ArtisanBreads

No one at Giant Bomb is going to finish this game and it is going to get the shaft for GOTY. Book it!

Not that it affects my enjoyment, just going to happen I think.

I'm very close to finishing (thought I was hours and hours ago, but the story kinda fakes you out on what seems like the conclusion). Damn is it a masterpiece of a game. One of the very best ever made.

It actually feels longer than two years to me. Like a lot longer. That probably speaks to how big of a presence he really was. I really miss hearing Ryan and watching him but always enjoy revisiting his work.

"dodges shareholder concerns" would've been more accurate.

A few random, more obscure fighters I really liked I would like to see get ranked not that high:

Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side

Street Fighter EX 2

Zero Divide

I'll say with this game, vs two, the threads start coming together a lot later in the story. I'm near the end and they start showing you a lot of consequences. The ink-y cutscenes that show up at times are showing you the results of things you decided or set in motion. Also, if you ask some people for help later with issues you have, some will tell you to fuck off if you didn't do right by them, which is cool.

Witcher 2 was more direct with this though, sending you to whole different areas and all that. It was a different type of game. Both games are oustanding.

Not sure I agree with you on this. I mean, there definitely is some of that going on but it's not nearly as egregious as Mass Effect because of Mass Effect's scope and the issues you are tackling (i.e. saving the universe). You are deciding all the fate of whole species and cultures and well everyone (often very overtly), so when that's not respected it's way more of an issue. I don't think the issue is even in the same ball park between the two series/games.

So far (near the end), I think they've delivered a strong, personal story while trying to respect many decisions and I'm happy with the balance. They have to tell a story too.

It's probably just some royalty free song they use.

I can't stand it. So goofy.

Not really. I follow Gawker on twitter and got super tired of their abrasive and attacking style (which has gotten worse to me, not that it wasn't always there, I just couldn't take them just labeling people a sociopath in a headline anymore) and then they started to tweet the same story about 3-4 times a day. I had enough.

Gawker got on my last nerve recently. So to see them crash for this would be fine by me and rather funny and fitting.

Amazing.

Same, given we have known that this being different was coming.

To me, season one had a very unique bayou, occult, southern vibe meets noir, whereas this season so far is modern grimey LA fiction meets some traditional LA noir story vibe, which isn't as unique. Still I think it's been entertaining so far. I feel like a lot of the reaction is to that difference.

I do not think the acting has been as good this season so far, but season one was a very high bar.

And it's only been two episodes!

Yep same. At first I was bummed there was no direct "these are two partners" set up but as episode 2 went along, I loved the "dangerous alliance" going on between everyone and everyone behind them pulling the strings.

Still had some of those good "partners in the car" scenes anyways.