Despite their great attention for detail, the map design was still done by an Ubisoft studio based in England, and it shows. “Take Away” instead of “Take-Out”, “Underground” instead of “Subway”, and speed limit signs in red circles rather than on black and white rectangles all are UK things we don’t have here in the…

That is a pretty good question to ask. I don’t know the answer, but I appreciate the thought. Fair Use in the US protects people from being sued for using copyrighted materials in parody, comedy, education, or criticism, but at what point does criticism turn to libel? The point you make about people making scads of…

You are probably right about that. If I had my way, I’d want Bethesda to stick to story-focused content and let us modders add the stuff like customizable robots and more building materials.

I realize that is a very PC-centric view, but if they applied the right pressure, Sony and Microsoft would probably relent and…

I sure hope that the upcoming three DLC for Fallout 4 aren’t the only DLC content that will be released for the game, especially considering only one is story-based. The DLC were the best part of Fallout 3, and Fallout 4 is such a grand game with so much unexplored potential for storytelling.

I hope they will also…

The value of something like entertainment is up to the user to set, really. If he enjoyed the game, then the question is not whether or not $18 is worth it for 2-3 hours, the question is whether or not the experience was worth $18 for him personally.

Think about how many things that are only 2-3 hours of experience $18…

Public speaking is part of my full time job, so I would also add to this list:

4. Unless you’re famous, most people are there for reasons other than you, and so they have no expectations. This is a great opportunity to gain reputation and teach someone something unexpected.

In my mind, I read his email is Duke’s cocky swaggering tone.

“One of Rome II’s biggest problems was its size. While on paper a sprawling campaign map sounds great, in practice it made managing a large empire difficult, and the design of the Mediterranean map made traversing it a slog. The number of factions involved in the game also caused headaches...”

This was also true for…

These prices are roughly equivalent to what Steam would charge for a port or release of an old game on PC at first. Perhaps they will go down over time.

So, if this is set 5 years after season 1 of Digimon, does that mean the show takes place round about 2004-2005? Or are they pushing the timeline up and saying those old shows took place in 2009-2010, and this is the present?

I ask because I was the same age as the Digidestined when the show premiered, and for…

You took a risk in interperting the game this way, but I think you are wrong; mostly because you have such an expansive definition of open-world RPG. Foundationally, Fallout 3 IS an open-world RPG in that the world is open for you to progress how oyu choose and you are put into the ROLE of a character.

As for not…

At every level of adaptation, things are lost. Anime usually doesn’t have all the characters from manga, and movies usually don’t have all the characts from anime. It is part of the cutting room process in adapting source material.

Most of the “confirmed” details of the Reddit post were heavily hinted at by Fallout 3, including the Commonwealth (aka Boston) setting. We also already knew that the actor for 3-Dawg was signed on, so the returning character thing doesn’t take much of a stretch. Likewise, Bethesda’s most popular competitor right now…

Tony Hawk but rollerblading is “Aggressive Inline”.

First of all, we have to realize that when he says anime will die, he is specifically referring to his preferred school of anime. People have also said American cinema is dead, but usually they are referring to a specific type of storytelling or filming that has fallen out of favor or become obsolete. Second, he is…

In terms of the scripted check list and frustrations on both side of the helpline, I recommend starting the process by simply saying, “In order to give me the best chance of solving your problem, I may have to ask you several obvious questions or to do things you have already tried unsuccessfully. This is to better…

The NyanCat usage is a case in point of how this safety video falls short—NyanCat serves no purpose here, no pun is made, no acknowledgment is given to it beyond its existence. The only memes I thought were used cleverly in this video was the dramatic gopher looking at the exit sign and KeyboardCat providing the…

This is one of the best openings of any game I’ve ever played (Star Ocean 3, that is). Unfortuantely, I thought the game itself was too muddled. The first half was well paced, but the second half spun out into a Matrix-inspired mess that ruined the lore of the SO universe for me.

I’m curious how SO5 will address this.…

The best way to deal with paid mods is to do what Bethesda has always done and incorporate successful, highly popular mods into the next DLC or game in the series. If they feel that strongly about mod authors making money, then pay them a small royalty as a reward for their inspirational work. Otherwise, add a…

Any established genre is going to have tropes and cliches. Look at US shooters for example, most are extremely formulaic. Even open world Western RPGs are pretty formulaic, though I suspect they are tolerated more because, unlike most JRPGs historically, they give you a lot of ability to make the game your own…