Brackstone

@intradictus: There is a quickplay mode only for solos but it's definitely a side mode, fun in it's own right but not really the meat of the game. Quickplay basically a combo of BR looting plus a sort of king of the kill/Halo Oddball thing. The main mode, bounty hunt, you bring in a loadout of your choosing and have to kill bosses and get out with their body, but of course other players are trying to do the same. You can play bounty hunt as a solo, against duos, and because of the low time to kill, you can still do well if you play smart and little bit slower.

That said, I think the game is best with other people. There is matchmaking, but there's also an official hunt discord that you'll definitely be able to find people on, and I'd recommend hitting that first. I've got a regular crew of people to play it with, and I met them through the discord.

I'll be the one to suggest a niche game, but Hunt: Showdown is fantastic. Lots of weapon variety, lots of variety in how you encounter players, from everything from fighting at a well defended building to wild chases through thick cornfields that block your visibility. It's got that Battle Royale thing of not knowing when or where fights will happen on a big open map, with fights outside needing the map knowledge and terrain use of a BR while fights inside buildings take an almost Rainbow Six Siege quality. AI bosses exist to focus the pvp, they're the goal and smaller AI mostly exists as sound traps to let you know when players are moving around. Low player count, slower gameplay (it's not nonstop action), and all the guns are old and slow (revolvers, single shot rifles, that sort of thing) but that actually makes it feel perfect with how lethal everything is, no spraying for lucky headshots with old guns. You can still absolutely play fast and aggro if you have the right guns and hit your shots though. Hell even full melee can be viable.

Also, I alluded to it before, it's got perfect audio design. If you've ever complained about footstep audio or not hearing people in other games, Hunt is designed around it's audio. Unless someone's moving very slow and carefully, you can usually figure out exactly where they are through audio alone.

I think the problem is all the how and not the what. I'll look at just the main issue, Abby.

I think it's good that they responded so quickly and pledged to make any changes necessary. They're from South Korea, the awkwardness of their statement and their ignorance on the issue to begin with are likely because they lack the context to know better, not to mention the nuances of english might make a statement like "anyone who may have been offended" sound perfectly fitting to a fluent but not native english speaker. We can't expect every developer the world over to have a firm grasp on every social issue that exists in the world, we can just hope that they address such issues when they do make a mistake. Which is what is happening, so good on them.

Little Devil Inside was probably the most striking thing, thought that game was dead, but nah it just came back on an even bigger stage with an even better trailer.

Ghostwire Tokyo, Deathloop, RE8 and Demon's Souls are all interesting too, but they are either more familiar looking or I have some doubts, like with Demon's Souls art changes and Ghostwire Tokyo's balance of action vs atmosphere.

I think you might be thinking of chromatic aberration? Both Alien Isolation and especially Kane and Lynch 2 have a couple things going on to simulate being shot on film though, so I'm not sure it's any one thing but rather a suite of effects.

My reaction coming out of this is that the game is extremely pretty but looks a little mundane otherwise. Assassin's Creed comparisons seem on point. Not sure if they just didn't do a great job of explaining the combat, or the combat is really basic. The main thing keeping my interest at this point really is just wanting to be in that setting.

Also the japanese voice track not being lip synced at all is still bugging the hell out of me. If they were really committed to the setting, I feel like it would have worked better starting from japanese performances or at least doing some lip sync work.

That said, Assassin's Creed without all the baggage that series brings with it might be a good time, and two more months into quarantine it might be the right kind of game to just chill out with. It just doesn't look revolutionary, I'll have to see or hear more before I'm completely sold on it.

Revelations 2, co-op with Vinny. 5 would work too but I think Revelations 2 is the best co-op one.

I think Mick Gordon did a great job on both games, but I also think there are a lot of very talented artists out there that could continue the series and come up with new music that stays true to what Mick Gordon has established, or even do something new and great.

The events surrounding his departure are what make me concerned. Doom Eternal, while I think it's a fantastic improvement with regards to the gameplay, was a massive downgrade for everything else from 2016, which makes me think that everything that was good about 2016 was an accident, except for the gameplay.

More specific to the topic, this series of events bothers me: Doom Eternal was due in November, delayed (in October) to March, and Mick Gordon was only signed on to do the soundtrack in January, 6 months or so after the soundtrack had been announced. That timeline is nuts. There's definitely a he said/she said situation going on, which id pointing to Mick Gordon being late delivering, but why the hell were they only contacting him in January to begin with? I feel like that open letter gave us some insight into how messy things might be over at id and bethesda. At the moment neither id/bethesda nor Mick Gordon come out of this looking particularly great.

A lot of assholes will be mad about Ellie being gay or whatever, those are the usual loud angry idiots that get mad about just about anything. There are some very real concerns about Part 2 being able to stick it's landing, though. If some people are getting mad about the spoilers, yes it's out of context, but it could be that the spoiler have added to that fear that Naughty Dog just shouldn't have done a direct sequel at all. It's a sentiment I've seen around plenty both before and after the spoilers leaked.

The Last of Us 1 is a complete contained story with a lot of ambiguity and room for interpretation, making a direct sequel to that is by nature going to be controversial since it has to remove ambiguity and comment on the previous entry. I can't comment directly since I luckily remain unspoiled, but that has always been my main concern since the sequel was announced, the anthology route would have been more interesting to me because it leaves the original to stand on it's own. It's not impossible to stick the land, it's just really hard and while The Last of Us was good, it wasn't so good that I have complete faith in them pulling it off, since it does have it's moments of awkward writing.

I'm just afraid Last of Us Part 2 is shaping up to be another culture war like The Last Jedi, where misogynists and racists completely ruin the conversation around the movie/game, and it certainly won't help with this leak letting it all run wild without context so far ahead of the release.