I tried to give Death Stranding an honest shot, as the elements that got critiqued—the pace, the travel—are all things I thought I’d enjoy in a game. What I didn’t enjoy were the impromptu stealth sections, even though I though the idea of BTs was pretty interesting/fun. For some reason I’ve never been able to “get”…

But the first Zelda came out before the first Metroid so shouldn’t the genre then be called Zeldavanias?

Trust me, I understand from a consumer POV. This is a good article on the various missteps with the Stadia launch, and really shows how the combo of pricing, biz model, and launch philosophy really hurt Stadia’s perception: https://fortune.com/2021/02/27/google-stadia-video-game-streaming-reality-check-consoles/

I mean, why not? They have a ton of cash, which means they can take risks. Ideally the risks pan out but of course not always—that’s why they’re risks. Throughout the process, Google gets to learn a bunch about a sector, stay in the news, make the teams working on risks happy for getting to do something different and,…

I think the thing is: Google isn’t really a software company. It’s a technology company. And the progress they’ve made on tech fronts (like the ones I mentioned in my post) allow them to keep their software competitive. Things like YouTube recommendations, Google Instant Search, Google Docs autocomplete all require…

I’m not sure it’s fair to say they’ve coasted on 3-4 key items. If we consider successful acquisition and commercialization of a product to keep it viable as part of Google/Alphabet’s accomplishments, they have had very strong success with...

You don’t need to affirm that, I don’t really care. Just offering a counterpoint.

I’ll throw out some motivation: Dislike of Spike (sure) but also a hefty dose of War on Titan PTSD.

What? Vicious is the weakest part of the anime? Hard disagree. He’s cryptic, to a frustrating degree at times, but those reading Vicious solely within the context of some Vicious-Julia-Spike love triangle are missing the allusions to whatever bond Spike and Vicious must have shared in the past.

I won’t speak for the commenters here (who are making reasonable arguments, even if I don’t agree with them), but these large Kickstarters and the strong fan support regardless of the platform’s intent is just another form of a larger problem: People are generally willing to eschew values in exchange for shiny things…

I think it comes down to whether or not the value-add of pre-ordering is worth it because backers are basically giving CDPR an interest-free loan. If you or me tried to get a loan for a project like this, it would absolutely not be interest-free; moreover, you and me are also unlikely to get broad support on a…

Loved Alan Wake way back when, warts and all. Not sure I can playthrough the game again, but I’m excited to see what a remaster looks like and excited to watch some YouTube videos to relive the memory of Alan’s hilarious narration.

I appreciate the round up of these games but I wish Kotaku didn’t feature games with far out release dates so often. Next year might as well be next decade with how 2020/2021 have gone and while Glitchhiker’s looks cool, I will have long forgotten about it by next year.

Is there a big bank of these to go through yet so I can hunt for my favorite anime? Would love to see one for Fushigi Yuugi

Same. It sound enticing but I just can’t past the art style. If that makes me shallow, then so be it.

Yeah, the US story is a weird mix of pride and shame. I was so proud of the organizational efforts earlier this year to get the vaccine out to as many as possible, and found that while there were bumps in the reservation systems, they generally worked well.

This is a weirdly aggressive response to someone’s opinion. Sounds like you have some issues you need to deal with.

I know many will disagree but I’m not super enthused with the more 3D approach to the graphics. I think I would’ve preferred a return to spritework (albeit advanced spritework), as I find it less distracting/busy than this 3D approach that introduces a ton of distracting background details.

Same. I actually enjoyed Bloodborne’s gameplay more than Dark Souls, but I felt very burned by Sekiro. I’m not a rhythm gamer with perfect timing and I never will be, and the refusal to offer any other way to approach challenges or to get assistance left me wary of From games. I’m really hoping Elden Ring gives me…

This would be my first attempt. Take the median playtime for a game and if it’s under 2 hours, set the refund period shorter (X% of median game length). Maybe throw in a few rules (X number of plays) or QA checks to make sure the game isn’t a scam. Model this out and see what it would mean for qualifying games.