This game actually looks alright, which is why I almost feel bad qualifying that with "I'll get it on sale". Like Metal Gear Rising, I'm not sure I can personally justify paying full price for a game that's only 5 hours long, regardless of how good it is.
I'm not gonna claim to understand anything about the economics of the games industry or what would happen if the development side of things became unionized. I certainly think that labor conditions should be better at those big studios, but I'm not sure if voice actors are the springboard that will make that happen.
I will say that the weird consequence of a potential strike happening is that I could play a modern AAA video game in the relative near future and not hear Troy Baker's voice. But I only would notice that because I've gotten super weird about voice actors in games (and to a lesser extent, anime) and can identify some of the more prolific VAs at first listen. I question if the average person who plays games would notice, or even care about that. I'm not going to say that voice acting doesn't matter, but I do wonder if and how the quality of it would be affected should a strike occur.
Oh boy. This book sounds like a piece of work alright. It's like a worse version of Roger Ebert's argument about why games aren't art from almost a decade ago, actually.
And while you've taken the high road and not gone after Phil Owen personally, I will take the low road and say the passages included in some of the reviews I've read make him sound like someone who isn't very fun to be around.
@tennmuerti: Ouch. Yeah, this quick look wasn't giving me the best vibes about the combat but you've confirmed my suspicions. I should be ecstatic that more games like this are being made, but do they all have to be so middling? Invisible Inc. and Massive Chalice were already discouraging enough.
I'd love to believe this will stay just for cosmetic junk, but I'm just cynical enough about where Bungie is at right now to think this could bleed over into gameplay-relevant stuff given enough time. Ah well, for the time being it's harmless and Destiny is currently a pretty decent game. Maybe "Year 3" will be when it becomes a trainwreck again or something, we'll see.
@zombiepie: it's a game where you walk in a straight line for 40 hours but at least the last 20 of those hours has interesting combat. Then it had a sequel where you don't walk in a straight line and it's all about time travel and then that had a sequel where it's like Majora's Mask but with dress-up instead of masks.
@dankempster: The longer RPGs (sans Persona Q) will probably not make whatever final list ends up being... which means the adventure games, shovel knight and God of War will probably make top priority. I think those are probably doable.
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