PurpleOddity

@wollywoo: Thanks. I agree with your points as well. Luckily for me, I can resist using fast travel, so I'm happy to have it in games for those who like it. When it comes to quest logs, I really wish games would stop giving you checklists telling you immediately how much there is to see and do, as it diminishes the excitement of discovering something new. The same goes for upgrade mechanics, BotW doesn't tell you all the ways you can improve your character at the outset. It only teaches you about the health and stamina system. By not knowing exactly how you can progress, it frees you up from having to worry about min-maxing--which is always stressful for me--and adds to the discovery aspect.

Everything Jeff and Vinny said they dislike about Breath of the Wild on the most recent HotSpot. I love games that deliberately slow down the pace of play. I don't like power fantasies that much; having rain prevent me from climbing a cliff or weapons breaking so that I need to avoid combat actually makes me happy.

If something gets in my way, I'll just go do something else: cook, pick fruit, or whatever. I like that same thing about the downtime in Monster Hunter, just wandering around picking up herbs and whatnot is very relaxing. People often talk about video games not respecting the player's time, but those arguments always strike me as an oversimplification. If my goal is to live another life, even the mundane, slower parts, then I'm making a contract with the game to do so. Not everyone plays games for that reason, I know, but I really enjoy the escapism. Living an adventurer's life without any of the risk is a good time.

Breath of the Wild is great because it fulfils those desires in compelling ways, since the number of interactions you can have in the world are almost endless, even if most of them don't have a specific purpose vis a vis killing bad guys or 'winning'. Dwarf Fortress is another game in that vein, where bad guys are just an incidental part of a dangerous world, but you could just choose to focus on making a Dwarven holy city full of religious artworks and temples and hope it doesn't fall to a goblin siege. But if it does, then you'll leave behind some beautiful ruins which add texture to the game world.

I have pretty different tastes than some, especially Jeff. :P Call of Duty is the furthest thing from an interesting gaming experience to me, but the benefit of personality-driven journalism is that I know something about Jeff's tastes and can treat his opinions accordingly. I don't ignore them altogether, but when he has a grievance with a game it is easy to tell if it is something that would bother me, and similarly there are things he loves about games that do not grab me at all. I don't think I'd call any of these games 'underrated', since it really is just a matter of taste; it can be a bit bothersome, though, when people insist that a game is objectively good or bad. Especially if, in the process of doing so, they outright dismiss the game's fans as stupid, wrong or whatever else.

I like all video games except country and rap.

This fulfils my entire wishlist for the site. I have one or two teeny, pedantic aesthetic complaints: the left and right buttons next to the carousels are not so pleasant to look at. I think if the squares around the arrows were either lighter or non-existent, it'd look much better. I also miss the red accents, I think they add some necessary pizzaz to the proceedings. Thanks for all your work!

The Broken Earth series is the most compelling work of fantasy I've read since The Name of the Wind. In short, its set on a tectonically unstable world where the threat of Armageddon is ever present (and has happened many times before.) 'Orogenes' are people with the ability to magically manipulate the planet's mantle and keep the earthquakes at bay; they're treated with suspicion though, and are more-or-less enslaved by the powers that be. The first book is called The Fifth Season. It's real dope.

@onemanarmyy: I don't always agree with this sentiment. Apple has, historically speaking, spent substantially less money on marketing than its major competitors. Part of the advertising industry is dependent upon data of sales, yes, the other part is dependent upon marketing execs needing to justify their existence. If you have a good product, marketing serves to make people aware of it. I'm not convinced anything beyond that; that is, making a bad game look good, or maintaining a certain level of 'hype' in the lead-up to release is a reliable tactic. If it does work though, you're going to suffer for it later.

Nobody is impressed by Days Gone no matter how many times they put it in front of us, but a couple of Last of Us 2 trailers and everyone is salivating. It's not because one studio is better at lying than the other, it's because it is clearly a quality product on display. All they need to do is make sure we know it exists, and it'll do just fine.

aaahhhhhhhh

Can. Not. Wait. My girlfriend and I will be playing as soon as we can. PSN ID is zappov2.

I dig the soundtrack. I always like to have grindy RPGs to play on a portable system, good way to wind down at night. Glad to see the Switch is gaining some real steam as a platform.

@zombiepie:
1. It's impossible to get the best ending without playing that game in the most exacting way possible, and you'll miss the stellar hot-spring bikini scene. In all seriousness, just steamroll it and look up the perfect ending on YouTube.

2. Dark Knight and Berserker are the only optional ones I think are must-haves. Dark Knight you can get in the Bevelle underground as early as Chapter 2. I think the Berserker can be gotten at Lake Macalania in chapter 3.

3. Not really, no. Unerring Path is the best because it gives you quick access to the special dresspheres should you want to use them.

4. Other than the aforementioned dresspheres, there are a bunch of powerful accessories, but the best ones are a nightmare to obtain and are probably not worth the trouble.

5. I would go with a white mage, and either two dark knights or a dark knight and beserker. Dark Knights have the highest defense in the game, Berserkers have a high damage output but miserable defense. There's a bunch of good party combinations, but these are probably the simplest options. I can't recall a lot of enemies that won't go down with either of the above combinations, my preference is to go with the double dark knight combo, unless I'm missing a lot, in which case, I'd take advantage of the berserker's accuracy.

FFX-2 is not a great game. There's fun to be had in playing around with different party combinations, but beyond that, I didn't find it very satisfying. The story is mostly garbage, but I appreciated the perfect ending for its heartwarmingness. Play through it if you have to know, but I won't blame you if you don't.