I have about 80 hours into GOT and never heard of this till now. lol

It's a very good and relevant question. These people are too eager to discredit news media sources outright as "biased" "misinformation" or "ideological" "horseshit". I made up that last one, in case you didn't notice.

And where do these people turn to? Which credible, reliable media sources do they get their information and news from? Sources with journalistic integrity, that will actually redact articles and correct any wrong information? OR, and bear with me here, sources that agree with their preconceptions and bias? Hmmm. Sources like, alternative news media? Youtube? Blogs? Or better yet, forums! Of course!

And they actually believe, like, actually, that they are more informed than when reading news articles by journalists with journalistic integrity.

Both sides are not the same.

Incidentally, it is what authoritarian states do first - erode the people's confidence in their news media, so they are easily controlled with alternative facts and misleading information. It has sadly happened already in some countries. And the victims might not even realise it.

Despite being a huge fan of the original God of Wars games I have to admit that I am not a huge fan of the modern ones (I own this one on PS4 but never managed to finish it, got bored after a couple of hours the two times I tried to go through it) but I am still glad to see it released here. I still hope that someday Sony will release the original ones on PC and even better on here.



Honestly I don't think there is any site that I would consider to recommend, regardless of the "side" they lean toward, self proclaimed "gaming journalist" sites are closer to opinion blogs, with a somewhat better design and more ads, rather than anything vaguely resembling real journalism, and when it's about anything even remotely touching current days politics then they immediately drop any facade of professionalism and journalist integrity. (And I think that most of the thing you don't like about Youtubers, i.e. being profit motivated, abusing of clickbaity titles, trying to make mountain of molehill, etc... also apply to them)

The last time I saw something even remotely looking like real journalism for gaming was during the written gaming press era (at least where I live) but it died once things went digital.

So to answer your main question, I would say unless it's something very objective (like for example a game performances) the only way is to "go to the bottom" of something like that in a non-biased way would be to look at different sources with different point of view, try to concentrate on the facts rather than the opinions around them (and if those "facts" are tweets look at the original to see what context might have been omitted) and make your own opinion.

Or you can just consider it as the controversy of the week and ignore it.

( THIS POST WILL BE IN 2 PARTS, you can thank GOG and their ancient forum CMS for that, next part in prob 10+ minutes unless someone posts before that )

Actually this is a very incorrect example. It's like saying given game developer ( eg 'Respawn Entertainment' ) has monopoly on THEIR CODE.
Dude, it's the DE FACTO first party, it's THEIR creation, it is THEIR IP, THEY have the de facto rights to it.
Coca Cola corp has it's own PATENTED ( ? ) prioretary recipe for their product, they are DE FACTO creator.

It's like saying Tim Berner's Lee has "monopoly on www" because he created it.
Sorry, but you are confusing things.
Coca Cola is the MAKER of the product. And they distribute all across the world.
They aren't monopoly because they are MAKING the product.
Just like a developer is not a monopoly because they are MAKING the code, and it's usually NOT self published ( if self published, tbh, the case of monopoly is ambiguous ).

Monopoly ( stop using your local lang translation, lol :P ).
And yes, IF they are the only supplier of some game, AND they have EXCLUSIVITY in the contract, then yes, THEY ARE monopoly for THE GIVEN PRODUCT.
However, unlike EGS which was VERY PUBLIC about it's exclusivity contracts, GOG contracts are under veil of unknown, I don't really know what's in them, therefore I won't claim as to "it's definitely in the contract", because I don't know whether it's true.

Will first of all, THIS ISN'T CORRECT. You are wrong.
Unlike most people, I am reading most TOS ( terms of service, you know, the thing where people just press "yes" and skip it ). My mind is also not poisoned with "oh, free EGS games!". I am also somewhat involved in gamedev ( to a degree I won't disclose ).

EGS is destroying the gamedev industry from the inside. Whatever damage they have done to customers, believe me, they have done helluva lot more to the gamedev industry itself.

Second, "tries to find" ? Dude, I don't HAVE TO "TRY" to find it. EGS themselves provided the reasons from the get go.
And perhaps it's YOU who just "doesn't care", and thus YOU "fail to see a problem" when it DOES exist.
No offence.

I'm sorry, but I really don't understand what you're trying to say here.
Can you perhaps rewrite this part in less broken English? ;)

I cannot think of a single situation where that would be a good thing.
Can you? Any examples?

Please correct me if I'm wrong but isn't Bloodborne's asynchronous multiplayer game's netcode a peer2peer implementation?
NOT relying on any "central server"?
AM I misremembering the technical details thereof ?

Tbh at this point it's believable GOG is hard stuck 10-15 years ago.
I don't know why. But just SO MANY of their approaches to things are blatantly outdated or just plainly wrong :S

Meanwhile I'm not going to assume your gender, bc it's 100% irrelevant in the discussion, it's petty and uprofessional.

OH NO! The semantics! GAH! The horror!
Dude, is THAT what you DEFAULT to when you run out of the argumentation? "SEMANTICS"?
Really?
Well if this is your choice, do as you wish, but the definition of monopoly is pretty darn clear, and what EGS does with their >> TIMED EXCLUSIVITY CONTRACTS << leaves little to NO room for misinterpretation ;)
But you are ofc totally free to live your blissfully ignorant dream in which "EGS is not conducting shady monopoly anti-consumer anti-gamedev-industry practises" :P

You should really articulate what's a joke and what isn't, because people can easily take your words literally, when you have already previously shown to use sarcasm-like sentences in the literal sense.
So really, it's more like:
YOUR linguistic self awarness flew over your head.
No offence :P

This isn't about providing an url to an article, or some sort of personal distaste for Kotaku, dude.
It's precisely that they have DOCUMENTED TRACK RECORD of absolute dogshit quality and rock bottom accuracy articles, which are literal INSULT to any REAL game journalist with REAL journalistic integrity.
There probably was some time LONG TIME AGO when Kotaku was still reliable to some extent.
NOWADAYS however, they are well known for being clickbait, opinion MAKING, BIASED AF entity.
They aren't even CLOSE to being "neutral". Nor are they "accurate".

This isn't "we don't like Kotaku around here, speak none of thee!".
This is "Kotaku has GONE TO SHIT, avoid it as a source at all costs!".
There isn't anything personal here.
It's just universally known at this point by MOST people interested in video game journalism, that Kotaku has reached lowest of the low, and continues digging deeper.

Doing extensive research, citing exact sources. Making quotes without any alterations.
If a quote could be taken out of context, PROVODING THE CONTEXT, instead of ( like SO MANY places nowadays ) cherry picking a small chunk of a sentence and presenting it WITHOUT context, basically PROVOKING it to be taken out of context and misunderstood.
Being as neutral as possible.
Hiring COMPETENT people for the job.
Having journalistic integrity ( no "articles shilling things for sponsorships"! ).
Going for QUALITY over quantity ( so the opposite of most news sources nowadays ).
There are likely other things to name, but this is what I came up without thinking much about it ;)

( second part in 10+ minutes or if someone posts after me )

edit:
fixed some spelling

( PART 2 / 2 )

You are making it sound as if they are THE ONLY info source, or if they are "THE" go to. They are neither.
And if in doubt, always verify with several INDEPENDENT sources ( if they belong to same umbrella corp, they don't rly count as independent ).

How about you don't put everyone in the same bag, hmm?
While he doesn't cover games ( or at least that I recall the list of his videos ) there's eg CoffeeZilla as an example of "youtuber with journalistic integrity" ( https://www.youtube.com/@Coffeezilla/videos ).
It's not like "EVERY" youtuber "is bad". You just have to know who to go to. Which, admittedly, I cannot give any GAME ytber example out of the top of my head.
Albeit for fake speedruns investigations I would name Karl Jobst ( https://www.youtube.com/@karljobst/videos ), but he isn't "reviewing games" per se, so that's probably not what you're looking for.

Maybe big ones. Again, don't put everyone in the same bag.

Those only really apply to either:
A. Pre-release access and related articles.
B. The journalist having direct access to company's secrets ( eg having visited gamedev studio during game's development, they cannot just blabber about everything they might have accidentally seen on someone's screen ).

Well then avoid Kotaku.

What you need to understand that you need to be more GRANULAR.
And basically go per-person, not necessarily per-organisation ( still tho, avoid Kotaku ).
Eg Destin Ligerie from IGN has FAR AND BEYOND more journalistic integrity and accuracy than most of IGN as a whole organisation.
You cannot put everyone in the same bag, those are people, not mindless drones.
Just like for example on TechPowerUp 'crmaris' is trustworthy in reg to PSU reviews, while the rest of the site is of "debatable journalistic integrity".
You need to know WHO is good and who isn't. It's no longer as easy as "this or that website". Especially since people change jobs and a "trash quality" writer may be suddenly hired by competition.
Still tho, avoid Kotatku ;)

WHO are "these people" you are referring to ?
Because for ME the problem isn't with the gaming journalism as a WHOLE, it's specifically about Kotaku and others who have gone that far and that low.
It's not up to debate that Kotaku has drastically fallen from their grace over the last 10 years. It's a fact.
Noone is hating on them, it's simply that THEY provide crap quality and rock bottom accuracy articles.
Should we NOT warn against them if we know about it? WHY do you think this is "discrediting the media"? THEY have discredited themselves by lowering their standards!

Perhaps you should stop projecting and putting made up words into peoples mouths before you get major backlash...
I don't know about you, but I couldn't care less if some journalist is aligned with my personal ideals / desires.
I want ACCURATE information, not an echochamber.

Who are "THEY" and what have they done to you?
Do... you need a hug?

Yeah I don't know about that. There's bias in every FORM of journalism. Doesn't matter if print, digital, or else.
I have personally seen biased written "game articles" even 10 years ago.
This isn't about media FORM, albeit I admitt having no print / manufacturing costs has somewhat shifted the focus into "quantity over quality", where it's more MONEY ( more ads SEEN ) if you produce more dogshit integrity articles to click through, instead of few but of higher quality ( less time on website, less ads seen, less profit ).
Still tho, misinformation was always there, there have always been "journalists" willing to sell out their integrity for profit. This is nothing new, nor do I think it will ever change.

Even DigitalFoundry HAS made mistakes.
Ofc it doesn't stop some blind fanboys, some delusional people, and some self gaslighting ones, to fight anyone online who would like to point that out.
You simply cannot trust ANY source 100%. It's all humans ( for now ), and humans make mistakes EVEN IF they generally have good will ( which many just simply don't ).

But again, don't trust Kotaku - they are such a butt of the joke, such a low hanging fruit - precisely because they themselves have gone out of their way to lower their standards so much they became "universal example".
It's not an individual isolated opinion. They have simply fallen out of their grace, pretty badly.

Twitter should be a LAST RESORT. It's a toxic echochamber full of rage baiters, provocateurs, sociopaths, trolls, terminally online addicted adults, among others.
And since the gigantic egocentric manchild took over the ownership thereof, it is now easier than ever to impersonate overs on that platform.
It should not be used as any form of reliable information if possible to avoid it.

You still think this is about Kotaku?

Oh you sweet summer child...

Well...

Yes. After reading your posts it would be completely pointless to "discuss" it with you. This is still the release thread about God of War and you keep derailing it with your posts.

We have a really good game release here and people in this thread are talking about all kinds of nonsense instead of the game. The soundtrack of God of War! The graphics! The atmosphere! Boi!

Nope, because it was a very obvious one about the topic achievements and I won't explain it to you.

Are you seriously linking to a highly biased article from a source that is known to not only withheld crucial facts, but also directly lie?

Problem with Sweet Baby Inc and it's ties to at least 7 other companies:
- They're hypocrites that are activists whos only interest are to tell their own view and care very little to what gamers want (see further down).
- Racists themselves
- Piss on recent dead people like Manga writer Akira Toriyama
- Mob-like mentality and tries to silence others and hide the truth about which games they're involved with
- On GDC they openly compares gamers (especially wh*** gamers) to 'picky babies' (as if they don't know what they want) and outlines certain bully and scare tactics to 'force' companies into hiring them.

Seriously, it would be like GeenPeace infiltrate the oil companies to ruin millions and millions of motors by making worse products because they are against oil and pollution. Engine grease is vital - as is story and characters narratively.

As always - our world consist of more than black and white, or red and blue, but most Americans are way too polarized to see that.

No, but perhaps I should start separating segments of responses into separate posts for the sake of those people who cannot fathom you can respond to multiple subjects within one long message...

Ah yes, so when you run out of argumentation you resort to:
1. "but SEMANTICS ( then refuses to elaborate )"
2. "It would be pointless to talk to this person who gives actual argumentation".

Perfect logic dude!
AMAZING! :D
kek

But hey, you do you, if you desire to run away and blame the very person who challanges your claim with actual argumentation, and you instead blame shift, instead of just admitting you were wrong - all the power to you - you do you ^__^

They are talking about things RELATED to the game, perhaps your blind fanboyism glassess are too dank for you to notice.
After all you seem to genuinely believe you can either "100% love something" or "100% hate it", nothing in between. Valid criticism in your opinion is not allowed. And any posts other than "SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY" should be subject to removal.
But of course! :D

You are fantastically oblivious. I will give you that ;)

You continue with assumptions about things I haven't wrote. For example this:

I haven't wrote this anywhere in the thread. I am fine with valid criticism about God of War. If people don't enjoy this game then it will be OK.

This small example is a good indicator why it is completely pointless to talk to you. You are just another internet keyboard warrior on a mission who keeps derailing threads with all kinds of nonsense.

Really? You claim you HAVEN'T implied that?

So you DON'T have a problem with people criticizing the game for reasons such as:
1. Forced telemetry
2. Companies and individuals associated with the original gamedev studio
3. Any possible agendas forced into the game, that don't fit previous narrative.

It's all cool and fine to you, RIGHT ?
After all, your words, quote:
...

Oooooooh! So people are only allowed to criticize the story, gameplay elements, etc. Right!

You couldn't possibly be more wrong :P
But hey - You are really funny. You should consider to be a comedian. After all, people will laugh at your words that will go completely over your head.
;)

A masterpiece?! it's a soulles shallow Californian take on Norse and Greek mythology. It's a pretty game, that's all.
And yes I did play it when it came out, discovered it had zero culture in it, just generic Hollywood crap.

You continue with what I wrote before. You keep posting assumptions of things I haven't wrote. Go on with your mission. :D

Is this yours?
You seem to have an issue with people providing valid criticism.

Oh and by the way, since it's so not worth talking to me, what are you still doing?
Can you not help yourself?
Are you, perhaps, seeking attention??

You could also try being a politician, you have some qualities for that.

In any case, make sure to pay attention at school, and learn as much as you can, it's for the sake of your better future ;)
Learning is very important!

OK... :D