Nuttism

I actually do have a big problem with No Russian, to the point that it seriously aggravates me.

So, in the mission, you are supposedly playing a secret agent from CSI (or something like that) infiltrating a terrorist cell. However, it makes little to no sense that you would have any orders to actually take part in the terrorist act, you know, the thing you should be trying to prevent. The games lets you kill civilians or not (the choice doesn't make much sense to me since either you are "all in" and should be required to kill them so as not to arouse suspicion or you should be against it due to the whole "enemy agent" thing), but if you dare shoot one of the terrorists, you get an instant game over. The dialog seems pretty much the same whatever you do. Then at the end of the mission you get killed no matter what because they knew you were an agent this whole time so nothing you did matters (except that you could have, you know, shot them with the live gun they trusted you enough to hand you despite knowing you are a traitor. Except the game won't let you do that).

It is so brazenly manipulative and nonsensical that it completely removes me from the experience. I think it could potentially have been interesting if it had more of a point to it, and I don't dislike it on principle (Spec Ops: The Line is one of my favourite games ever and you are required to slaughter civilians there). However, it completely falls flat for me because of how it was implemented.

I'm not 100% sure, but I'm assuming based on the other replies that "clean house" is the heavily marketed stage in the Modern Warfare remake. If that's the case, I am completely disgusted with it and 100% against it purely on principle since it incentivizes you to murder a civilian because "psyche!" it turns out she was a terrorist hiding a bomb in her baby carrier or whatever. I would have respected it a tiny bit if it wouldn't have immediately given you a game over for killing "innocent" civilians, and instead had your character deal with the fallout (politically and emotionally), but no, that might have looked bad for the US Navy.

In short, justifying US army or agent targeting civilians = bad; Showing US army killing civilians is not always bad, provided there are consequences.

This is pretty much exactly my feelings. I first looked in after Ryan's death but didn't stick around till GB east. Abby was my favourite with Dan a close second, and this feels like a great fresh start. I'm much more positive about the future now than when Alex, Vinny and Brad left. All the content has been pretty great since bomb 3.0, and it seems like Jeff Gerstmann is much happier as well, so this is a win win all around in my view. I just hope they can keep the 9 member crew.

@awsunnydeefyeah: I'm sorry. I have been reading numerous threads on this and have been a long time listener, but seriously, I deeply resent this sort of attitude. Obviously Giant Bomb owes its existence to Jeff, and he (as well as the rest of the original duders) has put his all into making this site the powerhouse it is.

However, it is incredibly disrespectful for all of the current staff, no matter how long they have been with the site to now say that their contribution doesn't count for snot and that they are just some impostors who are not worthy of the name. Jason has been with the site for over 10 years, and Rorie has also been there for almost as long. Jess has been great in editing since arriving and has really put her all out there. Over half the current crew has been there for over half a decade, which is a really long time in this industry.

You don't want to be here? Fine, I really don't care, but please don't minimize the role of dozens of people who have made the site what it is, especially under such a thoughtful and reflective post.

I appreciate the countdown and hope it is another step towards better communication in the future. The site has been in a pivotal phase since last year, so I'm curious to see what their future is and who will be joining. I have been following the gang for over half a decade but completely fail to see how a countdown timer is in any way disrespectful. I would have appreciated a farewell message from Jeff Gerstmann or another staffer more than the corporate sounding news bulletin, but that might be coming tomorrow.

If it's the question in the initial post (game I could play forever) it would be Demon Crawl. I got absolutely obsessed with that game and barely scratched the surface after over 100 hours (which is a lot for me).

Favourite game is either Spec Ops: The Line or Omori. I genuinely have a hard time picking between them.

Good write up, but you either have a lot of disposable income, or really bad judgement if you spent 20$ on FUSE in 2022.

As somebody who got into Giant Bomb more recently, I can confirm the veracity of the iceberg. I got everything down to Weed 3 (except for Buckner & Garcia), but the only one there I got was Brad's joke from watching an archive. Pretty much everything below that was new to me. My only change would be that Arrow Pointing down shouldn't be this far down. I hear about that about as much as Whiskey media, so I think it's decently well known despite not being long lasting. It could maybe be in the weed3 level or one higher. My only suggestion for stuff to add at the moment is Fortnite with St. Vincent! in the Hey Duder category (or one further down). I think that glorious culmination deserves its own mention.

As someone who first heard about the site due to Ryan Davis's passing, it was really fun to read a bit more about the history, so great job on the graph and explanations! Gosh, I really miss Abby...

I'll be watching as always, though I don't know any of the songs except the Norwegian one since it's inescapable and the Icelandic one since it's my home country (though we'll probably do badly).

Seems like what happens to Wordle players on a streak. As soon as it ends, they uninstall the app as there is no point any more.

You might like Dicey Dungeons if it isn't one of the "deckbuilder" games you have already played. I liked Disco Elysium, though I think the hype is a tiny bit overblown. Definitely felt plenty of second hand embarrassment during it, though I do think it gets better as you go and level up.

Hypnospace Outlaw is a game where you are in or you are in. It might be a tad too silly for you, but I genuinely enjoyed exploring that world.

Overboard! is a pretty fun "groundhog day" adventure game. You'll know pretty quick if it's for you. 80 days by the same developer is also great, but perhaps a bit more of a phone game.

Opus Magnum is pretty much the Magnum Opus of factory/system/programming games. Either you will bounce off it or you will go deep (personally, I belong to the former category).

A Short Hike is a game I enjoyed way more than I expected to, but it's pretty short. It might work better on a controller, but I had no problems with keyboard+mouse and it's not stressful at all.

Glittermitten Grove is pretty neat if you need something to play.

This is probably more fun to play with friends, but I really like Monster Prom which is kind of a roguelike dating sim.

As for books... I have a really hard time recommending stuff when I don't know what you are into. Terry Pratchett is my favourite author, and you can read pretty much whatever from him (I think Good Omens is a good start before getting into the Discworld series). I like autobiographies as well, and the Glass Castle is a really good one despite the uninspiring name and cover. If you want to get into foreign literature, I can recommend Angels of the Universe (Einar Már Guðmundsson), LoveStar (Andri Snær Magnason) and the Outlaw (Jón Gnarr) from Iceland. The first is a fictionalization of the author's mentally ill brother, the second is a prescient and humorous near sci-fi story that gets pretty bonkers while the third is an autobiography of a comedian turned mayor of when he was sent away to boarding school for naughty children in the countryside (It's the last part of a trilogy, but I haven't read the other two books and didn't feel like I needed the context). If you are interested in illustrated Journalism, Safe Area Goražđe is my favourite graphic novel (and the competition is steep).

I hope some of the recommendations in the thread manage to tide you over.