Do you think the father-son dynamic is going to work as well as the father-daughter dynamic has in games like The Walking Dead and The Last of Us? I just don't see God of War connecting emotionally with any other demographic than literal fathers of sons. With a father-daughter setup you got a whole bunch of people to appeal to: Traditional guys who wants to protect or father a young woman, women who can reflect themselves and feel inspired by a maturing female character as she blossoms into a powerful hero, not to mention the gendered tension that will naturally occur between men and women when both of them think they are right.
I think, come review time, there will be a lot of people saying "The boys constant commentary is annoying" or "Why wasn't it a girl instead?"
I'm in the Burnout-was-ruined-with-Paradise camp. It's because it paved the way for open-world driving games where you just have one map. bo--ring! In the old days you had maps like Tokyo, Egypt, Scotland, The Moon, Underwater, Italy, London... Modern arcade driving games are just "Bland City USA" or have boring realistic tracks.
Even The Crew doesn't really feel as diverse and stylized as Outrun.
The inclusion of unlimited Ferrystones in Dragon's Dogma Dark Arisen took a bit out of the adventure of the game I think. There was something magical about setting out with your team from Gran Soren, fighting, exploring, discovering phat staxx of loot and wondering about whether or not you'd be able to make it back at all since night was coming, undead were popping out of the ground and packs of wolves hunted you down.
Pawn system was also a great way to keep enveloped in the game world, rather than playing with random xXxTheRealDarkNatrutoSnipa420xXx that instantly knows where to go and what to do. Pawns hinting at stuff through their in-world dialogue was so much better, but it felt really special once I got to the end and understood the meaning of the pawn.
I see what they were going for, but I don't really feel like it works. Having the enemies attack you one at the time and then reacting to their attacks feels a bit simple. The genre is traditionally about controlling the space to prevent enemies from crowding you. If the counter system had been implemented on top, like the Arkham games, I think it would have worked better. There's certainly nobody that seems to have done that in 2D yet, at least.
Really goes to show how dated this game is when you have to make your money from home by painting. Where's all the 2018 jobs like "Youtuber", "Social Media Influencer" or "Bitcoin miner"?
@francium34: My trick is to use nothing. No products, no shampoo except very rarely. Just wash it with water. It was a bit gross at first as hair is accustomed to create oils to counter the stuff you wash out with shampoo, but after a while it kinda balances out. It ends up having a nice natural hold that keeps the hair in check without looking greasy... Something I weirdly was never able to achieve with products, because I was so bad with them that it always clumped up or looked weird. Probably wouldn't work with really long hair or for someone who gets a really smelly head for some reason, but it's fine for that kinda swept-over-and-short-on-the-side-so-you-kinda-look-like-a-nazi fade that I've been rocking for the last couple of years. Very similar to Brad's, except swept slightly to the side.
Biggest surprise GOTTA be the Western acceptance of Japanese games. Nier Automata did come with the Platinum pedigree, but Yoko Taro made the same game he has always made. Persona 5 is the first Persona game to get really hyped. Despite the quality of the previous 2, they weren't mainstream hits until you guy made them so with your influential Endurance Run of 4. Yakuza 0 is literally the same game it's always been: Good and amazing.
The west simply finally smartened up to good games.
DarkbeatDK's comments