Playing devil's advocate seeks to improve the debate. It opens up new lines of thought to aid in the analysis of the subject. The conversation is enriched by playing devil's advocate because it makes the participants analyze and think more critically about the arguments from different perspectives.

Is he REALLY trying to bring up a game from 1998 and implying "Well, it wouldn't review as well today either!"? OF COURSE IT WOULDN'T. Because today is 2011 and we've gone through 13 years of innovation, technology, and overall industry improvement in mechanics and polish from 13 years ago. Today is 2011 and you're…

Guys, seriously, I died probably over a 100 times in Uncharted 1 and 2 playing it on Crushing. How is this a spoiler?

If this article is based on real statistics, how is it racism? It's a fact, not an interpretation or a prediction.

No, those statistics do not count people being hit by a car. They are measured by passenger-miles. A person hit by a car would not be classified as a "passenger" in any way. Furthermore, these general statistics have been replicated across a number of similar studies, so that kind of mislabelling wouldn't be present…

Yeah, the specific numbers will vary depending on which study you read (and there are many out there, this was just the first I found when googling). Some of them have buses more dangerous (per passenger-mile), and some have rail being more dangerous, but they're close enough overall. The general findings are the…

As with zelfmoordkonijn, not sure if serious...

Didn't think it was that bad. A little cheesy, yeah, but ... aren't a LOT of commercials pretty cheesy when you really examine it?

I don't have total numbers, but Wii software sales seem to eclipse PS3's and 360's software sales.

This complaint has about the same level of merit to me as complaints about having too many game choices during the holidays: If you can't afford it or if it is impractical for you, DON'T BUY IT. I just can't believe people just spend their money so wantonly without any consideration of affordability, practicality, or…

Are you looking for single-player or multi-player focus?

I said this already in the thread, but just want to clarify it again: PLEASE read the article without reading the headline (I, of course, did not write the headline). I do not want to see boss fights removed entirely, I want to see BADLY-DESIGNED boss fights removed. To approach this from another angle, I want to see…

I actually AM ranting against many games failures to design boss fights. I was NOT ranting against boss fights in general (quoting myself: "Don't get me wrong, there are some wonderful boss fights out there that are well-designed, challenging, and use the skills you've learned through the course of the game to maximum…

That's not at all what I was trying to say. The headline put on my article was not my angle at all. I didn't want to get rid off bosses entirely. I wanted to get rid of BADLY-DESIGNED bosses. I want less cookie-cutter approach to boss design and I want the industry to stop feeling like they HAVE to put a boss in just…

Yes, MGS bosses are excellent. Why? Because they are well-designed, challenging, utilize many skills in your arsenal, and on top of that are simply epic and wholly satisfying. That's the kind of thing I can get behind.

I agree with everything you say here.

Just to confirm... SoTC is NOT included in this rant because the game IS "boss fights". My complaint is when boss fights are completely incongruous to the rest of the gameplay. Anyone who plays SoTC knows that the boss fights ARE the gameplay, so they can't be incongruous!

Yup, you're pretty much saying precisely what I'm thinking. It's not the fact that they are BOSSES that irks me, rather it's the fact that they are BADLY-DESIGNED bosses. Well-designed boss fights are a great experience.

I agree. For shooters, I think one of the better designs is to put you into an incredibly difficult combat situation that requires tactics and skill to make it through. You get the feeling of immense challenge and you get to test your skills, but not in some contrived scenario of some super-being fighting you.

Just as an addendum to my speakup post, the angle I was approaching at is NOT that boss fights should be done away with ENTIRELY. Instead it was more a rant about how it's shoe-horned into inappropriate situations and how many are altogether done poorly. It's not a call to get rid off boss fights, it's a call to make…