It’s obvious when embargoes are lifted in the game industry, as every videogame site under the sun suddenly posts the same derivative article at approximately the same time. Embargoes are a scourge, a powerplay by the P.R. department handling a videogame, which serves no positive purpose for anyone involved. It dillutes the media for gaming sites and compresses the exposure of a game into a single day.

I mean, how many BioShock 2 previews do we need posted on a single day? You’d think a publisher would want the exposure spread out over time, keeping the brand in your head up till the day of release, but no. P.R. hacks think it best that previews all hit on the same day. Worse, the various sites are more than willing to play along, willingly giving up whatever power they may have had.

Let’s take a gander at which sites played the embargo game today, offering up essentially the same content as everyone else:

Wired: First Look: BioShock 2 Takes Bold Trip to Rapture

Loot Ninja:  Eyes-On Preview: BioShock 2

CVG: BioShock: Behind the Scenes

Worthplaying: Preview – BioShock 2

Gamespy: Thrills, Drills, and Blood Spills in Rapture

ShackNews: BioShock 2 Impressions: Seeing and Dreaming

Kotaku: BioShock 2 Impressions: Spoilers? What Spoilers?

Destructoid: Preview: BioShock 2

G4TV: BioShock 2 First Impressions

Escapist Magazine: BioShock 2 Preview

Joystiq: Joystiq Impressions: BioShock 2

Good work, boys.