wildcat_kickz

@Art_Vandelay I think you're being deliberately callous. Santa Monica is responding to social media on social media, while being exhausted by social media hate. They're not responding to the "millions" in the real world.

Your second part referencing Tomb Raider has absolutely no bearing on what we're talking about. You seem to have blown right past the part where I said that being disappointed that Kratos isn't the protagonist isn't sexist, but when the criticism devolves into calling the game "woke trash," like many on Twitter have done, then you make it sexist.

@Art_Vandelay I'm not saying all the comments are sexist or that not wanting a God of War game without Kratos is sexist in and of itself, but a lot of the comments do veer that way. Tenor counts for a lot. There's a big difference between saying "I'm disappointed that Kratos isn't the lead" and "this game is woke trash because you're playing as a lame woman."

When you're being inundated with lots of the latter, it's pretty understandable that all the criticism starts to blend together, leading you to get overly defensive.

The reaction from Santa Monica is clearly one of exhausted frustration by the wave of sexist-coded comments on Faye being the protagonist. The Dominos comment on its own is nothing, but when combined with an onslaught of similar comments, it would wear anyone down.

@saffeqwe You're of course 100% correct and I am 100% wrong. How silly of me... 🙄

@saffeqwe Well, my original point kinda spoke that already. First Light will likely be IOI's best selling game and will probably make them oodles of money. IOI may have more control over their own IP, but as a business, they want to make money. For example, I'd rather have 50% of $200mil than 100% of $50mil.

If you really want to be semantical, then swap out Insomniac with Sony in my example.

@AdamNovice I updated my comment with a fitting gif at the same time you commented 😂

@AdamNovice And I prefer both over pretty much any Roger Moore movie 😂

@saffeqwe Yeah, but Disney doesn't own Insomniac. That's the relationship that's similar.

Bond superfan for sure. I'm loving the game, but I have a suspicion that my GOTY will be the Blood of Dawnwalker, at least if my expectations are met.

@Shinnok789 Yeah, fingers crossed. Duskbloods doesn't really speak to me, either.

@Shinnok789 They're releasing the Duskbloods next. Not exactly doing nothing.

@saffeqwe Because First Light will probably be the best selling game IOI has ever made and Amazon would likely compensate them quite generously for a sequel. It's the same reason that Insomniac makes Marvel games.

I've been very wary about Amazon taking control of Bond, but I suppose we'll see how they handle the next movie long before we see a sequel to First Light.

I know it's a pipedream, but I really want them to have the balls to set the next Bond movie in a book-accurate 1950s.

Regarding the First Light sequel, if they drop IOI, they'd be insane, but I seriously doubt that even Amazon is that stupid.

@Toot1st They just do that for SEO. I wouldn't read too much into it.

I couldn't log in on day 1, but I'll try again this weekend. I haven't touched Marathon in a few weeks, but I'm actually looking forward to Night Marsh and the fresh start. @Northern_munkey Bat signal activated!

@naruball Nescit quid loquatur.

I probably butchered that... 😬

@THEBrew Who determines the "right" choice? You?

I stick by my previous comment.

@Balaam_ Dude, you can not like GoW all you want, but you're crossing a line by insulting people who like it. It takes a pretty low-IQ person to do something like that (see how that doesn't feel good?).

@johnedwin It's the 3rd option.

Objectively, I think GoW had the best showing, but my favorite game of the show was probably Tomb Raider or No Rest for the Wicked.

This is great for parents who are buying this for their kids. I hope the feature defaults to on if there are child protections enabled on the console.

Tomb Raider was the big standout to me, though No Rest for the Wicked, Rayman, and a few others looked great, too.

God of War looks objectively great, but that series just doesn't really speak to me and Wolverine is probably a "wait for PS+."

All in all, pretty good!

@get2sammyb Given how thin Remedy's profit margins tend to be, it's pretty clear that Sony just dropped a load of cash at their feet. Hard to say "no" to that as a business. I'd lay the blame for this at Sony, rather than Remedy.

@Matroska We're all guilty of it, to some extent. The writing style started with Joss Whedon's TV shows, which were 90s and early 00s. The writing itself wasn't bad to start with, but it just got completely oversaturated, so it wasn't novel anymore and the copycats didn't quite capture that Whedon pacing. It came off more ham-fisted and cringey as a result.

@AdamNovice That very well may be true, but there's also the danger of patronizing your audience. Santa Monica has likely earned the benefit of the doubt, but God of War is not above criticism and isn't owed success. They have to earn it every time. If you put yourself in a position where you have to defend your decision, you're already at a disadvantage, and on its surface, a talking cube just reads as really stupid to a lot of people.

@AdamNovice I totally get that, but it just seems incongruent with rooting God of War in a more bombastic historical mythology. I'm sure they have a very good reason for it to be there and by the end of the game, it will all make sense, but it was a decision that immediately put them on the back foot, defending their decision. I'd wager that a lot of fans of God of War aren't fans of DnD and it's more quirky lore.

@AdamNovice

...it just seems that people see a talking cube and automatically think it's stupid.

I mean, yeah. To be clear, I think the game, as a game, looks incredible. But that cube is stupid.

As the saying goes, "If you're explaining, you're losing."

@KidRisky That's actually a perfect description.

@AdamNovice I think most people mean the dialog when they make that kind of comparison. You can actually trace it back to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, since the Marvel tone was pretty much cemented by Joss Whedon.

I'm not a God of War mark, but I must admit Jaffe has some good points (though completely blown out of proportion).

I think the combat looks incredible, the fidelity is unmatched, and the art direction, in general, is awesome.

BUT that cube and talking ribbons are such a dumb choice. The derpy animal in the beginning - groan.

I'm a millennial, but I think a lot of those choices are where the "millennial cringe" criticism of our generation carries a lot of weight.

You can copy and paste this article for every game releasing now and into the future. I imagine there will be a story in the near future talking about how they used AI for Faye's facial animations in God of War.

This looks legitimately great! Happy to see it's not a 1-to-1 remake. Love the switch to 3D.

From a gameplay perspective, this looks incredible. From a "what the hell is a talking cube named Frank doing in this game and also who the hell thought naming a game Laufey was a good idea" perspective, ....yikes.

I never played the original TR, but I did play the first remake by Crystal and loved it. Here's hoping the 2nd remake is even better!

@RBRTMNZ No one is saying that you should. Again, this is an article talking about stats - not moral judgements.

Seems interesting enough to try, at the very least. Splitgate is actually a pretty fun game to play, but the aesthetics and general vibe of the ecosystem isn't enough to keep you around long-term.

@RBRTMNZ I don't think you understood the point of the article. It's not making any moral statements. It's just saying that Sony's financials are not entirely dependent on units of games sold. It's a response to the folks screaming "doom" after looking at the graph without context.

There have definitely been fewer PlayStation Studios games that speak to me. The last one I bought was Astro Bot.

What was said:

...as well as elements that give the cars a more human feel.

What I read:

@LowDefAl Licensing affects the game exactly how the contracts are written.

@Bizzy Again, I'm all for something that makes sense for everyone, but I can see this going pear-shaped very easily.

@Bizzy That could work for most games probably, but there are a lot of licensing deals (like car manufacturers, music, etc.) that could prohibit even allowing 3rd parties from hosting servers after the license/agreement has expired.

If they can figure something reasonable out, then I'm all for it, but I can see this turning into a monkey's paw very easily.

I like the 60 day minimum notice, but I just can't really get behind legally forcing servers to remain online in perpetuity for all games in the future. It's too restrictive.

What happens to games that rely on server-side horsepower to function at all?

Another victory for developers who actually deserve discoverability. Get this crap outa here!

@get2sammyb Amazon looks to be doing a bit of advertising for it, too, which I'm sure will help oodles. Saw an ad for it on the front page of the Amazon app the other day.

I'm on chapter 5 and absolutely loving it so far. The game is just completely nailing the Bond vibe.

I don't know how everyone else feels about this, but when I hear "realistic skins," all I really care about is avoiding cartoony stuff. You can put Snoop Dogg and Micky Minaj in all you want. I just don't want American Dad and Beavis in there.

@Stocksy It really is just the lack of agency to say "no" that bothers me. It's too easy to abuse the legacy of someone just to sell a product.

This is an extreme example, but bear with me: you're cool with your family selling your likeness, but imagine a few generations down the line, someone in your family is a staunch advocate for a cause you really don't agree with (Nazism, trans rights, communism, whatever. I'm not saying your pro or against any of these, I'm just using as an example across a spectrum). After selling your likeness to the cause, your face is now the face of said cause.

Whether you're still cool with that or not might depend on your opinions on the finality of life, but it's still worth thinking about.

I'd also mention that I'm not "dying" on this hill. It's not like I'm gonna boycott the game. I just find it weird.

@PuppetMaster To be fair, there are games that portray the US government in some form as the villain (Watch Dogs, Metal Gear, Deus Ex, etc.). You could even consider some of the Black Ops games in that camp, but I don't think you'll find a modern military shooter with the US gov't as an overt antagonist (unless the heroes are also American). It's the wrong type of game, from a business perspective, to make that kind of statement. Conservative America probably makes up a large portion of the audience for CoD, so you don't necessarily want to alienate them.

@TheDarts Um. I really couldn't care less who Chris Nolan casts in his movies.

If we're talking about what's weird, you bringing that up definitely comes to mind.

@TheDarts Call me sensitive if you must. I just think it's weird to sell products using the likeness of people without their consent. If they sold their likeness while they were alive, I have no problem with it - it was their decision. But it feels weird when you're essentially getting a retroactive endorsement from someone without any input by them.

It felt weird with Elvis, it felt weird with Bruce Lee, it felt weird with Fred Astaire, etc., etc.