it’s definitely not for everyone, you really have to love escape rooms for the game to make sense and be open to adjusting your expectations for rules. for instance the movement is velocity based not speed based. you control how much faster or slower you move by adjusting your velocity in various directions rather…

Glad to hear that I’m not the only one, as you and several others have pointed out they couldn’t get into Outer Wilds.

I actually liked the ship controls, but yeah, I feel the same about the rest of Outer Wilds. On paper it seems like something I’d be into, but it just did not hook me.

I had a lot of issues with Outer Wilds as well. Nothing hooked me about it. I tried several times and I just could not get into it.

I basically jumped in after all the early buzz and it took quite a bit of time before it clicked...but even then I didn’t finish it. I’ve never been one for the “muddle around until things make sense, and then it’ll be REALLY cool” kind of narrative some games use, because that muddle around period could be 20…

Agreed. The visuals and concept were nice, but I just wasn’t willing to give all my time going around aimlessly to find out what I was supposed to do.

Yeah I bounced off it hard. I need at least a little bit of direction in the beginning of a game. Outer Wilds is a blind dive into a deep end.

Counter point, don’t skip Arrival. There noting inherently wrong with the DLC, it introduces a dilemma that forces you to make a difficult decision between two awful outcomes (something that would invariably happen in this conflict), establishes why Sheppard is not in command of the Normandy at the beginning of ME3,…

Same. I’m all for open-ended worlds where exploration is the word of the day, but if I spend 10 hours floating around with no clue what to do, maaaaybe the game should do SOMETHING for me.

Does the ‘America, fuck yeah’ in movies that are aimed at US audiences hit foreign audiences the same way, though? I always sort of assumed that it was something that they’d put up with, rather than appreciate in the same way that the people it was made for.

Won’t lie, the mechanisms we use for core gameplay loops are dangerously similar the feedback you get from gambling and drugs. They keep you chasing the feelings.

I think that in addition to the points that you raise, Chinese acquisition of/investment in foreign media is going to be used to influence attitudes toward China. I’d be very surprised if we didn’t see more pro-China sentiment in our entertainments in the coming years.

I don’t think so. Ten years ago I would but China is making moves and honestly, I think Tencent just didn’t get the message and/or hopes to go under the radar long enough to make a quick buck before it all goes tumbling down.

It is a strange thing, with various acquisitions by China-based companies, it goes against a core tenant of their political philosophy but it is making money off of other countries so it may be okay? 

Ah, that sucks because it sounds like exactly the sort of repetitive frustration I don’t do well with. Resetting to checkpoints and having to kill shit all over again for hours is...well, part of why I don’t solo dungeons myself, lol. I’ll check it out with that in mind and probably give up an hour in, so thanks for…

Yup! I (stupidly, because I was distracted with other games) skipped one of this past season’s seasonal activities for awhile because I thought it was a dungeon with no matchmaking, and I wasn’t trying to do all that. Turned out to be extremely easy and forgiving to solo (the weekly ascendant plane quests), but I can…

W/ the anniversary pack you get 3 full sets of armor ornaments that normally go for $15 each. My partner and I buy skins all the time so it was a no brainer for us. Season pass always has an exotic paywall so I guess we are just used to it. Still shitty practice I agree.

I always considered Destiny an MMO, the only thing is, it would have been my first and only MMO. 

I dunno, I thought the horse was—for lack of a better word—kinda dumb. He’s probably there simply to add yet another vendor.

Yeah, I tried a raid or two for a few hours (early on in my D2 “career,” so to be fair my comfort level was nowhere near where it is now) with mic, and it was just not the sort of thing I wanted to keep doing; I’m sure I’d feel different if I had a bunch of friends to shoot the shit with, but otherwise like you said,…