WJist

I too have been wrestling with empty nostalgia this summer and am wondering if a lot of this generation's games are a new coat of paint on some old ideas (every HD re-release of games from 360/PS3 era) or worthy tributes (like Galak-Z). A lot of the games I'm considering for GOTY personally are pretty nakedly trading on my nostalgia for that thing I liked (eg, Axiom Verge on Metroid, Cities Skylines on SimCity). In the future, it'll be hard to be nostalgic for things built on nostalgia!

@randalian: Sure, but Incognita...something, something. I guess knowing how heavy the security might be in any given location is as much intelligence as they're going to get like that.

To be clear, I'm having fun, but the having-Mark-of-the-Ninja discount was low enough for me to buy it. Maybe they'll add features/levels by the time the summer sale happens? Klei supported Mark of the Ninja with some good extras.

In XCOM:EU, the procedurally-generated stuff made sense in the universe: the aliens are mysterious, we don't know what firepower they have, the levels will change based on where they crash landed, etc. In this game, you're supposed to be a spy agency that knows the corporations you're facing; why would spies walk into a building they didn't know at least a little bit of the layout of? That doesn't make a lot of sense. In the 2 hours I've played, I've already seen repeated tile sets. I'm with you that the level design feels kind of soulless.

If Portal was all random levels, it would take away from the great puzzles and the "Aha!" moments those games have (but maybe would be good in Co-Op?).

I don't post often, but I have to commend you guys for a level headed, even handed editorial about this. I'm even prouder to support GB than I was when I first signed up and to see you guys interact and engage in this thread is encouraging.

I quit Twitter earlier this year largely because of negativity related to games. I love games as a medium, but the "gaming culture" has never really spoken to me as a person. No one person is defined by any one label or interest, and while I'm glad some people coalesce around one thing like PAX, this witch hunt to snuff out women, developers, and critics in the name of "ethics" is vile and gross.

This "culture" is also probably why I've stayed away from public chat and multiplayer games in general. It feels like, to me, when the Call of Duty franchise first got online multiplayer, this whole underbelly of players got a public platform for some of their racist, sexist, homophobic, and hateful screed. It probably existed before that, and it exists elsewhere in other game communities (and other mediums - try engaging in ANY political discussion anywhere), but the ability to start talking to other players over the Internet really made my friends and I thankful for the evolution of mute and party chat.

I just want to play games and not have to be ashamed of the fellow people enjoying my hobby. I enjoy diversity and love having all sorts of games out there, but not at the expense of people being afraid for their lives.

Great article, Patrick. This sums up how I've felt about motion gaming since its inception.

Specific to Kinect, however, was the cost it was asking for the consumer to assume to try a genuinely new product. People really glommed onto Wii motion controls not because they were great, but because the cost and barrier to entry was low next to the Kinect - it came straight from the box on day one. The Kinect was priced high for an accessory that supported only a handful of games and, when it was released, the 360 had been on the market for so long that the game-buying public brought expectations to that system the Kinect was never going to fulfill.

My parents LOVEDWii Sports, but when we introduced them to Dance Central, they asked me how much it would cost for them to get this game at their home. When the cost was too high, they opted not to get it. I ended up sacrificing my old Wii (Wiimotes and all) with an upgrade to the WiiU just so they could play Wii Sports...and I suspect I will never find a reason to buy 4 Wiimotes and install a sensor bar ever again.

When I get the Xbox One, I'm going to opt out of Kinect. Dance Central is a compelling franchise, but it's the only mainstream Kinect product that ever had any traction...and I'm not paying that Kinect toll for just one game more than once.

@swamplord666 said:

This. Ubisoft games have been trending in this direction and, with each one that comes out, my enthusiasm for this style of gameplay wanes. Traversing levels in the Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell universes has lost some of its meaning, but maybe Watch Dogs will be the one to resolve some of those issues.

This change mostly has me not doing the plunging attack and hoping beyond all hopes that the drops won't do enough fall damage to kill me :/

I think Wonder Trade is kind of a great idea with the limited amount of boxes you get. It has forced me to collect extras and trade pokes I wouldn't normally use (usually no evolution ones). So far, have gotten a random Bulbasaur, a Gible, and a bunch of Flabebes and Panchems. The capsule toy nature of not knowing what you get until you do it is exciting.

I.....would eat cinnamon nachos. Does Taco Bell still sell those cinatwists outside of kids' meals? Haven't seen them lately.

Depends on size. I love grabbing digital games on PS3 off of PSN or PS+, but because of the ridiculously slow download process and their requirement that you need 2x the actual size of the file free on your hard drive, I am constantly running out of room on my 120 GB Slim. I don't want to have to think about memory cards in my all-digital future or playing digital Tetris with my hard drives.

I'd also like to point out that bandwidth is not the same around the world, or even in the US. I get faster download speeds on my Vita and 3DS at work than I do at home, which are in the same city :(