stymie

I totally agree this statue was lame (but I wouldn't use the word "offensive"; you kind of have to be above things like this). However, I really, truly wish we could have these conversations without the constant tones of "the industry obviously only treats women like this."

How many men do any GB readers know with the super muscular, broad shoulder, 0% body fat, perfect-chizzled-chin look that virtually every male video game character has? Video games are suffering no shortage of manwhores.

@themangalist: I have to agree with some of the other comments; a large part of the dissatisfaction was the completely lack of characterization behind Hoyt. He felt very 2D as a character and didn't give much motivation to finishing the game (despite all of Sam's awesomeness). It was pretty easy to pick up on the idea, early on, that the game was designed somewhat as satire and that Jason's POV was not exactly reliable, as the author had mentioned. Of course, to an extent, that goes back to the insanity case (though I agree 100% that the game is mostly centered on manipulation) -- by the time I was at the point in the game slightly before Vaas dies, I seriously thought a lot of the characters were entirely in Jason's head. Willis, Buck, and to an extent Vaas -- they all seemed, to me, to be fragments of Jason's shattering mind. That's not to say I thought Jason WAS Vaas, but that he created these characters in his mind and interjected them throughout his recollection of how things went down.

Honestly, the notion that any of the three of those characters were real in the events of the game strikes me as incredibly bizarre. Personally though, I hate it when developers / writers come around saying that people didn't "get" their game. The writer in question complained that too many games "talk down to" gamers by being too simple, but really he's talking down to the people who played his game by saying they're too unintelligent to understand the vast, brilliant riddle that is the plot of Far Cry 3 (smells like Summer's Eve in here). I realized plenty early on that the game was a parody on racial tropes and video game logic (One Man versus an Island, go!), I still just think it was a poor plot that unraveled throughout the latter half of the game.

I can't really agree at all, here -- I want them to be brutally honest, because I want to know which version of a game is the best to buy. Some games I play on 360 due to multiplayer (or, rarely, PS3), but some are just superior on PC. If there's a drastic difference in quality between versions, I want to know.

In the end, I loved it. Yeah, there were times when I was screaming at my monitor, but I had to remember that this is a game I've played religiously since I was a kid. I can guarantee I missed a ton of the extras on my first play-through, too. I also have to say, it was really neat seeing people who were not very familiar with Chrono Trigger appreciate it as much as they did by the time the game was finished; a lot of old school games don't stand up to the test of time well (especially when being played by someone for the first time). Chrono Trigger is just a really great exception to that rule.

As for favorite moments... watching them run around the game for what seemed like half an hour because they didn't see the obvious doorway in the back of the cave of mystics, that was pretty funny. Or Patrick's stoic comment of "I get the feeling we could have done something about that" after Lara's legs were crushed. Poor Lara!

Edit: Nope, I forgot the moment that had me laughing the hardest at the... endurance run ineptitude. Ha. The first time they came out of the time gate at the Mystic's village and went to see Melchoir... and no more than 2 minutes later, could not remember how to get back or where the gate was.