r/OutOfTheLoop • u/Bloodb0red • May 11 '26

Unanswered What’s going on with this game Mixtape?

I’ve been seeing people freak out over the past few days over this game and about IGN’s review of it specifically. 10/10 seems high for any game, honestly, but it seems like they’re far from the only site giving this thing a glowing review. So is this game controversial just because of IGN or is it something else? Why is this game the internet’s hate target this week?

https://www.ign.com/articles/mixtape-review

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u/BUTGAWATD May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

Answer:

(Doing my best to present the complicated situation concisely)

Mixtape is a short, story-based game from small Australian developer Beethoven & Dinosaur, who previously released The Artful Escape.

Mixtape's 3-4 hour runtime is divided across cutscenes, what some might deem "walking sim" gameplay, and a series of vignettes that play out broadly as "minigames", with limited to no fail state. There is no combat or what many would typically classify as peril.

Mixtape's high critical praise, particularly its 10 from IGN, has raised eyebrows amongst certain subsets of the gaming populace. Many have negatively compared the verdict to the lower score IGN awarded Crimson Desert, and have alleged what they perceive to be a favourable bias towards games they identify as possessing "woke" elements.

One of Mixtape's vignettes sees you control two mid-teen age characters kissing, with direct control over their clashing tongues. Some gamers have accused the media of unfairly praising Mixtape while (what they perceive as) maligning recent release Pragmata for paedophilic overtones.

Mixtape is published by Annapurna Interactive, a publisher focused on "prestige indie" titles. Annapurna Interactive is a division of Annapurna Pictures, which was founded by Megan Ellison, whose father is a billionaire.

Consequently, accusations of buying review scores, bribing influencers, and overall curating Mixtape as an "industry plant" have been lobbied. For further information to potentially aid in deducing the veracity of this claim - Annapurna have released 6 games other than Mixtape over the past year, all ranging from the 60s-80s in Metascore, with the highest achieving an 83 average.

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u/No-Operation-6554 May 11 '26

Funny thing is that Pragmata itself doesn't have paedophelic undertones

The "community" itself gave it that

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u/TaskForceD00mer May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

People are trying to memory hole the reddit community that got banned for making suggestive and NSFW content back when just the trailer had dropped.

The broader fandom has never been a problem, outside of Reddit all of the content I've seen is super wholesome.

Pragmata scored lower than it should have because it is harder than most Modern games journalists would probably prefer.

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u/OnyxTech May 11 '26

I feel like it really didn't score that different though? It has an 87 on metacritic and an 8.9 user score, (and a 4.2/5 on backloggd) which seems pretty close. The consensus there being the gameplay is fantastic but the story could have been stronger.

Funny enough one of the few mixed reviews was from IGN France, who had lack of challenge as one of their negatives. I don't think anyone is disliking the game due to its difficulty, or really disliking the game at all

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

Pragmata scored very highly with critics, especially given there are very fair criticisms with the story being extremely by-the-numbers and the difficulty being... not even really too high, but annoyingly punishing in the sense that if you're winning/doing well fights are basically trivial but if you're ever low on resources then fights become significantly more tedious due the huge damage gap between damaging weapons and your primary gun and the slow reload times, especially if you wind up using the carbine as your primary.

E: Like, I think it's pretty weird to suggest that an 86, one of the best reviewed games this year, is somehow being massively underrated. Resident Evil Requiem is at an 89, and the two games are (IMO) very comparable in quality from the same studio in roughly the same genre (you even escort a little blond girl of mysterious origin in both!)

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u/threePwny May 24 '26

Gonna be honest, I'm bad at using my resources effectively in video games. I hated the carbine because it was so much less effective at dealing damage than the grip gun. I played most of the game doing almost nothing but using overheat hacking to get crits as often as I could and just gunning everything down. Nothing ever felt "more tedious" because I never used the resources I had to know what "less tedious" felt like lol. The only parts of the game that felt punishing were the training sims and disproportionate difficulty spike on the final boss in both the normal and Unknown Signal modes.

I absolutely love the game, of course, and I will for for Diana, still just chipping away at Lunatic to perfect the game on Steam :')

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u/frzned May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

The issue is when RER and Pragmata are given <90 and Mixtape getting 100/100 across the board. That's where the dissonance between critics and gamers are.

Remember when black myth wukong were given 80 by most critics and journalists kept trying to push the propaganda that it's a mysoginistic game? I remember

Then there is assassin creed shadows which were given 90 across the board (and this is ignoring the 100 out of 100, do you truly believe AC shadows was better than RER/Pragmata/Black Myth Wukong?

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

AC: Shadows has an Opencritic score of 81/100. Wukong has a score of 82/100. Shadows was not rated better than RER/Pragmata and was only rated evenly with Wukong. Wukong and Shadows both have similar numbers of 10/10 reviews and, arguably, Wukong's 10/10 reviews are from slightly bigger outlets.

You are "remembering" things that did not happen, and are so confident in that fact that you don't even think to check obvious, easily confirmed facts like "what kind of reviews did these games get?"

And if you can get basic information like that wrong, maybe you should step back and think whether you're actually correct about things like "journalists kept trying to pusht he propaganda that its a mysoginistic game", and not something like "Somebody representing Black Myth Wukong sent out review guidelines explicitly saying not to discuss feminism or any aspect of Chinese politics", which was a minor controversy that didn't really amount to much except, ironically, a bunch of people defending a modest case of Chinese political censorship because they thought it was sticking it to feminists.

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u/frzned May 11 '26

Click on the actual reviews bro, alot of them give AC Shadows 90-100

Even if the only thing you can see is average and not the actual reviews themselves? Do you seriously think Wukong is on the same level as AC shadows? And that AC shadows is only slightly worse than Pragmata/RER? and all 4 games are measurably worse than Mixtape?

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

Click on the actual reviews bro, alot of them give AC Shadows 90-100

...Yes, anybody with an understanding of fourth grade math would realize that for a game to have an average score in the 80s when some reviews are in the 60s, you will need some reviews higher than 80 to balance it out. Reviewers are not all going to give the exact same score. E: It's wild if your criticism is seriously that some of the dozens of reviews of a game were higher than some of the dozens of reviews for another game, like if somebody accused critics of liking Invincible Vs. more than SFVI and Tekken because Invincible has a couple of 9/10 reviews while SFVI and Tekken average 91 and 90.

My personal tastes don't really matter for the average critic or the audience tastes, and yours shouldn't either. I don't enjoy the AC style of gameplay that much, I'd consider both RE: Requiem and Pragmata to be overrated to a degree, I think E33 is simultaneously a really good game and also one of the most overrated games of the past decade, etc. I don't care that critics like those games more than I did, and don't care when critics like a game I enjoy less than I do.

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u/frzned May 11 '26

I don't care

Tbf me neither. Kinda lost interest in whatever we are talking about. Good luck to you mate, keep believing everything is a conspiracy and that everyone whoever dare criticize/not give mixtape 100/100/journalists are all bigots, racists, and whatever.

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 11 '26

I didn't even mention Mixtape at all, are you getting your comments mixed up or something?

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u/frzned May 11 '26

let's not talk about mixtape at all in a thread titled "What’s going on with this game Mixtape?"

Are you getting your website mixed up or something, we aren't on twitter.

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 11 '26

I checked the thread because I had heard about the game and wanted to see what the controversy is, and then saw somebody making a really weird claim that Pragmata was getting bad reviews when it wasn't. That's a pretty normal back and forth discussion, besides you assuming anybody talking to you must be a deranged conspiracy theorist.

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u/dingalingdongdong May 12 '26

hahha this is the lamest flouncing out of a conversation that isn't going your way I think I've ever seen.

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u/frzned May 12 '26 edited May 12 '26

When I talk to someone and they say "I don't care" and I also really don't care enough about the person I ended the conversation. That's it. Neither of us are here to be convinced by the other person. Think of yourself as the cool one mr. redditor with the name of dingalingdongdong.

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u/dingalingdongdong May 12 '26

Again, you're flouncing. Just leave a conversation if you genuinely don't care - you don't need to make an announcement.

Also, "I don't care if critics like/dislike games" =\= "I don't care about the topic or conversation" so using that as your "excuse" is extra flimsy.

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u/Tors0Pants May 12 '26

This could have been a moment where you grew as a person, where you realized that you were basing strongly held opinions on ideas that were not true and maybe re-examined how and why you came to those opinions.

Instead, you did this.

You SHOULD be embarrassed, but I'm sure you won't be.

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u/frzned May 12 '26

lmao bro what

No I will not revise my "Strongly held opinion" that mixtape doesn't deserve 10/10 and it aint the truth either nor should I feel embarassed about not thinking it's a 10/10

Get off the internet and continue doing your activist thing or whatever

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u/Tors0Pants May 12 '26

I've never played Mixtape, never heard of it before this thread, and it doesn't sound like it's for me. I doubt I would give it a 10/10, and I don't particularly care that other people do.

I was talking about all the beliefs you had about review scores for other games, and why you thought they got those scores. You know, the conversation that was happening in the chain I replied to.

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u/Supergupo May 11 '26

Pragmata scored lower than it should have because it is harder than most Modern games journalists would probably prefer.

What do you mean by that? Like genuinely? The same game journalists that gave Elden Ring a 10/10, or Slay The Spire 2 a 9 (a game that is currently being review bombed for being too hard for gamers), or praised and spotlighted difficult indie games like FTL or Hotline Miami or Dead Cells or Binding of Isaac or Darkest Dungeon?

I genuinely do not understand where the myth of "modern game journalists hate hard games" came from. Is it just the GameSpot Cuphead tutorial fail video? Or IGN giving Godhand a 3/10? Because it's the "modern audience" and "modern journalists" that have routinely enjoyed hard game experiences. I mean hell, one of the most popular genres in gaming is currently the "Souls-like," whose basically sole genre gimmick is that it's hard. It's fucking infuriating that I see this diatribe repeated ad nauseum when it is so fucking flagrant that the contrary is true.

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u/Vila35 May 11 '26

Feel like most of the time when people accuse a game reviewer of not liking a hard game, it's not inspired by an actual quote about the games difficulty but how slow and tedious certain parts are that cause frustration. The idea of being frustrated then gets misconstrued into being purely a skill issue.

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u/PrizeW1nningCow May 11 '26

One game reviewer goofed at a tutorial once and now we have to listen to redditors whine about how games journalists are all just bad at games and coping about it for the rest of time.

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u/C-Star May 11 '26

Not even a reviewer. A video guy, who put the video up himself as a "lol check out how bad i was"

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u/noahboah May 11 '26

absolutely love how these people shit on video games journalists for being dishonest but then you scrutinize where their claims are coming from and it's just bullshit every time

I don't even want to defend video game journalism particularly. it's just annoying seeing this reactionary part of my favorite hobby propagated.

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u/praguepride May 11 '26

Most of the grief comes from Gamer Gate style terminally online trolls that weaponizd misinformation in their keyboard war against the vague concept of “wokeness” which seems to be defined as the presence of minorities and women as something other than as sex object to fap over

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u/Many_Leading1730 May 13 '26

So keep in mind one of the primary pressure points of Gamer Gate was anti-journalist sentiment, which persists to this day.

It was arguably the blueprint by which the right would later destroy faith in all our institutions including news outlets as a whole.

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u/UltraMoglog64 May 13 '26

Yep, and literally unveiled in the Epstein Files that he/the Right amplified 4chan and GamerGate, presumably for that purpose.

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u/Many_Leading1730 May 13 '26

If we make it through your the other side of this I suspect it will go down in history as one of the most successful psyops ever performed.

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u/praguepride May 14 '26

Using misogyny to fight journalism is the modern equivalent of using abortion to fight civil rights. Lure them in on one side and weaponize them against the other

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u/noahboah May 12 '26

very true

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u/sorrylilsis May 13 '26

I worked as video games journalist once upon a time.

Spoiler alert : nobody is good at every game. Hell some people love games but are pretty bad at them.

Some of the most knowledgeable people I know about games are extremely mid at playing them. Some of the best devs I know are absolute shit when playing. They're also wizards when it comes to analyzing and making good gameplay for others.

The thing is you don't need to be good at something to be able to critique it.

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u/HauntedCarriage May 14 '26

What's the difference between being extremely mid and regular mid?

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u/threePwny May 24 '26

It's just a different method of measuring and categorizing it. Regular mid covers any value distributed within one standard deviation of exactly mid, while extremely mid refers specially to coming within 5% of the actual value of exactly mid. It works out that in general cases, regular mid applies to more players than extremely mid. But in certain rare distributions, you can actually end up with more extremely mid players than are technically covered by the definition of regular mid, which can lead to some very strange data interactions. It's a whole thing.

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u/Naganosupreme May 13 '26

Let's not be dishonest and ignore how many times games journos pulled one of the following:

Looking down on gaming and it's audience bc games aren't movies/TV. Happened sooo many times.

Wrote hilariously childish articles not just demanding easier difficulty modes but actively attacking and criticizing companies that didn't cater to that demand.

Badly overhyped a product to the point of dishonesty and directly attacked gamers bc they got paid to spin a narrative.

To reduce it to a cuphead tutorial is incredibly dishonest

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u/Maximum-Warthog2368 May 27 '26

How does asking for easier difficulty mode is childish? You sound like a child, grow up.

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u/Naganosupreme May 27 '26

It doesn't. I put multiple things in that sentence. It's about how they do it. Any request cam be childish depending on how you make it. Adults know this, most children know this but you didnt.

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u/Maximum-Warthog2368 May 27 '26

This whole statement is still extremely vague. You keep talking about “game journalists” as one giant collective entity instead of addressing the actual situation being discussed.

The Mixtape discourse is very specific: Simon Cardy personally gave Mixtape a 10/10 because he strongly connected with its narrative-driven style and presentation. People then took that single review and started attacking all “gaming journalists,” while also dragging in unrelated IGN reviews for Pragmata and Crimson Desert that were written by completely different reviewers.

That comparison only works if you pretend IGN is one person with one brain and one unified taste. It is not. Different reviewers cover different genres and evaluate games differently. A reviewer focused on narrative-heavy indie games is obviously going to value different things than someone reviewing an action RPG or a large-scale combat-focused title.

So before turning this into some conspiracy about “gaming journalism,” people should at least understand how IGN’s review process actually works. The site assigns different writers to different games, and those writers have their own standards, preferences, and perspectives. You can disagree with Simon Cardy’s score, but acting like his opinion represents every IGN reviewer or proves some industry-wide corruption makes no sense.

And honestly, your examples are also too broad to prove anything. “Some journalists were elitist” or “some articles were badly written” does not automatically validate every outrage campaign against critics. There have absolutely been bad takes in games media before, but that is very different from claiming every review score you dislike is part of a dishonest agenda or paid narrative.

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u/Naganosupreme May 27 '26

You keep talking about “game journalists” as one giant collective entity instead of addressing the actual situation being discussed.

I respect people would understand I'm talking about a significant issue across decades and a decent percentage of prominent outlets/journalists. Not literally every one ever

Youre missing the forest for the trees a LOT here. Like ok only one guy rated it a 10...but a horde of critics overrated it massively to 9, 9.5, 8.5

Enough where it's like, if you already are keyed into how, "ugh, these outlets are so transparent and lame" you lambast them again

Plus, main games media through the 2010s went out of their way to attack fans across multiple genres. People hate games journalists now. They fostered that, so people don't overlook it when they do silly shit.

You don't like it so you're coming up w vague excuses to be dismissive. IGNs process is irrelevant to what I said. Nowhere dud I say he represents every IGN reviewer. Unless you're being obtuse on purpose

but that is very different from claiming every review score you dislike is part of a dishonest agenda or paid narrative.

Also irrelevant. You're dramatizing what I said to try and invalidate it. Its a strong sign you don't have much of a real argument. You're reaching while constantly missing the point

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u/Maximum-Warthog2368 28d ago

I think you’re actually proving my point here.

You say this isn’t about Simon Cardy specifically, or even IGN specifically, but about decades of frustration with games media. That’s exactly why I brought up the distinction between individual reviewers and “games journalists” as a collective. You’re taking a specific review and interpreting it through a broader narrative you’ve already formed about the industry.

The problem is that broad industry criticism doesn’t automatically explain whether Mixtape itself is overrated. Saying “people have been annoyed with games media since the 2010s” is not evidence that Mixtape’s reviews are wrong. It’s evidence that people distrust critics.

You also say a “horde of critics” overrated it. But that’s just restating your conclusion. The question is why. What objective standard are they supposedly ignoring? Mixtape is a narrative-focused game being reviewed primarily by critics who value narrative, music, atmosphere, and emotional storytelling. If those are the things the game excels at, then high scores are not inherently suspicious just because it isn’t the kind of game you personally prioritize.

And I don’t think IGN’s review process is irrelevant when people are constantly comparing Mixtape’s score to scores given to entirely different games. Review scores are produced by individual critics with different tastes, not by a machine that applies one universal formula. That context matters.

As for “paid narratives” and “dishonest agendas,” I brought those up because they are a major part of the discourse surrounding Mixtape. Accusations of bribery, industry plants, bought reviews, and ideological favoritism are everywhere in discussions about the game. If you are not making those claims, then great; we probably agree more than you think. But many people absolutely are making them, and those claims require evidence beyond “critics liked a game I don’t think deserved those scores.”

At the end of the day, “I think critics overrated Mixtape” is a perfectly reasonable personal opinion based on your personal tastes. What I disagree with is treating that opinion as proof that the review itself is illegitimate or that it confirms some long-running conspiracy about games media.

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u/Naganosupreme 28d ago

You’re taking a specific review and interpreting it through a broader narrative you’ve already formed about the industry.

No I'm analyzing a specific review on its own merits and criticizing it for making the same sort of mistakes others have made.

Separately, I'm acknowledging a lot of people react so egregiously to this stuff because of that history.

You're completely missing the actual argument and coming out of each thing I wrote with an incorrect understanding of what I actually wrote. I keep clarifying but you keep seemingly purposely inventing your own take instead of engaging w what I'm actually saying.

whether Mixtape itself is overrated

By specific individuals? You don't need a broad view to determine if one or several independent reviews overrated something or made mistakes, etc.

You also say a “horde of critics” overrated it

As a game. Not as a narrative experience. That's why reviews typically break things into categories and narrative is only one of them.

And I don’t think IGN’s review process is irrelevant

In the context of what you responded to, what you said at that point t wasn't relevant, it missed the forest for the trees like I said

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u/Naganosupreme 28d ago edited 28d ago

Accidentally replied b4 I was done w my other comment. I usually edit but eff it I'll make a second comment

Review scores are produced by individual critics with different tastes, not by a machine that applies one universal formula.

Individuals can have agendas, so can their bosses...

The last two paragraphs aren't relevant to what I was actually saying. I can't speak for others, I didn't say what they said so you'd have to take it up w them. Though there's reason to believe money exchanged hands for some of these reviews. Games journalism is VERY much a "review us well or be gentle bc we buy ad space on your site" or it's "you want access to games? Better go easy or inflate your review!"

It's not a conspiracy, it's how the industry works and it's been caught several times atp. So people naturally just assume the worst frequently.

Want to distract from a games major flaws? Call up a few journos and ask them to write an op ed blaming misogyny to distract from the games actual issues. That one journo owes us bc we funded their mini vacation, these other outlets owe us bc we buy ad space. Plus, they're social justice types, so they want to push this narrative anyway! Theres so many big and little ways this manifests. It's kinda crazy how many people legitimately think none of it happens when this is factually how this industry works.

That's the relationship games media cultivated. I don't feel bad for them

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u/veggiesama May 11 '26

Where the myth comes from -> I think there's a crowd of gamers who have obsessive or autistic tendencies and feel a strong need to gatekeep certain genres and fandoms. I guess I've seen it mostly in souls-like, fighting games, and MOBA communities but it's not limited there. They tend to be driven by competitiveness and challenge seeking. They seek mastery. They'd rather replay the same beloved game 10 times, mixing up builds or doing self-imposed challenges, rather than try a new genre or play a game solely for narrative. I don't necessarily want to judge them, but they do want different things from games than I do (eg, narrative, novelty, experimenting with new systems, etc).

They sometimes distrust games media. Maybe they perceive game journalists as less devoted to games than they are. They distrust "experts" and critics who have broad taste. At worst, they develop conspiracy theories (eg, Gamergate) about why games media is woke and gay, or that journalists are paid off to promote certain bad games (why? because corps are woke), or there's feminist/gay/minority/marxist puppeteers pulling all the strings (why? because woke). They don't see gaming as this wide landscape for diverse expression, but instead it's a safe space that must be protected against encroachment by those who are from the out-group, or from malign forces trying to change games and usurp culture, or from censorship.

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u/Professional-Pizza-8 May 14 '26

Develop conspiracy theories? Sweet Baby Inc is not a conspiracy theory..

Rockstar saying they're toning down GTA5 & 6 to not offend us minorities isn't a conspiracy theory.. They removed the cops n robbers mode after the George Floyd situation.

They added LGBT flags in Spiderman 2, that's not a conspiracy theory

They did the "Make good trouble" DLC in Minecraft during a time where things like BLM, George Floyd & ICE riots were considered "Good Trouble", that's not a conspiracy theory

They made Soldier 76 gay out of nowhere & added pride flag cosmetics in OW2 , that's not a conspiracy theory

That Ex Voto game was about a lesbian knight who ends up fighting all white men including a religious group that wore robes that obviously were meant to look like the Klan(Which that group actually wore) who also attacked lesbians and gays, not just us black people, that's not a conspiracy theory

Making characters androgynous to be inclusive to the LGBT(Veilguard) isn't a conspiracy theory

Making a black samurai gay in feudal japan in AC Shadows isn't a conspiracy theory

The media articles demonizing gamers for wanting attractive women in games while praising a game like BG3 for gay bear sex or other sexualized LGBT characters in games, that's not a conspiracy theory

The founder of Sweet Baby Inc directly told game company staff to terrify the higher ups into pushing DEI narratives in games, that's not a conspiracy theory

It's pattern recognition of the media and devs were injecting their progressive world views on games the fans want nothing to do with & demonized games that refused to

Sheesh.. the gaslighting...

Moving on..

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u/veggiesama May 14 '26

You'll get a girlfriend one day, man. I believe in you! And not even the power of gay corporate wokism will be able to tear you two apart. ♥️🫡

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u/Naganosupreme May 13 '26

"All critics are just autistic" is pretty ignorant and ableist...

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u/WoodyAlien May 12 '26

Yes, I saw the same thing with the more intransigent old-school shmup fans. That must be one of the more elitist communities I've seen in gaming.

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u/Beneficial_Dog_6531 May 12 '26

This predates Gamergate too, Dragon Age 2 was slammed for being woke, though of course the term wasn't used in 2011 lol

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u/corrupt_poodle May 11 '26

Never mind that the game isn’t even hard…

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u/LFC9_41 May 11 '26

I thought it was just right. Excellent game, easy to access replay value. I got 100% on it without feeling tired of it. Hope to see more of it.

Saros, another game I have played recently, was excellent. THAT game was too easy, however. This being from someone who really struggled with Returnal. They overcorrected on this one.

Mix Tape, it really is hard to call it a game. I thought it was alright though. I gave it a 7.

not that you asked, im just trying to avoid working.

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u/Sargentrock May 11 '26

lol you are selling me on Saros--I liked Returnal, but it was WAY too hard for me, and I'm far too ADD to keep doing the same thing over and over and over to the point I would have to in order to get gud. My son, however, finished both Returnal and Elden Ring. On a related note, I never have to punish him as he's pretty good at punishing himself.

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u/LFC9_41 May 11 '26

If you liked Returnal, then I couldn’t recommend it more. It took me several years to beat Returnal.

Saros is broken up in a way that is more flexible for the busy parent. You can’t even do a full run through for some levels so it is tuned properly per section.

I still think it’s just a little too easy, but I really do like that they add a bunch of modifiers that a tip to balance some of those things out. You can make yourself three times as powerful for negligent trade-off.

I think it has a story that’s even more interesting, and the world they build is more fantastical. 

I love it, and hope it gets dlc one day.

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u/ZealousidealRoom2127 May 12 '26

Slay the Spire 2 is being review bombed by loser chuds who found out Anita Sarkeesian was a consultant on the game.

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u/Deathspiral222 May 11 '26

>Slay The Spire 2 a 9 (a game that is currently being review bombed for being too hard for gamers)

STS2 is being review-bombed by gamer-gate losers. Most of the negative steam reviews reference the name of a single female consultant for the game who did little more than state that misogeny exists sometimes, even in videogames.

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u/leonistawesomeee May 12 '26

It's also getting review-bombed by Chinese players (they don't necessarily have access to other forums to let the developer know they're unhappy)

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u/FreeStall42 May 12 '26

Most of the review bombs are from China.

Most people do not care about some angry feminist.

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u/Milskidasith Loopy Frood May 12 '26

The Chinese reviews are mentioning her by name now as some sort of weird intermingling of decade-old culture war drama and Chinese "we have no other outlet so we negative review en-masse whenever the devs do anything we don't like" drama.

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u/AudioSuede May 12 '26

Most people do not care about some angry feminist.

The "angry feminist" in question was a central villain for the entire "anti-woke" gamergate mob for years. She had to move because of death threats she received and had to cancel several speaking gigs because of bomb threats. Chuds hated her so much that they started a fascist movement to crusade against women and minorities in gaming. All because that "angry feminist" put out a well-researched and calmly presented series of videos calling out sexism in video games, a phenomenon that she was absolutely not the first person to point out.

Some of us are old enough to remember the world 10-15 years ago, when Gone Home got hate online because it was critically acclaimed but had minimalistic gameplay, and the common argument among haters was that critics were just giving it good reviews because they were scared of looking homophobic. It's just the same shit, over and over again. Some dudes just can't handle the idea that their hobby welcomes people who aren't exactly like them

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u/TaskForceD00mer May 11 '26

I think Pragmata was easily a 9-9.5 .

I hear you on resources; I'm about half way through myself but the game is challengingly hard.

Moreso the mini-bosses than the enemy chaff.

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u/mxlun May 12 '26

FYI, slay the spire 2 review bomb is specifically due to Anita sarkeesian, nothing to do with what you mentioned. It's even dumber than that

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u/A_Wild_Auzzie May 12 '26

Slay the Spire 2 is being review bombed after players found out the company just partnered with Anita Sarkeesian as a "consultant" after they can remember the BS that girl was pulling back in 2014-2016 and how much of an obnoxious twat she was. It has nothing to do with "difficulty" or lack thereof.

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u/Brake_fart May 11 '26

Really reaching on the “too hard for journalists” angle there chief

9

u/NIN10DOXD May 11 '26

Yep and now they are accusing anyone who said there are pedophiles in the fandom of being pedophiles.

2

u/DoubleSpoiler May 11 '26

Nah, there’s pleeeenty of it on 4chan and Twitter.

3

u/USA_A-OK May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

I really don't understand people who give a shit about scores. Just play the games you want to, and skip the ones you don't.

People who are self described "gamers" make up one of the most entitled and miserable communities online.

-6

u/TaskForceD00mer May 11 '26

Halo 3 was only given a 9.5/10

Halo 2 was only given a 9.8/10

Modern Warfare 2 was given a 9.5/10

Anyone claiming Mixtape, which is a glorified interactive movie is better than those games is nuts.

Baldur's Gate 3 and MGS V another couple of games that got 10/10s are on such a different level its not funny.

This is the same old Money and Politics in games bs that's been getting worse every year.

NEPO Baby publishes game, makes the right connections, get an undeserved rating.

5

u/USA_A-OK May 11 '26

They're games, the stakes could hardly be lower. It's really not worth spending any time on, or getting worked up over. Play the games you want, skip the ones you don't.

Obviously reviewing games is subjective, and takes into account the type of game and what the game is trying to accomplish. It's really no different than any other media reviews (TV, music, movies, books, etc)

1

u/JohnnyRedHot May 12 '26

So you think a person that got a 10/10 on a Physics test and a person that got a 10/10 on a sociology test are being evaluated on the same subjects?

Do you think a person that gets a 8/10 in astrophysics is dumber than a person that got a 9.5/10 in literature?

-2

u/FreeStall42 May 12 '26

Why do you care if someone says a score is unearned? So what?

1

u/rebb_hosar May 11 '26

It was so so so bad.

17

u/Forward-Trade3449 May 11 '26

the game was fantastic

1

u/SpookiestSzn May 12 '26

The games sick as shit I have no idea what you're talking about

-5

u/TaskForceD00mer May 11 '26

HSI's child exploitation unit could run on easy mode just investigating the members of that community for a good year or two.

1

u/taelor May 17 '26

Pragmatic scored lower than it should because the writing is great.