my god, how long does it take to fix a website error like this? GS is acting like there's a snag list of 1000 bugs for a game 6 years into the development cycle.

My advise is, if you want our gaming industry to be 'healthy', you should give games like BG3 a try for no other reason than for the fact that everyone says it's good ie. Critic & User scores are both close to 90. So there is a consensus, unlike Starfield where Critic score is high but user score is low.

If not for benefit of doubt, I'd say you are what's wrong with our industry ie. support trash and pass on gold. This is why we get games like Starfield. Bethesda (and by extension, EA, MS, Activision, Ubisoft etc.) are all banking that gamers are like you, all of whom will gravitate towards AAA marketed games and you guys don't know better, because you've never played an actual good game in the pass 5 years.

I liked Skyrim and the Fallout games, but that doesn't mean I'm expecting or want Starfield to be merely "Fallout in space". From what I've seen so far, Bethesda hasn't really evolved as a studio. I'm kinda perplexed as to why the NPCs still have that 'blank stare' look that was around since Oblivion.

Anyway, downloading it now. Won't be playing till 6th Sept.

Setting aside the whole argument about whether SC is a scam....I'll say that it takes more than mere tech to actually have a game. What CIG has now (after 12 years) is a tech demo with activities for players. Get back to me when they have an actual game. I play games, not tech.

And to me, a game must have an experience arc for the player eg. a story to tell or a journey from start to end. If that's not done, you don't have a game.

What is considered cheap then? This sounds like someone under the classification of 'poverty' trying as best as possible to be included into the lower middle income group.

Now, I get what your're saying. We really shouldn't listen to what Bobby Kotick has to say. But I don't think Microsoft's purchase of Activision really benefits gamers. If anything, this deal benefits only Xbox fanboys to have additional ammunition when comparing quantity of exclusives. But as an industry, I don't think a bigger monopoly by Microsoft is a good thing. Microsoft doesn't even have a good track record of nurturing their studios well. Just look at Halo.

The pertinent point here isn't whether direct sales would drop, because of course it would, but whether the consistent revenue associated with Game Pass subsriptions outweights the seasonal revenue from game sales if Game Pass wasn't a thing.

Paraphrasing here, but it boils down to "$10 x 1 mil users per month consistently" or "$100 mil only some months" kinda scenario. I assume Microsoft would have done their calculations and concluded that Game Pass would be more profitable long term. If it is indeed more profitable, then the point of whether Game Pass cannibalises traditional sales is moot. If it isn't, then MS dropped the ball big time.

I guess i fall in the camp that wasn't too fond of episode 3. My philosophy is simple - Bill's character development would only matter if he was gonna have interaction with Joel & Ellie, perhaps to give context and understanding to why Bill behaves the way he does or says the things he does with Joel & Ellie. In other words, the convictions and motivations of supporting cast doesn't matter if it doesn't serve as a buildup to their interaction with the main cast. Even Tess didn't get this amount of screen time. I don't understand why Bill did.

The show is about the adventures of Joel & Ellie, not Bill & Frank.

you didn't quite answer my question though. Anyone can find any number of faults with any particular game. But the fact that Elden Ring scored so high on Metacritic, and the fact that it won GOTY implies that most people weren't as bothered as you about all the things you mentioned.

This is where a more humble person would perhaps have a little self awareness that perhaps he/she is in the minority camp. Nobody is asking you to change your opinion, but at least have the awareness that your opinion doesn't represent the majority. Unless you want to believe it's all one big conspiracy.

It's fine if you don't like it. But with a Metacritic score of above 94, the whole world can't be totally wrong and only you are correct right?