's 9.9. Neither review even mentioned Metal Gear Online, which ships as part of the game.

MGS4's out tomorrow, thankfully.