I think you misunderstand the main purpose of crunch. It’s to minimize the cost of making the game. If I work my employees to death for 4 weeks even with overtime pay, I still save money compared to giving them 2 months to finish. 

I dunno, I feel like FF7R had the most insane hype for a seemingly impossible task of recreating a mythically famous game with a ton of beloved and archaic quirks and somehow recapturing that nostalgia 24 years later. Yet, for the most part, they pulled it off. And this is freaking Square Enix we’re talking about. 

Kinda my thought as well. I mean plenty of games use sex to excite the male player base, but I won’t fault a game for weaving it into the world of a mature game. There were whores all over the place in the Witcher after all. 

So basically, the same angle as most cyberpunk media. Go figure. 

I consider the “emergent narrative”, the most difficult concept to realize in video games. The promise that the overall story presented by the game will take on seemingly limitless new directions based on player actions. The basic mathematics of such a feat are staggering even with AI behind it. Essentially chasing…

I know a few people who really get turned off from a game if the story doesn’t wow them, but in my view, narrative is only one slice of the pie. Traditionally, the biggest slice that determines the quality of a game is the gameplay itself and the mechanics there in. I’ve played and enjoyed quite a few games with…

That was my biggest take away too. I can endure it, but many just looking at the map feels like a chore.

I think because Cyberpunk is associated with trans-humanism and letting go of biological boundaries, people expect a game called Cyberpunk to have some profound statement on the subject. But, really, how many sci-fi properties actually have something novel to say other than “Oh, gender isn’t a big deal anymore cuz…

It’s the unfortunate Hunter S. Thompson effect. Every journalism/writing major grows up believing that they should be the star of what they write rather than the actual topic. Yes, of course whether you enjoy the elements of a game are heavily dependent on the individual, but when half a long-winded article like this…

Let me ask a question: If Mother 3 was finally localized, would you expect Nintendo to give it away for free?

That’s like saying a comedian who made a career on racist jokes shouldn’t have to change with the times because they’re known as an “edgy comedian”. Even if it is her brand, it’s still insensitive, annoying and a bad look overall.

It’s sometimes called “marketing placebo effect”, and for normal people it has to do with the irrational belief that pricier = better quality and obviously as an ego flex. Apparel companies will inflate the prices of “luxury goods” because they know it attracts superficial, materialistic patrons like Cardi here, who’s…

Are we just gonna gloss over this?

You can absolutely steal an art style. Manga was originally heavily influenced by Disney animation because that’s all they knew. Osamu Tezuka, The Godfather of Manga, was often called the Walt Disney of Japan. The influence in very apparent if you look at manga from the 50-70’s, however manga/anime artists still had a…

Please, no more!

It’s totally believable, especially for his children and grand children. If your only image of your dad is a loving and caring man who wrote beloved children’s books and then you see a quote written in a magazine where he says something anti-Semitic, it’s hard to fight against what you know vs what you’ve heard. It’s…

Vladek Speigelman, an aushwitz survivor and the subject of the famous graphic novel Maus, was racist to the bone. If you can witness the ultimate evil of racism and survive the abyss by clinging to life as he did, and still come out hating black people, than nothing the human mind can rationalize surprises me.

Jesus Christ are we still on this? I swear there was an article on one of the Gizmodo sites a few years back on the exact same topic. We get it, never meet your heroes. Though, if I recall he did change his bad opinion on vaccination after his daughter died of measles. Yes, the guy was anti-Semitic (although it…

There are localized Japanese RPGs from the 90’s with less grammatical errors than most of the Jez articles. 

Sounds like the kind of person that makes you feel dumber just being in the same room as her. Yikes. I hope you told her to never vote, or procreate for that matter.