Humanity

Even in the case of Brad and Patrick their backgrounds do them little good in this specific field. Brad doesn't write very often because everything is going towards video and Patrick doesn't really do any journalism work because the way the industry works doesn't lend itself to free form writing - the news people at most gaming sites will for 95% of the time regurgitate press releases that are mailed to them by publishers/developers. In fact journalism itself is extremely useless in this industry because it's such a symbiotic relationship that you can't cross the lines that normal journalists do. You don't actually get "scoops" because you're usually under embargo. The idea that journalists are under embargo and won't break stories until they are neatly told when they can do so is ridiculous.

I agree with the sentiment that they are just guys. Almost everyone in the games coverage media is just a person that ended up there, likes games and talks about them. Some do it way better than others and some have better business practices than others. What really sets them apart from YouTubers is direct access to publishers and developers through the corporations they work for. Sony won't come to Angry Joe's apartment in order to personally demo their newest exclusives for him, but they will come to the GameSpot office and demo their games to someone not that much different. Also for better and worse YouTubers have no filter because there is no HR above them, or suits or people that make sure legalities are being met. So really it's the back-end that is the only differentiating factor between big news outlets and personal streamers.

@believer258: Do the best that you feel you can at your job, treat people fairly if they deserve it, but never ever put the job before yourself. Just because you were hired that doesn't mean you owe your workplace anything more than the work both of you agreed you would do. Never feel guilty about taking a better offer when it presents itself. From personal experience I can tell you that rarely anything good comes out of some misguided some of loyalty or honor towards your job - unless it's a really, really really great place with amazing people. Just think about it - you're feeling a bit guilty because someone basically changed your shift, which as a past manager myself I can tell you is a trivial matter. Go on to bigger better things man.

Ah cool, thanks for the heads up. I was wondering what was going on.

It's always a bad idea to buy an entire console because of only one game but sometimes it works out. I did it with the original xbox because I wanted to play Jet Set Radio Future so bad, but the game selection was a lot better on PS2 back then and ended up selling the xbox. I bought the xbox 360 because a lot of my friends had it and was happy with that decision for the entire generation. Now I have a PS4 and while I was disappointed at first, I think thus far I've enjoyed inFamous Second Son the most out of all next gen games I've played and nothing on the XB1 side is really tempting me so it's looking pretty O-K so far. I'm even, ever so slowly, getting used to the awful XMB. It's so bad though.. why, oh why is it that when I check trophies it only shows like 4 in a row.. who thought this was a functional choice? It's the little things..

I don't think people need to see more in order to know what the game is about. Also I would disagree with @sweep as I don't think Patrick is an especially amazing writer and volume does not equate quality - that said he did a fine job showing us exactly the kind of ride you'd be going on if you decided to purchase the game.

I assume like many others, I'm waiting for all episodes to be out before playing. I know from experience that experiencing episodic games with very long interludes simply doesn't work very well - not for me anyway. Especially if said game has a very floaty story chock full of symbolism and metaphors that I would be prone to forget over the year of waiting. Not sure if it's deliberate, shortage of staff, funds or simply lack of caring, but the developer is really shooting themselves in the foot by taking so insanely long to release each of these episodes which from what I understand are really short. I'm sure more outlets would be less hesitant to discuss it if they could speak for the finished products. As is, trying to critique a game which may turn out to be an amazing story or may turn out to be senseless drivel is a dicey proposition.

Good on them for selling it instead of just closing the studio down but man, thats kinda nuts.

The question remains, will the actual game be fun this time? When playing Just Cause 2 all the stunt position riding and grappling was always a lot of fun, for a while, and then you start doing story missions and they were terrible. The island was the best example of how dead and empty and open world game can be. The driving was iffy, the shooting lacked any feedback, the enemies lacked variety.. so on and so forth.

I just hope they can turn this huge sandbox into a game you actually want to play rather than just mess around in.

Abandon all hope ye who enter..

@mb: No man, like, if you aren't playing on hard, like, what are you even doing with your life mannn..

Within reason I suppose. At some point difficulty is detrimental to the enjoyment of the game and that point comes sooner for some than others.