I definitely saw people looking at the culture angle as a silver lining or sometimes as a potential net positive. I only saw fanboys celebrating Bethesda though.
Either way it seemed to me like most were looking at the potential upside. Not that they were actually glad that it happened.
What I always hear is that companies will send C&D letters to small ventures, because it creates precedence. Without that, a company loses the right to sue.
It’s weird that games nailed fun racing games back in the PS2/Xbox era. Between Burnout, Midnight Club, Need for Speed, all of them peaked. Then couldn’t repeat formula. Then on the PS3 they had Motorstorm. But really there hasn’t been a lot of fun racing games since.
I used to play the crap out of this game. I got a ridiculous amount of stuff without paying a dime too. I had to stop playing because it took too much of my time.
I’m kind of in a different boat with this. I’m paying for quality, not quantity. Especially since I don’t have as much free time as I did 20 years ago.
So if I can play through a phenomenal story within a couple months over a 20 hour game (which usually takes me 30 hours) at the height of the hype when people are still talking about it, I love it. Give me efficient storytelling.
In fact, if it’s something longer, it kind makes me rethink it whether I want to pay full price. Why rush?
I really like some of the Halo games for this, especially any levels that don’t involve The Flood. The inventive hit-boxes, slow movements, the vehicles that are fun to just drive around, and the addition of gameplay modifiers, they’re pretty cathartic for me.
Yeah, Halo Infinite just skips everything that Halo 5 set up. Everything Promethean is over. There are no more Spartan companions (whether any are still alive or not is kind of up in the air). Humans are on the brink of extinction. The whole game is just telling you that’s the new reality. Not really a lot of plot, just world building.