Despite it topping the Steam charts today (showing obvious interest), I still haven't heard a peep from GB about this game. What's the deal? Are they trying to make some kind of statement by ignoring one of the hottest games of the moment? At least Gamespot gave it a chance:

It's one of the hottest games at the moment?

The guys cover games they feel like covering - not every game gets a video, review, or an article. Plenty of titles come out that don't see a Quick Look, that doesn't mean the crew is trying to make some kind of statement about them.

Let's not invent a controversy where none exists.

meh. there seems to be plenty of coverage out there. this is not a game that needs signal boosting, nor does it seem to be doing anything particularly novel. while i can understand wanting your favourite bombers to have a look at it- i kinda get a 'who cares' vibe off it.

Yea, this didn't look good. Repetitive and short twin stick shooter. I also don't understand how this game could be that hot, hasn't everyone finished it already?

not interested

Couldn't you have asked this on the other thread, or better yet contacted the staff directly? Seems like you're trying to make a statement yourself by creating this thread.

If anything, not covering it possibly means (though I do not claim to have any insight into their thoughts and feelings) the GB crew feel there's not much entertainment value to be had in covering it, or it would not be fun / worth it to cover it. Dem's the breaks.

@maginnovision@betaband Hatred is the 76th most popular game being played on Steam right now according to Steamcharts.com, with a peak of about 3,000 today and 1,620 playing currently.

From what I've heard it's a pretty solidly mediocre game that's only news because of the bruhaha surrounding it.

Looks boring in the gamespot video.

Looks to me like the devs knew it wasn't going to be anything special, so they courted controversy to sell.... probably 400% or more of what they would have. Good on them I suppose. Might pigeon-hole them from now on.

@mb: I've never looked at Steam charts, is that high? 76th doesn't sound that high...especially for recent release.

They don't care. Do you care?

The game just looks stupid

@gamefreak9: No...it isn't very high. There are more people playing the LEGO early access game right now, and that was a surprise release that no one knew about until this morning.

I'd rather see Cobra Club coverage if they're doing AO stuff.

The Giant Bomb crew do what Giant Bomb do.

I kind of hope they don't, I wont care really either way, but Giant Bomb quick looks are great to me for two reasons, the laughs and the information/showcasing of a game.

This game really doesn't have much comedy value to it besides some cheesy lines, and you can learn everything about the game in the first 2 minutes.

But whatever, they'll do what they do, and if they do it I'll watch it, cause I watch all of their stuff anyways.

The guys can cover or play what they want but tbh I really hope they don't this game doesn't deserve any attention. Its not even flavor of the week and it'll be forgotten and buried within the overwhelming amount of shitty mobile ports on steam within a week. Exactly where it belongs.

I don't think they're "making a statement" m8. They cover games that they want to cover and/or think will create good content and I suspect that their opinion of Hatred mirrors my own: It's a run-of-the-mill stick shooter with decent TECHNOLOGY( because it utilizes UE4's stock physics) which skyrocketed to a media darling because of manufactured outrage over its edgy subject matter and not because of its gameplay. Who cares?

Jeff has always been pretty clear about his broader dislike of whiny emo trenchcoat dudes. This game stars one. Don't really think he'd have any reaction other than a dismissive fart noise.

@noodleunit: You do realize that your OP could be identically said about any number of random anime games that come out on Steam every year, right? The bold "statement" they're clearly making is nothing but, "Umm, we're not interested".

Don't read meaning into every little action, or non-action, that the staff takes. Hatred isn't exactly something interesting or innovative so unless one of the staff feels it's something worth covering I doubt it'll get much coverage.

And honestly is there something unique about that game that it needs coverage? It's known for it's terrible PR and now, seemingly, it's lackluster gameplay.

They do what they want, but Jeff regurlarly stated how he thought the game looked lame and boring. Add to that a cynical marketing campaign that was just made to make a fuss with soulless shlock and you've got a game that does not really look like it's worth getting interested in. I'm sure if the word on the street was that the game was good, they would check it out, but it isn't, so they can safely pass.

P.S. Do coverage of Snakebird instead. Now THAT is a game! :D

They aren't Kotaku, man. They don't need to cover yet another lame dual joystick shooter just because it was so cool and socially conscious to hate on for that one brief period last year. They don't have to get duped into the smug self satisfaction of telling the whole world just how offensive they find it. Coverage of Hatred would only work here if the game was really good or completely broken or in any other way noteworthy.

It's very clear that you're trying to call out Giant Bomb here for being afraid to cover the game or whatever. There's nothing left to say about this game that hasn't already been said ad nauseam by countless other outlets. Just let this dumb game die.

If it's covered at all, I think a written review would suffice.

Honestly, Polygon controversy and exploitative marketing aside, this game looks like something that wouldn't pass Cert on a console. Looks very very dull and low quality.

Pretty much. I got to play some earlier, and man, this game is just bad. Content aside, the controls are clunky and unresponsive, aiming with a controller is hit and miss, your character seems to change weapons on his own for no reason, feedback when shooting someone or getting shot is poor, the weapons feel and sound hollow and aren't satisfying to use, grenades are tricky to throw, the movement speed of the character is too slow and he lacks mobility. To top all of that off, the game suffers from severe frame rate drops when there are more than 5 or 6 characters on the screen or any kind of action or effects are being displayed, even on a high end system.

The game part of Hatred is not good. I played it for 45 minutes and have no desire to ever touch it again, and neither does my friend who for some reason thought it would be a good idea to drop $20 on this mess. I can't think of any part of the gameplay that I actually enjoyed and thought was well done. So far the only thing I have enjoyed about Hatred was watching the ending on YouTube, and that was only because I was laughing at how bad the writing, voice acting, and animation were.

This game is so bad, I wouldn't even recommend buying it if it was $5. At this point, I really hope the Giant Bomb crew does some kind of video on it, because it would be hilarious.

I think Dan should quick look it.

Yeah, most things I've seen about it just look hilariously bad and try hard and not really all that offensive, it could almost pass as satire. They could have went way, way farther with this game if they were truly wanted to offend. I think a QL would be pretty entertaining, but I'm not gonna cry if we don't get one.

I'm willing to bet there was a conscious decision not to cover Hatred. They've said on several occasions that they get frustrated when they cover a bad game (and say it's bad) only to receive emails that say "man it looks so bad I gotta try it!"

Between the inevitable uptick in sales due to any kind of coverage and the socially repugnant nature of the game, GB probably decided it wasn't worth it.

It's a game that will probably sell 10x as many copies as it otherwise would have because certain members of the media decided to get into a competition to see who could be the most outraged by it's existence. If Giant Bomb decides to cover it? Ok. If not? Ok. I honestly don't care either way.

Watching a video of it in action, I thought the physics stuff looked genuinely quite impressive. I could see myself messing around in it for a bit. It doesn't seem all that shocking or depraved - it's just a goofy teenage goth fantasy. My only problem would be paying the devs, as they seem a bit scummy. But I'm going to torrent it or anything either, sooo... I guess I'll just forget about it.

Not much to cover in that game, game mechanics are almost non existent. They should probably just play Smash TV instead.

the ten boring minutes from danny (who tried his best to make that video fun. a truely great man) is all I need.

the guys seems really uninerested in it which a uninteresting quick look this would make. im fine if they dont cover it.

part of the appeal of the website is most content is chosen because they want to so most content is great. I dont want them to feel forced to cover anything. big or small.

I'm actually glad they have no interest in it and show it by not talking about it constantly. It weirded me out that the sites that seemed to want it to fail the most were absolutely relentless in their promotion of it, thus making it succeed. Streisand Effect.

Jeff said back when the controversy first started last year on twitter: "Fuck that game." I think that answers your question.

lol it is not one of the hottest games of the moment, come on.

I'd just read Gamespot's review of the game. It's pretty savage. I don't think Giant Bomb needs to give this game any attention.

Hatred is the clickbait of video games. I don't think it warrants attention.

Even if GB were somehow making a statement by not paying attention to this game (which they aren't, as was made really clear by @joshwent's statement above) the statement would be "we don't give a shit about this game, and neither should you." So if you really, really want to read into the fact that the major gaming publication with the literal smallest editorial staff of any of them isn't covering a particular game, you can read that rather than decide that it's some kind of conspiracy and that everyone is out to get this awful, boring, piss-stain of a game.

The developers of this game are laughing the bullshit hit-pieces by Polygon and Kotaku all the way to the bank. The amount of spite purchases on this title is kind of hysterical.

Only Vinny should do the quick look. That would just be great!

One more thing: The ending to this game is fucking hilarious.

@jerseyscum:

That's some pretty awful password protection. Hopefully those engineers got fired.

The guys tend to look at things that interests them or is too big to ignore, and I don't think this game fits either bill.

Ignoring or writing hit pieces about the game is only making people want to buy and play it. That's how it works. When "The Man" tells people not to do something, people do it anyway out of spite. If they treated Hatred like any other game, people would discover that it's not that good, and they could decide for themselves if the content is disturbing enough not to play it. Clearly, people learned nothing from both the Mortal Kombat or Grand Theft Auto examples of this.

I don't think the ending was very funny, just dumb.

I'd really love to read an Alex Navarro review of Hatred. I realize that's not going to happen. But I bet it would be pretty damn funny.

@jerseyscum: Oh my GOD! I mean I've heard about the tone and the protagonist but...WOW.

Seriously, this is the kind of dreck that angsty 13 year olds write. Looking back on Mike Krahuluik of Penny-Arcade's old jr. high comics, the dialog and content is ALMOST identical.