As a longtime and somewhat casual but dedicated viewer i wasnt even aware of that fact.

But i still think getting onsite acccess to devs comes with compromises. Which still is legit. But i(!) still feel it comes with some constraints. Otherwise we would see nothing tbh IMHO.

Edit: Just to be sure: I still have mostly nothing but praise left for noclip.

My biggest gripe with noclip is that their documentaries feel just a tad too corporate. Like i’m(!) personally(!) convinced some money was exchanged between the dev/publisher to make these docs happen. (allegedly, no proof, vibes)

BUT(!!) idk how else you would get that close access to the stories they like to tell. Also they’re really fucking good at telling and surfacing stories in these tight constraints tbh. If you’re not a particular fan of a topic they cover it can feel sometimes a bit ‘shilly’. But if you are in some capacity fan they always give you some really cool insights into the development of ‘your’ game. Danny O’Dwyer is a fucking magician in that regard. I never feel cheated besides the thoughts in my first sentences in my post.

Thats the thing with Ubisoft. They dont make offensively bad games. They’re mostly just bland. What sells them (for me) are pretty unique settings and cool broader concepts. Thats probably that french je ne sais quoi which pulls in (my) attention. But everything else just falls apart if you’re a bit more into games. You know, i dont want to use the ‘G’ word. I dont want to make the case for the distinction between casuals and hArDcoRe - there it is - gAmeRS.
But Ubisoft games just still feel soooo formulaic. Even when they kinda try to remedy that fact. Yeah, they try to clutter the map with less interest points. Yeah, they stopped making you climb towers to populate said maps with interest points. But it still feels like made by committee. That corporate smoothing stone is just there. I’ve seen and resent this shit too many times because i buy more games than just the most current yearly COD/FIFA/AssCreed iteration.

Atleast gameplaywise i could handle it. But my biggest gripe personally is just the utterly shit writing in Ubisoft games. Its just soooo bad IMHO. They cant tell a compelling story. It always feels like an afterthought to the gameplay which already isnt landing for me.

Like yeah, SW Outlaws is an above average and alright AAA title. But i just cant anymore after 15 years of the same shit with the same patterns. At some point it had to break the camels back.