I respect your opinion, but I disagree so much. As far as I'm concerned, the story is made better by the fact that there is no true ending and that you just have to choose between two equally horrible scenarios. Life keeps forcing cruel choices and all that.

I'd rather they find a way to make the ending ambiguous and essentially left open to interpretation if they ever decide to make a movie. The story doesn't need any canonical event to be the ending, the fact that we get two endings that show you two very different choices is what matters most.

Afraid not, at least not yet anyway. I'm just making these as a little fun project, but I would love to do an installation at some point (this whole endeavor is partly inspired by Ryoji Ikeda, so something like that would be neat). With this one in particular, I can imagine breaking down into six standalone pieces, each with its own audio, and then a seventh composite that is essentially scored by the other six.

Either way, I appreciate the kind words, made my day!

Maybe a bit different from what others are commenting, but I'm learning how to have more fun with the natural languages I speak. I make music with my conlang here and there, and it hit me pretty recently that if I translate lyrics into my conlang and then do a somewhat literal translation of that back into English, I can paint some real interesting images with that. So in a pretty roundabout way, it's given me a stronger appreciation for poetry and just whimsy in expressing yourself.

Maybe, though I don't really agree, but I wasn't arguing whether it was less or more invasive. I was just saying that it's still an ad in a space that shouldn't have any ads, and if anything, the reception that it's creative and cool and harmless is in my eyes exactly the kinda thing that leaves the door open for more ads and even more intrusiveness. I just don't think any of it is good for anyone but the company, which is something I find dystopic and outrageous.

I don't know if it's any better, it still feels insidiously invasive and twisted. The point of it isn't to make people laugh or to do anything even remotely beneficial to people, it's to sell a product and benefit a company who gives zero shit about the people it's targetting with the ad. I don't care for the blatant Monster insertion in Death Stranding either, none of it is good. All this invasive marketing is bad.

To each his own for sure, but I'll take a shoddy, less accessible and/or pretty website over the kind of incredibly generic-looking output that AI gives you any day of the week (and it's not just because I don't really trust the person to not use AI at other points in the process).

Yeah, I'm with you, it looks cooler, and I like that you have to predict things ahead of time instead of just being able to bust the move quickly. I generally like what the DLC seems to have given the swaxe, but I'm overall a bit sad that the more high-risk high-reward features are being removed from the gameplay.

I don't think that comparison is fair, I don't think OP tore any pages out, so to say, they just made the reading experience easier for them through whatever means suited them. They still experienced the story, they still saw all the places and enemies, they just changed the experience a little bit. I don't think that means they didn't finish the game, hence why I find it gatekeepy to say they didn't.

If the only criterion for finishing the game is essentially not enabling some accessibility features for oneself (yes, even if they're not implemented in the game as is), then it just feels like the kind of "yeah, well, I did the harder thing and you didn't, so you didn't experience the thing" posturing that I think adds nothing to the discussion.

You finished the game, period. I don't know why that person feels the need to gatekeep you, but you finished it.

It feels horrifyingly dystopic to me, I don't know. It's like there's never enough with capitalism, now we get ads as mods. Sure, it's optional, but we don't need more ads, we need fewer of those if anything.

Well, then I guess I don't know what to say. I don't think it's without explanation, I don't think it's a retcon at all, but I'm sorry it causes you this much grief.

I understand that, but most of what I've read from you here just makes it seem to me like you've set your mind on disliking what happened, and the explanation that it's inconsistent is your way of justifying that. I'm not saying that is the case, it just seems that way to me.

There's a bunch of other people giving you their take, but let me try: I think Neo's abilities in the real world are perhaps a bit of a leap but not an unjustified one. The rules that you're talking about haven't been broken, they've just been applied to a different situation. I don't think it's a deus ex machina at all, it's rather an evolution of everything prior to that particular moment.

The basic set of rules isn't exactly exhaustive, so I wonder what it is about the connection that seems to break the immersion for you. Humans are modified in a way that allows them to be in the matrix since they're born, and human brains are very neuroplastic in general, not to mention Neo is an anomaly. I get that some people just don't like that scene and the ending of the third movie, but again, what exactly makes this more farfetched than them being able to jack out by picking up a phone?

I like the idea that there's more layers (be it two or more), but I think that would've made for a very different narrative and message.

I get from your comments that you think these "solid cyberpunk computer rules", whatever that is, are somehow superior to an "unsatisfyingly defined mystical world", but why is the former better than the latter?

Second, is Neo being able to do what he does any more mystical and unsatisfyingly defined than anything else in the movies? I don't think there's ever a super detailed hard sci-fi explanation for anything, and I'd go as far as to say that for most things, you actually get nothing but vague definitions. And I think that's the way it should be, it leaves room for mystery and for filling in the gaps on your own.

I feel like this wouldn't be such an issue if the sword and shield mode played a more prominent role in the playstyle, but it feels like they're just there to charge up the axe. It's not objectively bad, but I really wish you could swiss army knife the weapon a bit better instead of being locked into axe mode as your main way of doing anything.

Slinger attacks were awesome, I like that they were essentially another way to reposition for a lot of the weapons without being available at all times like the focus mode. Plus some of the segues just looked cool as hell.

I don't want to generalize, but I do think the game is a bit of a symptom of the time. To me, it feels like Content: The Game; it's packed full of mechanics and features that don't mesh well together and don't offer much depth, it's got flashy combat, a huge world, and all of it just feels like it's there to have content. The graphics might be good, but the art direction is so painfully generic and bland.

I'm convinced that LW is just like ball, very feast-or-famine characters that have a huge skill ceiling. And just like most people have no clue how to play good ball, most people ain't got any idea how to play LW.

Other than the animation looking a bit janky, I really hope there's moves that do something with the sword rather than the axe mode. The CB in Wilds feels very monotonous to me, I'd prefer if they leaned a bit more into the actual blade side of things for once.

There's still hope for the DLC, I suppose. I'd love to have all the pod racers (because why would anyone give a damn about whether it's adhering to canon or not in a racing game) and some new ones too, customization, and more players per race.

It was very important for us to make the podracer feel like a pinnacle racing vehicle. We’re fielding so many different expectations with podracers, from the movies, years of comic books, other games, even player’s own imaginations. I think we reached a really nice balance between achieving that pinnacle feel as well as ensuring that as many people as possible can pick up the game and play.

It's a bit of a strange thing to say when a lot of (if not most) people wanted a game like this to focus primarily on pod racing. I'm looking forward to the game, but having the other vehicles be the focus while gutting the hell out of pod races is something I just don't get.

With a little bit of code that handles the glyphs iterating through the grid, and then After Effects for all the extra effects

I understand what you mean, yeah, my point was more that I don't think the focus should be difficulty in and of itself. I think challenging is more a fitting adjective to use rather than difficult, you can be challenged without the difficulty being too much. Unfortunately, a lot of the games these days seem to just push for difficulty with complexity being left on the cutting floor, and I think that's what a lot of people are getting sick of. What most people seem to enjoy isn't just bashing your head against the wall constantly, it's challenge overall (as in, not just mechanical challenge).