This is a big hit to gaming. Polygon was a reliable source and employed a lot of knowledgeable and passionate writers and creators. It had its critics because it didn’t cater to gamergate, but for most of us that was a good thing.
Valnet has blown up many sites before to make unreliable content farms. They practically invented the business.
I hope the laid off writers at Polygon are able to make something like 404media.
Forbes, for many years, has been mostly written by freelance bloggers. Some is very high quality (some is not) but it’s not like an editor in a newsroom is asking for these stories.
They have journalists on staff still but they write a minority of what Forbes publishes online.
Not precisely open world but has the same feeling of exploration, discovery and unlocking, Supraland. Harder puzzles, unlock things that make combat easier. Combat is pretty similar to botw.