Hitman wasn’t really a sandbox until Freelancer mode was added. The story mode has always been pretty linear. Same level order, same objectives every time. I’m not expecting my choices to matter to the narrative, but I am expecting to be able to choose between quiet and loud, lethal and non-lethal etc. to finish the given mission which should be a pretty low bar.

If there isn’t a ton of play style variety like Hitman then it will suck. Play your way is the fun part. I’m a SASO type player and that fits into a more realistic sim but Bond also goes loud and wacky a lot in the movies too.

I haven’t watched a single trailer for this, but I’m hyped solely because IOI did great things with Hitman, and being a (movie) spy is similar except your objectives aren’t always assassination.

Couldn’t really care less about the Bond angle, but since it’s a reboot of his story, don’t really think that matters much.

Damn right.

I’m a couple years younger than you, but a lot of this resonated for me. Custom installers were some of my early inspirations for making apps that didn’t have the traditional gray box aesthetic.

However, I will say that Kenshin was a thing in the US. Samurai X was only the name of the OG movies where he was still lethal AFAIK.

I’ve worked on unionizing businesses with multiple locations and the big issue is communication. Locations rarely have overlapping staff below the management level and chatting with coworkers, having rapport with them is key to building faith in any sort of collective action.

That said, Starbucks Workers United (mentioned in the article briefly) may be able to pull something off with a more regional scope, but AFAIK they focus on shops that are already working on unionizing rather than cold calling locations.

I really don’t have any problem with any of these types of achievements in general. Even the super basic ones that you get by starting a game are useful to determine what percentage of people who own the game have actually played it beyond the menu screen.

The best achievements are ones you get for being clever, skilled, or dedicated. Or when it’s an unhidden achievement for something you didn’t even know was possible. Like the BG3 achievement for saving the goblin Sazza - just seeing it was possible made my next play through more interesting.

I do appreciate long ending achievements, but only if they indicate a significantly different playthrough. Good ending vs. bad ending works when that’s the result of many decisions and not just an option you chose ten minutes from the end.

Not to be too much of a downer, but all of these cute Google search results and other “quirky” “fun” things billion dollar corporations do used to seem so harmless but now it just reads like a friendly logo on a baby mulching machine.

Oh, that’s interesting. It is pretty distinct.

Like the energy, but Comic Sans is also a war crime.

My God… Is the fact that boomers think '60s weed was mind altering proof of time incursions from the dank future???

I’m with you on rejecting AI being sane, but the idea that gaming wikis should be integrated into wikipedia is kinda nuts. If I search “Iron” on wikipedia I’m looking for facts, not a thousand item long disambiguation cluttered with every game that has iron as a resource. Conversely, on a game wiki my search for “Iron” has an entirely different context and I’m looking for different info.

Not to mention game wikis have way lower editorial standards, their own tone (e.g. making jokes), versioning concerns, their own new user friendly homepages etc.

Wikipedia could tuck this all into a separate namespace, sure, but that’s effectively a separate wiki anyway and then it raises questions like “why is wikipedia hosting a mechanical guide for this porn game?” or “How long do we need to host the content for this game that peaked in 2012 and is now abandonware?” that are conveniently sidestepped by those communities supporting themselves.