I like the format, as long as you aren't committed to the written sections being so much shorter. If the reviewer feels like they want to write a longer piece, let them, basically.
I like the video component because it approaches something I've thought is an issue with the podcast, namely no timestamps for discussion. Splitting off the discussion for major games like this is a good balance and really helps for folks that don't have time for the full thing.
I think Dan needs someone to reign him in, otherwise he gets into this feedback loop of hating something, getting frustrated, being unable to concentrate, doing poorly, then hating it more. In the past 2 episodes he was getting really frustrated really fast, not always because the game was being frustrating, but because he was expecting the game to be frustrating and getting mad before even really trying to engage with it's challenges.
Vinny was holding him back from getting too worked up in previous episodes, and without him around it just became a mess. To Dan's credit, he seems to acknowledge this, but falls right back into it anyway. Vinny's saintlike patience is necessary for any series with Dan in control to work, I think, otherwise things seem to go off the rails too easily.
@stereotype: So many people seem think it's impossible to have the opinion that Price deserved a reprimand for her actions, but at the same agree that instantly firing her and Fries with no attempt at other ways to resolve the situation was a massive overreaction, terrible for the industry and only serves to embolden the worst parts of the internet.
Price should have apologized, and I think still should, but that's all that should have happened. No one needed to lose their job over this. The fact that so much of the conversation is still about to what degree Price was justified to make those comments is a travesty when the conversation should be about what this means for game devs both at Arenanet and the rest of the industry going forward.
I hear the stories aren't particularly deep but for me the main problem is definitely the look of the game. Other than the lighting I don't like the art style of this game at all. The painterly bits are great and the effects are fine, but they massively clash with the 16-bit-like pixel art if you ask me.
They brought it up briefly in the video, but I feel like there's also a clash within the pixel art. The characters look really simplistic and flat, but the enemies and environments look like they have far more depth and detail.
I wasn't a fan of this one. Ghost of Tsushima looks amazing, it's definitely the best thing they had there. The Last of Us Part 2 looks great, but it also definitely looks like The Last of Us, nothing really new or outstanding, just about what you'd expect given the time between the two games. Death Stranding was a big nothing, sure there was gameplay (walk animations, basically) but it was mostly stuff we've seen before in a similar context again. Spiderman looks good as well, but the demo wasn't that much stronger than what they showed last year.
Other than that, Control looks pretty good.
Apart from Ghosts of Tsushima, it just really lacked a wow factor. The lack of release dates for these things didn't help either. 3/4s of the conference just felt familiar and expected.
Anthem just looks so dull. The fights never looked very dynamic, the flight is really slow for something with jets shooting in every direction, and the environment, while pretty, isn't terribly interesting looking. I'm not saying it needs to play like Armored Core, but everything about the gameplay seems so humdrum. It has no pizzazz. The way they were showing it didn't help at all either. No crappy bioware romances is a definite plus, though.
The rest of the press conference was terribly boring too. Sea of Solitude was the most interesting thing shown. I prefer the nervous, passionate game devs presenting compared to scripted corporate speak.
Jan's a goddamned hero for fighting off that bandit trying to steal his cardboard video games. I want there to be a 16 Blocks-esque film adaptation of that story.
Brackstone's comments