I read the book recently. The OASIS is super pay to win, like in the worst way. Even traveling, which literally costs nothing, costs real money. You can go to school but if you run out of cash, you can't even teleport your avatar back to school, so basically you get expelled for being poor.
@ECH71: Zombies are definitely over-done. They're just an excuse for badly programmed AI.
I don't think vampires are though. The Witcher 3 Blood & Wine delved in a bit but no game has really explored vampires well since Bloodlines, like everyone else is saying. Dark came out a few years back but it was reviewed pretty poorly & nobody played it.
I can see how you might think vampires as a generic enemy might be over-done. Attack, steal health - a pretty simple game mechanic. Not many games explore what it might be like to be a vampire though, like the video says - making the decision to kill or spare a life.
Remember Me was kinda fun, but a very flawed game. It was very linear & the combo building mechanic limited creativity in combat. Life is Strange was great but I understand that it's not everyone's cup of tea. I just hope they do a decent job with Vampyr, there are plenty of ways it could go wrong.
I'm dealing with a faulty mobo at the moment. Luckily it's still under warranty but it's a real hassle, replacing it with a new one would mean a new CPU & RAM... I know because this build was forced by a slow repair of my last motherboard *sigh*
@gleencross: I've spent much more time on Crusader Kings 2 than even Civ V. It's not turn based but you can pause & take your time to think about things if you want. CK2 has a huge range of cultures & religions which can really change your play style. They've been supporting it with expansions for years so it's a really mature game at this point, worth checking out if your into strategy.
@Yams1980: I found I couldn't really get into 6 either. Civ V with expansions was great so hopefully this expansion will give the game the life it needs.
I like the aspect of being able to come back stronger from a dark age, it gives the player a reason to push through & create a unique story rather than save scum & try to avoid anything negative.
@thageorgian: I would understand $20 if it was standalone - a way for non-gamers to explore the world & learn some history. If you have to buy the game & then pay extra to remove the gameplay, that's pretty ridiculous.
Films written by Max Landis are always interesting. You may not love them, but they're bound to stir up something.
I hope Bright 2 is a little more subtle with it's racial allegory. They should trust the audience to pick up on it rather than shove it in their face, trying to make it current. The best sci-fi stories are more universal in the way they make the audience think about humanity. If you pin it down to the events happening this year, it just dates the film more than it needs to. Read 1984, written in 1948 & it still has a message that's relevant today. Watch 2001: A Space Odyssey, it definitely feels like a product of it's time but the themes can still give you something to ponder. Even I, Robot, another Will Smith film still has relevance, questioning AI & what it means to be human. The Witcher games are far from sci-fi but they do an excellent job of dealing with racial tension between humans & non-humans.
@djezhel619: Haha I'll be sure to let everyone know that playing Wildlands makes me sound cool.
Wildlands is repetitive, the AI cheats, enemies often spawn in from nowhere & most of the times I'm killed is when I'm stuck in an animation. This game is flawed as hell but still more fun than Zelda for me. That's what I'm saying.
I'm old enough that bragging how adult I am is a distant memory if I ever did it but that doesn't really matter. Zelda is pretty clearly a game for kids. I don't want to whine about Gamespot's score, I just think that by their own rating system, a 10 or "Essential" isn't a good judgement of this game. I wouldn't call it essential at all from what I've seen so far. I'm sure there's more to see & I'll make the effort to play some more but from the first few hours it seems like a game I would buy for my niece or nephew if they were a little older.
My personal GOTY was Nier: Automata. It had its own flaws but it was also a superbly made game. It made me think about video games differently. It blended genres in a way that seems so simple I'm surprised nobody has done it before. It had a score that amplified thematic moments in the plot. It had an upgrade system that incorporated the HUD, the difficulty & the play style all in one. BoTW's main praise seems to be the "sense of discovery". Putting stuff in a game & not telling the player about it is hardly worth putting a game on a pedestal. I grew up with plenty of games that didn't hold the player's hand. It's not a new phenomenon. Like I said, I'll keep playing to experience it for myself, I won't sit here & bash the game without giving it a decent try but I'm not optimistic.
I'm not judging the whole game on the tutorial, I'm just giving an impression of the opening hours I've played so far. I'm going to push through & play some more to see what everyone's on about but I feel like more than a couple of hours in a day is pushing it. I'd rather play other games, even ones like Wildlands which easily earns a 7/10. I'm struggling to see why Zelda earned a 10 & GOTY.
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