Big ups to EGM and 1up for sticking to their guns. Apparently, Konami has some crazy insane restrictions behind the review for Metal Gear Solid 4. Some of the things they forbid early reviewers from discussing include the game’s 4.6GB install and the length of the in-game cutscenes. No one knows for sure what else can’t be talked about and we don’t have our review copies of the game yet (Konami, what’s the deal?). Direct from EGM:

Metal Gear Solid 4 will hit store shelves shortly after this issue of EGM lands in your hot little hands. And four EGM editors — Matt Leone, Jeremy Parish, Andrew Pfister, and Shane Bettenhausen — have already invested plenty of time in the game. So why don’t we have a full review in this issue? Simply put: We weren’t happy with the limitations Konami wanted to impose on our comments, and rather than publish compromised reviews in the interest of being the first to rate the game, we’d rather wait until next issue, where we can be completely open and thorough with our thoughts. In the meantime, our MGS4 vets sat down for an informal chat about the game (and remember — [once the limitations are lifted] you can find the full review on 1UP.com!).

This type of thing really hurts the review process. It’s already bad enough when you have to play a game for review with developers and PR people looking over your shoulder, but to restrict what you can and can’t say in a review? How are gamers supposed to really know what’s going on? No topic should be off limits in a review. If something sucks or gamers should know about it before buying, it’s a reviewer’s job to make sure everyone knows.

We stand behind EGM and their decision to wait on the review so they can publish everything that needs to be said. We won’t be running our review pre-release, so we won’t be restricted with what we can say. Not that we’d sacrifice our journalistic integrity anyway. We’ll always bring you the full truth that we feel about every game.