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@nick: I wasn't saying you were an asshole, and I wasn't saying you were dishonest. I have met a bunch of people calling themselves "honest"--usually with the word "brutally" for extra heft--and they tend to fall into that internet category you're describing. It's also quite common that when I point these things out they scoff, or otherwise play it down with fervor if not becoming outright defensive.

I was saying that attempting to be tactful usually yields the exact same results, with the added benefit of people not wanting to avoid you the next time.

It's not so much for now, as for when you call upon us later. Same thing when someone strongarms a business negotiation: nobody will deal with that person again, unless they are absolutely forced to.

I sincerely hope it isn't your modus operandi to people you meet.

Having settled this, I'll actually ask you to look at your preceding tone. Instead of effectively lashing out in what amounts to an attack on someone invisible, maybe just asking also works.

"Hey, can I disable the autoplay feature? Kinda grinding my gears."

It puts you in a better light, bud. It also makes more people want to help you.

Forgive the OT but I just can't help my double-takes. There's a lot of talk about commercial marketing in this thread. :D

@liquiddragon: NeoCab struck me as that type of game that previews really well, but runs out of steam quickly. I remember the now-old 2D platformer, Shank, being similar. You have neat mechanics up front, an interesting art style, and slightly unorthodox gameplay as well as presentation.

Once you get past that first hour, it can start spinning its wheels.

@brainscratch: I can completely and fully be on-board with Jeff's assessment, while disagreeing with it. I can completely understand why the concept is repulsive: it implies you are kidnapping babies, solely for your own purpose. That's what gets quite ugly for me.

Do they ever imply ever B.Bs are temporary and will eventually grow out of the container? If not, huge mistake.

First thought when it was mentioned as offensive: they're aborted fetuses. Because I don't know if that could ever be justified. Not even necessarily as a pro-choice/pro-life debate, but as a general moral quandary. I mean, In this case you are seemingly enslaving what amounts to a living person.

@stantongrouse: you, like me, have come to terms with those types of activities being tremendous wastes of energy.

With my hypocrisy out of the way, I must say that my personal reaction to the game and everything surrounding it isn't rational. I can actually feel myself chomping at the bit to write this down, but simultaneously don't feel it worth my time. A strange paralysis.

I'll say one more thing about Death Stranding: it seems to be Busywork: The Game with elements of overwrought plot--I really like the word "overwrought" here, since the connection to Kojima is crystal clear.

I never saw Death Stranding as having hype, which I connect with positive affirmation and hope. The game just had expectation: expectation to be weird; expectation to be somehow transcendent from Metal Gear, as the corporate shackles are unlocked and drop to the floor. Maybe it wasn't hype, but Death Stranding had buzz from the first teaser. I can't remember anyone saying the game was looking to be excellent, rather I saw recurring excitement for the unknown, whether negative or positive.

Anthem had minor hype that dwindled before release.

Death Stranding was a complete unknown, which made it all the more interesting to follow. It's such a shame the game ended up as a potential...giant bomb.

That's maybe what the category should be called, to have another element of god-awful wordplay: Giant Bomb's Giant Bomb of the Year.

@shindig: because it was dead on arrival. You don't spend time or energy resuscitating something when it was limp to begin with. The online buzz and preview hype changed its trajectory as trailers and gameplay demos started coming in.

I feel like Death Stranding and Anthem are very much at the front of this thread. What's interesting in that sense is that both games had a different time-to-reaction cycle. I always felt like Anthem's expectations slowly dwindled as we neared release, to finally be dashed by the middling reviews. Whereas Death Stranding has been somewhat of a flash in the pan for me. All of a sudden it was topic of the week, for weeks.

The emotional baggage of Anthem does not measure up to Death Stranding, not from what I've seen of the GB crew. The snapshot for me is Brad seemingly just disappointed, though he rarely goes off completely as the moderate voice he is. But Jeff and Dan...wow.

@topcyclist: a massive problem I have with Kojima's stuff is that it sounds great, to a teenager's mind. All this convoluted hocus pocus and just...jaw-droppingly overwrought writing contains so many words and explanations that it felt like being let in on secrets nobody else knew. But then maturing into adulthood made me realize just how silly and simplistic his ideas are, and how stilted Japanese dialogue can be, translated or not.

I'll say the first MGS is more restrained than the subsequent iterations. Even though it enters the wormhole on more than one occasion, it at least keeps some remote semblance of pace and narrative going. But after that, it's all downhill.

I remember as a teen wanting things to be 'cool,' because that gave you social points. To me, chasing this coolness and always lagging behind, it often meant being edgy--whatever that meant. But the mainstay was this hubris that what I created was awesome. My character names were awesome, their swords and massive shoulder pads were awesome, they were infallible in every aspect and always got the dame. (All of these heroes were naturally Mary Sues.) Now, while Kojima maybe doesn't dive all the way down that hole, he sure peers down it plenty.

It is Yoshi's Island, and it was a great game when I played it, some +20 years ago. The SMW2 part is bloody accidental to me.