I was surprised that the church sequence doesn't kill you. I only got shot once in the Whirling-In-Rags.

Quite frankly I had such a high Inland Empire on my playthrough that the only things I’m sure are real are the things Kim or my good friend Horrific Necktie backed me up on.

The pale is incredibly interesting as a concept.

Entropy.

But filled with memories of things that happened before and maybe in the future too.

The pale driver gives you evenore context.

They aren't continents; calling them continents implies a planet, but the planet is long gone, broken apart into isolas (containing both land, including full continents, and sea) floating in the Pale, which is very much not fog.

The Pale isn't... anything, really. A literal lack of being. Not matter, or energy, but space-time broken down into pure entropy where direction and time lose all meaning.

I'm not entirely confident in my answer but I think my initial issue with Disco Elysium when I first tried to play it was because I expected the typical high action and quick cause-and-effect outcomes I'm used to in most RPGs. At least IMO, most RPG choices in games usually end up with a relatively clear outcome, whereas DE felt more gradual. Similarly, DE is more detective than action, which might sometimes benefit from gradual clues all coming together.

Not to say anyone is wrong for not liking this approach, it does take a bit of commitment to engage with it. But I think being willing to engage with it on its level might make the initial hump more bearable. I've honestly come to enjoy the slower approach of DE, but refreshing compared to everything else.

Same - Planescape Torment is my personal greatest RPG ever made

Yeah, it wasn't for me either. I really tried to give it a shot, gone back to it a couple times but I really just don't get it.

Great art/style? Definitely. But the gameplay itself is SO boring.

I'm trying to play a game here, and the game part is lacking. RNG+ text? No thanks, not much to keep me.

Maybe you should have kept on playing and you'd have noticed that the game is also funny as fuck...

Yeah I felt the same way. I kept playing because of the hype around it, but quit after 8 hours or so.

Because it's an opinion article and maybe it's OK for the author to make an subjective statement of the quality of a thing they love? Like, if they really believe it, is it wrong to state that? Do they need to qualify everything in their article with "this is just my opinion, sorry if you don't agree."

I get being annoyed by hyperbole in articles, but I don't really think that this warrants this kind of response. Sometimes it's OK to make strong statements. You can make statements like that without implying that people who think differently are bad/wrong.

Because it riles up the nerds.

I think your "not even close" statement is hyperbolic. Disco Elysium has very positive reviews in most if not all review outlets and won Game of The Year award in 2019. You can personally think its not a good RPG but saying its nowhere close is very hyperbolic.

Out of curiosity, what are some games that you consider contenders for greatest RPG?