m76

I don't think the renegade thing is that bad. I see it more as a disappointment than trying to guilt gamers.  I was referring to this incident in my post but I didn't want to specify it in my OP because this topic shouldn't be about any specific case.
The thing is that 90% of players will always go on the beaten path and miss things. Still that attention to detail which is only noticed by a handful of enthusiasts is what separates OK games from Great games.

Telemetry, my dear Watson.
Sorry, couldn't resist. I think actual user data can be significantly more useful than feedback forums for bettering games. Seeing kill stats, achievements, and other milestones can provide much more to developers than subjective experience relayed during a heated forum discussion. However, data isn't entirely reliable as achievements can be doctored by cheat engines and exploits, and anti-cheat can be bypassed or outright destroyed.
I concur. One such example is with Mr. John Ebenger, formerly of Mass Effect, said that only ~8% of users went into the Renegade content which they "put a lot of work into the [...] content too :(". If the intent was to shame it backfired, because statistically most people don't like being nasty even in video games and this isn't going to help. However I still found the statistic interesting all the same, and wouldn't have known that if not for them stating such on Twitter. But then don't try to guilt trip people into using the Renegade system; instead make a better system.
One thing I enjoy is in episodic games you're often shown the choices players made, which sort of gives away that most choices don't matter. In Sherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishment you can see the player stats at the end of each chapter, and they're suspiciously skewed to look exactly like my results which came from a guide for easy achievements. Hmm....
Developers and publishers must be prepared to accept that they can't know how good their game is until they release it into the wild. That goes for Atlus flagging Persona streams and Let's Plays incorrectly for copyright claims due to spoilers. That goes for Ubisoft having review scores updated after microtransactions are added. And that goes for BioWare for not seperating morality from social attitude in Mass Effect. By all means they can collect data, but they can't complain when the data goes against their expectations. Ours is a fickle demographic, and is all the better for it.
I don't think we can escape data collection without turning off our internet, changing our phone numbers and directly addressing our mailing lists, but we can do more to be wary of it, and I believe there can be fights for legislation over what data is harvested, how and with what consent from customers. ^^

These days every major game has some sort of data collection built into them that analyses and sends information on your playing habits and in game choices back to the developer.
How do you feel about this?
I have to say I don't mind it if it is used to bettering games. I look at it as if a poll or questionnaire that you constantly fill.
But there are also very bad examples. Like recently when a developer used this data to publicly shame gamers for their in-game choices. This is unacceptable.  This is like the chef coming out of the kitchen in a restaurant and slapping the client in the face for ordering two courses that don't match in the opinion of the chef.

As far as games go that I played the most:
DeusEx (2000) - This game should be obligatory to know for every game developer, it lays down the rules of game design 101 that every game should adhere to (sadly most does not, or only to a few of them) despite finishing it dozens of times, it still has secrets I'm yet to uncover. Mass Effect 2 (2010)  - It is the most well rounded game I played, storytelling, gameplay, characters, it all comes together. XCOM2 (2016) - it's addictive, I've played it over 1100 hours and counting. With mods I can go on forever probably. Since most encounters are procedurally generated it never gets repetitive. Despite the fact that I've probably restarted the campaign over 100 times. Mafia: City of Lost Heaven (2002) - The game that brought together two of my favorite game genres, driving simulations and story driven action games. BeamNG Drive (? - Still Early Access) - Sure it's hard to call this a game yet, but for me as far as I can remember crashing cars in spectacular ways was always fun in of itself, and currently this has the best and most realistic damage model of all available driving games. Gran Turismo 4 (2004) - The best the series has ever been, sadly it's been all downhill since then, with sports being rock bottom But there is another category of favorites, that I might only have played once, but that 10-20 hours was such a ride that I'd not have wanted to miss them at any cost. 
The Last of Us Part II (2020) this is a very recent title but it quickly found its way to the top of my favorites. Beyond: Two Souls (2013) The game itself might have been dreadful, but the story and the sense of control you had over the fates of characters made this a thrill, I actually feared for the well being of fictional characters in a game. Alien Isolation (2014) - Fear itself, when it's not super scary, it's creepy, but danger always lurks around every corner, the atmosphere of this game is so ominous, that I think it beats the actual movie it is based on. Call of Duty Infinite Warfare (2016) - It's only fitting that the most universally hated instalment of the series would be my favorite. The contrarian in me rejoices. Peace to the fallen - the only time an end credits made me cry. Alpha Protocol (2010) - This is an objectively bad game, with serious flaws, but it gets some things right, that no other game did, it must be experienced at least once for this Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (2005) - This is more of an honourable mention, because this is to appreciate the whole Splinter Cell Franchise with all its lows and ups, but this is the best part of the  series so it gets on the list.

Well then you'd love Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Ghost Recon Breakpoint. There is a mode in those games called "unguided exploration" where the game doesn't give you quest  markers for most missions, instead it describes the place where you need to go. And you need to find it using the map and geographic features or nearby landmarks.
I loved that mode, it is much more immersive than blindly following a quest marker. Plus it encourages exploration.

You wonder why I don't play online?

Far Cry 5

It should absolutely be legal, it's not more harmful than alcohol.
Although I'm not qualified to address its addictive properties as I simply cannot get addicted to anything. I like to drink heavy and smoke during parties, but then after the party is over I Can go for months without touching either.  There was also a period of my life when I smoked marijuana almost daily for 3 months, and still when I Rotated back to the world I didn't even think about having one.

Yes, all the time. You carry and seve the "bestest" weapons for whatever and you end up finishing the game with a pea shooter. I think this just goes back to bad game design. Like the typhoon in deusex human revolution. You find maybe 3 shoots for it through the entire game.

I believe it is a sign of hypocrisy, they have a desire to game, but they are so afraid of being labelled childish that they feel they need to disavow it publicly as loudly as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the haters were gamers in secret.

I believe it is a sign of hypocrisy, they have a desire to game, but they are so afraid of being labelled childish that they feel they need to disavow it publicly as loudly as possible. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the haters were gamers in secret.

I think games should be authentic period. If you aim to do a game set in a fictional future, don't drag commentary on current real world events into it.
Sure games can be educational, and should be. They can build skills etc. But hiding propaganda in them is a disservice, and outright malicious. Especially in games aimed at children. 
The developers should always be very clear and transparent about their intentions. Never use games as a platform for piggybacking controversial messages.

Yes, all the time. You carry and seve the "bestest" weapons for whatever and you end up finishing the game with a pea shooter. I think this just goes back to bad game design. Like the typhoon in deusex human revolution. You find maybe 3 shoots for it through the entire game.

Most fun weapon was the flak cannon from Unreal.  Two distinctive firing modes, one explode on impact the other bounces off walls and objects.
Another fun one is the grenade launcher from quake for the same reason.
Sadly no recent game has similar weapons.

I think games should be authentic period. If you aim to do a game set in a fictional future, don't drag commentary on current real world events into it.
Sure games can be educational, and should be. They can build skills etc. But hiding propaganda in them is a disservice, and outright malicious. Especially in games aimed at children. 
The developers should always be very clear and transparent about their intentions. Never use games as a platform for piggybacking controversial messages.

I think games should be authentic period. If you aim to do a game set in a fictional future, don't drag commentary on current real world events into it.
Sure games can be educational, and should be. They can build skills etc. But hiding propaganda in them is a disservice, and outright malicious. Especially in games aimed at children. 
The developers should always be very clear and transparent about their intentions. Never use games as a platform for piggybacking controversial messages.

Neither really.
I definitely don't want characters that are exactly like me.
I like characters that represent my ideals both morally and in physical appearance.

Yes, all the time. You carry and seve the "bestest" weapons for whatever and you end up finishing the game with a pea shooter. I think this just goes back to bad game design. Like the typhoon in deusex human revolution. You find maybe 3 shoots for it through the entire game.

Most fun weapon was the flak cannon from Unreal.  Two distinctive firing modes, one explode on impact the other bounces off walls and objects.
Another fun one is the grenade launcher from quake for the same reason.
Sadly no recent game has similar weapons.

NFS Heat would be an OK game if not for the awful way it handles cops. They are indestructible and have infinite catchup. Which means the only way to loose them is by going on designated "cop loosing jumps" on the map. Which I found extremely lame. You can't just outrun them by skill.  I swiftly uninstalled the game when I found this out.

1. The Last of Us Part II - Time Wasted: 27 hours.
Sorry for my French but this game just got me by the balls. It was a profound experience one that I rarely have with games. It was an inspiring yet devastating story. I think this game is so perfectly polished in terms of gameplay that it has no peer. The seamless animations, the attention to detail, it was all perfect. By far this was the best game I've played in 2020.
2. Cyberpunk 2077 - Time Wasted: 80 hours and counting.
Initially I found the game just passable, but I'm thoroughly enjoying my second play through of it right now. I didn't much like the main story, but the gameplay is very similar to the original Deus Ex. And I think Deus Ex (2000) is the best game ever created.  I already spent 80+ hours with the game and each time I start it I end up playing it much longer than originally intended. Most people can't see past the bugs, but I see the details behind it, and really appreciate them.  And the game just looks stunning if you have the right hardware to run it as it was meant to. Even after 80 hours sometimes I just have to stop and admire the scenery.
3. Ghost Recon Breakpoint - Time wasted: 85 hours
This game was a mess that I quickly abandoned last year, as they took it into the worst direction possible. Trying to turn it into another Division.
I gave it another shot after they released a major patch for it, they turned it around well enough. It's still not as good as its predecessor but good enough to give me countless hours of fun gameplay. All the mechanics borrowed from the division  are now optional, and can be turned off which makes the game into the immersive sim most players were expecting in the first place.
4. Assassin's Creed - Valhalla - Time Wasted: 64 hours
I absolutely loved Odyssey despite its shortcomings, so I started this game with great anticipation. In some aspects it's an improvement over Odyssey but two steps back in many others. It was still fun and would recommend it, but if you skipped Odyssey I'd advise to try that first, it has the better story and better characters, just choose Kassandra, not Alexios, the game works much better that way. But I Digress, in this one the choice between the male / female protagonist is not as important, especially because you can switch back and forth at any point during the game (which I personally find a stupid idea).
5. Control Ultimate Edition - Time wasted: 17 hours.
I was interested in this game from the get go, but I don't deal with the epic games store period so I only got it now. The gameplay is fun and unique firearms mixed with telekinetic powers and a weird horror twilight zone atmosphere, but I found the protagonist and story uncompelling. It's not a bad game, and unfortunately that's the biggest praise I can give it.
6. Mafia - Definitive Edition - Time Wasted 11 hours
I absolutely loved the original Mafia it's one of my top 10 maybe even top 5 games of all times.  And Hangar 17 just went and took a giant dump on the story of it. They have desecrated and disrespected it by rewriting every spoken line, altering every mission just enough to loose its soul, and come out as something inferior. The game's story was perfect as it was. As the age old cliche goes don't tryi to fix it if it ain't broke. Well they tried anyway. What makes this even more insulting is that they got the hard part right, they modernized the graphics and gameplay well enough, and then they messed up the story which was served to them on a silver platter. What a shame.
7. XCOM - Chimera Squad - Time Wasted 17 hours
This is a simplified version of XCOM2 that simply has no reason to exist. It does not add anything to the experience, the gameplay is more restricted, less open ended and ultimately lacklustre. But the worst part is the amount of political propaganda they crammed into such a small game. You are constantly barraged with social justice and feminist propaganda through the entire game, like the writers forgot that they are not writing tweets onto their twitter stream but lines for characters into a scifi videogame. Most of it is tasteless and out of context. And the characters themselves are written as annoying and childlike, who revel in violence, and possibly outright psychopaths.
8. Command & Conquer Remastered Collection - Time wasted: 18 hours
This is simply a cashgrab, the value added to the games is laughable, yet gamers seem to eat it up. I'm ashamed that they (we) can be bought so easily with a wiff of nostalgia. This is a shameful low effort cash grab that I doubt cost more than a few hundred thousand for EA to put out. And it already made them tens of millions.  Of course the original games are not bad, and if you never played them this might be something you want to try, just be mindful that there is nothing really remastered. These are 25 year old games released virtually unchanged. They even have the same bugs in them from 1995.
9. Star Wars Squadrons - Time wasted: more than it deserved
This is the Battlefield of space sims, totally worthless as a stand alone single player game. From the poor design choices, the simplistic narrative, the weak and annoying characters to the issues with the controls, it was not worth the time I've spent on it, let alone to pay money for it. Easily the worst game I had the misfortune of playing in 2020.

I get upset with games myself. But it's not about the difficulty. There are multiple games I play on the hardest difficulty and enjoy them even if I fail a lot.
It's when I feel the game plays dirty. As in I fail but I don't think I deserve to fail. 
I get extremely angry for example when multiple high probability shots miss consecutively in xcom2.

I get upset with games myself. But it's not about the difficulty. There are multiple games I play on the hardest difficulty and enjoy them even if I fail a lot.
It's when I feel the game plays dirty. As in I fail but I don't think I deserve to fail. 
I get extremely angry for example when multiple high probability shots miss consecutively in xcom2.

In reality consumers are pushing for release just as badly. I mean just think of CP2077 devs getting death threats when they announced the last delay. Of course it's an outlier but the rest of the consumers aren't disagreeing they just don't stoop to that level. 
 

Tragic ending is one thing, but I take issue with endings that reveal all your efforts through the entire game as pointless.
I literally can't name any game from recent times that has a completely flawless happy ending. There is always some tragedy involved. And older games I don't remember well enough if they had a truly happy ending or not.