Are you kidding? This has been a growing issue since the 00s. Even back when Total Biscuit was still alive (rip), he was fighting it with tooth and nail. Microsoft and some other companies have AGGRESSIVELY attacked consumers and now, it’s entirely broken in almost every industry.
Finding real reviews on things is INSANELY difficult to find, not only because influencers are all heavily biased and censored or even blacklisted when they aren’t positive, but most normal people couldn’t give a decent review if they tried. Hype is everywhere, and colors everything.
TB called it years ago: the trick is to find a journalist that you know what they like, dislike, and are honest and with integrity, able to be brutal and fair, but have ethics and a strong sense of responsibility to the future of gaming. This requires a uniquely difficult and rare combination of intelligence, novel ideas, and sound judgement, along with consistency. And production, a refreshing articulation, and some brevity doesn’t hurt.
Find that source and support them, and help them grow. Get to know their tastes, and they should serve us all well.
But, until that person who can unite gamers appears again, and holds those important and knowledgeable discussions… Influencers will be just that: influencers - not journalists. And be unreliable shills.
Honestly I’ve thought about doing it more than once, but fear and risk of the wrath of sensitive gamers and corporate hr entities angry for me shitting on their games and decisions and suing me is a real thing. I could be a gaming journalist, one that gives my all and tries to serve the good of gamers and the future of society to the best of my ability. But I also seriously doubt anybody would want to listen to me.
The combat is pretty fun. It’s a bit more complex than the other two Xenoblade games I played (1 and 2), as there are more support skills you can use and overdrive requires a bit of planning. Enemies also have breakable parts, which add a bit of decision making during combat, although it does still feel a bit passive as there aren’t many enemy mechanics to interact with.
Very minor progression spoilerI have unlocked the Skell after ~30 hours and it was pretty underwhelming. Grounded combat feels more fun and it’s pretty disappointing that you can’t customize much of the mech’s aesthetics apart from color (and I’m not a huge fan of the designs).
The main story is fine and the sidequests are pretty good. They are very short, but they have interesting stories. The “affinity” quests feel like they are the focus of the game instead of the main story.
I’m just at the beginning of Act 3 of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. I’ve dragged my feet doing a lot of side content and playing slowly because I sort of don’t want this game to end. For once I wish this was a standard 100-hour JRPG fare and not as relatively short as it is at probably half that.
The game is very good. What else can be said at this point. There are minor niggles and nitpicks and occasionally some AA-ness rears its head but it’s overall one of the best games I’ve ever played so far. The story is amazing, the presentation is beautiful and the turn-based combat with QTEs and parries is super fun. The boss fights are cinematic and challenging in an almost Souls-like fashion. All the characters have distinct play styles and fun synergies.
It’s also an unabashedly French game and I’m really enjoying immersing myself in that to the max by using the French VAs.
Exclusivity is not competition, it’s lock in for me. So epic should get it’s head out of its ass and offer games on both platforms equally. THAT is competition.
I am not a fan of steam. Not a fan of having a library that could change at anytime at anyone’s whim but mine. So I prefer gog (yes I know some titles are drm free on steam and it’s not perfect on gog either / this is just for context).
Anyhow steam is well established and forcing me to use your store and launcher will just lead to me ignoring you (doing that for origin, uplay, epic) because it’s a luxury problem.
Same with all that streaming shit. Also there are other ways if you piss off people a lot, yarr!
The companies forget who made them big. And for epic I count myself in on that massively, still owning game boxes of e.g. Xargon (look it up, and my EU? box is not to be found on ebay) and equally for EA.
And I will not stand for anti consumer behaviors. Got enough money to spend at my age but theyre not getting it like this.
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