Spider-Man: “Puddlegate”

And to all the dishonest people saying some gamers like myself are angry because they removed a single puddle in a certain section of the game are obviously arguing in bad faith since it is clear as day that they have downscaled things like reflections, specular lighting, reduced the bump mapping on the suit. Which now means the suit looks pretty bad when exposed to the lighting engine of the game. Which is making me think that they possibly removed HDR rendering, that would explain why the suit looks worse in the second trailer. It is pretty clear from the differences that they optimized the game for a better experience but at the cost of reduced overall quality.

Normally this only happens when they are setting a game up to be a multi-platform platform but this is pretty much a Sony PlayStation exclusive. Which makes me think that the original E3 video ran on a developers version of the PlayStation 4 or maybe a PC with a high-end graphics card. I will still buy the game because I love Spider-Man and I love Insomniac Games but if you’re going to sell me a downgraded game after what you showed me at E3 at least be honest about it. I don’t trust developers enough to not make bullshots (Making a game look better than it actually is) for their E3 demo’s, we have seen this happen countless times in the past.

If people haven’t started to realize that what they show by developers and what they get are two entirely different things I don’t fucking know what to tell them. I mean we don’t have to look any further than Watchdogs and Aliens: Colonial Marines, I am guessing most gamers have extremely short memory spans. And before everyone screams that I am a “graphics whore” anyone who has been following this blog for any amount of time would know I prefer my gameplay and story of a shiny game any day. What I do take issue with is being dishonest towards your fanbase and lying. Sony and other developers like Insomniac Games will keep getting away with this because fanboys keep on defending them and they will keep on buying these games.

And the massive irony behind this? Video game journalists and outlets who should be the industry watchdogs and are supposed to protect consumers like you and me from shady practices like bullshots, instead used the opportunity to take another shot at gamers:

This is the problem with mainstream game journalism today, too many agendas, not enough awareness of what actually goes on in the video game industry. I don’t expect my hamburger to look exactly like the one pictured on the menu, but dammit if it says “comes with two slices of cheese” there better be two slices of cheese on the damn thing! And if harshly criticizing and calling out a company for their obvious lies makes me a whiny self-entitled gamer then I don’t know what to say.

Then there are the fanboys in this discussion, who will be loyal to a company a product or a brand irrespective of just how badly they get treated or how many times that they are being lied too. They don’t leave this abusive relationship and once they realize what is happening, they actually keep on coming back for more. And even more mind-numbingly they try and justify what the company is doing with their own twisted logic. Blind fanboyism doesn’t get you anywhere, being a well-informed consumer and gamer takes you much further…