crispy4000

None of that was known when the 360 launched. Microsoft got in front, it would have paid off regardless. I don’t think another 360 gen would come easy, but they could do it if they leveraged their assets in a meaningful way in a launch year. Come out swinging, instead of deflated. It sets the narrative. It could also be argued that their new multiplatform push would make people hesitant to buy their machine regardless. So they’re sort of keeping themselves in this position. Games Pass and Series S were both great illustrations that the value play doesn’t drive hardware sales. They focused on the wrong things. And their one big software bet, Halo Infinite, generated a bunch of question marks with a delay instead of earnest hype.

Couple counterpoints to this: The 360 went first and it ended up working out fine for Microsoft. The games industry fought the idea of generational shifts hard this time with an extended cross-gen period. I don’t expect that to change going forward. Instead we’d see an Xbox Next use graphical options designed for PC builds. And it’s indies who are having a harder time justifying Xbox ports. Not the EA, Ubisofts and such. Things are still far from Wii U bad.

Let’s go with Mario Wonder then. Was what I wanted for the holidays and didn’t get. Digital works!

Awesome! I’ll have to think on it a bit. 180 from this thread… I want a new fun game to play in front of my young daughter. Debating between Kirby and the Forogtten Land and Mario Wonder. @stepee any thoughts? Either that or I go with PoP Lost Crown.

Hey, they gotta do something for the divorced 40 year olds.

It’s got it all. Girls in bikinis is stock for their key art. I think people have an oddly selective memory about this franchise. You know, thank goodness we don’t get games like Duke Nukem 3D anymore, but never mind the franchise where you can fuck then shoot the scantily clad women. If they brought back ‘hot coffee’ today, I’m not sure people would make such a deal of it anymore. Sexualization in Western games may not always be as visual, but it’s still become more gameified than when the industry was targeting male teenagers. The cringe is still there, it’s just a different flavor now.

GTA. That was a layup.

Orcs Must Die 3 next week on Epic.

78 Why are we closing bank accounts again?

That (first?) temple boss is no joke. Really nice to see you can't just cheese through the game by doing most of the side quests.

Kinda? They had things to criticize, but no cohesive argument about what a game's 'soul' is and why this lacks it. Which is what that criticism invites. It's still not a good sign. These reviews in general remind me of Yooka-Laylee's. Reviewers had a hard time pinpointing what made it worse than Banjo, so they often resorted to that line to get the point across. Or the even lazier criticism of 3d platformers never being that good to begin with.

The RPGamer one I read first basically said that its fine? … but had no soul.

Man the reviews on this have been so harsh. I'm not the biggest fan of this series, only having played a bit of the first. But still, I hope its still an enjoyable time.

The final battle gauntlet you unlock in the Gold Saucer is absurd. Definitely an endgame activity. And here I was thinking I'd 100% all the quests before the end.

Taking my sweet time sidequesting in Chapter 12. Deciding whether I want to do all the hard mode stuff in the Gold Saucer, but I'll do the chocobo racing questline as a minimum.

Devs and publishers would generally value PC and Switch ports ahead of Series consoles. Larger install bases, and there's still very much a culture of buying all the things there. Plus Microsoft is known to pay for ports to happen to sustain Games Pass. Perhaps that doesn't help the little guy as much now with the supposed low-balling, but the Segas of the world are probably loving it.

78 same as last time.

I'll buy 1-3 new games each year. Basically, the stuff I couldn't wait to play that likely wouldn't drop relatively fast after release. From there, it's a spiral of what I'm willing to pay vs what I have in my backlog. If it's easy enough to wait for a price cut from $70 to $40, how much easier would it be waiting to $30, $20, $10? $5 used to be my lower threshold, but few AAA games get there anymore outside of some crazy limited deals I look out for (ie: got Tales of Arise and Gears 5 for that). Being in Humble Choice has become my lower barometer, since that’s $12 or less. But there are some rare games I'd spring for at $20-30 around Black Friday. Stuff like Returnal and Jedi Survivor. I would say more Nintendo games, but they’re too stingy nowadays. Indie games I buy more of, but almost exclusively within bundles or with acquired credit.

Also ToTK and all the building shenanigans.

Lisa Definitive Edition and Industria on EGS next week

Pabst Blue Ribbon and e-cig skins next.

Depends, I’d say. There’s certainly genres I don’t have much experience with to properly judge, like sim racing, modern sports games, F2P multiplayer, card battlers, 4x strategy, etc. There is value in hearing about games from the perspective of someone who is more inundated in a particular genre than you. Even in genres I love like Metroidvanias, there’s some youtubers who are voracious consumers of them. I think this list is interesting, from someone who makes map guides for them, even though I disagree with some of it: https://www.demajen.co.uk/tierlist.html It gives me a general list of some ones to watch out for on sales or not ignore in my backlog.

In fairness, I think those left still do pull together good reviews. ‘Talent’ applies more to the on air personality end of things.

Plenty going back to good old Mecha Hitler in Wolfenstein 3D. But I'll post an obvious one from a game high on the list:

Did the same, but got another 4 games because why not for $3.