bgdiner

Any 007 game for me, though really focused on the PS2 era onwards. As a kid I couldn't get enough of Agent Under Fire, Nightfire and Everything or Nothing. The From Russia With Love game was fun too, and I love the action of Bloodstone. Quantum of Solace and Legends might be near the bottom, yeah, but I'm a shill for all things 007.

I did donate during Extra-Life but was anonymous; I can show my donation receipt though

The Legend of Zelda and Mario games. I know that they are incredibly popular games even among non-Nintendo enthusiasts, and have been system-sellers for decades, but I just don't see the appeal. I mean, I'd understand if most of the affection were derived from nostalgia (I'm guilty of this for a lot of games), but I think we're well into new generations of Zelda and Mario fans, so that can't be the case.

And I don't think it's just that I've played the wrong games or something like that. I forced myself to buy A Link Between Worlds for 3DS, and had to grind my way through about a quarter of it before I just shelved it. I think if I had finished Ocarina of Time as a child I would have been a bigger fan, but alas, I didn't. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess just bored me to death, so I think I can officially say the series is not for me.

Same with Mario games. Mario 64 is cool, but not very interesting or engaging otherwise, and the Galaxy games were also very boring to me. Paper Mario had incredible design, and is probably my "favorite" Mario game, but it's not really something I'd play again.

It might just be I don't like "adventure" and platforming games in general, but I really don't see why people get so excited for new games in these series. But all the power to them.

From a business perspective, I can't fault Ubisoft for capitalizing on the popularity of the franchise: if it sells, sell it. The Assassin's Creed games, apart from III, have always been fun to me despite the flaws, so my only hope is that they just make the game's release a lot smoother than they did for Unity. Given that they just gave out free games for Season Pass holders, and have apologized on record a few times now, I think they will ensure that Victory has a smooth release. But in this industry, anything goes.

I can understand, if not respect, the decision to rush a game to market in a semi-finished state. But there's limits to how much is "too much," and this is a prime example. If 343 had polished the game to the point where the campaign was nigh-on perfect, and matchmaking was mostly reliable, I think most gamers would tolerate the early release. But for the game to be in shambles, especially right before Thanksgiving, is just disappointing. 343 better fix the game before the real holiday season, or else this will truly harm them.

Like some of the comments above stated, it's surprising Microsoft hasn't issued an announcement about this. The MCC seemed to me like a system seller a la the original Halo--or at the very least a premium release to further encourage Xbox One adoption--and for the game to be so broken a week after release seems like bad news. While it's somewhat of a fallacy to compare the release of the original Halo to this release, given everything that's changed in over a decade, the fact of the matter is that games used to be shipped in a complete state. Yes, there was no real way for many years for companies to patch games, so they were shipped complete by necessity (in most cases anyway), but to see triple-A titles shipped broken and most of the time needing a day one patch is absurd.

It all comes back to information asymmetry. Customers don't have the information advantage when it comes to video game purchases, and with all these disastrous releases, it may soon sink in that day one purchases no longer provide the expected benefits they used to, e.g. a leg-up in multiplayer, early experience of the story, etc. Hopefully consumers will eventually decide to delay their game purchases long enough so that the industry reaches its old "equilibrium" point of release dates, i.e. consumers will delay their purchases enough so that the company will have to ship the game in a complete state to display its quality and narrow the perceived information gap. But I think many companies know that if they don't ship in or around November that their games will fail to capitalize on their investments, and that many consumers will buy at this time anyway in preparation for the holiday season. So we'll likely see this trend continue until a regulatory agency steps in, or consumers en masse declare, "no more".

This is great stuff man. Really funny reading this, thinking the whole time, "I'd love to play this again...oh right, *that* would suck to play again." I have a fond memory of this game, as it was my first Metal Gear game, and getting to the crazy Colonel parts towards the end of the game is simply a treat. The play-ability improvement between the first game and this one is immense--at least relatively speaking--which has the unfortunate consequence of making the first game seem a lot more outdated than it really is. I know everyone hates Twin Snakes, but I do think it's a great way to play the first game (though I would give the original game a try just for experience's sake).

But yeah you should definitely do Snake Eater. I think it's the best game in the series thus far (yes, better than MGS1). The camouflage system can be a little bonkers at times, and the let's hold hands again! sequence can be infuriating, but the Cold War/Soviet setting is just really cool, and on the whole, it's a really well-made game. Looking forward to your "Mento-Moments" on that game (get it? Like the Codec-Moments from the tanker scen...you know what? I'll leave the puns to you.)

Nothing like coming home from grueling classes to sit back and read some choice articles.

The biggest offender that stands out to me is the original Deus Ex. I don't know why it is I haven't finished the game; it's got an unrivaled atmosphere, rich gameplay, and a great story. My excuse would be that I just don't have time for deep single-player games working full-time these days, but I think the real reason is there's just so much content in Deus Ex (in terms of exploration, side quests, etc.) that my mind sees it as too big a challenge. I have no problem playing linear single-player games, but with such a complex and wide-reaching game like Deus Ex, I find that the task at hand is often so imposing that I get hung up, and end up not finishing.

Awesome! I can tell that you're getting more into the game with every passing week, as the density of EVE-lingo increases with every entry. Really fun articles though, thanks!