"Players usually remain safe and separate from the games they are playing. They are free to wreak havoc and violence in their digital world with no consequences. It’s a safety barrier that creates a comfortable level of escapism that most games share. Shatter that safety barrier and you create a sense of immersion that can be powerful, emotional, and sometimes unsettling."
Maximum effort from Marvel Snap’s gamers means that the stakes for the ‘Cereal’ table in Deadpool Diner have been significantly lowered.
Asgore is often reduced to being either a ruthless dictator or an absolute wuss by the fandom, despite being incredibly layered.
Salman From Tech4Gamers writes "Once a big deal in gaming, stealth gaming, all about sneaking around, planning, and staying cool under pressure, seems to have faded away."
"The decline of the stealth genre can be traced back to several factors. One big problem is that many games today sacrifice stealth for more action-packed scenes.
Even titles labelled as “stealth” often turn into loud shootouts soon after starting. The emphasis has shifted from sneaky strategies to just charging in and shooting, with stealth almost forgotten."
And that's what disappointed me the most about MGS4. While still a good game, it largely abandoned it's stealth roots that made the series so compelling. Since, I've gotten my stealth fix from the likes of TLOU, Hitman, and less popular tiles like Shadow Tactics.
Interesting, I would however add that I think part of the decline in interest in many recent stealth games, Assassin’s Creed as a prime example, has been that instead of the stealth play being the fun, it’s been RPG’d as a character choice akin to playing as a mage or a thief with all the same drawbacks and things which turns many players away (upgrade grinding, obscure overly complex skill and equipment upgrade trees). One thing about MGS, Splinter Cell, early Hitman and early Assassin's Creed etc was that they were games you picked up and played with the game the feature, not supplemental to homework hidden in the pause menu.
The novelty has worn off for 'pure' stealth games. They are too tedious. I personally like a good mix.
Honourable mention to PT for making me think my console was haunted lol. Remember the reboot to main menu and debug screens? Even the pause menu had a hidden clue in it.
Good list