This is all I'll address because it sums up everything I think about what you've said so far.

My opinion is that the store page should say “This title is not eligible for a refund due to a reasonable person knowing better than to buy this new”

If that’s a controversial opinion, please feel free to join the dumpster fire below and defend the billion dollar company.

You think it's okay to take away consumer rights to, I suppose, stick it to a billion dollar company. And anyone disagreeing with you (as in anyone thinking consumer rights shouldn't be taken away) are defending a billion dollar company. There's only one (technically two) thing to say about your statement and that's: "It's stupid and it's wrong". There's no reason to give and no arguments to make because it's just that fucking stupid. It's just wrong.

And that's my opinion on pretty much everything you've said.

And just a final addendum. I haven't downvoted you once (nor have I upvoted anyone else) because I don't really give a fuck about upvotes and downvotes. But I'm not at all surprised you feel the need to bring up something that fucking petty.

Just out of curiosity, do you also shit on New Vegas? Because it's technically a Bethesda game that was made after Oblivion, which according to you makes it dog shit.

While you're entitled to your opinion, don't forget that it just your opinion and it's subject to your own biases. And that's your comment, an opinionated take based on the belief that anything Bethesda touches is shit. I know better to try to change your mind. You being blinded by your vitriol towards Bethesda is not my concern.

My message is very simple and I'll preface it with the obvious. Don't buy anything until you've read the reviews. The actual people working on the remaster/remake are not Bethesda. That means that just because Bethesda is shit doesn't mean the game will be shit. It might be good. But we don't know what it will be until it releases and reviews are out, so don't instantly dismiss it simply because there's a Bethesda logo somewhere.

I think it's also worth remembering that this remaster isn't being made by Bethesda. Virtuos are the ones remastering/remaking the game and their portfolio is pretty much exclusively ports, remasters and remakes. I don't know the details of how much they're using Unreal Engine (the leaks state that the game will be running on UE), but I think that pretty much rules out Bethesda's involvement beyond IP consultancy because they don't have UE experience.

I'm all for being critical of the shit Bethesda puts out, but I'm not going to dismiss someone' work simply because the name Bethesda is attached to it.

And if we were all smart people we would have far less laws. Sometimes laws protect us from ourselves. Anyone who has experience with addiction knows how hard it is to just stop. Instead of blaming people for their inability to stop we should emphatize and understand that this needs an intervention. If these predatory practices were illegal those people wouldn't need to stop themselves because they wouldn't be put in that situation in the first place.

You forgot the most important point. Saying "thank you".

From what I've read it's not actually made by Bethesda, it isn't using the creation engine and there are gameplay changes.

That information turned me from not caring to checking out what people will say when it releases.

It looks the same because you are more or less doing the same thing (looting and shooting) but the core motivation to do those things are very different. Battle royales are all about combat, everyone goes in with the sole purpose of winning (with some exceptions) and you win by beating the other teams. Extraction shooters "in theory" are about survival. You take your crap with you into a raid so you could find better crap to increase your chances of surviving a raid. But if you die you lose the crap you took in. Because the goal is survival extraction shooters don't have a sole focus on combat, but rather combat is a means to an end.

Off topic but I genuinely can't understand why people like to throw battle royales and extraction shooters into the same pot. The fact that battle royales have been immensely successful (PUBG, Fortnite, Apex) while the only extraction shooter with relative success is Escape From Tarkov (I won't get into the details but pretty much everyone hates to play) should be indication that any similarities between the two genres are entirely superficial.

They cater to very different audiences.

It's not a battle-royale. It's an extraction shooter which IMO makes the outlook even worse because extraction shooters are probably the most hardcore subgenre of shooters you could have. The game is either going to pivot hard within months after launch or it's going to flop.

On the Steam Deck? Possible. On Steam? I guess technically possible if you add a third party game. But actually on Steam? Nintendo can't even give a tech demo out for free, I can't imagine what would have to happen for Nintendo to put their games on Steam.

You can also play Minecraft on the Steam Deck and technically you can also play Apex Legends on the Deck (if you install Windows and play through that), but all of it depends on the user being a tinkerer. But the casual gamer is not a tinkerer which means those possibilities have next to no impact on the wider market.

Absolutely. Nintendo has huge fanbase with most of them not caring about Nintendo ripping them off and Nintendo has some of the most highly regarded and iconic gaming IPs in the world and Nintendo has insane marketing budget behind the Switch 2 and the switch doubles as a home console.

I love the Deck but it's not going to outsell the Switch and I think Valve isn't interested in pulling people away from the Switch. Valve made the Deck primarily for Steam users and that's who they're targeting.

If it teaches gambling

By having literally no gambling?

and has slot machine makeup,

In what way? Slot machines have a very distinct look and at best I could the small blind, big blind and boss blind columns indicating the 3 columns in a slot machine, but if that's the thing then any game with 3 column separate 3 choices has a slot machine makeup? If you meant the game somehow uses slot machine iconography I don't, I really don't know what to say then. It would be completely delusional.

Anonymous Dev created a casino experience

Clearly not completely anonymous as he has no trouble presenting himself through his public name. And a casino experience according to you.

with poker at the core

Actually the core was Big Two, which makes far more sense than Poker as you're not limited to 2 cards and can play multiple hands.

This same Dev is promoting several other games such as “slot machine deck builder” and “blackjack deck builder”.

That's just bullshit. In fact it's so bullshit the dev has publicly opposed gambling.

Please look at this from higher up. Something slimy is afoot.

Higher up view says you're just peddling stupid conspiracy that has little to no basis in reality.

GTA 6 is coming out this year and it started development after RDR2. That's 6-7 years. Cyberpunk 2077 started main production after Blood and Wine, which means development time was 4-5 years. Baldur's Gate 3 development most likely started after DoS2, which means it was in development for 6-7 years. In fact most AAA games finish development in less than 7 years and anything going beyond 7 usually has some kind of a development hell (and usually ends up being bad).

Star Citizen has been in development for 12 years. If it released today it will be the third or fourth longest game development time, except it's not releasing today and considering the state of the game it can easily get the top spot of the longest time in development game. It is nowhere near the standard development time of a modern AAA title. You could say SQ42 is in the modern AAA development time (if you're being generous with the start date of the development), but even there you're not getting the full game as the release will be episodic. Who knows how long it will take for all the episodes of SQ42 to release.

Anyone who knew Chris Roberts previous projects knew it was going to go this way. That man doesn't know the meaning of scope.

Wait? So the other person isn't being misogynistic? I'm lost.

Look. I don't make the rules of misogyny. You want things to make sense, you need to look elsewhere.

His takeaway is that women are as smart as men (as in the IQ is the same) but because men have higher testosterone holding them back men are actually smarter than women. What I think he's actually trying to say is that he's a high testosterone misogynist.

I want to nitpick on this, because I’m told a lot of people use these apps, match, and then never actually ask the other person out. They then are sometimes puzzled why they’re not going on dates.

I'm not sure if you're implying they're the same person, as in they won't ask anyone out and then wonder why nobody goes out with them? Because that I can't really explain. I guess maybe they're shy or they think the other person should be asking them out, but if you're going to leave it solely to chance then you have to accept that there's a chance you never get asked out. But if someone is thinks they're trying but it just doesn't happen, then that needs a more deeper dive into why it wouldn't happen. From my experience most of the time the people I didn't go out with were people who were closed off, so my most general advice in that case would be to try to be more open. Nobody wants to pry answers out of you. Talk about yourself, or if you don't like talking about yourself be more proactive in getting to know the other person. Be interested in them and let them be interested in you.

It also helps filter out “oh, she doesn’t date men”, “wow, he’s anti-vax”, “he doesn’t want kids, ever, and i do” kind of stuff. At least, when the app is working and not fully enshittified. That stuff is valuable.

That as well. Some people put in their bios clear no-nos and I think that's great.