While Halo 5 got a small amount of gripes ( http://kotaku.com/im-a-bit-worried-about-halo-5s-campaign-1723069153? ) such as persistent 4 man squad and attempt to copy other popular shooters,

Quantum Break got dismantled and defecated upon ( http://kotaku.com/unfortunately-quantum-break-looks-a-bit-rubbish-1723074024 ) in what seems a The Order level of hatred:

For two years, we’ve wondered what Quantum Break actually is. Having seen it, I’m now worried that Quantum Break is a bland-looking shooter interrupted with 20-minute episodes of bad television at the end of every chapter. It should be so much better.

While an interesting idea, it seems out of place in Quantum Break. The programme seems to interrupt the game rather than thread into it. In Max Payne and Alan Wake, television series were part of the world and informed the fiction but they didn’t insist on taking up 20 minutes of your time. You could walk by the television screening episodes of Lords and Ladies and Captain Baseball Bat Boy in Max Payne. In Quantum Break you have to just put the controller down and watch.

What you’re watching doesn’t seem too good, either. Despite having actors like Aidan Gillen and Lance Reddick from The Wire and Dominic Monaghan from Lord of the Rings, the performances in the scenes we were shown were, like the gunplay, dull. It didn’t help that the script was all clichés.

The way I see it, there are only two explanations:

a) Phil Spencer strangled Kotaku editor-in-chief's cat at last Christmas' house party, or

b) Kotaku journalists sought positions at Microsoft, were rejected and are now bitter.

Or is there a possibility of a c) that I haven't figured out yet?

Exactly why I hope more people in the future decide what games to buy on their own accord instead of letting review sites like Kotaku do it for them.

I think Kotaku is just desperate to keep their views up. This is, what, the third upcoming game in the last couple months they've gotten their hands on early or seen behind closed doors that they have given a negative outlook on despite everyone else having a positive or at least optimistic outlook? Xenoblade Chronicles X, Halo 5, Quantum Break. They're just farming for clicks and know their writing is so poor no one is going to click to read any positive articles but they might be lured in by something uncommonly negative.

I just hope that whoever with his/her freedom ends up loving this game, doesn't look at another game and tries to accuse it of being "too much like a movie".

The television segments always seemed like a relic from the don mattrick era to me... So it is no surprise they are bland...

I'm a Sony fan and I'm dying to get my hands on Halo5. It's almost like a reverse of last gen where journalists pooped on every Sony game prematurely.

These are the things which don't do the gaming industry any good. It will be interesting to see how these things develop.

Yeah, I bet companies would love it if the only thing people would use to base their game purchasing decisions was their own marketing material...

Even though I enjoy cinematic games, and would have certainly enjoyed this one if given a chance (thus I have nothing bad to say about it or its format), what you say certainly is true.

This game was conceived in an era when MS was planning to make a push into TV/live entertainment, and was planned to be a cornerstone along with Halo TV series.

But then, CEO changed, XBox Entertainment Studio got disbanded ( http://www.polygon.com/2014/7/17/5912865/microsoft-close-xbox-entertainment-studios-original-programming ) and Halo got moved to premium cable (btw, what happened to it, I don't remember it airing?)

Why do it has to be "strangled"? Why not simply P. Spencer had an affair with the Kotaku editor's cat and he caught them both red-handed?

I'm not sure what the complaint it here with what they wrote about QB. I'm not too familiar with QB, but if it's true that you have to just sit and watch these 20 minute episodes between sections of gameplay, then that sounds like a legitimate gripe. It's the whole reason I hated MGS IV when I played it, and I was really hoping to like that game.