SotW (8/27-9/2) Battlefield push back, #Puddlegate, and RDR2 put Gamestop to sleep?

So, if anyone missed it, on my personal twitter, I posted about how I'm going to be really busy this next month. Some of the things I want to work on and put out there for everyone includes a wrap up and discussion of the Yakuza series, reviews for Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Spiderman, as well as trying to get out on time these Stories of the Week. I want to try and keep communicating and holding myself to certain goals, and I want to share them with any and all that care. So with that, let's get right into it.

First off, for those that haven't heard, Battlefield V has been pushed back. November 20th is now the new official WW launch, and November 15th is the date for the "Deluxe Edition". EA citing that they wanted to give DICE more time to polish, others are claiming it's obviously because of low preorders. Of course you have the people who have been cheering for BFV to fail, absolutely celebrating as EA's stock plummeted by 10%+ shortly after the announcement. While most of the time I'd be all about celebrating EA learning a lesson, I just can't get on board with this one. The reasoning for the celebrating is dumb, and the company, DICE, is getting punished for something that is so minor it's unreal that it's caused this much controversy. DICE is doing pretty much everything 95% right with this title, and yet with the Battlefront 2 blowback, and the fact that some people are soft when called out for having issues with something really fucking minor, and it's sad, because really, EA won't learn any meaningful lessons. The one time gamers have chosen to "vote with their wallet" is the one time I can't help but feel will just backfire. But other numbers also came out too that showed that BFV is lacking behind COD by 85%. Ouch. So is anyone out there getting it? If so, why? If not, why not? How do you feel about this delay? Let me know in any of my comments sections.

So another ridiculous thing that came to light this last week was Spiderman, and the now infamous #Puddlegate. For those who need a brief lesson, basically what happened was some people who had the game early for review, noticed a small shift in graphics, calling it a downgrade from the E3 trailers. Pictures of certain scenes where, and I kid you not, puddles seemed smaller than that of the E3 trailers. There were other things like lighting and particles, but puddles were the big thing, hence #Puddlegate, here's a photo.

Of course you had PS fans who cried out to the gaming Gods "WHY?!" on one side, and Xbox fanboys on the other laughing "HA HA!" on the other. This garnered so much attention Insomniac games had to come out and defend itself, a lot. They reassured fans that there were no downgrades in graphics, even had one of it's leads come out on Twitter saying there was NO downgrade. The whole thing is a mess. One thing that I'm not sure how many people were paying attention, but one of the reasons there might have been a small downgrade was dependent on the PS4 one had. There is a difference between a base PS4 and a PS4 Pro after all. The other of course was that there might be a day one patch with the rest of the lighting and physics, but really, until the game comes out, who knows? Now I know that some people might be like "Graphics aren't everything" and I'd be inclined to agree. However, I kind of get why people were mad about this at first. Too many times these last several years, we've been burned by trailers done by studios showing what a game could "look like" but never even comes close. Remember Watch Dogs anyone? Gamers just want honesty. If you are targeting one thing, but not sure if you'll be able to hit said goal, let them know. It's sad, because things like #Puddlegate are the reason that some companies like CDPR don't want to share what they've been working on with people, since it's still pretty much in Alpha. Likewise, I get why fans could be pissed off, by being burned too fucking much. Let's just wait for Spiderman to come out though before we try and pass any kind of judgment on it. Everything I've been hearing is promising, and I still plan to review it asap. What do you think? Does #Puddlegate worry you? Or do you think it's just people trying to spoil others good time?

Lastly this week, news came out that Gamestop got a small peak at the most hyped game to come out this year RDR2, and several of their employees fell asleep. As it was told, I guess Rockstar was trying to show off everything they could in a slow pace tour wandering the landscape, and several GS employees just couldn't handle it, citing that many just "weren't into it" and that there was a "lack of action". I'll link the article that released this info down below, you can read it and see how you feel about it. Most of them complained about having to sit through 20 minutes of game play, and that the chairs sucked? I'm not too worried about this, from a lot of the article, it seems like people thought it looked great, but the dude might not know what he was doing demoing the game. But what do you think? You think this was just a fluke, or a sign of a bigger issue?

Gamestop article - https://wccftech.com/rdr2-demo-showcased-gamestop-event/ So that will do it for this week, I'll just wrap it up here for now. Let me know what you thought about this news, and let me know if there was anything I missed. Til than, I'll see you guys next time. Til than, have fun, and stay safe.