PananaBeel

GB (mainly via the podcast) drew me into video games in a way I had never been before. Their game criticisms, observations, and comparisons to other games served as a kind of education for me. I never realized how shallow and ignorant I was about the games medium until I listened to them.

Brad, Alex, and Vinny have such unique perspectives, and losing them is absolutely crushing. I've learned so much from each of them.

Vinny: Your sense of humor kills me. You always manage to gently massage jokes into the podcast, planting seeds that bloom into laughter.

Brad: You always struck me as the analytical type. Listening to you talk about your impressions of a game or video game news promises clear, thought-provoking insights.

Alex: You speak with an intensity that demonstrates how passionate you are for the topics you discuss. Somehow, you've also found a way to be funny by drawing attention to various absurdities in your colleague's statements. Your, "wwwwwoooooooooowwww" always makes me laugh.

I consider myself a PC gamer mainly but I'm in the PS4 camp because of all the exclusives. I preordered the PS5 and have mixed feelings.

I have a 2070 Super in my PC and of course the 3000 series cards outperform by a wide margin. However, the 2070 S is a good card and can run games well at 1440p. I'm really unsure what the better decision would be -- to buy the PS5 and basically forego the 3000 series upgrade entirely, at least for another year, or to upgrade my PC graphics and wait to buy the PS5.

As of now, I'm buying the PS5 because of the 3 exclusive launch titles (Destruction, Demon's Souls, Miles Morales (I don't care if it's on PS4, load times are shit)) and the hardware upgrade, obviously. Also, the UHD Blu-Ray player is nice. Thoughts?

Corporate for me. There's something eerie and conniving about them from what I've seen in footage. Also, I'm hoping you'd get exposed to bleeding edge tech and more detailed interactions with the private industry ruling production.

I'm about 30 hours in and I'm starting to agree with their review in some ways. For example, the fact that the message doesn't really change. Not that I have a problem with that necessarily, just that I don't need it repeated to me over and over again. I'm behind the concept of connecting people and uniting a nation. However, there's a tendency for some of the characters (Diehardman and Amelie) to sound like a broken record as if you need to be reminded why you're working for them.

I forgive it, though, because there's enough going on in the game to keep me curious. I don't mind the lack of subtlety, it's charming in its own way. After finishing the "Unger" episode I am even more invested in this game than before. I was completely blown away by that transition.

As @kmj2318 said, the dialog is bad and often leaves a lot to be desired. That being said, there are several moments where the characters and dialog have created a perfect storm for me to begin pondering the various possibilities of what this game is and what it could be. Somehow the game's flaws have still managed to enable it to provide an interesting experience that pushes me to derive my own narrative based in its blunt and strange behavior.

As the game explains itself, I have more questions. And I feel like I need to finish this to the very end to form my final opinion.

@liquiddragon: I just tried this based on your recommendation (there's a free demo on Steam). It's very relaxing and the writing is enjoyable. I wondered why I was given a choice with some dialogue options when it seems you can only actually pick one. Anyway, thanks for the suggestion! I'm exploring more of the visual novel type games.

Interesting read @notnert427. The ad for the Norman Reedus show is only ever displayed when you're taking a shit, and even then you can avoid seeing it by skipping the cut scene as he enters the toilet.

The Monster energy placement was a bit strange, I'll admit. But I chalk it up to Coca-Cola's massive economic moat and being able to sustain itself post-apocalypse. There might even be Coke folks wrapped up with Bridges and/or Fragile gearing up for their post-Death Standing marketing campaign for all we know. But you're right, I wish they would have at least developed it further in-game instead of dropping it in like that.

All of that said, it has been more interesting to follow and discuss this game than just about anything in recent memory

You're right about that! It's immensely satisfying reading all the different opinions of this game because as someone who loves it, I'm perplexed by some of the criticisms. Many make sense, and basically there are so many things that make it unappealing to some gamers that it makes me further appreciate it. It's like what another user said about obscure bands, books, or films that simply aren't for everyone and can easily be blasted for its perceived flaws when that really just means somebody who doesn't like it is basically articulating the subjective Why.

Death Stranding feels like it was written by a teenager in just about every respect. It's painfully insecure. It demands that you hear about the most recent random information it absorbed, appropriate of and relative to nothing, because it needs you to think it's smart. It features some offputting elements because it needs you to think it's edgy. It belabors any substance it may have had into oblivion, and in the end, it unintentionally demonstrates that it has nothing original or of real value to say.

I've actually thought about this quite a bit. You get a fair amount of mail messages in the game and I read them all. Some of them left me thinking: "Why did you even send me this? Are you that bored?" My partner suggested it was sent out of loneliness, perhaps. Messages expressing gratitude, excitement, success and mild sadness. I understand where your criticisms are coming from, but they're unfair. I sense the community within DS is extremely traumatized in several ways. It becomes more and more obvious the more you play and deliveries you make based on how the terminal workers talk to Sam. There's nothing edgy about them wanting to unite and revive the country, really. I do agree with the insecurity element, which makes perfect sense given the circumstances. I'm interested in your ideas of "real value" as Death Stranding has plenty of elements of real value to me. I can understand that the writing leaves a lot to be desired (flaw). However, the objectives and mechanics of the game illuminate a measure of value not as poetically conveyed in the game's dialogues/written text.

@onemanarmyyIt just sounds like your expectations formed from the MG series fell short when applied to Death Stranding. I can understand how people who have played MG and know Kojima's work better would be disappointed based purely on what I've read, which is frequent comparisons to his earlier work. However, being a Kojima-virgin, DS plays perfectly fine. It has annoyances, I'm not sure I'd call them flaws. Like what you mentioned about chucking grenades at bosses. I'm completely fine with that because Sam is not a warrior, he's a porter. And I am uninterested in being a warrior. The game also seems to encourage being a porter with the ability to defend or evade attack. Criticisms leveraged against these mechanics also seem to be based on earlier expectations from the MG games. But when you consider who Sam is by trade, it makes sense that he'll be limited in his combat abilities.

@briarpack: One thing that helped me on rocky terrain was popping up the front wheel of the motorcycle up on the face/peak of the rocks to gain some traction before traversing them. But it sounds like your issue is with the larger vehicles, which I haven't had a chance to use yet.

I think one of the NPCs even mentions that using certain vehicles will actually be more of a hassle and that's why trucks especially can be see abandoned and locked.

I'm really enjoying myself. During the first three or four hours, though, I was starting to wonder if I'd be able to keep up playing at the current rate of mounting frustrations. Call it a learning curve!

There's kind of a lot to keep track of in terms of how to play. However, after completing two or three episodes, I really fell into a soothing lull. Everything clicked and I felt ready to "start" the game. The previous missions, cut-scenes, and combined exploration left with me with a solid foundation to start planning my routes, gear placement, and delivery strategies better.

The story isn't nearly as bad as some reviews have made it out to be. I mean, if you're coming into DS expecting the most thought-provoking, original storytelling you're going to be disappointed. What this game offers is a hugely unique experience that is simply not for everyone. I'm fifteen hours in and still unsure what kind of game it is. I love it.

It's reassuring to read so many positive comments from gamers similar to myself. Here is a great game if you're the type who doesn't mind a slower-paced experience.

@therealturk: I'm slightly worried about this. I haven't played Nioh yet, but since its release on PS Plus I've installed it and plan to give it a try next week. Do you have any tips/advice to a new player? Also, have you played Sekiro? And if so, is it comparable to Nioh in any way, or are they quite different?

The Beast Inside, by far. I keep seeing glowing reviews from this game, which makes me want to give it another try. But after like fifteen minutes (I wanted to quit after five) I stopped. The writing was atrocious. The beginning is soaked in exposition. I really hate when a game force-feeds me like that. It's okay in certain situations, but sounded unnatural. Maybe it was the snarky vibes I was getting from the protagonist. Major turn-off when I don't care about the character.