tds418

It's too easy to lay all the blame on EA. Sure, maybe EA wanted microtransactions in Anthem, but are microtransactions really the reason Anthem failed? It seems like its issues were more related to bugs, a lack of endgame content, and a somewhat bland story. EA certainly bears some blame for the Frostbite issues, but the other workflow issues that @therealturk identifies above are squarely on the shoulders of BioWare, not EA.

Nah, they didn't go dark, they released 2 years of updates to the microtransaction store ;)

Horizon 4 was fantastic, but I really enjoy both series and FM has taken a long enough break that I'm very interested to see what they're cooking up for the reboot. But I'm sure I'll play both FM reboot and Horizon 5 close to when they launch. Japan and/or Africa (as someone suggested above) would both be excellent settings for Horizon 5.

Looks like the deluxe edition is $79.99 on xbox, which is not a $50 premium.

Considering the original Assassin's Creed had over 400 flags to collect in the open world that led to absolutely no in-game benefit when picked up (only achievements), I think Assassin's Creed 2 is an interesting place to draw the line.

I skimmed through a lot of your post because I was trying to avoid spoilers, but I don't think there is necessarily anything wrong with tackling abuse in fictional narratives. It just has to be handled with care. Whether The Medium handles the topic appropriately can obviously be debated.

I've been watching a fair amount of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit for the first time lately because I like to put a TV procedural on in the background while taking care of stuff and I finished my rewatch of House. If you're unfamiliar with the premise of the show, it follows a police unit that investigates sex crimes. Obviously, that means most episodes involve abuse in some way (and often child abuse). Some episodes handle it better than others. Ultimately though, one of the recurring themes of the show is trying understand why people do bad things, in the hope that understanding can help prevent it from occurring in the future. I think there's something to that.

That said, I think it is 100% appropriate and a good thing for games and shows that tackle topics like this to put up blaring warnings up front about the topics that will be addressed, so victims of abuse aren't unexpectedly in a position of reliving their abuse.

Hell yeah! I loved the first TDU when it came out so I remember eagerly waiting for the sequel. The physics were certainly...unusual, but I found them bearable and even enjoyable after getting used to them (I think it might have been patched at some point too).

Honestly, the first game since TDU 2 to really scratch the same itch for me was Forza Horizon 4, though I'll admit I didn't play the earlier Horizon games. I would still love a proper TDU3. I know TDU: Solar Crown has been announced, but it seems like it's from an unknown developer that picked up the IP during a fire sale, so we'll see how it goes.

edit: Reading the above comments, it looks like the team working on TDU: Solar Crown is not unknown after all and does have some racing experience. So fingers crossed for that being good!

Test Drive Unlimited 3

@igort: Yeah, I guess I don’t disagree. But I do think Sonic is a cultural figure like Mario or Pikachu whose presence in popular culture is largely independent from the new games coming out. And that the Sonic Team games do try to capitalize on that.

@bigsocrates said:

I think this is very true, and helps to explain the poor quality of many recent Sonic games. It often seems nowadays that the Sonic games are attempts to cash-in on the success of the cartoons, movie, etc., instead of the other way around. Why spend the time and $ on a game if a certain percentage of the TV/movie audience is going to buy it anyway?