BrunoTheThird

Performance does affect how a game looks as well as how it plays. I find some games unplayable as well as unpleasant to look at if they drop frames every time I pan the camera over a particular asset for instance (something I'm super susceptible to). It's really disruptive to me; it makes my brain hurt for real. When a PC game has that issue, there's a chance of fixing it, and I have gotten used to that luxury. If it's an issue in a console game, it's not always so fixable, even with the handy performance mode options a lot of games have.

I struggle to enjoy games visually if there's a lot of performance issues that result in tearing or pop-in or other issues that absolutely affect how good a game looks. Some games just look bad, but bad performance makes them look worse.

I haven't played the PS4 version of SR3 myself so can't comment on that.

Or, people can say whatever they like and you should have the mettle to care about more important things. When someone says something I disagree with, I usually say, "Oh," and carrying on doing what I'm doing. I certainly wouldn't tell them to stop, that's kind of insane. People have different interpretations of beauty and what the new baseline of beauty is. Move on.

"Should Jeff continue to..." is such an annoying way to pose a question. Just imagine seeing a thread title like that about you, and a poll about something ridiculous you enjoy. I find it really pathetic, I have to say.

Just ask people if they like it or not, that's harmless, but this is a weird way of wording it, like it's a controversial government decision to use obnoxious overlays, haha. Nothing is going to change, but it still somewhat welcomes overtly knee-jerk answers. I think this kind of thing is exactly why the crews don't like us at all sometimes.

@hadestimes: I just 100-percented it. Had so much fun ripping things apart, evolving, and collecting stuff just to hear the awesome Discovery Channel-style narrator's silly jokes. It's a big dumb ball of joy, and I was weirdly way into the drama of the fake documentary about Pete, his kid and you.

Solid 8/10 for me.

From what I've just read, 2+3 are being remastered, and 1 is being remade.

I was 10 when I finished Mafia 1, and even then I understood what an interesting and ambitious thing it was. The flaws were as blatant as its positives -- it's a very stiff game, and arguably way too derivitive of cinema -- but it was a neat game, and felt more like a simulation than the cartoony joy of GTA.

2 was much more its own thing. More fun and less imitational of the Godfather. 3 even more so, even if it's perhaps the least compelling of the trilogy. The revenge is compelling, in its own brutish way, but the gameplay was just kinda...there. The music and setting are amazing, though. My fave of the three in that regard.

I'm happy the first two are getting some new love from their creators, but I've no actual interest. I've become sick to the stomach of artsy gangster stories and rags-to-undeserved riches nonsense; sick of creative people handling scummy, vicious worlds with grace and displaying their characters like flawed gems. I'm Italian myself, I just think it's utterly eye-roll worthy the older I get. Whenever I re-watch Scarface or Goodfellas or whatever else, I'm reminded of underage kings, or that 9-year-old mafioso in South Park. I'd rather explore something new than re-tread old games that were re-treading older movies which were-re-treading even older artistic interpretations of self-appointed monsters.

I don't think anyone glorifies it or anything that would make me sound like a pathetic tabloid headline, but they certainly make them beautiful, often balletic in their drama, and overinflate them with gravitas. In 2020, I find it laughable.

Tell me some of your weirdest dreams and nightmares, please! It is a fascination of mine, whether meaningful, surreal, or plain nuts.

I'll start because I just had a ludicrous dream and needed to vent the crazy:

I was a documentarian who had heard there was a restaurant in a dusty US town that hired C-list actors to advertise their ridiculous food combos by participating in wacky live stunts to draw a crowd.

When I got there, I interviewed the owner. "Who was it?" no one asked. Well, I'll tell you, curious one: It was none other than Burt Reynolds, donning his classic Smokey and the Bandit garb. I asked, "Burt, what celebrities have you had show up that would surprise the folks at home?" He started to list some before we both froze at the sound of an approaching motorcyle. "Well, shit, here's one of them now!" he exlaimed over the noise.

When I turned around, it was... Jenette Goldstein.

Riding a Harley Davidson...

...

Naked.

The crowd went nuts. She almost ran me down. It was rad.

It needs Ballmer's irate heartbeat underpinning the fantastical shimmer.

Wow, never predicted I'd say that today when I woke up this morning.

I did indeed suspect this may have been a "GB sucks now" thread, but I am glad I was wrong and came by and read what you're feeling about the old place right now in relation to your current headspace.

I'm really sorry you're in a financial position that made you decide to finally jack in the premium, but I'm more sorry everything combined -- especially your buddy not being a cornerstone of the site experience for you anymore -- has embiggened that feeling into a decision of closing the door on an aspect of your life, ya know? Even if you secretly leave it open a crack for right now with the podcasts...

I hope you have something to enrich you in a similar way in its absence. If the money thing was the biggest factor in cancelling and you find yourself really desperate to digest some juicy premium content at any point during this unique situation, I'd be more than happy to gift you a subscription to scratch that itch.

For now, I wish you good luck, and hope the podcasts continue to stand you in good stead. Update us if anything changes!

Locked or not, I enjoyed the thread very much. Very therapeutic, thanks Alister.

@mellotronrules: Exactly. If you strip away the descriptive writing of a novel or the descriptive visuals of a movie/game, you get bulletpoints, which -- as you said -- are meaningless.

• Michael Corleone has Fredo killed.

Out of context, that may as well be a cinnamon bun recipe.