is anyone here familiar with Masamune Shirow? the character and mech designs in this looks strikingly similar to those in his Appleseed series. i honestly would be incredibly surprised if he was not at the very least an inspiration for much of the design in this game.
@theconniption @gutsallover @Halloll yeah, let's be adults here and stop acting like they're the same thing. whether we want them to be or not, they just aren't, and it's time to give up that argument, especially in a male-dominated, action game genre.
well, i would say that Snake Eater had a lot of the same tendencies; most of his games do. it's what has become idiosyncratic about Kojima himself, and what we come to expect from his work --a well-informed, thought-provoking, melodramatic action drama that still has enough sense of humor to keep the audience aware that it's playing a game. i can agree that the child soldier and conflict diamond subjects are incredibly touchy, but i feel like that is the area in which Kojima will manage to pull back and be incredibly serious; if you'll remember, Kojima never made any jokes about PMCs, or nuclear war, or the cold war, or MEMEs. he has a sense of humor, but it never bleeds into his serious subject matter, and i would much rather see some silliness in an MGS game than see some shitty attempt to over-dramatize "real-life, authentic" war in Battlefield or MoH. Kojima creates heroic archetypes, and he understands a greater, larger scope that a series can produce, and he adds that to each chapter he creates; we got to see Solid Snake and his relationship with Big Boss explored, but i always got the sense that Big Boss had so much more to tell. I mean, he was an off-screen legend for so long, and he was what every genome soldier was modeled after, and i belive we still haven't seen the height of what made him so special to all those characters.
also, the sexism talk is certainly relevant, but in cases like this, i often think of the question of sexism versus sexuality. is it blatant sexism for her to be dressed the way she is, or is it simply a product of the game creator's own sexual attraction and interest in putting that in a game? it could be steeped in a little bit of both, but for the most part, i can embrace a little bit of the creator's interest in expressing what he likes in-game; the problem is that he is reaching a very large audience that doesn't know the difference, and it therefore becomes a slightly more difficult subject, and until there is true gender equality in games development, it is still a little soon to wholeheartedly accept that choice, wherever the intent may lie. as long as we don't get another insane, invasive breakdown of the fourth wall like God Of War Ascension had with it's now-famous trophy though, i feel like this will mostly sit on the sexuality side of the fence.
i love Tom McShea reviews. they're short and to the point, and he manages to say what he needs to say without saying anything about the story or ruining any key moments. he justifies his gripes and is enthusiastic about his praises, but again, never manages to spoil anything for the rest of us.
i think one of Microsoft's key issues is that they really haven't had a large consumer uproar yet. Sony has dealt with consumers on numerous occasions with mistakes that they have made, and i believe that this generation of consoles will be where they take many of those complaints into account; whereas Microsoft really hasn't had so much of the glaring failures, and despite charging people for an online service that other companies provide for free, the XBox community has remained a steadfastly loyal consumer base.
it feels more like they have been testing the waters for the past ten years, only for them to jump onto some of the less liked trends in gaming that are profitable. i know that sounds like i'm crying evil empire, but i don't know, that wasn't so much a question and answer session, as he started every response with, "so..."
for whatever it's worth, insulting your fanbase is something that isn't really a good idea when launching your new product. as i said before, Microsoft assumes that it's fanbase will still be around in time for this console and that everyone who owns a 360 will immediately buy a new machine; the truth is that, especially for product launches, backwards compatibility matters. there has been some history with new consoles and poor launch line-ups, and for a consumer to be expected to buy a machine that only plays new games that they don't know, it feels like they are counting too much on the peripherals of their machine and less on gaming. they want people to keep a 360 and a One, and though there is a huge core of gamers out there who are likely to do so, the gamers out there who can't afford it simply won't. look at used hardware sales when a new product launches. how many people sell their old machines in anticipation for new versions?
if Microsoft doesn't learn anything from this, they are going to be backpedaling and dropping sale prices before they can even count their losses for the fiscal year.
@cursealoud @zackcurl @diabolik_023 that's fine, i'm just saying, there is a really antagonistic thing going on in these comments, and it's about videogames. why can't everyone just relax a little bit?
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