ShreddieMercury

Sony kills Dreamcast, Xbox partners with SEGA, Sony kills Xbox. If the modern industry wasn't already a nightmare of subscriptions, services, and skinner box game design, this would hit harder. I really like having Xbox hardware, and their backwards-compatibility push has been my favorite part of this generation of consoles. But a future where you only have Sony GAAS and Xbox cloud subscriptions is bleak. I'm so thankful for Nintendo.

Halo 3 was the largest ever entertainment launch at the time, much less video game. But for sure, novelty.

You won't suck at the ones that remember to be a fun game first and a sim second. Unfortunately at some point in the past generation or so racing fans decided that realism is the only factor that matters, so you get boring, punishing, and unfun games that are solely designed for people with expensive simulation rigs.

Sega Rally Revo is an amazing game. Sadly, on PC the frame pacing is messed up in the career mode, as it's somehow locked to 62.5 FPS. This issue goes away in the quick race and time trial modes after you restart a race, but there is no fix for the career mode. Even with that issue, it's more than worth playing and getting used to, as the gameplay is peak Sega Rally.

The problem is two-fold: 1. Nobody knows how to review video games 2. Gamers don't understand criticism If I was a publisher, I would absolutely strategically exclude certain media outlets based on the lack of skilled writing and analysis present in the majority what they put out. And since gamers don't know how to read and only look at the metacritic average, why would you cast a broader net knowing how inconsistent the reception will be? A product only needs to be as smart or interesting as its audience, and... woof, video games.

Update on this, as I've dropped EA WRC for now. It's a remarkable simulation of the sport, but they forgot to put a game in. They don't give you a good reason to do anything, and the career mode has lots of superfluous mechanics (hiring/firing a crew, budget management) that do absolutely nothing if you just ignore them. I've gone through two seasons and there is zero friction or game design outside of the actual driving. Lots of racing games have this issue, but I've noticed with Codemasters games this is often the case. I need to give Dirt Rally 2.0 a try, but from what I can see that is similarly anemic outside of the specific sim aspects of the rally driving. I cleaned up my original Xbox and got a copy of Rallisport Challenge 2, and it's incredible how well that game holds up. It might be the best rally game ever made, and it's a real shame that there is no modern way to play it. I remember pining for it during the last wave of BC announcements on Xbox, but due to the car licensing we'll never see it again. Also gave Test Drive V-Rally a spin on Dreamcast, and it's fantastic. Older, arcade-focused racing games > modern sim racing.

Video games are dead.

Take violence and its ensuing trauma seriously!! Also here's a cool roguelike mode for more killing.

Nothing interesting to see here at all! It's obviously all idiots who are way below the intelligence threshold of D1P users.

I always thought 28 Weeks Later was pretty underrated. It's a really solid sequel.

I would be surprised if there isn't a very unique angle to Indiana Jones. I doubt it's an Uncharted clone. Machinegames (and formerly Starbreeze) are one of the more interesting and unique developers working at this point. The Wolfenstein games (and Reddick before them) are completely off-the-wall in comparison to what we see broadly in mainstream gaming.

Is Indiana Jones actually Wolfenstein III?

My neighbor is a film composer, and we play music together. He occasionally uses me for various songs or soundtracks to movies that he's working on. I studied music in college but never formally pursued it, so it's nice to have an outlet!

I recorded guitar for a song that's included on the soundtrack. Hopefully this runs on my PC because it looks awesome.

The crime board was less insulting to my intelligence than the entirety of Jedi Survivor.

AW2's reception might be skewed slightly by the fact that it's an unlikely sequel that lots of people thought we'd never get. But that doesn't mean it's not a bracing, original, and risky game that came along at a time when most video games don't aspire to be much more than interchangeable digital slop.

Oh I wasn't even commenting on what you said, that was just my general thought about the writing. I agree that the story itself is compelling and really interesting. But it does exhibit some of the typical shared universe/superhero issues of constantly evolving rules and a lack of stakes because nothing is real. Or it becomes real sometimes but just kidding it's not anymore.

I agree with this. AW2 is a weird case of being my favorite experience this year, but I would barely call it a game, and I doubt I'll ever replay it like I do older Remedy titles. I also don't know that I would say that the story or dialogue is particularly strong. It's mostly just the context of the gap between the first game and the sequel, and what an interesting and bold choice it was to take the series in this direction that I find so compelling.

Buy a Series S with that. If you don't want any MS stuff, just turn it into an emulation powerhouse.

It's excellent, but it's definitely more on the sim side than something like Rallisport Challenge. I play on controller, and it's pretty much necessary to play with at least some assists on to make the handling somewhat doable. The default settings are solid, so I would just advise not going with the hardcore option unless you have a wheel and are super serious about it.

Rallisport Challenge 1 and 2? Those were awesome on the original Xbox. I'm bummed that they never were made backwards compatible. The only 360 ones I remember were Dirt 2 and 3, which were developed by Codemasters, who also made this new WRC game.

So far this holiday season I've found myself consumed with EA Sports WRC. I usually swear off anything EA Sports out of principle, but I couldn't help myself since this saw a 40% discount in the winter Xbox sale. Despite having no affinity for simulation racing, I'm loving this game. I do wish it was a bit less challenging, but learning how the cars drive and finding the perfect balance between control and speed is extremely engaging. I've always loved rally games, back to Sega Rally on Saturn, and this game does one thing better than nearly any other: the stages. The variety of different rally stages here is probably the best in any game to date. All of the surfaces feel very unique to drive, and the weather effects are excellent. It's a pretty perfect recreation of what makes this sport so enthralling. That said, there seem to be pretty severe performance issues that people are experiencing, including a completely borked career mode that will crash the game when you select "continue". The only thing I've seen is some inconsistent screen tearing, but like most things released nowadays it does appear to be an unfinished product, hence the likely poor sales and early discount. It certainly doesn't help that EA just gutted the Codemasters staff shortly after acquiring them. Awesome industry! The next one on my list is Rush Rally 3 on Switch, which I've heard is fantastic as well.

How soon? I just played the demo and it's a pretty good time, but it's just a more slowly paced FPS version of Hotline Miami. Hopefully it's not that Devolver thing of having a single catchy idea and then forgetting to design a game.

This game looks rad as hell, and it's only $3.39 on Steam right now!

I would prefer video games where I don't even touch the controller because I don't like how sometimes when I press the wrong button something bad happens to my hero.