@off3nc3: It's the nature of the beast these days. Why make a fulfilling single player game when you can make a tedius never ending online element that has loot-boxes and in-game currency purchases that will feed your revenue for years to come whilst requiring barely any development.

All it does is make me make sure I support devs like Larian who bring out games like BG3.

The only Madden "curse" that has any credence is the pox that EA sports has put upon the games development world.

Pay over the top for exclusivity image rights, make barely any changes to the base game year on year and have everything in the game try and direct players to the loot box mechanic ultimate team nonsense.

It's the epitome of lazy and uninspired developing with a lack of genuine competition not prompting them to do anything about it. And yet the ultimate team in both Madden and Fifa nets them more profits year on year than the game sales do.

I stopped buying the games a long time ago.

@hellhammer: Remember when this place used to be articles about games?

Now it's like 90% just shilling products for Amazon. If I ever see something I'm actually interested in I'll browse to the site separately.

@Judeuduarte: Very fair point. Both companies seem to be run by slimy cretins who would do anything for profit.

EA have a history of monetising anything and everything to try and fleece their customers

FIFA is widely recognised as one of the most corrupt bodies in the world.

I'm happy to ensure I don't provide any commerce to either.

Playstation are really content to just imitate rather than innovate. They wait to see someone else have success in the market and then make their own, hoping that their brand-recognition and catalogue of exclusives will carry it to success.

Just look at Concord

@guitarwarrior66: You come across as a pretty negative guy. ME1 was awesome, one of my favourite RPGs that made me feel I was influencing a world rather than just spectating. Did the series wane a bit after that? Yeah pretty much. Still wasn't a bad saga though.

As for describing everything as woke... I'd love to hear what part the supposed "wokeness" you take exception to.

Not sure how I feel about the switchup between the stop-motiony cutscenes to the seemingly very nice and smooth actual gameplay.

Game itself looks really interesting though. I could get on board with it.

Sounds a dumb marketing campaign... but okay.

I guess they're really going for signups for the game pass, but that does make you wonder how hard they're going to be investing in their next Xbox iterations. They pretty comprehensively lost the console battle with Playstation this gen.

You'd think it would have to be Amy.

@icewood_frostmoore: A lot of people have a much better work / life balance by being able to work from home. Having to travel 1-2 hours a day (unpaid) to meet in an office for jobs that really don't need it or benefit from it is just unnecessary. These companies claim to care about their employees' wellbeing and mental health and then proceed with these back-to-office schemes.

Covid proved that a different work model is not just possible but in situations actually better. Being able to work remotely has become a very high priority for me in looking for a job.