I bought my PS3 in 2011 and had a very similar experience. I bought it exclusively to play Skyrim (mistake given the problems the PS3 version had), and found myself suddenly open to a vast array of great games. I played through all of the Uncharted games over a long weekend. Just after I bought and played 'The Last of…

I haven't played WoW in years, but seeing those photos gives me a tinge of nostalgia. I would go back to it, but time doesn't allow. Plus, I first began playing when it was in beta and played the most during its first two years of release. I never hit a level cap and did not once participate in a raid, because it…

I wake up, eat a bowl of my own shit in the morning and then breathe in the air of a higher stratosphere. Sometimes it makes me feel a bit lightheaded, but it's worth it for the glorious sense of superiority. Bow to me, underling. Bask in the radiance of my brilliance.

Why do these vehicles look like they are remote control cars? The scale seems a bit off in relation to the buildings and other structures. Maybe it's just me. Anyone else concur?

My wife's reaction when she overheard the trailer playing on my phone was: 'Frank Underwood is in a video game. How original...' That's about the level of 'meh' I had while watching this trailer. Let's just have a Call of Duty set within the 'Planet of the Apes' universe and be done with it.

I'm not being facetious here when I ask whether you've taken a women's studies course, because they're certainly not quite what you might be thinking. It may well be the case that in your environment, the 'majority' of people might not value such a thing. Mind you, as a university teacher, my environment is no doubt…

Interesting. Depends on what kind of character he plays, I guess. If it's that he is the leader of a multinational private military firm, I think he could use the rhetoric you speak of in order to solidify his position as a person we are seen to 'need', but ultimately it's about world/market domination. That would be…

Hey Shippoyasha. Nice to see you again. I'm being a bit facetious with the YouTube comment, but my sentiments are pretty valid. My exposure has mostly been to friends playing these games and me looking over their shoulder wondering what they were about. We'd debate about it for a bit and then move on. But it was in…

'Free market' for the win!! Oh wait...we're all fucked now.

Ha! Exactly. You just want to pat the developers on the head and tell them to stop representing the US as the ultimate martyr. 'Out of the ashes comes the greatest civilisation on the planet...' Oh my, someone get me a tea and biscuit. This is going to be epic.

the rest of the trailer makes me think that the game will fall into the same boring routine of one mindless over-the-top spectacle after another with yet another scene of you catching a guy by the arm as he is about to fall to his death

You nailed it. I feel exactly the same way. It's like how I felt with the Captain America sequel. It couldn't be America that did wrong, but the vestige of the evil Nazis. Hydra basically allowed any sophisticated critique of American imperialism to get wiped under the rug. 'Oh, it wasn't technically us - we were just…

I thought the same thing. YAWN! That said, I read somewhere that it was about a private military firm having gotten too big for its britches. That's would be an interesting story, cuz private security scares the fuck out of me.

Goodness, you've just about invalidated every critique ever with that comment. Congratulations. I'm just curious, why not critique a game on these issues? We do it for other forms of media. If we only criticised games on mechanics alone, gaming would be a pretty boring pastime. Is it not worth asking whether our…

It was sarcasm and your point was exactly the one I was trying to make.

We should be more concerned that you find attending a Women's Studies class to be an insult.

I read it that he felt that the ability to change personalities was out of step with the other element of the game: shaping the 'emotional core'. I don't THINK that he was speaking to some wider critique of the way the game represents women and relationships, but perhaps there's something there that I'm missing?…

Richard, I'd be interested in seeing your updates of real life dating experiences. If you're already in a relationship, perhaps act out a dating experience with your significant other. It would be interesting to see if some of the ways you entice virtual teens work in the real world. First of all, would the people you…

It must be every three days we get another article about dating sims by Eisenbeis. Every three days, he fails to demonstrate that these dating sims are anything other than wish-fulfillment for men with the mind of 14 year-olds who seem to prefer representations of women that don't seem to go beyond said age range.…

Is that William Shatner in the suit? I remember hearing he wore heals in Star Trek to make him look taller. In fact, you can see them in numerous episodes and at least one film (TWOK).