Interesting stuff, Heather - I wrote an article that explores a similar/adjacent topic a few years back:

Totally with you on all of this. I was skeptical at the beginning due to all those similar write-ups about mundane chores and slow animations, but I got over it quickly and ended up very much appreciating and enjoying the degree to which you are able to simply inhabit Arthur Morgan. And then I loved the epilogue, of…

I’m about halfway through Chapter 5 of Red Dead Redemption 2, and my feeling about the game, as they have been during my whole playthrough, are all over the place. The world itself is amazing, but it’s so big and so detailed that the thought of actually trying to comb through it to find any of these thousands of…

I did not know this was a thing, and I’m intrigued. Hot damn, I’d love to play VI with that mod. And...the others too.

I think a lot of the appeal of FFIX is in its pure/classic-RPG-ness. The last time I played it was 2011 or so, but I remember the plot being in the “comfortably formulaic” category. That said, everything about the game is so well thought out, pretty to look out, enjoyable to experience, etc. (you get your big world…

Man, I really need to land on something and stick with it for more than ten minutes. Maybe due to Red Dead Redemption 2's release looming over my head, I’ve started and bounced off of an absurd number of games since finishing Breath of the Wild not too long ago, including: GTA V on PS4 (which would be a replay for…

Really need to find something new to play - I finished up BOTW a month or so ago, and while I ended up enjoying it, it never quite grabbed me like I feel like it was supposed to. After that, I played a few hours of Hollow Knight but have probably bailed on that...I think I’m itching for something with more story to…

I’m with you, Dr. Dick Lasers (feel compelled to type out your name because it’s awesome), although I made it a bit further. I bailed on Hollow Knight last night after getting through the third main area (City of Tears), so I’m probably four or five hours in. Extremely appealing game aesthetically, but I just don’t…

So you’re saying don’t buy it, I guess? I keep seeing all the conflicting reviews and half-convincing myself to give it a shot. Then again, like minigendo, I bailed on FF13 after what couldn’t have been more than an hour or two.

Same here w/ Dragon Quest VIII - I remember reading the INCREDIBLE reviews, and I was super big into Final Fantasy and peripheral JRPGs at the time, so I figured it’d be an easy one for me to love...not so much. I’ve tried to play it three or four times myself, and yeah, I always end up extremely bored and wishing I…

I wrote an article on Kotaku’s TAY forum a few years ago that IGN appeared to take direct inspiration from, if not going so far as to actually plagiarize me. Still, it felt pretty icky. I put out this article on 7/7/15, and it was featured on Kotaku’s main page a few days later:

Agreed. Yeah, the world is beautiful, and exploration for exploration’s sake provides a certain amount of drive, but if there’s no story propping it all up, what are you even doing?

Yes, yes, a thousand times yes. Witcher 3 has so much depth beneath its (very pretty) surface, whereas BOTW just has a shitload of (very pretty) surface. In BOTW, you’re...solving environmental puzzles or fighting a very limited set of palette-swappe goblins. Always. That’s it. The scope and variety of storytelling in…

Totally with you, and I’ve written about the same phenomenon at length too:

The way that his story sort of slowly opened up like a Russian nesting doll was truly excellent, though. All the more so because of how unnecessary it was given the simplicity of topic.

I haven’t hopped in this pool in a while, but it seems like the water is warm enough to give it another shot. After wrapping up a pretty mediocre trip through the final Final Fantasy XII remaster on PS4 towards the end of the year, I took a brief, somewhat unintentional hiatus from gaming, mostly due to being…

Definitely agree with those who are saying to ignore Gwent. I played one game in White Orchard and never touched it again - from what I can tell, it’s a distracting time sink with no real justification for its existence. There’s enough to do in this game without stopping to play cards, for god’s sake.

Just thought I’d point out my recent resounding agreement:

Thanks for getting back to me, Will - yeah, the whole Kinja process is pretty confusing. I’ve been trying to untangle it to ensure that my Chick-fil-A coverage (which is top-notch, incidentally, and obviously very important) successfully makes its way out into the world, but it’s not easy. So, as a freelancer, you’re…

I have a very off-topic question that I’m going to insert here and pretend like it belongs: is there any Deadspin-related user-created sub-blog where I could post my own writing in hopes that Deadspin/Concourse moderators would bump it up to the bigtime for more widespread enjoyment and digestion? I’ve had great…