I’m right there with you—I’m hoping it’s more “this is a fun adventure of discovery” and less “this is an inconvenient slog.” 

Bummer!

This review, and the line from Polygon’s impressions (“This game respects your choices, not your time”) reminded me why I didn’t finally click with the first game until I bought it again on Switch, many years after its release. Once I could pick it up and put it down with ease, quickly resuming where I left off, those…

This could go either way! The fundamentals of this game were solid, and some of the characters were fun to play as, but there wasn’t much to do or see outside of standard PvP matches—it definitely didn’t feel finished. I’d come back for more if they have more to play and the monetization scheme isn’t absurdly…

I train at a boxing gym and there are a couple people there that are Tyson’s age, one of which has been boxing his whole life, and I would NOT fight that dude, despite being more than a decade younger. He’s still got solid power, and his form and technique are impeccable, and he’s no Mike Tyson.

Yeah I played the original when it came out, I think I was in high school, and I thought it was fine, but I was also one of those weirdos that liked the vibe of VIII more. And that’s always what gets me with Final Fantasy, I go in because I like the vibe, and then I’ve had enough after 20-ish hours. The last one I…

Yeah you could also say that Fortnite helped create this problem. Publishing executives saw the billions of dollars that game was making and wanted some of their own, forgetting that Epic was uniquely positioned to make a big bet, and could afford to keep iterating and changing things up in ways few other companies…

We’ve reached a point in the games industry where trends are moving faster than development cycles, and the results are calamitous.

There are some skins that are linked to battle passes that never come back, and I had to explain to them that that didn’t mean the person was good, it just means they’ve had their account a long time. For example, I have some skins from the first couple of seasons, but my oldest son knows that doesn’t mean I’m…

You’re not alone! I have a framed and signed limited print of Batman by Dan Hipp on my wall. I told my wife, “I see a Dan Hipp variant, I buy a Dan Hipp variant. It must be done.” Been following him since before he was doing Teen Titans Go.

Yep, seen this with my kids. They will also think someone is better because they have a skin in Fornite or Overwatch. Like “Oh that guy has X skin he’s super sweaty.” (that means he’s good). And I always jump in to remind them that that doesn’t necessarily mean they are good, it means they spent money.

I finally got a PS5 when the slim version launched, and I held off because I already had a gaming PC, Series X, and a PS4...where I could play most of the big games released.

I recently attempted to play the first Tomb Raider on a retro handheld I have and like many PS1 games, it has aged poorly (I tried Syphon Filter after that, also not fun!). I loved Tomb Raider when it came out because to me it felt like that unforgiving precise (and plodding) controls of Prince of Persia in a 3D…

Oh yeah Tactical Breach Wizards is by the same devs that made Gunpoint (led by Tom Francis), so the tone is definitely going to be a bit cheeky.

Yeah the takeaway from this is NOT that single player games are in trouble. There were lots of other potential reasons (aside from quality) why this failed:

Yeah God of War Ragnarok did these painted on runes that felt like they fit the world, even if it did leave you wondering who painted them. Not every developer can swing it, but I’d also be down if the accessibility options made these things more or less apparent. 

“We’ve been fighting this war for nothing.”

I just finished God of War Ragnarok for the first time and was blown away at how little filler there was. Sure there are some optional side quests and combat-focused challenges you can do, but even those offer narrative bits and insights into characters. It was almost twice as long as the last game, without having…

I couldn’t shake the feeling that Suicide Squad has about five hours of content

It’s amazing how that trailer gave you nothing at all to grasp on to. It was just weird shit on top of weirder shit.