I was surprised you guys wanted to move away from the serious topics thinking the audience wouldn't like it. Personally I prefer the more in-depth discussion segments to the game segments. If you want to do more topical stuff, why not make a separate "mature gamers" podcast? I'd listen to it for sure.

They should add Portable Ops as DLC for the Legacy Collection- not including it to begin with was kind of an oversight. Either that, or Hideo should come right out and say it isn't a true part of the story (which is a shame, because that is the game that has Grey Fox's origin!)

You always have to address the basics of "why am I in this world" and "why should I care about my role in this world" otherwise you're doing the digital equivalent of playing catch. That's not to say that a game always needs to have a grand narrative to be effective, but if it's just a collection of mechanics, it's hard to stay invested, even if it is a lot of fun.

@FlyingKoopa Tom Mc Shea is very vocal about his hate for Call of Duty; second of all, Activision has been milking Call of Duty for under a decade- Nintendo has been milking Mario and Zelda for close to 30 years. And their criticism is not bashing Nintendo's games, it's pointing out the fact that as a developer who almost solely relies on its first party exclusives, it isn't taking the kind of chances that would get a lot of gamers to say "Well I have Mario Kart on Wii... but I've definitely got to get a Wii U for the new Mario Kart!". Nostalgia can string people along for a while, and Nintendo still has its share of fans (I myself own a 3DSXL, even if I never owned a Wii and see no reason at all to buy a Wii U), but those numbers will diminish over time unless they prove themselves relevant in the modern era. Right now they are banking on children, who grow up- and adults who can only relive their childhood so many times before deciding that spending time with GTAV is more rewarding than jumping on their millionth goomba.

Never play Dark Souls

@Gears_0f_L0ve Yeah, set the most malleable platform that has no set hardware guidelines at all as the standard. Are you aware of the definition of the word "standard"?

@fester420 So you never bothered to upgrade from the Atari 2600 then?

@riccardo90 @grey_fox1984 Personally, I like the Crysis games. I won't try to argue that they narratively do anything better than Bioshock, Walking Dead or Metal Gear, but the flexibility of the gameplay and bleak world work well for me, and I prefer it to Call of Duty or Battlefield- but the thread isn't arguing our individual opinions on the game, it is how graphics can affect the quality of a game.

My argument is simply that games can be served very well by their artistic and technical proficiencies. Artistic, in the case of Walking Dead or Hotline Miami; Technical in the case of Crysis and Uncharted - and a combination of the two in the MGS games and Killzone games. I'm not saying they are ALL that matters, so in your case, if you don't like Crysis' story or gameplay, the graphics won't make up the gap- but to say that graphics don't matter at all just wreaks of ignorant, pompous, hipster, if you ask me.

@boricuasnake04 @grey_fox1984 @Desmondo123 You realize your examples were two games that were arguably some of the nicest-looking for their respective generations?

Both of which had very strong art direction.

Pretty much everyone on here needs to reconcile the fact that "good" graphics, doesn't just refer to the horsepower under the hood. A great artist can make an incredible drawing with a crayon.