Is GiantBomb becoming too negative?

I feel like there's often been a negative slant when viewing new things, but its seemingly grown to point of predictability.

I'm not looking to call people out and i appreciate people have their own opinions but just taking today's Ubisoft presentation as prime and fresh example, it was soo negative.

What's more, I almost felt like i knew it would be going in. The escapism in a video game just being a video game, becoming a poor taste political statement or immediatley written off on past iteration.

Maybe i'm alone and my view is just completely 180 on everyone else, but i like what i saw and am interested to find out more.

Outside of this site, most others I've started to see trickling in are either a mix or at least a more neutral but optimistic on these early snippets.

I doubt i'll ever return to this, so its really just a vent. However it would be interesting to see if im alone on this feeling.

It didn't use to be this way.

@one1zero0one: You might have missed it towards the end, but generally the GB crew thought everything looked decent but predictable, which it was. Not a bad thing, but no surprise either. Alex stated he touched the new AC and Watchdogs game, and he was meh on both, which were demos and just his opinion on them.

Five guys don't represent the entire feelings of community. Also, I watch these events 30% for announcements, and 70% for MST3K commentary. They're just having fun.

For me, it was a boring showcase, but if anyone got hyped from it then cool for them. It would be nice if I felt the same way, but that wasn't the case.

Yeah. I can see what you mean. I wonder if it is because of how long the crew have been doing this kind of work. They obviously still love games in general and I often follow their enthusiasms and find great games because of it but. They are tiring of seeing the same old mistakes being made by publishers. I’m pretty old now too. Been here since the GS days so maybe I don’t notice it as much. I think it’s a fair point.

Dan is missed I think. His childlike, unquestioning love of stuff was a nice counterpoint to the more measured and perhaps entrenched reactions of some other duders.

Part of it is very much that, as time goes on, you don't want "just a <blank>" anymore. I loved Daggerfall and Morrowind, liked Oblivion, and will likely never beat Skyrim. Unless 6 does something really interesting then I have no interest in it whatsoever. That doesn't mean Skyrim or 6 are bad games: it just means that I don't care about them. You could see a lot of folk have similar reactions by the time Fallout 4 hit and there are similarly folk who think F4 is the coolest shit ever in the same way us cool kids did Morrowind.

Similarly: Ubi have kind of become one of, if not the, most infamous publishers/"studios" in terms of misleading and irrelevant trailers. Part of it is their "lets have Aisha try not to laugh while people read scripts and playing the division". Part of it is "this is totally not political but imagine if someone kicked down your door, shot your dog, and stole all your shit because you didn't own a gun. Not political though" leading to a really generic shlooter. And part of it is just that focusing on the "story" or puzzles of a modern ass creed doesn't do it justice. That is why there was very much a theme of "Okay Alex. Tell us what this game actually is in... 4 minutes".

And while I can't speak for the staff at all: I know that I went into this with a very sour taste in my mouth. A LOT of bad shit and institutionalized abuse has happened at Ubi over the years and we've only heard about the tip of the iceberg. And that Ubi couldn't be bothered to record a quick blurb doing lip service to pretend they are going to address things beyond a golden parachute but can still talk about how everyone loves games and diversity from a multicultural studio that can't be blamed for anything insensitive... fuck 'em. This reeks of "Let's hope people forget about this" in the same way it always does. So it was a lot harder to put up with the normal "Cool, here is something with no relevance to gameplay at all that is meant to cause controversy and coverage"

But regardless: outlets tend to cater to a persona representative of their target audience. For GB that seems to be someone who has been console gaming for a while and hates musou games (boo) but still loves Call of Duty. Whereas an IGN or a Gamespot are going to be more about the "standard" gamer. If you are finding an outlet doesn't provide coverage of value to you, go check out other ones that do.

For example: if I am watching their coverage of a musou game, I know to completely ignore any "is this fun". But I also know to listen to "what is new" or even "what features stand out". Whereas I can't imagine much utility coming out of any hypothetical flight sim coverage that didn't bring back a former staff member because my tastes run very different in that regard and nobody on staff really has the right "eye" to assess the quality in the categories I think matter.

Their job and interests revolve around watching, playing, reviewing, and commentating on videogames. They've seen almost everything, and when there's nothing really new, it's difficult not to notice. They don't want to be disappointed, they're just saddened that that just often continues to be the case. (Who doesn't want more games to play?) And Ubisoft is arguably a huge perpetrator of the "near exact same OK game but with prettier graphics and in a different setting" genre.

(And for me personally, trying to play a single hour of Assassin's Creed Odyssey just to get a free key was torturous. It was just a really really boring game to actually play. I felt the same for Watch Dogs 1 and 2. Far Cry I do kind of like, but the recent ones have started to blend together in my memory.)

Too negative?

YES, a Million times yes.

It has turned into the 40+ complain gang.

The last beastcast w/o Abby was just a DadCast.

I get it. Most of them have been around for 20+ years so nothing is new, but it is really turning into a hatefest on any new game or development. Bakalar is a serious Grinch especially when it comes to mis-pronouncing Mario.

I don't think I will re-up my premium.

Games are fun, and the bomb crew are turning into old fuddy duddies.

Honestly to me it feels like a deliberate decision on Ubi's part to decouple the negative cloud of shit that hangs around Ubisoft right now from the games they want to show their audience. Ubisoft & EA cater to an audience of millions. The type of gamer that just wants to shoot a gun in a game with pretty current-gen graphics will end up with their games. These very casual people are not going to be in the know about what's taking place and as long as it doesn't get any mention between the game trailers, there is no danger of the main audience getting turned off.

Sure, the enthusiasts & industry insiders are aware of the situation, but that's no reason for Ubisoft to bring this shameful news to all their players. Why risk 2% - 5% less sales when you can just choose to.. not bring it up?

Even in the Uplay news section, where they posted their 'we are sorry, we will be better, there are investigations' message, the actual newsitem is as bland as possible. 'An Update from Ubisoft', right next to a trackmania rankings post and a 'optimize your PC' video item. If it said anything about allegations or abuse in the title i'm sure a lot more people would get wind of what happened. It comes across like they do want to let the enthusiasts know that they're taking this all very serious, but at the same time they hope most people won't notice what's going on and don't let it influence their purchasing decisions.

no, i firmly disagree. putting aside the downer that is the real world right now (for a multitude of reasons, all of which can easily affect content and who can blame them)...

...i need the gb crew to be honest, not faux-enthusiastic or dispassionate. i come here for their opinions and expertise- not because i need them to champion something.

jeff would be the first to tell you that if you somehow don't trust or agree with the coverage, move on to something else, that's fine. but the very last thing i want from the crew is a misrepresentation of how they truly feel. if they're down on something, i want them to be down on it.

I mean people are annoyed that GB isn't wowed at what is essentially

I speak for myself, but over the years the more games you play, the more you realize that the actual gameplay itself matters most and is realistically the only thing that keeps your interest. For example, I love Souls games because although they share (already very strong) core concepts, there's a genuine escalation in gameplay with each successor. Bloodborne introduced a more aggressive, unique style of combat over Dark Souls 1, Dark Souls 3 took the best parts of Dark Souls 1 and Bloodborne and tweaked the moment to moment gameplay and upped the difficulty, and Sekiro has you zipping around the battlefield while succumbing to an almost nonstop boss rush and parrying everything to Narnia.

I remember the director of RE4 saying that he moved away from zombies because he thought long-time veterans just wouldn't find them scary or challenging to deal with. I NEED that kind of thinking in my games.

Oh time for one of these threads again already?

No, they aren't too negative. They are critical of what they see, as their jobs require, and have seen it all before. Their honest takes on things is a breath of fresh air to me in the sea of "influencers" and fans weaponized to be obnoxiously loud and attack anyone who dare criticize thing. I like some Ubi games quite a lot, the new style of Assassin's especially, but man today's Ubisoft stream was just bad. Not even factoring in the very real issues happening with that company that weren't addressed, the game videos they showed and the tonal whiplash that happens with their games is just so exhausting and hasn't changed in years, it sucks. I'm glad Gb is there to lay it on how they see it, and I'll continue to support and love them for doing it.

Oh and have GB done a podcast titled "OK Boomber" yet because I would love that. EDIT I'm 99% sure they have.

For me personally, I did not find their attitudes to be overly negative. I mostly agreed with their analysis. The only 2 games that were in this conference that I have even a modicum of interest in is Watch Dogs Legion and Far Cry 6.

After the absolute shit show that was Far Cry 5, I am going to need to see A LOT more from 6 before I garner any excitement for it.

Watch Dogs looks really cool but they haven't been particularly good as showing what that game really is going to be. I am hoping that there is a lot of weapon variety and differing abilities between characters, and what was showed hinted at that really well. But there needs to be a whole lot of it for me to really be excited. If it is just like 10 different achetypes or something then that just isn't impressive enough for me.

Personally I have not been interested in much in the AAA space for a long time now and find the space to be creatively stagnant. Luckily there is a ton of great smaller games doing fantastic things but I wish there was more coming from the AAA devs.

@onemanarmyy: I don’t really even see the point of bringing this up during a game showcase. What is most important is that there are actual investigations taking place and people that abused their positions of power are being actively removed from the company. Actual steps are being taken to right a wrong. I don’t need a video blurb full of fake platitudes of “we will do better...also here is a trailer of a granny tasing a cop in the balls..” It would have served no one to insert a somber Yves prostrating himself in front of the camera. Also with all due respect to Jeff who has been in this for ages, GB just recently took down a QL because the audio was so messed up in it, so editing video content is never as simple as just adding something in.

wait... what? Are you seriously attributing the pronunciation of a name to Grinchiness? How in the world does saying Mah-rio instead of Marr-io equate being a Grinch?

They definitely skew negative but it doesn't bother me. I'd second that it's most important that they are clear and genuine and I wouldn't want them to put on an act of hype. It's rare that anyone on staff enjoys the same stuff as me but that's not what I'm here for in the end.

The show just wasn't great imo so I can't blame them for their cynicism, I'm still looking forward to playing some of the games but they're all known quantities we've all seen many times before so it's hard for me to really get excited for any of them.

I would have to disagree. I'm not looking for Giantbomb to be the youTube shilling kinds of hype men to get me excited about the games. I am perfectly able to do that myself if I see something that I'm excited about. This is a personality driven site and I come here to see them be them, but it is a double edged sword where if someone is no longer down with the personalities of the site and the direction they're heading then it's harder to enjoy the site.

I'm around the same age as the older duders, and I didn't see anything in the presentation that got me particularly excited either. Knowing that it takes a special game to get Jeff (and co.) hyped makes me take notice when they are excited about a game.

I wouldn't have given Titanfall 2 a try if it wasn't for Jeff's enthusiasm for it.

No. They aren’t too negative.

I consider them more “discerning” than “negative”.

There are countless outlets and Youtube personalities who will freak out over every trailer, but that much undue enthusiasm is exhausting. I like that Giant Bomb is much more measured with their responses because it makes their content feel that much more genuine.

idk, show was frustrating in how it completely decided to ignore the series of unprofessional and unwanted behaviour the company has become known for recently(They totally could have had a video at the beginning, middle or end & it would have worked). The avatar switching stuff I feel like I see in Watch Dogs: Legion is some interesting near-Paradroid stuff that makes me interested in playing it more than I thought I would when it was unveiled. However that game is coming out into a world where a lot of the market for it has legit concerns about cop behaviour and overreach, so to me Legion isn't the distant satire maybe they intended anymore. There is a reason Brooklyn Nine-Nine has publicly stated they're reconsidering what their next season is, so quite frankly it's a real bummer to have one of the fun systems be that the cops are literally holding up shops in their body armor and will gun you down when you run. Totally about the timing for me - this might turn out to be an exceptional game(Maybe even an incredible one if we're lucky), right now it feels too close to home. For me.

Also not for nothing but anyone who was guessing that this room would be jazzed about Ubi's robust yet predictable progress on Assassin's Creed misread a few things. Valhalla to me seems fine, but I played Origins and the map might be interesting to me, leaving me feeling like I'm not going to pay year-one prices for it. Prob same for Far Cry 6 and I never played enough of Trials for the free dlc to matter to me. Disappointed to see a lack of turning their Black Sails game into an MMO with shaty-l-c.

This sort of thread pops up from time to time and it's always kinda the same answer.

Most of the Giantbomb crew's professional lives have centered around video games for at least a decade, many even more. They see all of the trends and get tired of them before everyone else because part of their job is paying attention to and playing a lot of games. You see the same thing happen with movie critics. Ever watch a few Red Letter Media reviews? Those guys can get extremely cynical about movies that are just re-hashes of the same things they've already seen over and over with new coats of paint. Meanwhile, you know there's something worth looking into if they're generally excited about something.

For me personally, I also have a hard time getting excited about anything Ubisoft puts out. It is all so clearly made with the same homogenized formula, honed to perfection, made to appeal to virtually anyone who even might buy it, and utterly boring. If you want to see critics speaking positively about the general output of the AAA industry, look to IGN, or go to Metacritic and sort by the highest scores and just read and listen to those guys.

@justin258: That's part of the RLM charm though.

Also, you made me genuinely wonder if anyone on staff would really call themselves game critics anymore. I guess probably they would, technically, but I haven't thought of them like that in years, where as I have always thought of RLM as movie critics. There is something about having a certain expected / consistent format and setting that lends itself to critical credibility. It shouldn't, but it does.

The truth is there is *remarkably* little separating GB from youtubers these days. There was a time where I could draw some sort of games press distinction, but I'm not really sure where that is relevant anymore, largely due to GB more than Youtube. GB does... reviews? No. They don't even do quick looks anymore, they just sort of play games and talk over them, most of the time with vastly less knowledge of a game than most relevant youtubers.

Nope. I haven't played the last 2 Far Crys. Haven't played the last 4? ACs. Haven't seen a reason to play any new MOBAs. I tune in to see if there is something new or exciting or a reason to play these new games, and I see nothing. I'm surprised the guys aren't way more negative about how all these games look, and I think their outlook on them matches mine.

They seems like cookie-cutter games that will be fine to play if you just want another open-world game to check stuff off a list, or collect X items, or just shoot people. We should be negative about these games if we want exceptional games with amazing stories and new mechanics.

Yeah, I remember the good old days when they were very positive on these sorts of videos. Every once in a while I play the PS5 reveal from a few weeks ago to remind myself what those videos use to be like.

A bunch of media vets not being impressed by marketing of a bunch of sequels in long standing series? Shocking. Truly stunned that they were not wowed by AC 7ish(who is counting at this point?). The historical recreation of that TV show people liked. Or the weird Watchdog game that isnt able politics, but also is pulled right from Children of Men. That thing was weird when we first saw it and they decided folks were joining the “Resistance”. Now it’s like Ubi soft Just hopes no one will think to hard about it.

Yeah, that press conference thing was weak and showed nothing exciting. Nothing of Bugsnacks quality.

That's pretty much where I'm at. When they get hyped you can tell it's real and I take notice. Pretty sure this crew got me into Titanfall and they definitely got me to dive into the newest COD (loving it), which is a series I'd been done with for years and every time I looked back into it previously it was just reminding me why I stopped playing.

I'm 29, so quite a bit younger than most of them, but you don't have to have been gaming for 40+ years to look at this presentation and notice that's it's a whole bunch more of the same. If that's what you want, great! But getting excited for Far Cry 6 or a new Asassins Creed, based on what they showed, seems like someone who loves Madden getting hyped that there's another one coming out this year.

@north6: Not much difference except the decades of video games reporting, professional experience and editorial standards. But beyond that they are just like Youtubers.

@plan6: That's my point, when was the last time editorial standards played a role in anything on GB? GOTY? I agree they are capable of them.

Also, not saying this is a bad thing. Everything is personality driven these days, which GB had a huge part in.

Anyway, related to the topic, GB can be down on whatever they want, false hype is the worst thing in the world. I haven't seen this Ubi presser but not surprising to hear it's more of the same.

Still baffled at how they got away with a tower climbing simulator (Grow Up) as anything less than a metacommentary on what Ubisoft was doing to the business of video games.

@north6: They don’t have to write a review for editorial standards and their experience to be relevant. Those apply even when they are offering impressions or showing the game in a quick look. The written review isn’t some magical thing that Is required for them to be game critics.

Unisoft only really make one kind of game now, just skinned differently. If you're excited for Watch Dogs 3, Far Cry 6 (but really 8) and Assassin's Creed Valhalla (the 11th mainline entry!) then I'm happy for you. But no one should be surprised that the general response to these announcements are a tired meh.

Honestly, I’m excited for the fantasy Viking game where everyone wears rad armor from whatever era looked coolest. I need a new open world game in my life. But there is nothing in that preview that made me eager for its release. I’ll play it when it shows up.

The rest just seemed weak. I cannot deal with another of modern day game that borrows from current events for relevance that is completely politically toothless. Glad to see the police are really a PMC, because we wouldn’t want to imply that real police could be the bad guys. And I’m sure that far cry will have a lot to say about dictators and the foreign powers that supply them with weapons, because they are not building them themselves. It is growing boarder-line insulting to my intelligence the lengths Ubi goes to just to avoid saying anything while referencing Modern politics left and right.

No, there just wasn't anything to be excited about in that video tbh. Not to mention there is a big looming negative lense on ubisoft right now anyway, so it's kinda hard to take any of that stuff without having that in mind.

And honestly, if anything all of ubisoft's games are overly negative "Insert post apocalypse, war torn, plague filled, dystopian etc etc" and all that stuff really isn't too exciting right now tbh.

I've always been totally in lock step with the crew when it comes to Ubisoft press conferences. As game makers they seem genuinely interested in making fun yet diverse and widely appealing experiences, and as publishers they seem pro-developer as much as any international publishing arm can appear that way. They don't back down from games that flop out of the gate, and aside from their flagship titles are more than willing to let smaller teams step outside of the box a little bit and do weird things like Grow Home or For Honor.

...That said, Ubisoft games almost never feel good to play for me, and in this generation specifically they've toed such a fine line between Saying Something and keeping their mouths shut that the tone of their games often feels undercooked and overstuffed. Watch_Dogs 2 was maybe the most "content for content's sake" game I'd ever played, after about six hours I was just exhausted by the characters, the art assets, the gameplay variety...I admired that they wanted to bring back some of the aloofness of PS2-era open world game design where a mass murderer might participate in a go-kart race, but it just felt so broad. Like eating at a Cheesecake Factory versus, oh, French Laundry (sorry, I couldn't think of an equally focused but less niche dining experience lol).

So I often go into Ubisoft's press conferences excited about all the weird ways they're going to talk about their games, hoping to see something that gives me an a-ha moment, only to constantly be reminded that really none of their games have been for me other than that weird no-death Prince of Persia reboot in a very, very long time. And the Giant Bomb crew seems to often echo those thoughts, even if The Division does have Jeff and Vinny's ear.

The GB crew should be true to themselves, but I can definitely understand why they may appear overly negative.
Them poo-pooing on everything during streams like these is almost as predictive
as Ubisoft's game lineup and style of trailers. It's something you enjoy about this site, or not.
Not every stream can have a Bugsnax, sadly.

I’ve been listening to Jeff, Brad, and Alex since the mid 00s. They’ve always been this way. Contrary to what many say, their somewhat jaded outlook isn’t a result of being in the industry for decades; it’s who they are as people. GameSpot was the only big game review site that seemed above marketing hype and fanboy enthusiasm; that was a direct result of the site being under the direction of people like Jeff.

Like, go listen to the early HotSpots if they’re still available. Some of my earliest podcast listening memories are of Jeff and Alex clowning on the industry and the culture surrounding it. They were in their 20s then, and I was a teen. Age has nothing to do with negativity; sometimes a spade is just a spade and you need people to call it as such. Especially if they’ve established their reputation on honesty and integrity.

Also, they talk positively about games all the time. It’s the trailers and marketing that they tend to be more negative on.

The show would have been better without leaks. I thought it was fine, but I also avoided the leaks. It certainly wasn't the best show - not helped at all by the cloud hanging disastrously over Ubi. Nor the fact that this was the best they could show after pushing everything back after the disaster of Ghost Recon. But overall, it was fine.

I do agree on the general sentiment, though. And it's not a recent thing. I think people saying "this is just how they are" are right. And the people saying "yea, but that kinda sucks sometimes" are also right. Video game criticism is much, MUCH more watchable when people are excited FOR something. It's ok to be cynical, but continual constant criticism sucks.

I mean, I enjoy some of the good natured dunking on games in Quick Looks and stuff sometimes. But the best content has always been the E3 interviews and couch conversations - places where negativity is tempered and personalities are allowed to just be, without the weight of games criticism.

It doesn't matter how negative or positive they are, as long as it's their honest opinion.

It's always the same - people seek validation for liking something and feel bad when GB doesn't give that to them.

Not really. I'd much rather have their attitude than another stream of mush-brained YouTubers screaming THAT LOOKS SICK, BRO!!!!!

Sometimes I find that Jeff can grate a little bit with his tendency to immediately dismiss games that don't have super-fast CoD-style movement and instantly responsive controls, but hey, that's his taste in games. He doesn't like the kind of things I like, so I know to take his experiences with a grain of salt.

As far as the Ubisoft conference went, I kinda agree with them. Everything they showed was extremely underwhelming. And like Vinny, I'm getting pretty damn sick of their "Here's this game about a revolution against a corporatist police state. But would you be interested in knowing that we're totally not political?" schtick. Turns out next-gen Ubisoft looks an awful damn lot like current-get Ubisoft.

I honestly cannot understand why the GB staff gets put on blast for being negative when I see so many people out in the internetosphere who are just as cynical, if not more so. If anything, I feel like they're representative of the general mood of the people at the moment, those who aren't immediately awed by anything they see and have high standards as to what they'll be actually impressed by.

@justin258: While this thread does pop up semi regularly (well now less often since so many people left the forums) I would characterize them as seeming more tired than negative. Obviously the current situation in the world is enough to get anyone exhausted after a while and then everything else thats happening right now isn't helping to lift people up either. As a result this conference especially seemed like they weren't willing to give anything the slightest benefit of the doubt. Even Vinny who is usually the last bastion of "well it might be cool" seemed exasperated for most of it.

But... they were really positive about the PS5 reveal recently. They've been very positive about Microsoft the last couple E3s, and in general. You always get the, "I'm not sure about this..." skepticism now and then, but that's just natural human behaviour, and extremely healthy to utilize when watching anything Ubi shows.

They've been way into a lot of recent-ish Ubi games. Those Rayman games were raved about; Black Flag was well enjoyed, Syndicate to a degree was liked, Origins was liked/appreciated in some GOTY categories. Jeff used to be way into Far Cry; RS: Siege wasn't shut up about for quite a while when it got good. They even kinda like those Splinter Cell reboots (a series most of them hate), and The Division games went down well (I hated 2, but whatever). Matt got way into Ghost Recon...

I really, really have no idea what this thread is about other than, honestly, an overly emotional reaction to pretty balanced views about a weirdly flat 'showing' of the SIXTH Far Cry game (which hinted at no new mechanics or new gimmick to pique their or most of our interests) and AC Valhalla, which most of them said looked kinda cool but it looks so much like the last two that there was little to be confidently positive about.

You gotta contextualize things. Neutrality and mild skepticism aren't the same as negativity. It was a muted showing from Ubi.

I loved Far Cry 5 btw -- the soundtrack is mindblowing, and I loved the whole vibe and characters from start to finish. I'm very much looking forward to playing 6, but that trailer sucked, and their worries of these entries seeming a bit formulaic at this point are very fair.

Not gonna lie: It's rather difficult to think about the next Far Cry, the next Assassin's Creed and the next Watch Dogs without hearing a small voice in the back of my head saying "S E X U A L A S S A U L T A L L E G A T I O N S". It's rather troublesome.

But hey, name changes work again. Didn't want to bump an old thread to mention that, but there's some positivity.

Look, I get it. There have been times when I see the GB crew be dismissive of something I think they are too harsh on, and I think to myself "boy are they too negative now?" The trick is to not get bent out of shape about it. They will be positive when there is something they feel positive about, and shoot from the hip when they feel they are want to do so. In my darker moments, I've let slip a video comment lamenting the perceived negativity and was probably (rightly) put in my place about it.

Honestly, today's Ubisoft event deserved any negativity it got. The world sucks right now, Ubisoft's deeply-seeded harassment and abuse allegations put a huge damper on the whole affair, and their games scream "ideas that made sense for a hot second in 2016 as reactions to its events and TV shows" & are almost entirely sequels, live service games, and annualized franchises. There's not much I felt really positive about though I know I'll eventually have fun playing the Watch Dogs, Far Cry, and Assassin's Creed games on display.

What I am more worried about rather than negativity is staff burnout. I think we are watching it happen in real-time and I think the whole organization needs to make some adjustments, and fast.

I thought they were almost too nice. It was 90% Ubisoft formula, and 10% battle royale, with literally nothing exciting inleds you want to play the same game again for the nth time. I fell out of all those franchises after tre second or third game and see no reason to come back to them. It was fun seeing CG Esposito I guess.

They're as critical as they should be. Whether I want to add more negativity to my day voluntarily is another issue, but I thought their takes on the Ubi show mostly lined up with my own. I landed more on "i feel nothing for anything they're showing" instead of "this is awful".

I'm probably going to play that new Far Cry, I enjoy that formula and I acknowledge it's just Far Cry 3 Five.

Watch Dogs would've been fine if they didn't make that incredibly on-the-nose short film trying to make that world seem serious before the goofy gameplay. The best part of Watch Dogs was using the abilities to solve a puzzle, infiltrating a building or whatever. The 2nd game got away from that, and this seems to go even further away from it.

I'm not an AC fan. Played more of 4 than any of the others. Thought I might be interested in this one. Then they showed like 800 different mechanics and I remembered why I hated the last few games.

Familiar games feel comfortable for me right now. It's kind of a warm blanket of predictability in a world of uncertainty and lots of personal and professional changes in my life. I didn't hate anything I saw, just nothing got me excited. 100% predictable and I'm kind of okay with that. But being upset that I can feel the influence of current events in games that were developed over the last few years? Nah. That stuff will always bleed through in entertainment and I don't require a profound take on any of it while I play.

Yeah it's been so long since Jeff didn't hate everything he played, I mean it was three whole days ago when he said Trackmania was a game he was playing every single day and that he loved it in spite of its flaws.

I think it just boils down to cases where a tone is set early (often by Jeff) and the other guys kind of acquiesce to it because they don't want to burn calories over it, especially during these press reels where something different is showing up every 10 seconds. Saying something negative in a vacuum is easy because it can be cathartic, whereas pushing back against it is much more of a chore.

It's a dynamic that I've grown to be a lot more cognizant of as I've gotten older because I'm absolutely that person when I'm with a group of friends. I don't think the issue is even necessarily about feeling negative or cynical about everything, but rather what you're choosing to voice skews that way.

No