What should they do about it if it actually runs great on their systems though?
A lot of games only play well if you take some time figuring out a certain combination of graphics settings for your own computer. Then there is bugs and stutters that really is only happening with certain settings. Particularly these days with the four common upscaling models, you never know which games are best optimized for which model, but none of them are optimized for running without upscaling.
So for a regular reviewer to really give a game a fair score, should they run at the default settings? Would be unfair to expect them to know how every weird setting impacts the game. Should they try the game at 4+ different systems to make sure there are no performance issues and stutters dragging it down in certain cases? Leaving performance testing to dedicated performance reviewers and just focus on reviewing the game itself might be the best option.
Its music level released on YT gave it a lot of exposure. If even that wasn’t enough, what hope do we have for an Alan Wake 3 or Control 2 without a crappy tacked-on monetization scheme? Because thats always next if a singleplayer game series doesn’t make as much money as the publishers wanted it to.
Would be nice if every game publisher was required to contribute a version of their game, that can be played without an external network or license, to the country’s main library. For cultural safe-keeping. I know at least one country does that for books.
Half tempted to love any gamedev company that promises to keep making singleplayer games, that can be played offline, without microtransactions and battlepasses. It would take more than a few botched game launches to make me give up on them.
I got the feeling media has been saying “people are over superhero movies” for quite a while. Eventually it had to “come true” as Marvel has turned down the stakes and mostly focused on some cheap (relatively speaking) tvseries that probably nobody but comicbook fans watched, and some movies that are connected to these, with less known heroes.
They’ll be back again for Deadpool, Fantastic Four, and Blade, and the “over superheroes” trend will be forgotten. Again.
And when you finally get the game to run, it needs to compile shaders. Then it need to download another update, from inside the game (and sometimes even restart the game… Looking at you, MW2! ) And the user agreement have changed so you are forced to scroll to the bottom of one or more LONG legal text before you can click “Accept”. And then a season intro cutscene (fortnite and CoD games does that). Then maybe a “Whats new” screen…
I remember Commodore 64 games could take up to 30 minutes to load. But at least I could just go make some food while waiting. Didn’t have to sit there and press buttons.
That was a coincidence, I’ve just started watching it! Season 2 now. Love it so far. But Sokka don’t deserve being such a buttmonkey, considering how often he is right.
The generic white muscled male, who can do anything the plot throws at him (with only a bit of fake struggle), and gets the girl at the end, is so damn overdone in every media. People talk about characters being Mary Sue when John Sue is way more common.
I want variations in my fiction! All kinds of genders, preferences, cultures, opinions, and species. The only rule I have is for the fiction never to encourage cruel acts IRL.
Mostly I choose gender based on how good they look. If males look brutish and carrot-y (no offense to Carrot Ironfounderdsson) or soldier-like, I choose female. If women look like drawn by Rob Liefeld, I choose men.
Though I do have a preference to a ginger short-haired woman (elf if fantasy) if I can’t decide on what I want to make.