I was going to respond to this article, but you have done so far better and more eloquently than I ever could. Kudos. Thank you 

1. Avatar and Top Gun never had a chance to win the Oscar for Best Picture, and if you are a pop culture writer who legitimately thought they did, you need to do some serious consideration of how you approach your field. There was no glimmer of hope ever.

100%. I get rushing through it at launch for the sake of his job. But a casual replay years after the fact? I can’t in good conscience trust the opinions of a gamer who would look at a sprawling RPG like this and say, “naw, I’ll just stick to the main quest.” It’s foolishness.

Pretty much this. At no point have I ever felt a sense of urgency to complete the main story quest in an RPG. Well, except for maybe the original Fallout which did have an actual time limit. But a modern AAA, open-world RPGs? Nah, there’s no urgency. Hell, more often than not, the side-quests are more interesting than…

With all due respect, who the hell plays an RPG like this? All those quests you mentioned were doable way before the end of the game. I know this because I got to the point where that bodyguard guy said we had to survey a parade route and I did like 40 hours of sidequests instead. Seriously, I’m dumbfounded here that…

Get over yourself Luke. Stop beating a dead horse. “Disastrous Launch” ? Or did all the gaming news companies all jump on the same bandwagon?

Maybe because I’m a long-time Bethesda player who’s used to ignoring the main quest to go exploring; maybe because I’m not a CDPR fan (only played Witcher 1, didn’t like it, can’t stand Geralt) who didn’t have any “Witcher 3 but with cars” expectations; maybe because I didn’t watch all the hype reels they put out...…

“With many people apparently happy to pretend the COVID-19 pandemic is over (at least in the United States)“

NPR types are going to naturally gravitate towards NPR types. People generally like watching people that are like them travel, especially if they can’t do it themselves since that gives them a surrogate.

I’m guessing the “writer” didn’t like the show and decided to ALSO tear Eugene Levy down. What is going on with this site? Oh and the “review” was so overwritten it bordered on satire. But not the good kind. 

I agree, this is getting crazy. Unless you live in big city or an area with a bunch of non binary people this is not an issue. And even if someone did mis gender you, why can’t that person be gracious enough to correct them and know it wasn’t on purpose?

it’s actually a paying gig

This is ridiculous, and I’m pretty damn progressive.
I’m not going to be stress about offending a fraction of a % of people by my child (or myself) potentially mis-gendering someone.
If ANYONE gets offended by a child (or hell, myself) attempting to show respect to an elder/anyone by using “Sir”, “Ma’am” that’s on…

People seem to live to be professionally offended these days.

this. I was taught to do the sir/ma’am thing when I moved to the south (from california) as a kid. for every rare misgendering “oops,” there have been at least 1000 times when it’s served me well — either to show respect to an obvious elder, as a show of courtesy to customer service reps, etc.

yelling EXCUSE ME…

I wish I could give you a thousand stars for this comment.

I do not for an instant believe sir/ma’am is racist. Very gender-binary? Yes. Stuffy-sounding? Sure. Racist? C’mon.

““If I were teaching my children today, I would teach them to say, ‘yes’ or ‘no’ followed by an honorific (Mr./Ms./Mx.). For example, ‘Yes, Mr. Butler,’” she said.”

Or, they did it for just Japanese speakers to enjoy. Not everything is about trolling. 

at my ripe old age i’m starting to get called “sir” regularly, and it’s fine. i will always err on the side of indicating respect by using a “sir” or a “ma’am,” and i’ve never had anyone “flip their shit” if i happened to be incorrect (like on the phone, for instance). this kind of feels like a solution in search of a…