Adell

I can't believe that after all this time I finally figured out why they call the big bad demon in DMCV by that name at the beginning of the game.

"That demon is your reason. Your reason for fighting."

Urizen

Stupid, stupid, stupid game, I love it.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (better known as E3) is canceled indefinitely. “After more than two decades of E3, each one bigger than the last, the time has come to say goodbye,” event organizer the Entertainment Software Association wrote on its website. “Thanks for the memories. GGWP.”

Pierre-Louis acknowledged that developers and publishers have more direct access to players, something he said was “exciting for our industry.” Companies like Nintendo, Sony, Ubisoft, and plenty others have embraced the showcase format to highlight games from internal and external partners. Not only does the showcase format offer direct access to players, but it’s a lot cheaper, too — companies spent millions on their booths for the E3 show floor. E3 has been replaced, too, by Geoff Keighley’s industry events, like the Summer Games Fest and The Game Awards, which are more announcements than awards.

Appreciate the little dig at the end there

This is less "woke up and chose violence" and more a mess of thoughts I've had in my head regarding criticism, discussing media online, and interacting with strangers on the internet. It was also going to be called "Sea of Stars is a piece of shit and its a disgrace that it was nominated for the TGAs" but even I thought that was too much. Its also not actually about Sea of Stars, though its inspired by what it is.

That inspiration comes from my own personal thoughts about the game, and the way I see it being talked online. For reference, while I admit those previous thoughts are overly aggressive, I genuinely think its a bad game. I believe that not reaching expectations doesn't make something "mid" or average, it just makes it a straight up failure, and its odd to me that games have to outright be broken, have bugs, or be offensive in some way to be considered bad. We all know the major reviewers aren't allowed to be harsh to products, with a 6/10 being an abysmal, unthinkable score to give, but more and more often I see this being reflected on the general public, which instead of sounding constructive just feels...fake? Like there's a desperation to say something nice, point out any enjoyable moment, because if you simply say you didn't like something then your opinion isn't valid.

Its even more jarring when the positives and negatives are so disparate. "The first [X] hours are really weak" is a common line to see in so many reviews, which shouldn't be a minor thing but rather a massive flaw. Other aspects like "Generic", "Paper thin", "below average", "lackluster", all color these opinions, which clearly are terrible flaws, but are taken to be just something that you can brush off and move on.

Since mainstream media can't be trusted to be genuine in the first place, I picked some quotes from this very site, even considering how this is essentially painting a bullseye on my forehead, but I feel they illustrate what ticks me off about the whole "constructive" reviewing

I finished Sea of Stars recently, and its a game that's been tumbling around in my head for months at this point. I'm a huge fan of it, and really enjoyed my time with it, but it's not without its flaws. Quick Summary: It's a beautiful game, great music, strong gameplay, and some really uneven character/scenario writing.

One of my biggest grips with this game, the character/scenario writing. Specifically here, the opening of the game is the biggest hurdle. The first 6-8 hours gives us so little to latch onto, our main pair have the most paper thin of characters and the quest we're on is extremely ill-defined, basically being "get a boat to get to where the game starts in earnest."