Baal_Sagoth

Yeah, not the first example either, unfortunately. SR: The Third has the same problem for example. Publishers and Steam know this very well and simply don't give a fuck - realistacilly that part of the market is probably not nearly important enough. I'm pretty sure the "lying to Steam" tactic doesn't work without also faking your IP. I would rage if I wasn't utterly disillusioned at this point anyway.

Quite an interesting format to present a discussion. I'd be happy to see more content presented in this fashion.

I understand the importance of metacritic scores and critical reception for a product in a very detached, abstract way. I do not understand however, how you'd possibly be this fucking obsessed about these numbers. Is monetary profit really everything to developers today? I understand that content producers still need to earn a damn living at the end of the day, but review scores seem like a relatively weak scapegoat for developer's frustrations with their games' reception. CoD, for example, has been criticised to no end in the "enthusiast press" but still sells like crazy because the fans are perfectly happy with it. If you piss your fucking pants about gamers saying their piece about your game you should maybe just stay away from criticism since you certainly aren't capable of taking it. I understand that, since it's a very difficult skill to master, but I don't see the overall problem with giving games a score. The human brain, unfortunately, needs these limited abstractions to function effectively.

I disagree whole-heartedly with the notion that there should be a strong disparity between a number-based score and a "critique" of a game. I do wish people just were above the need for a stupid fucking numerical value, but I fear we aren't evolved that far. On top of that, there's an easy fix for game producers: don't give websites access! If you want to control your message 100% than do just that in your advertising. You only miss out on overly-critical fools like me and can manipulate your sheep-customers at your leisure.

The great irony in this batlle of the minds as I see it is: game companies need (positive) reviews more than customers do. I switched to podcasts, blogs, forum posts etc. as a main source a long time ago. It's the marketing guys that keep pushing for 100-fucking-percent on metacritic, 5/5 on giantbomb and other such nonsense. Why do they do it? Because it is still effective! An informed fan does need a point value a lot less than game devs do.

@Kookro said:

@Baal_Sagoth: Sorry for the late reply but home is where you make it. Also I really need to play the game one more time to take notes, might actually start it on easy and take my time.

That's a good point! After my second playthrough with NG+ I had the same thought. So far I'm just messing around with arenas and weapon combinations but I still might play another time. Maybe after a little pause.

Are Rucks/ Zia/ Zulf/ the Kid somehow part of one "personality"? I like the way you put your theory together. You're on to something but I don't think we got it quite figured out...

On a different note: the Kid doesn't really rebuild his home because he technically belongs to the motherland people that once build the city on native Ura territory(?).

Also: have you all played the alphabet "history books" part? Shouldn't we find something enlightening there? What's up with the last page/ "author" segment? Awesome thread nonetheless :)

Edit: I just finished my New Game+ and another question occured to me - are there actually more than two endings? Does the combination of the choices affect anything?

@ThatFrood: Again, thanks for doing all this since I probably would've missed it at least a little bit if there hadn't been any community lists. I'm especially glad you did include the whole list of votes - I always find that very fascinating! Very surprised about Portal's and Bastion's position. Portal I just don't care for personally even though it appears to be very well made (and has a funny reference in New Game+ Bastion...). But good to see that Bastion really struck a chord with plenty of people everywhere. Here's to a successful future for Supergiant games.

@ThatFrood: Such a good idea, thanks for doing this.

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/baal_sagoth/goty-2011/46-70095/

1. Skyrim
2. Bastion
3. Mortal Kombat
4. Battlefield 3
5. Space Marine

I'm glad you offered your view on the awards since I was already half-expecting it after stumbling upon Alex's (admittedly pretty entertaining) twitter rant. I can't say I'm particularly invested in that event or any of the opinionated camps sorrounding it or plan to follow any of that nonsense in any detail but I do agree with "...do you really think that award shows are great to begin with?" whole-heartedly. That's the one point where most of the critics are full of shit from my perspective. Many of them are apologists for other boring, ceremonious and terribly outdated award shows like the Oscars and many others.

I don't care if these shows are infantile, boring or just self-indulgent as long as they're too shitty to actually be watched by me anyway - which they all are. I also agree that there might still be merit to the proceedings if the winners get a kick out of it. I'm happy if favorites of mine get their confidence boosted even if I couldn't care less about the ceremony itself.

Oh, Obsidian. Well, it's not on PC anyway so I'll try to just forget all about it starting now.

Glad to see the white, hot animal rage has eased off a bit, at least in these parts of the internet. IW really isn't neccessarily up to the quality DX had when it first released but it is still a very good game that does some things differently than its predecessor for better or worse, though the world and fiction still is pretty unique and cool in my opinion. I'd give it a shot but I haven't played HR and probably won't anytime soon so I don't quite now how that fits into the DX universe scenario- and quality-wise. That last entry just didn't give me that "You HAVE to play me" vibe, don't even really know why not.

@Video_Game_King: Understandable! I absolutely have moments of rage too when people fuck up or are confused in games I know in much more detail already. Plus in this particular case I'm obviously blissfully ignorant as I already hinted at, since I really know next to nothing about the game. We can only hope all sides will get some solid entertainment out of it in the end. Since ERs are somewhat of a rare occurence I understand people freaking out when they fear it may be a disappointment for them. I'm hoping for the best.