Steam has Early Access for those games you mentioned. If you don't like the risk of Early Access games, then don't invest in them. Steam makes this designation pretty clear in the system.

A great majority of anything is extremely low quality. I'm not sure why that should somehow be an argument for Steam to be an exclusionary platform. I don't know about you, but I like having choices.

Actually, you've got it wrong. Bethesda have been pretty great about bringing newbies into the fold while respecting the hardcore power-players who'll run through the game half a dozen times. You'll recall that, in Fallout 3, you could redo all your skills before leaving Vault 101. So if you didn't feel like playing…

I've considered El-P one of the best producers in hip-hop (if not the best) since I first heard Company Flow as a high-schooler back around 1997. The only reason he's not swimming in millions by now is because he's never taken a shine to commercial beat-making. The level of care he puts into the tiniest details, all…

But aren't many "open-world" games already basically linear in how they present the actual story portion of the game? Even GTAV only really has one way to progress from major story point to major story point. Sure, you're allowed to go ahead and do these side missions as you wish, but none of those missions are…

Actually, it is precisely why they "banded together." GamerGate started when a dude went to Reddit and assembled a mob to harass his ex, whom he accused of having cheated on him. So yeah, it is about feeling power over women.

Patrician III is so excellent. One thing that seems to get glossed over quite a bit is just how fucking beautiful the game is. I've played Patrician IV, its modern successor, and I have to say, I actually find the locked-perspective pixel art of III preferable to it.

Hey, why did you assume he was being sarcastic? You're so cynical, man.

The problem with Gamergate is the same problem with Libertarianism (and I'd imagine there's probably a lot of overlap between the two communities). You can never pin it down, because there's always somebody waiting in the wings to say, "Well, that's not what it means to me!" This constant shifting of goalposts is a…

Korea seriously does it up when pizza's on the menu. When I first came here, I chalked up these ostentatious offerings as bastardizations of what pizza is supposed to be. But now, even though I probably wouldn't personally order something like this for myself, I look at it as an admirably bold appropriation of foreign…

Yeah, this is definitely the "Don't have a Vita or a PS3? Got $99 bucks lying around?" market's wet dream. If I had neither of these devices, I'd go right ahead and buy it probably.

This game is (going to be) stupid, not because of the violence, but because it's all just so thin and pointless. The developers clearly just had a gameplay idea, but completely lacked the ability to put a three-dimensional character at the center of it.

That "parity" explanation from Ubisoft is total bullshit. I don't own a PS4 or XB1 yet, but I mean, if a developer is going to intentionally leave part of a console's potential on the table, what the fuck is the difference between buying one or the other at the end of the day? If, in order to "avoid all the debates…

I think having not watched the show sort of wrecks the notion of having an actual conversation about it, no?

Ah, wait. Forgive me. I was referring to the government office building (their first target) by mistake. You'll recall that Nine causes a commotion by throwing a smoke grenade, causing most of the people to evacuate the train (except for one person). You can see on the news feed afterward that there are people injured…

SPOILER

You're wrong. They arranged for the power to be shut off, and the building did get evacuated. I believe there were some injuries, but no deaths. Not only that, but the bombs weren't placed to inflict casualties. They were placed to weaken the building's structure (hence the use of thermite). But hey, if you'd actually…

No, I understand exactly what contrived means, even in the terms Richard set out in his piece. The problem with his argument is that he treats Nine and Twelve as static figures, and then says "Oh, well they'd never have killed Lisa, or anybody, in the first place, so the possibility of them having done so was…

****Spoiler Warning****

Okay, it sounds a lot like I imagined it would be. Thanks for the thorough description. I really do appreciate it.