If I took issue with every game developer over their views on every political issues, I just wouldn't be able to buy any game, ever.

If Palmer Lucky is against net neutrality, however, then I probably have to boycott the Oculus VR.

I feel the hard questions have not been answered. Guts' life is defined to a large extent by two events: what happened to Griffith in the dungeon and what Griffith did during the Eclipse. The events contain difficult subject matter for the US in particular, yet the themes of failure to protect and betrayal are essential to any relevant retelling of Berserk. An assessment of how well the game portrays those events is not yet possible, but I had hoped the game makers would make a commitment to keeping the spirit of the manga.

I love the dark themes of Berserk. The various rape (except one), orgy, and other sexual scenes are not really material. Guts wouldn't have observed them anyway. And we don't really weed out violence in video games in America.

If it's like Dynasty Warriors though, having relatively little connection with the source material other than names of people and places and bits and pieces of events, that's still fine. I just need to know that ahead.

@Stiler: I would only add that Dragon's Dogma may be too open-ended, but definitely something with that level of narrative depth.

@Spartan363: I hope you're right.

I stayed away from all dynasty warrior games because the gameplay is so contrary to the source material, which I know very well. Guts, however, is a killing machine in the manga. If the game faithfully presents Guts' failures and tribulations alongside his success on the battlefield, just like the manga does, then I think I will enjoy this game. If the game is all about beat-down, with none of the horrors that define Guts' existence, then I say "Meh!"

Is there any interesting narrative based on a white samurai in Feudal Japan? Is there any interesting narrative generally? Or is this game primarily driven by combat and variety of enemies?

Ah, wonderful. I am especially glad to hear about the combat improvement in P5.

@RS13: I am happy to see the Gabe Newell and Epic backing away from discriminating against the expression in Hatred. I also notice the game's bumpy history with both Steam Greenlight and Unreal Engine 4, returning to Greenlight after removal only by the grace of Gabe Newell and being asked by Epic to remove its Unreal logo from the trailer (game?). I am going to keep an eye out.

A personal side. Before our discussion, I was pretty set on not wasting money on multiple consoles and just stick with Playstation. Now, I think it behooves everyone with the means to be open to multiple systems and not allow one to dominate.

Now that MS is moving toward uniting Windows PC with the Xbox, is the PC game (and software in general I guess) development ecosystem losing any freedom? I had read in passing a discussing on side-loaded apps for Windows 10. I have not personally upgraded, so I do not know how it works first hand. Are Windows PCs at risk of going the way of smartphones and consoles where whatever software MS (or Sony or Google or Apple) do not approve for their system cannot be as easily used on their system?

@Spartan363: Yes, but having mod files available do not matter if the files cannot find their way on to the gamer's system, or worse, cannot even be made in the first place. RS13 has been helping me to explore, in a later discussion, just how the Big Three are restricting content on their systems. I grew up on the PC, so the notion that a hardware maker like Dell or component maker like Intel or Nvidia can restrict the content on their system appears ludicrous to me. I could not readily understand how Sony and Microsoft do it. It seems even stranger given how MS is strongly advocating unity between PC and XB1 now.

I wonder if Mac users have a different attitude toward this issue since Apple has always given me the impression of being highly proprietary and curated.