>>315218
>Isn't advertising 101 to say how your product is--you know--different?
Most normalcattle and even "hardcore" gamers just want the same thing over and over with a new coat of paint or one new thing added to it. Hence, dozens of soulslike but with X, or yet another open ended platformer but this time with Y. Same reason why COD got so popular, the masses couldn't get enough of the linear, action setpiece cover based FPS slop rather than the more traditional run n gun arcade FPS since the latter requires skill and is harder to make, where as COD likes are easy to make and easy to consume. The masses want more, they don't want the new, this IS good advertising.
>>315234
Moreover, it was the first mainstream game that did this and succeeded. Nobody cares about older, more obscure titles even if they did technically do it first, history is full of technicalities like this that get passed around as facts.
>>315237
I'm currently doing a no guns diplomat run so I could give you that loadout, however for a sneaky sniper build I would load up on AGL and PER first and foremost. Tag Guns, Sneak and your choice of Speech(if you want to pass diplomacy checks), Repair(if you want to do weapon maintenance more effectively out in the field) or Explosives(if you want to specialize in grenades). As for perks, Rapid Reload is a must(faster reloads), if you plan on using light armor(you said you are doing a vanilla run but there is some really good light armors in DLC like Sierra Armor Reinforced, Joshua Graham's Armor or Ulysses Duster) Travel Light is a good bet. Jury Rigging is a must if you tagged Repair, it lets you repair your guns with really common alternatives, likewise with armor. Toughness is a good all around perk for every build, and for snipers specifically you can't go wrong with Commando. If you plan on using lever action snipers, Cowboy is also your friend, I know one of the 1st Recon in McCarran has a scoped lever action rifle. Likewise, Strong Back(more carryweight, especially important in Hardcore Mode where ammo has weight and you need more food/water) and Finesse(+5% critical chance) are my go-to for pretty much every build, this one is no different. Fast Metabolism will help you restore more health with stimpacks(only take if these are your main way of recovering health, alongside healing powders and super stims since they are also effected), towards the end of the game you should choose Sniper(duh) and Silent Running is also a must. You said you are playing the vanilla game, but there is a few fun perks from DLCs as well: And Stay Back is good if you want a Shotgun as backup, especially deadly with Riot Shotgun(make sure to double dip with Shotgun Surgeon in that case). Sneering Imperialist lets you do more damage against raiders and tribals, but more importantly, you get a VATS hit chance against them so you can easily dispatch these enemies with an aimbot, saving time. Implant GRX gives you free daily Turbo which is great if you like that chem, Alertness gives you +2 to PER when you crouch(useless if you got ED-E but useful for everyone else) and lastly, Tunnel Runner lets you sneak really quickly in light armor, synergizes well with Silent Running and Travel Light.
>>315267
Was that game more or less destructive to the IP than Other M aka "The Baby"? Hard to tell, but once again it feels like Metroid went from a respected franchise to a mockery overnight. Hell, I even started seeing people call it a "poor man's Halo" again and this time it's actually accurate since a lot of the devs in nu-Retro are former 343 devs.