The appearance of collectibles in the game world and the game's stat tracking have nothing to do with notifications.

So the collectibles are actually removed from the game world? I guess I misread your post. In any case, I'm not sure that really changes much. It's a tired argument, I know, but "just ignore it" still applies here. I don't spend my time in Uncharted or Tomb Raider looking for collectible trinkets that do nothing to service gameplay. Their mere presence isn't detrimental.

And I'm not sure what stat tracking has to do with anything. I like games that allow me to see weird stats. That doesn't mean I give it any thought while I'm playing the game--it's just a neat gee-whiz thing once I'm done.

I played through about half of Quantum Break before putting it down... one of the things that really turned me off of the game is the fact that your character's power progression is tied to finding collectables scattered around the environment. And to find those collectables, you need to engage the "detective mode" vision ability (which stops working the moment you move). So rather than running through the environments and exploring them naturally, I would walk 10 feet and activate my vision mode, walk another 10 feet, activate it again, etc. It's the most immersion-breaking combination of mechanics. I wanted to just ignore the collectables, but that would mean I giving up the chance to level up my powers. I'm amazed the game shipped this way :-/

On the flip side, I do think some games incorporate collectables well. As much as the Assassin's Creed series has devolved into a bit of a mess, Black Flag nailed a lot of things for me. The thing about collectables in that game is they perfectly fit into the narrative concept of living as a pirate. Sailing around the ocean, exploring tropical islands and searching for buried treasure makes perfect sense in a game like that. I never felt like the collectables were pulling me away from the game. They felt like a perfectly natural part of the whole experience.

Now, see, I agree with that. I've not played Quantum Break, but what you just said sounds absolutely awful and would be enough to make me reconsider playing it if I had actually been planning on it. It's been forever since I've played Black Flag, but I don't remember being particularly fond of its collectibles, or feeling like it strayed from the standard Assassin's Creed collectible mold.

Uncharted, though, is probably the worst example to use as to why that sort of stuff is bad. It's literally completely irrelevant to the game at large. As far as I can remember, collectibles unlock trophies and new costumes for Nathan, neither of which actually affects your gameplay experience. You argue about why they're included at all, then (and I would agree that it's stupid, and somehow it just became the expectation), but even so, it's not actively detrimental to the experience if you don't find any of, unlike Quantum Break, apparently.

I played through about half of Quantum Break before putting it down... one of the things that really turned me off of the game is the fact that your character's power progression is tied to finding collectables scattered around the environment. And to find those collectables, you need to engage the "detective mode" vision ability (which stops working the moment you move). So rather than running through the environments and exploring them naturally, I would walk 10 feet and activate my vision mode, walk another 10 feet, activate it again, etc. It's the most immersion-breaking combination of mechanics. I wanted to just ignore the collectables, but that would mean I giving up the chance to level up my powers. I'm amazed the game shipped this way :-/

My goodness gracious, that sounds like a trainwreck. What the hell, MS?!

Other than that, I didn't mind the collectibles in AC black flag