I do think ‘penalizing’ as a concept is interesting, just because I’ve always thought that would be a good solution to a lot of the ‘Dark Souls shouldn’t have difficulty options’ arguments: put difficulty options in there... but if you tweak those options, you can’t unlock any of the optional endings (on that save…

As much as I agree with the sentiment expressed in the article in general, that first paragraph in particular still VERY much feels like ‘you should really only play on Easy if you’re having some specific difficulty with Normal’, rather than ‘it’s perfectly fine if you have more fun playing on Easy than Normal, full…

Those are interesting stats, but I think it’s probably worth pointing out that Halo is probably not the median representative for ‘all video games’, for two reasons: first, because, like you pointed out, it has a free multiplayer mode, which is going to skew, just, everything... and second, because it’s one of the few…

I mean, it’s not out of the realm of possibility; just because it hasn’t been announced yet doesn’t mean that it can’t come out this year. Forza Horizon 5 wasn’t officially announced until E3 2021, if I recall correctly; there was about four months between announcement and release. (Which, just personally... I kinda…

Ghostwire hasn’t released at all, though, correct? So it’s still at minimum a 2023 release for the Xbox ecosystem. (Or did I somehow completely space on that release, because I was just like ‘eh, I’m just gonna wait until it hits GamePass anyway’?)

Yeah, I’d totally forgotten they actually put any kind of date on that trailer.

Okay, I’d entirely forgotten that, thank you.

Is there actually a particular reason to expect Redfall this year? This isn’t... I’m not trying to be a smartass, ‘ah-ha-ha, of course it’s going to be delayed’, that sort of thing; I legitimately didn’t realize they’d put any sort of date on it. In terms of ‘stuff what was announced last E3', I would not have put…

I read that as ‘the reviewer did not tire of the film’s ambiguities, and the grade reflects the reviewer’s experience; however, the reviewer is also aware that other filmgoers might not share the same fondness for ambiguity, and so added the caveat with those filmgoers in mind’.

And it’s one of those where I do get why it works that way: the freedom to pursue, like you said, multiple different seasonal storylines - or even expansion storylines! - at once is, frankly, an improvement over last year’s ‘seasonal stuff only lasts a season and then it’s gone’.

I think it’s because I blame Bungie for the incredibly mishandled rollout of the idea... but I don’t think the model, in and of itself, as a piece of game design, is terrible. I think cycling content in and out has definite advantages over ‘just letting the game expand endlessly, forever’, in fact.

And that makes a certain amount of sense... but I still think it would be weird for, say, a television host to have a giant cartoon version of their head on the set behind them. Like, if Stephen Colbert did his show in front of a stylized version of his own face, I’d also think that was a weird choice in set design.…

You know what doesn’t help facilitate a reasonable discussion? Saying someone has a ‘space alien opinion’. So, no; I don’t think I’m going to engage with you any further. Have fun thinking I’m a space alien!

And that’s a fair complaint, which is why I think it’s reasonable for people to be unhappy about the vaulting, even though it doesn’t particularly bother me, personally.

I mean, I get how that would justify having her name somewhere on screen; not so much an anime-d version of her face. It’s not like when Oprah’s show is airing on O, the Oprah Network, there’s also a cartoon Oprah on screen somewhere to remind you that you’re watching Oprah, in case Oprah herself wasn’t reminder enough…

Okay, that makes a certain amount of sense; it’s there to be like ‘I appreciate my fans!’ rather than ‘aren’t I freakin’ awesome, look how cool I am!’. I could see that.

Oh, I definitely wish they’d just throw up their hands and say ‘screw it, we’re just charging a subscription: x and y content will always be free, and z content will be locked behind the subscription, and that’s how it’ll be, from now until forever, amen’. Just two tiers, ‘free’ and ‘subscribers’, and that’s it. This…

Okay, so, as someone who doesn’t really understanding streaming at all: does she really have a giant poster OF HERSELF in the back of her room? And that’s... normal. To have a giant poster of your own, anime-d up face, on your wall, that you’re broadcasting on your stream. That’s a normal thing to do.

I mean, they only ‘have to make it make sense for new players’ if they want the game to be accessible to new players. I’m not saying that new players should have access to older content the rest of us don’t (though ‘because the lore!’ isn’t... really a defense of poor game design). I’m saying that there should always…

Yep, Forsaken’s getting vaulted next (the Dreaming City’s sticking around as a destination, though).