Any idea why development switched from Obsidian to Ubi, Jason? Thought the first game did well, both critically and saleswise? Did I miss some ace level investigative reporting on this?

If you could get your hands on website traffic data, that’d be an awesome venue. We explored something like that in a review of Sid Meier’s Civilization (for Advances in Archaeological Practice). When Civ6 Aztecs were announced, together with their Huey Teocalli (the Templo Mayor), there was a huge spike in Google…

Great review! It sounds a lot like it’s forbear, not an essential but still very entertaining game.

My pleasure! If you ever feel like doing some work on this and getting in touch, there is a whole community out there of us, including Andrew Reinhard, that works on this.

Since you are an archaeologist yourself, chances are you already know about this, but I edited a book recently called The Interactive Past: https://www.academia.edu/33084726/The_Interactive_Past_Archaeology_Heritage_and_Video_Games

I’ll see what I can do! ;-)

I just wanted to express my appreciation for this longform review: an epic read, fitting for a game like Destiny. How did you even manage to tear yourself away from the game for long enough to write this many words?

Agreed! In fact for me, the type of gamer with a smaller budget and a lot less time on their hands due to parenthood, games of this size and quality are just amazing. Honestly, I have now skipped a couple of major releases because I know I can only devote 8-10 hours to them.

Anyone know why it is called Artifact? Not into DOTA (or any MOBA) but always curious about artifacts in games (I’m an archaeologist).

Thanks for that answer! I must have mistaken your long form piece on Destiny’s development troubles as well as some other pieces as excerpts. Great news for me as now I will have more nee things to read than I thought.

The book was already a guaranteed pre-order as I love your long form pieces, Jason. Out of curiosity and in the spirit of openness: Would what we read here (haven’t read it as I am saving it for later) constitute the whole chapter on Diablo III?

I know these viz are all meant tongue in cheek, but the data are what they are. For me, stuff like this is always an opening to get excited about exploring the theme that the data speak to further, not a derailing of an analysis, but I get where you are coming from. Thanks for the comment!

Why is that wonky? It’s much the same with the “golf” tag: popularity of green is due to grass color. Instead of wonky I would say interesting. It provides ground for a hypothesis (“due to skin tones”) that we can then explore further with a more suitable method (image recognition software).

Nice shot! A long time ago, in 2007, I took a similar photo of the Malecon and stormy clouds creeping in from the sea. Was a different, less touristy street and a bit father away. Little did I know that I accidentally photographed a military office as well. I was detained for about half a day trying to explain that I…

Question: I am really scraped for time (only 3-4 hours of gaming a week if I am lucky), but am enjoying the first 6-8 hours of Nier: Automata. Also want to get to Persona 5 at some point in the not too distant future. Should I finish Nier? Or just play a few hours more and get to Persona 5?

Agreed and thank you for this video! Planescape is really unsurpassed in terms of emotional scope and writing. For me, the Last of Us comes close, but seeing that there are so many more choices to make in Planescape it is certainly the more impressive game.

Great review! Unfortunately... As I am now even more thoroughly on the fence about buying either Nioh or For Honor. It is mostly about time, of which I don’t have much at the moment. I am not a natural  fighter-game kinda guy or real good at Souls-type games. I enjoy both of them, but I really need to invest to ‘git a…

Genuinely curious (as someone who would love to write for Kotaku in any capacity and on any topic), but why do your posts get 2-3 cycles here? I am not one of those “this is not gaming news on my gaming website” but they are hard to describe as being on topic (as is this question: irony), so what is the editorial…

What a horrible review! This creature is clearly not a house cat but a dog!

I was thinking more along these lines, but well done!