Ben_H

This isn't a review. But also Ars totally does have affiliate links in their reviews. Their recent iPad review has affiliate links for both the iPad itself and the case for the iPad within it. Their affiliate links are just not as obvious as somewhere like The Verge's. Nearly every link in that review is an affiliate link. They all have affiliate ids in them if you check the url.

Even super old-school tech sites with well-regarded review staff like Ars Technica have affiliate links or coupon codes in content now. It's so common now as to be the norm on almost every video game or tech site (The Verge, for example, is crammed with them too. When I went to read their iPhone 14 Pro review, the review had an affiliate link for buying the phone). It's an unfortunate part of the modern internet but it is what it is and the people suggesting this isn't a common thing are very much out of touch. The idea behind this type of thing is not "we're gonna sell you on this product", it's "if you were gonna buy this anyway, here's a way you can do so while supporting us that costs you nothing". The links or coupons show up in content for a product whether that content's flattering to the product or or not.

It's either that or sites goes the way of Fanbyte or Motherboard and have their staff gutted to cut costs (yes, I'm still bitter about Gita Jackson being fired from Motherboard). If affiliate links or coupon codes mean that GB's staff get to keep their jobs, then I'm fine with it. With the economy the way it is (and the direction it's heading), relying purely on Premium is probably not realistic for GB since money's increasingly tight for everyone, so updating the site's other monetization strategies to be more in line with the rest of the internet makes sense. Is it great? No, of course not. In an ideal world I would strongly prefer they didn't do this (and I'm sure they would too), but in context to everything going on right now, it's a necessary evil, especially since the alternative is no or far less GB.

Don't forget 8-4 Play, which has been on GB for over a decade now as well. GB hosting non-GB staff content isn't exactly a new thing.

Vinny mentioned on the last Nextlander stream that for their section of Extra Life, they will be playing FFXIV, Grounded, Jackbox, and potentially other things. I think he also mentioned there is the possibility of guests.

Or the even older weird things GB did on stream in the very early days. You know like this very normal picture of Dave from a stream that is still in my account's pictures.

When this first came on yesterday I thought it was prerecorded. Then he started reading and responding to twitch chat and my brain melted because I realized it was live and all being controlled by one person. After that I couldn't look away.

I like Horizon a lot but completely agree, especially with regards to Forbidden West. The wilder thing is one of the areas shown in the b-roll used as an example of detail getting in the way was the first thing that came to mind when I thought about this whole idea (That building where you get one of the first collectables. I spent like 20 minutes trying to figure out what to do before finally finding what I was actually should do using the focus. Much of the building looked climbable but wasn't and there was nothing in the world to give hint as to what to do. You purely had to rely on the focus to solve the puzzle. Even the stuff Aloy was saying wasn't helpful at all).

There was another area that came to mind where I thought I was trapped for about 30 minutes because I missed a narrow passage I was supposed to go though that was the only way out. The area the passage was in wasn't lit well and just looked like a dead end. You could only see the passage if you went right close by and saw it from a certain angle, but because the area it was in looked like a dead end, I never looked for it there for a long time. Worse still, the objective pointer made it seem like you should be going a different way, which led to me looking for something to climb or go through that didn't exist

"She's never sorry for party rocking"

"As a young person, what the fuck is party rocking?"

I'm really digging these UPFs where everyone's playing something together. All of them have been really good.

This was great!