Man, their own confidence in Skull & Bones just seems to dive lower and lower. Does not inspire confidence.

I just don't get it, Black flag signaled a lot of interest in the genre, and SM's Pirates is pretty much a picture guide on "how to make a good pirate game step by step"

I'll probably enjoy the remake, even if the original isn't even that old. Just weird seeing the way the genre has panned out.

Eh, I get it. As popular as the brand is, I can understand studios being hesitant to take the main cast on a new adventure, since it's not very believable with what they already do.

There can be an appeal to a "just a nobody" story in the same universe, but then the only thing you can rely on is the setting and brand recognition.

A side character turned main character let's you "expand the universe" with a known character, and nest something with the existing story, without feeling like beating a dead horse in a fan-fic-esque revisit of the main cast.

I was curious with Gollum, how they'd make an interesting game with an engaging story about a generally unlikeable side character.

Turns out they didn't. But it probably would've been very impressive if they had!

I'll always have a soft spot for Minecraft and it's open world base building goodness.

If you want "Minecraft, but more grown up," I can't recommend Vintage Story enough. It's actually an offshoot of a survival modpack for Minecraft if I recall correctly. A more involved crafting system (i.e. knapping tool heads out of stone, casting and forging metal tools, etc) and a threatening winter make for a very fun survival game. Still in active development with a pretty good pace of new content regularly, and a lively mod scene.