The gameplay mechanics *are* totally dated. Note that I don't object to this if the implementation is slick enough, although I think that in the case of Uncharted the connection between various pieces of gameplay is vastly better than any individual piece of gameplay as viewed in a void.

So if it isn't played to win, and if you don't make any meaningful choices (which you don't in Uncharted) then how is it different from a film installation where you have to variously run on a treadmill, use an elliptical machine, or juggle continuously at various times in order for the film to continue playing?

I totally don't get the complaint here, and am trying not to be judgemental, but this seems like epic #firstworldproblems. If you actually feel compelled or have remorse about not purchasing every collectible in sight, that's either a sign of more money than sense or of actual OCD.

I'd be interesting in a How I Met Your Mother style genre show. HIMYM actually has a fair amount of continuity, but brings new viewers along for the portion of the continuity that is relevant to the current episode and keeps 80%+ of the plot for a given episode self-contained to the episode.

I genuinely don't know the answer to this, but has genre TV ever succeeded without also capturing the hardcore, at least at launch? A lot of your suggestions seem to amount to 'screw the hardcore, do Star Trek.' I've no complaints with that plan actually if it were successful, but I'd think that you'd need to…

When executives of any type don't understand what is being made, their knee-jerk reaction seems to be to meddle in it until they can understand it. Not to educate themselves or study something mind you. To just start demanding changes until they understand what it has been distorted into. So all it takes is for the…

FWIW, I actually think that many sci-fi producers are aware of this, but that their network execs are not. It is nearly impossible to create a strong creative experience with multi-level micromanagement, yet genre television is rife with that. Certainly the fate of Firefly is one good example, and I'm aware of…

I think that the challenge with your original post was moreso the tone and how it fits into the pattern of economic discussion than any semantics of precisely what you said. Some people are hopping mad because usually when someone adopts the phrase "in economics" and then throws a bunch of complexity onto a topic,…

Wow, it takes something else to post that while reading a Sci-fi genre blog.

Agreed. They are completely terrible and should be avoided at all costs. 8/10.

They can downrate games for online pass as soon as they downrate most FPSes for their appallingly short campaigns or various other things that some people will feel makes the value lower.

Yeah, I dug up that article too. If Oblivion hadn't been so incredibly far off of the mark, I wouldn't think they they could miss making sure of something like this. Seems pretty promising that everything will be fine, though.

Thanks for the link. It sounds like the game is more intelligently working with your level now, but is not necessarily aware of whether your character is combat effective or ineffective in general.

Any word on levelling up and scaling difficulty? Oblivion was so horrifically broken in this regard that I can't buy this game in good conscience until I hear that it will be better this time.

Wouldn't the taste of Modern Warfare be either silicon with extra plastic, or sweaty butt-funk?

In Brotherhood, the combat was pretty awesome if you got into it. You could be a walking god of death if you wanted to, killing your way through hordes of guys. That said, a cinematic rather than gameplay camera is going to show that off better.

Internettified transcript:

No love for Holly Marie Combs, huh?

The most unpatriotic thing imaginable is to believe that America can never be better than it is at the current time. Both liberals and conservatives should be able to agree with this.

The sequel is in no way inevitable, if the response here is indicative of the number of people who actually buy the game. Which is sad, since it is quite good and a sequel would likely be vastly better with more lore and enemy types.