I think if Hollywood could do one thing over again, they'd probably conceal the sales figures of their various titles at the box office.

Oh I love Let's Plays. Not only do they give me a feel of almost playing the game myself, but with the better LPers, you get the best and most sensible reactions to whatever is experienced in the game. That's definitely a way of getting an informed opinion about some notable feature without actually having played…

That's an interesting take ... some things definitely need to be experienced to aptly capture the response to them. Not all, though. The extreme dubiousness of a person's judgments will likely come out eventually, though, so the crowd has the advantage of the passing of time.

I don't particularly have an interest in the ongoing "gamergate," as I found the issue to be rather generated/manufactured on both sides of it from the get.

I wish bias, either for or against, was curbed as well, but it seems like the human animal has an overwhelming urge to black/white and for/against things that are actually much much more gray for option than what people make issues out to be.

Yeah, the United States had another round of voting on many state and national representatives yesterday.

That works too.

My favorite radio station on Rockstar GTA games over the last couple has been "User Track Player."

I had an internal debate a year ago of whether or not my older age and tastes in music contributed to the fact that I didn't much care for GTA 5's soundtracks.

This seems loosely-related to something people say when it comes to elections ... I've heard several folks tell me "if you didn't vote, then you have no right to complain."

GTA 4 had some similar irrelevant choice moments, particularly with flashing red/blue targets on certain NPCs.

What would be nice is for games of the modern age to end cutscenes, by making those types of scenes part of the in-game experience. Simply have them going on around the player's character.

I think you and me would have similar conclusions, on more aspects of Civ, since I too dislike that "Deity" means tying a live player's hands while giving the AIs boosts, just to get them something they can't seem to accomplish on their own, that being the ability to become a truly formidable opponent.

In this case, I've been spared the conundrum of purchasing this fluff-fest of a game to do just that down the line.

In general, I feel that with situations in which something is supposed to be poignant, if all the devs can come up with is a solitary button choice, then they're doing it very, horribly, wrong.

If I had to register a product with a game company to where, in all next iterations, HD'd, upscaled, remake, different platform, you name it ... that upon registration, all other versions would be free of charge ... I'd give them everything including the blood of my first-born.

Maybe when you have to attend more than a few sad funerals, you'll want less of the awkward CoD-style QTE 'respects' in your games.

Not that anyone cares, but the context behind my response ...

If I cared about working for a shitty corporation, definitely. But I like vans down by the river!

Less amusing than the actual forced event in the cutscene, but amusing nonetheless.