Xbox Exclusive Wins GDC Award Following Microsoft's Metacritic Disqualification

Straight up deserved.

Very happy for them, we need more games like Pentiment (small quality project that doesn't follow current trends).

Fantastic game. Superb writing, a very clever story. Deserves the award without question.

I need to play through this one, need more time in the week!!!

@grumpypotato I have played neither yet, but my understanding is that:
Ragnarok = Hollywood blockbuster fantasy movie
Pentiment = Oscar winning period drama

I completed the first murder investigation and need to return to ol' Pentiment. High Rush stealth dropped (then Atomic Heart released, then Wo Long, now RE4 and Diablo 4 beta) and I set it down for a bit. Hopefully, I didn't forget too many of the characters' details.

Pentiment's story absolutely clobbers Ragnarok. Ragnarok's story is about as interesting a typical Marvel flick.

@SplooshDmg Probably why it was a commercial success then I imagine.

It's nice to see this game get proper recognition!

@FatalBubbles I mean, probably. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to care if something is a commercial success, though? I don't own stock in Sony or Microsoft.

@NEStalgia Right? This was seriously probably my favorite game of 2022. I genuinely can't believe a game like it even got the greenlight to be made, but I'm here for it.

Ragnarok is drama too, you just don't see it)
Once big storng man trying to cry, constantly moaning and hugs and touches trees in a proper places, put himselff in a danger squeezing trough all this caves of big non-loading game world, to promout christyanity and non-violent way of life... but this all not working.

@SplooshDmg You certainly don’t have to. Your comment just came off as derogatory which I thought was weird since it was a commercial and critical success. If you meant that in a benign way, my bad.

@FatalBubbles My comment is perhaps derogatory, but it's simply me being honest as to what I think. Just because something is a commercial and critical success doesn't mean I have to hold it in high regard or agree with the masses. Taylor Swift is a commercial and critical success, and I think she's utterly terrible, but she's way richer than we're ever gonna be. As for Marvel plots, I mean, what can I say? They're just popcorn flicks being cranked out of the Hollywood factory for mass consumption. They don't do much for me. They're neither good, nor bad, they're just... Fluff. God of War is shiny and pristine fluff.

@SplooshDmg I will never understand the extreme praise the new GoW series gets. I understand the praise ND games get. I don't agree with it but I understand it. And I think GoW is a better video game than ND's games. But I just don't understand this overwhelming praise it gets. It's a super solid AA series with AAA graphics and an overly tryhard dramatic tone. It's a fun combo brawler, but to me it's just not special. But I love Teal'c, so it's worth it.

@NEStalgia What games do you consider AAA???

It was a good game so congrats. Obsidian is certainly one of the better Devs MS bought, really wish MS would let them make a new Fallout game.

@FatalBubbles Games with a lot more going on than walking down guided hallways from beginning to end and mashing out combos against the same enemy types. At a minimum I think there has to be an amount of exploration and player agency. Not necessarily open world, but not exploring hallways in confined areas solving "puzzles" that consist of "shoot all 4 things."

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying I dislike the new GoWs. I do think the OLD GoWs had more going on for them than the new ones, where they traded bombast and larger than life wow factor for guided walking to service dialogue and dreary puzzles.

But it's still a better game than what ND does, I think, its a very fine video game. But when you strip away the shakey cam cinematogrphy and self important moody drama, the is a PS2 era design that actually has slower pacing than the actual PS2 era titles. All that is fine, but it just doesn't connect with the excess praise it gets.

I don't love ND's guided, slightly interactive films, but even that takes you out of corridors now and then. The only time 2018 takes you off a corridor is the lake.

Now, I haven't played Ragnarok yet, and it may well have made improvements over 2018 I don't know about yet, though I do here it's mostly more of the same. My comments pertain mostly to 2018.

@NEStalgia To be fair, I don't know how many God of War games there are now. Eight? I think? After eight entries, any more God of War just seems like... More God of War. It was fine, I guess. I enjoyed it enough, but the second the credits rolled I uninstalled and never thought about it beyond that. I think it's just my overwhelming hatred of Hollywood and anything that tries to resemble it. Sony Pictures is just way too mashed up with SIE these days. They might as well be 'Sony Pictures Entertainment', and 'Sony Pictures with buttons Entertainment'.

@NEStalgia I think I disagree with everything you said. Lol. I’m perfectly content to just say we have very different tastes in games and what our definition of AAA is. No right or wrong here.

@SplooshDmg Yeah, that's exactly it. I utterly hate holywood. The last movie I saw was Return of the King, and I think of that as a "recent film." I don't have any plans of ever watching another movie in a theater ever. I subscribe to TV streaming 2 months a year for Christmas specials. That's about it. Can't stand any of it even slightly. I play games INSTEAD because I like (traditional) games, not Hollywood.

But yeah, SIE/Sony Pictures are more related than you think. At one point Sony Pictures was set to be merged INTO a subsidiary of SIE before they decided not to at the last minute. It really is just a giant film studio at this point. Movie-ish games can be fun sometimes, but I think of it as sort of a side-thing.

@northofthewall I agree regarding Ragnarok. I got bored near the middle and then Ragnarok was really only one chapter of the story in the end.

@NEStalgia You've got me beat. Last movie I saw was The Avengers 2, and I didn't bother to watch all of it because I was bored out of my skull.

I actually remember back when they were considering merging the two entities. At this point they probably should have. I appreciate using the companies vast resources to compliment one another, but it's just all kinds of wrong as far as what I'm looking for. Shifting gears to games I do love, I finally played Metroid Dread. I remember you being frustrated with a lot of that game, and holy crap, I loved it. EMMI chases, brutal boss fights and all. MercurySteam has Metroid figured out.

@SplooshDmg I'm sure they'll step out of the movie thing as they push into services, for better or worse, but yeah, there's a coming vr2 ghost busters game that literally a Sony Pictures game.

The final boss was frustrating as heck in dread, but I was mostly disappointed how much of the second half was just boss battles and there felt like too little exploring. Though I didn't really love the emmi thing. It was intense at first but then became an annoying trial and error. The good parts were good though.

@NEStalgia Oh, I loved Bird Face. That fight was fantastic. He absolutely wore me out at first, but his patterns are easy to memorize. By the time I beat him I don't think he could even land a hit on me.

I definitely see where people get annoyed with EMMI, but I really just saw each encounter as a life or death puzzle. It's not like it was particularly punishing if you died, and stunning EMMI wasn't too hard. I def loved it, not quite as much as Super or Fusion, but it totally ruled as much as a new Metroid in 2021 could.

@SplooshDmg I couldn't agree more and the way you expressed yourself on this thread is so honest and clear that many can relate.

@grumpypotato Yeah, I don’t know about that one bruh lol! Seems suspicious. Ragnarök was incredible.

One I need to play yet, it I know it’s narrative has been praised a lot.

Also personally I don’t really care what Metacritic thinks of anything, it’s a fake site where games are review bombed and it has suspicious activities deleting negative reviews.

@grumpypotato this is like asking how could Nomadland win best picture over Spiderman.

Not my cup of tea but I'll have a little taste.

Did not love third act but enjoyed it. Actually still find myself still thinking about it sometimes

i love pentiment my only problem with i got stucked pretty early on and was never been able to continue such a shame i love the art style and where the story was going.