Outrage media almost ruined one of the greatest games ever made

What is the perfect game? Does it even exist? I think I found something pretty damn close. Kingdom Come: Deliverance is a masterpiece that was buried by outrage media.

[ArchangelMike]

It wasn't actually buried - they tried but failed because Warhorse studios stood their ground.

Outrage media has become a cancer that really needs to be excised in the gaming industry.

[UltraNova]

Not happening, they are deeply rooted and modern Society eats that shit up.

[Duoma]

Its caveman tribalism at its finest.

[GameStallion]

They are. But they’re a cancer that needs to be rooted out.

[babadivad]

Never played it. What's it about. Should be able to find it cheap now.

[sprinterboy]

It's on sale atm £14.99 bargain. Tbh in todays gaming if its not not one of the big studios then gamers generally automatically think it's shite.
Its not just the media its today's gamers imo.
The same goes for hellblade, plagues tale great games but didn't reflect in sales.
If it's not BR, gaas, fortnite then it's shite.

[Hungryalpaca]

It’s a medieval bohemian simulator RPG. You start as a blacksmiths boy and work towards becoming a knight. Not a lot of combat but very well written stories. Combat is difficult and requires focus. Every skill needed is earned.

[Christopher]

I think it's on XB Game Pass, just FYI.

[abstractel]

You should, and it's a much better game now than a year ago. It was released with a myriad of bugs and performance issues, but now someone who tried the game a year later with xbox game pass (it's in the article) is attributing its somewhat lackluster debut because of outrage media.

He references two sources, two individuals who cried faul who work for RockPaperShotgun and Polygon. That's not outrage. I know as I followed this game closely as I was interested in it. Playstation Access was one of the places praising it among a few others.

The fact is that at launch it was a mess, it's a lot better now but you need patience to enjoy it (as even the writer of this article admits). It really isn't a game for the masses, and yes, it's very understandable that they are not treated like the likes of Rockstar because they haven't released a game of that kind of caliber. They botched the release with this one because of the performance, and bugs (but also like I said, it's not a quick game to get into). They might of financially been forced into releasing it early but we all know that doesn't give you leniency where the flaws aren't taken into account in the review.

The kickstarters who helped make this game happen weren't really treated all that well either, but no media that I know of brought that up. It's just something I found out as I was following the game's development.

[uth11]

What needs to happen is for more to stand their ground like Warhorse, and not cave.

The public will rally around those who do. Those who cave often get punished financially

[Christopher]

I agree about outrage culture being an issue. People need to accept developer decisions and just use their opinion of the changes to decide if they want to buy it or not rather than create fervor online for one reason or another. Whether it's about race inclusion even though it doesn't make sense or female character model changes to be more in line with what the developers want to show.

[formanbradley]

Do you realize what website you're even on? This is N4G, outrage culture central.

[Christopher]

As opposed to Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, ResetEra, and others?

I mean, you're not wrong, we do have outrage culture here. But we're far from anything unique. Outrage culture of all sorts has taken over the Internet.

[2pacalypsenow]

I hate this generation.

[Inzo]

So do I bud, so do I.

[UltraNova]

God knows how dissapointed I am too man...

[sprinterboy]

Agreed nxt gen better not be rinse and repeat of this gen, preferred ps3 gen tbh.
If you don't like BR, gaas mode, always online games with mic like division, destiny etc this gen has been poor apart from games like this, plagues tale, hellblade, gow, spiderman, hzd etc

[UnHoly_One]

They meant the generation of people, not the console generation. lol

[Godmars290]

Safe spaces and echo chambers, on both sides, are the exact reason we've gotten here. The insistence of staunch, negative, beliefs of the other side coupled with lack of critical thinking, while calling your own BS 'reason', and strong inability to see your own mistakes.

And it is still only getting worse.

[ifrit_caress]

I miss the PS2 generation.

[Nicknasty]

No doubt man. Need a frikin time machine bad!

[Christopher]

I mean, if that's all you want, just play old games from GOG, because using a time machine won't result in new or better games.

[chiefJohn117]

Oh you mean ppl. True this generation of ppl make me sick. Just look at the comments everyone blaming a side when both are screwed up lol it not 1 side is right while the other is wrong there's a middle ground both refuse to go which is the right way. However don't act like things was all rainbows and sunshine back then either. Truth be told each generation is disappointed with the next

[TK-66]

"there's a middle ground both refuse to go which is the right way."

Such as?

[rainslacker]

More that the middle ground people dont really get heard, or make such a fuss in the first place. They are by far the majority regardless of which way they lean. But, it's like a train wreck. What are you really supposed to but stop and look and just shake your head. You know speaking against it isnt going to achieve anything, because the extremes get all the attention they need

[chiefJohn117]

"Such as?" In two simple ways. Care for others like you would yourself and don't be overly sensitive. It's that damn easy

[Nicknasty]

Usually in most cases thats true, every generation wants to go back, but seriously this is a little different. This generation is really fucked!!!!

Theres nothing good about it. I think every generation was good in one way or another, up to the year 2000. 90s were the last of it, after that everything went to complete shit, and there has been no recovery. It will be the forgotten generation that nobody cares about. Believe me!

[Chumdiddy]

Maybe the weakest gen ever, hardware and offerings.

Something has to bend in this current "games take too long to make and cost too much money so we take no chances and release 6 titles a gen, all in the same series" bullshit market.

Soon each gen will see a grand total of 4 games and 3 will be Assassin's Creed titles lmao

[senorfartcushion]

Nobody would be complaining about the outrage if it didn't come from a place of strength. Say what you want about it, but it isn't a weak thing. It wouldn't be called outrage otherwise.

[Inzo]

Outrage media tried but failed badly and ironically it its outrage media responsible for this game being one of the fastest selling games this generation. Im waiting for the day that sites like Polygon and Kotaku announces that they are closing their doors which isnt far off. I dont want good people to lose their jobs but you make the bed you sleep in.

[rainslacker]

What's going to happen is that marketing is going to start being designed around these outrages, because it brings attention to games, and as time goes on, and more people start realizing what's going on, they're going to come to respect more those who apparently fight against the idiots.

Sometimes I wonder if it's not already going on like that.

It's not unheard of of marketing campaigns to do something controversial to get attention. This is just a whole new level of that.

That said, in all my almost 40 years of gaming, it wasn't until Sarkeesian came around that I ever heard constant criticism about representation, and even when i did, it was never along the lines of some group being maligned, or oppressed by an artistic piece of work. There were always some games that had some stereotype in them, and there still are, but very rarely would I ever say they were done with an intent to be offensive, even if passive intent. Now, in the past 10 years or so, it's like that's all there is, and it's completely stupid for anyone to claim that a game doesn't have enough of something in it to be satisfactory. Never, have I heard people complain about the race or gender of a character avatar, or feel they couldn't play a game because they couldn't relate to the main character because of their race or gender.

[Inzo]

"What's going to happen is that marketing is going to start being designed around these outrages, because it brings attention to games"

I have been wondering the same thing for sometime now, the tried and tested reverse psychology if you will.

[Forn]

I totally get what you're saying and think it rings true. It can happen with any entertainment medium. Cannibal Corpse wouldn't be as popular as they were if it wasn't for that senator or whoever it was mentioning them as something to avoid listening to. The Joker movie probably wouldn't have grossed as much if it wasn't considered controversial by the media. Etc.

[uth11]

> What's going to happen is that marketing is going to start being designed around these outrages,

Part of me suspects the Joker movie did just that

[senorfartcushion]

Why do you want people to lose their jobs because of your.... wellz you don't really have anything to do with them or their situation, you sound like you don't even go on the sites.

So why do you care all-of-a-sudden? What does anything have to do with you?

[AK91]

Ruined? Didn't game do very well financially?

[FiLTHY ESKiMO]

"almost"

[senorfartcushion]

Yeah, almost, as in "writer is annoyed about something but not many others are, so he must used incredibly Melodramatic language to get clicks"

The game did well financially and that's all that matters. It was never almost ruined by anyonez the writer is an idiot.

[Leeroyw]

Finally an article covering this cancel culture without calling a game that is racially realistic "problematic"

[KwietStorm_BLM]

Is it widely accepted that it's one of the greatest games ever made? I never even heard it talked about on that level.

[Leeroyw]

That's the whole point of the article. Read it.

[DoubleYourDose]

The game is a technical mess. It is filled with more bugs than a Bethesda convention in a roach motel.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Did they ever fix the framerate on the base PS4? It's on offer right now but I'd like to know what I'm getting into. If the framerate is around as good as Fallout 3 on PS3, I'll bite.

[Smclaren1985]

Yeah if you can get the game to work it launched with multiple game breaking bugs I bought it for Xbox one x and couldn’t play it because it was so badly broken even multiple times later I tried even a year later still broken my friend was the exact same So I think that played a huge part aswell these articles are just as false as the ones there preaching about!

[Mothman1984]

There needs to be balance in everything. Outrage culture, progressive, politically correct movement is trying to take over every and all media under it's complete influence. But diversity is not uniformity - it's the opposite. Every movie, book or video game and tv show are basically promoting the same values - created by western/occidental culture infused by pc, left wing agenda. It's not diversity - it is uniformity. Diversity the way I understand it is about difference. Sometimes the difference is neutral, sometimes positive, and sometimes (nobody would admit it) negative. Often it's creative, occasionally controversial, but generally it's about different ideas, beliefs, experiences and philosophies confronting each other to create a new, better quality. It all should be about people from diffrent countries, background and ethnics being able to create and consume things that appeal to them. The problem is, such approach is not profitable enough for big players. It's far easier and much cheaper to create a product (a movie or game, etc.) appealing to as large group of consumers as possible. To achieve this goal things need to be standardized, certain elements must be cut off and replaced with more universally accepted and understanded ones. The result is creative freedom and individual touch are often reduced or completely dropped off - see: Ubisoft games. This is just how I see this situation.

Good day and good night everyone (depending when/where you are now :)

[philm87]

Loved this game despite all the bugs on release. So immersive. Enjoyed it more than the likes of Skyrim. Think it's much better when you're taking control of a well written character with a personal story .

[Twonky888]

It was a game made for ‘that’ era. Anyone who didn’t ‘fit in’ would be hanged or stoned or whatever. Would it have made outage media a little more comfortable- having Henry take part in such things? I haven’t played the game yet - it’s on back log (the royal edition), but surely it would have detracted From the realism, the game having transgender, homosexual, pink haired robot slaves from what the devs were trying to do?? It’s a shame.

[silenthillstrangler]

I had a moron make a wingey woke comment on my fb post where i mentioned how im really digging the game about how he thinks the games shit and refuses to play it because the devs are racist blah blah blah, clearly he knew nothing of the game and its setting nor the devs and the interviews they did explaining and backing up their approach to making KC:D but he was well versed in the bullshit outrage that his ilk stirred up over it.
I fell in love with the game despite its flaws, its a great role playing game and ive followed vavras work for many years, playing and loving mafia 2 in particular back in the day. He and his team stuck to their guns which were well researched guns and shot them down with a historically accurate, beautiful looking and very entertaining game.

if you take notice while playing the game of the various graphical tricks and techniques they used its quite impressive, the lighting is amazingly life like and the way they've implemented the illusion of shadows stretching and moving given off by your torch at night when walking through the forest is really neat, cant wait to see what they come up with for the next gen as Warhorse studios were recently aquired by thq nordic which fingers firmly cross means a next gen sequel or game in a similar vein but with more man power and a much bigger budget. Exciting times.

[Poopmist]

Games "journalists" are a joke. I'm glad a lot of the worst ones were laid off recently.

[victorMaje]

Got the kickstarter edition & loved that game.
I haven’t finished it yet but I keep coming back & take my time with it.
Outrage media...more like stupidism in this case.

[HighPlayer28]

Ever since politics greed and feminist agendas has entered gaming it has become a disaster. Gaming is on a fast track towards death due to these agendas and the sad thing is many gamers are supporting these agendas that will be detrimental to the future of the gaming industry. The 90s and early 2000s was the golden age of gaming imo because their was more passion to create quality games without all these agendas and even the journalist cared more for all types of games without biased views. There are many 90s and early 2000 games that put to shame games out right now! Embarrassing for the industry.

[rainslacker]

I don't think many gamers are really supporting these agendas. There are fringe groups that make a lot of noise, but they aren't buying the games which try to pander to them. If anything, the games which go overboard with diversity tend to turn people away due to all the grandstanding politics becoming overbearing and people get tired of hearing about it. The people who claim to want diversity don't support the game, and fans of games franchises just give up on wanting the game.

I would like to see a list of games from these publishers pushing these agendas which games are showing an increase in sales overall, as well as how it's changed the make up of the player base for those games. That data is available with modern systems that track all this stuff.

[KillBill]

I had heard zero on any outrage suggested in the article. sure it obviously was pointed out in a few ignorant reviews but hardly something that caused the game to not do as well as it could have.

I for one am a person that started playing the game when it hit Game Pass and totally love it! But prior to it coming on Game Pass I had given it a hard pass. Not because of some so called media outrage that I never even knew existed but because of the points of the game that I did not like when seeing the previews of the game.

The lack of zero reticule for the bow though the character runs around the entire game with a dot in front of his face outside of any bow use was just a ridiculous game mechanic. And before someone comes back with the idea that it is like how a real bow is used... well that is false because with a real bow I can actually use the arrow shaft itself to point and aim... in the game it does not allow any proper aiming with bow and just has you focusing on an imaginary point in the air where the middle of the screen should be. (though I love the game I still hate this mechanic today and find it to be completely ignorant mechanic)

Also, as mentioned in the article the lock-picking is atrocious... at least on console using controller. the easy mode does little to resolve the issue... again the mechanics are simply poorly implemented and thought out. And some portions of the games story require you to lockpick successfully to get past them.

I loved the story and think Henry is one of my favorite protagonists in any game I have ever played. But with that said... like in many other games the lack of variety in NPC characters is abysmal. Even to the point where some female NPC looked identical to main character females to where I ws wondering why peasants were running around dressed exactly like the wealthy in game.

Game is a must play... but the reason it did poorly was not because of some media slight.

[Edgelordsupreme]

But then Sausageroll couldn't write an article about all the woke people out to get them.

[DafunkyRebel]

Liberalism was suppose to be about smart people changing the status quo for the betterment of society and it’s structure. Instead it became a shelter for brainwashed weaklings to hide in and use as a flag to dismantle society for their own comforts

[rainslacker]

That's because people don't understand what liberalism is, and instead, they use it so they don't have to classify themselves as extremist who only really care about pushing their own narcissistic agenda. There are plenty of liberals who do want positive change, but like feminism, their work is being devalued by those who take the extreme. Same thing happens on the conservative side of the spectrum, where those who claim to want to return to old fashion values make such a fuss over anything that could possibly ruin the American way of life.

[oakshin]

Well said that's what I was trying to say also I was born in one and live in another why I'm not a demacrate or a republican never have been

[ReVibe]

But... but... Assassins Creed Odyssey has PoC! Ubisoft makes teh guud games with historical accuracy. It's true! You go into DNA latent memories, the people you meet were REAL! C'mon ya'll....

[ifrit_caress]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance...? That game is good, not great. Monster Hunter World is great, Horizon Zero Dawn is great.

[MadLad]

Kingdom Come: Deliverance is great.

[KillBill]

Neither Monster Hunter World nor Horizon Zero Dawn is as good as KCD. Both of the games you mentioned are less so great and simply good games in their own right.

[darkside4125]

The game is good but lets be real there were tons of terrible bugs hell 1 patch made it where i couldnt go further
Another patch made archery not work
Another made it so you couldnt get out if the beggining town
Great game now but was horrible at launch on ps4

[zeroskie]

I kickstarted this game and played it at launch. It had tons of bugs and issues that made the game unplayable for me. This guy is coming into it more than a year later, without experiencing any of that. If anything, the game did modestly because it just wasn't a great game at launch. It's nowhere near the "masterpiece" that the author claims it is.

[NiteX]

So the 1% wanted people of color and trannies in the game and they refused because that's not historically accurate. Good for them for keeping to their vision. Make the game you want I always say, fuck those that want to change your vision to their liking.

[IanTH]

Except if you are someone like CDPR who makes Cyberpunk 2077 where their vision includes transhuman and other aspects, then all of a sudden that "make the game you want to make, don't change your vision" line goes out the window and it's "keep your politics out of my game".

Maybe that's not you, but that hypocrisy is certainly more common than not.

[oakshin]

I get what your trying to say but this game is a horrible example it's as simple as people like that didn't exist in this time (they probably did but if you valued your life not a soul would ever know it)

[rainslacker]

Even if they existed, if it has nothing to do with the game or story, why go through the effort to try and represent it.

There are a lot of tv shows that like to have this stuff thrown in for no apparent reason. I think the netflix marvel stuff is mostly great, but seeing more relationship scenes with incidental characters who are lesbian than you see for the main character just reeks of diversity for the sake of diversity. Not every game, book, story, movie or whatever needs to have this stuff, and complaining that it doesnt exist was tiresome long ago.

[william_cade]

Outrage media can be entertaining at times, but if you take a talking sock seriously, you've got problems.

[MadLad]

One of the best roleplaying experiences I've had. I'm tired of identity politics.

[Hardiman]

The "outrage" isn't just exclusive to the gaming industry. The woke warriors do they're best to ruin many things like comedy , films etc! In fact the big thing in comedy now is not to be funny!

[Crayder]

"One of the greatest games ever made" is a bit of a stretch

[chiefJohn117]

The perfect game? Shooter wise Halo CE, 3. Open world GTA SA, GTA 5. Racer Forza H3.

[IanTH]

God N4G is a cesspool now. This comment section is a trainwreck.

[mixelon]

It always was a cesspool.. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[MadLad]

Could literally have just said "This is N4G" and everything else would go without saying lol

[Manubiggs]

I generally saw good reviews for this game - most of the complaints were about bugs and the combat. Plan to play it sometime.

[Cmoney007]

Outrage media is something else to make fun of in society, but it’s sucks when this nonsense gets a lot of support from people.

[Kocurstvo]

Iconic game made with passion. Historically superacurate

[ginganinja]

I seem to remember some minor fuss being made about it launch, more along the lines of, 'it's a shame that ...' rather than 'change this or we'll march..!' outrage!
It's also noteworthy that on metacritic there's a bigger proportion of negative reviews on the user side than the critics side. And it seems to be marked down for either being boring or a buggy mess, nothing to do with 'sjw' outrage.

[Lilrizky]

And the outrage culture in most of the comments above almost ruined N4G for me

[LucidIllusion]

Greatest? Its subpar dude relax.

[frostypants]

It's a very good RPG...one of the best of the last 10 years...but one of the greatest games ever made? Gimme a break.

[CaptainObvious878]

Thank you sausageroll for telling the truth and calling out the REAL sexist and biggots.

[DaniMacYo]

I never really played it had a little go. But my Brother loved it he completed it. For a lower end kick starter project it was a solid game. It’s got some good features. I wish it could get that AAA budget and talent and it could be a serious better game. But overall it was decent.

[Lord_Sloth]

This game runs like Perfect Dark 64.

[Spenok]

So, I am currently working through this game, and it is an absolute gem I am adoring... but one of the best games ever made? I'm sorry, this game has WAYYY too many rough edges to call it that.

Sure, the writing, progression, sense of accomplishment, and world building are VERY good... everything else is super rough. From graphics, to pop-in, to animations, SOME voice acting and so on... it needed more work 100%.

However, they have one HELL of a foundation to work on for the next game. I just hope they ditch the Cryengine the next time around.

[KingOfArcadia]

Sausage Roll - Made of Dicks, by Dicks, for Dicks TM lol.

[ScoreBunnie]

Good game? Sure
Great game? To some people yeah.
One's favorite game of all time? Art is subjective so of course.
Greatest game ever made or even on that list for MOST people? No, even on Gamepass a lot of people won't touch this game.
I remember my friend Dom backing it and being mortified when he saw the fort battles in the finished product. I have a friend who won't touch the game because it's locked in first person. I don't like the gameplay from the bit i've tried, it's not exactly the most polished either. As far as the politics go? You can't just handwave every critic of this game as an SJW, that's just low. If anyone's wondering, yeah I believe the overwhelming evidence that there were people of color in ancient Bohemia and other pre-modern European empires, however to the creators' credit, no I don't think there were any people of color in Eastern regions Europe like were this game is set. However, there were inbred slavs like there still is today. Also, there are a lot of legitimate gripes with the leads who worked on this game and some of them share very racist or extreme political views. Whether you decide to separate art from the artist is a you thing, but I wouldn't go out of my way to defend anyone without doing all the research first, which I have done extensively for this topic.