MezZa

Multiple people have put together the two cut messages that flashed into the trailer and it's a personal note from CDPR. They still don't know when the game is going to release, there will be character creation, and there was a jab at microtransactions and how they wont have any. They'll also be showing more at their booth.

I want to like Anthem, but it just reeks of EA going "me too!". Like, what does this do differently from other games just like this? Sure it looks pretty and has a budget, but why is this worth putting a vast majority of Bioware on it? Show me why I, as a Bioware rpg fan, should care about this game. Online shooter rpg is extremely dull on its own at this point, so what's your hook? Maybe they're saving something flashy to show, but at this point they just aren't showing what they need to show for a game that comes out in less than a year.

This is the exact issue. The skill level of the gameplay or whether characters win on die or the battlefield doesn't really matter. The issue is that this is a story being written by three authors, and one author just decided that an established character that everyone has been contributing to up to this point is going to suddenly be his character for no reason. (Would have been two characters if Vinny didn't step in) Imagine if a new director came onto the Marvel Cinematic Universe and decided to replace Captain America with a character he had created. It's jarring, unappealing, and not very fun for anyone who has been following along with what these characters were doing. XCOM is a strategy game and a game that weaves a story with the soldiers you use. Part of the expectation going in for a large number of people who enjoy playing the series and watching the series is that there will be fun stories to tell about the soldiers. Dave suddenly has no ending. No moment of glory on the battlefield, no horrible death, nothing. As I said in my original post, if all the characters can just be changed into other people then why care about any of the creations to begin with? It rips the personality away from the videos and I might as well just wait until the last video gets posted in the series to see how they win or lose.

I don't mean to alarm you, but it seems as if people can enjoy or dislike other aspects of watching a video game aside from just not seeing a game over. It's almost like there's more to a game like this than just a victory and a loss screen...huh, weird.

After seeing Dan's pre-show talk in PUBG, and seeing him generally being better with everyone in PUBG makes me a lot more positive about this series going forward. I don't want to see him completely change his style, but he just needs to be more aware of what breaks the fun for others. If they don't last long enough to get back to his turn, I hope they go onto XCOM2 to give him a chance to follow a redemption arc (which would also fit into the narrative between the two games anyway).

I hate myself for saying this, but I think I'm done with this series. Dan, you're entertaining more often than not and I like seeing you in content, but completely overwriting an existing named character in XCOM just to try to be funny and get a high rank really sucks for the audience. He even almost overwrote Brad before Vinny stepped in and said what the hell man. I don't even mind the bad play, it isn't fun if they're all making perfect decisions, but come on.

It's fun to get attached to these characters and have impactful moments with them. If they're all just waiting to get changed to another Dan then how can I care about any of it. Make all the recruits you want or take over a rewarded character from a mission, but don't touch the characters that are already named. It's not cool. Vinny really should have stopped him on both characters and laid down some rules.

There's a fine line between being funny and just being destructive to the content. Taking all the current unnamed recruits and making them Dan clones would have been funnier in my opinion. Hell, the body double part is funny if you ignore the fact that he basically erased a character.

If Dan's going to be so crazy about not putting himself in a dangerous spot, he'd really be better off benching himself whenever he does a mission. Slot someone else in so he doesn't have to make crazily stupid decisions just for the sake of protecting one character. It's kind of frustrating to watch. But I guess being the selfish commander who hides his guy away from combat while running everyone else out of cover is probably just going to be his thing in this series.

I'll always be glad I went and saw this one opening night. That ending scene was really something special with a room full of fans all experiencing that scene for the first time. From tears to clapping, it's the only time I've seen audience reaction to a movie feel appropriate. I brought some friends with me who had seen the movies but weren't die hards, and this was the point where they really got hooked. We enjoyed some pre-show beers, saw the movie, and shed some tears. Now we've decided as long as they keep releasing these movies we're going to keep grabbing some beers and going to the theater as our own family.

It still makes me cry watching it. This is quite possibly my favorite movie series just for where they manage to go with it. When I started watching them years ago I never would have guessed.

@mrbubbles: Same. They really nail the ending of 7. Before seeing the movie, I had spent some time listening to the casts' interviews about losing him, so knowing how close they all were made it hit even harder for me.

That could not have ended any better. Its too bad Vinny didn't get to meet the character that would have shown up had that mission actually worked, but man that was the hardest I've laughed all week.