Cashews

@somnambulance I'm unsure about Alan Wake rn. It is once again looks like it is taking big cues from Twin Peaks - this time from The Return. I imagine they watched the Return and had to make a game again - just like their first game with the OG Twin Peaks.

I'm about as big a TP fan as you will find - anything related I will consume pretty much. I'll be watching that one very carefully.

It looks like you had to bundle two months together because September doesn't look great. And the one in Sept people are most looking forward to, Baldur's, is absent.

@GymratAmarillo nothing has resonated with the public yet. It is an extremely niche product made for fail videos on youtube. I'd bet your eternal soul Meta and Sony have lost many many millions (and billions in facebook's case on VR).

Just me - I think Nintendo the only one at this point who could pull off the killer app that gets soccer moms buying it for their kids. Like they did with SMB, the the first thumbstick and a bit later with Mario 64. They make the thing that everyone follows. Then once it's in people's hands other creatives pay attention.

Unless someone comes out of nowhere like iD software but i don't really see that type of guerilla developing since Notch left the scene.

@somnambulance I think if we end up liking BG and Starfield, which is a very distinct possibility - those two games alone will eat up a large chunk of Fall into December.

I am only buying my absolute must haves and buying the others in early 2024 - hopefully on sale. I buy too many games that I just sit on as it is. Then they go on sale before I open the shrinkwrap and I feel stupid and wasteful and addicted and dumb.

@somnambulance stacked season until early November...and then you have to play them all.

Elephant Mario, Warioware, Mario RPG are three more big hitters this year.

This reminds me that the only way for VR to survive in any meaningful way is for Nintendo to throw their hat in the ring.

@Flaming_Kaiser the argument is that if they don't - a company like Tencent will buy them instead. These "independents" all have one dream. The dream is to get bought out. These companies are started with the intent on getting bought. Very few want to grow into a Capcom, SE, EA, ABK.

Notch is a billionaire for making a pixel game at his desk by himself. he can start an army in a Central American country of his choice. That is the dream.

@Titntin thanks for the advice my man I'll follow it.

Sony tv pictures are incredible. What i didn't like about Sony is how they don't play nice with Google - I've bought a lot of movies on Google over the years.

BUT that was until i bought this new Samsung and realized how much better Sony is in the tv department.

S95B has a good screen - but the UI, the updates, the bugs, and the quality of physical product is bar none the worst I've owned in...ever I guess. I'll live. cheers have a good weekend!

@Titntin I swear to heaven above the thing will override my settings do it's own thing. I have literally watched dozens of hours of videos trying to optimize this pos since I bought it last year.

Christ...I could go on forever about how terrible this thing is. I'd sell it but that would suck even more time out of my life.

I harsh on Sony a great deal but the Sony tv we use as our main is a much better product than this much more expensive monstrosity.

@Titntin I have a Samsung S95B - which I absolutely hate with a passion. I know my console booting up while someone else was doing a thing on it would wreck havoc on my stupid, stupid Smart TV.

@UltimateOtaku91 from my understanding the Switch always used Bluetooth in it's controllers from day one. So it was always there - just not for headphones which they implemented much later than release.

@Powerplay94 I've never got the impression that modern reviewers are particularly good at video games. Average to below average. A big reason why easy RPGs, especially turn based, get so much more love.

A 10. It probably isn't a 10 - it is a 9. But for me it is a 10.

"You will always be in our hearts.”

~~~ leans back in office chair; satisfied with the memo.

~~picks up phone

"Security? yeah, this is Bob. Hahhahhahah! that is a good one. So I called about Volition. Can you throw them out in the street? Who? All of them."

@KundaliniRising333 if they don't feel the pain they won't change.

Right now - I'm a bit sickened at all of the people who caved into Microsoft's pre-release cost of Starfield. They charged 30 bucks to play the game 5 days early and if forums are any indication - many MANY people went along with this scam.

If the game is a blockbuster I expect all of the big companies to follow suit. Paying a large sum to play a game a few days early with the streamers (who don't pay one cent for the game at all mind you).

I've said this for over a decade - gamers, in general, are the most un-intelligent, worst consumer group that exists. Their addictions are as potent as cigarettes and heroin. They will take almost anything that is served to them no matter how foul it is. The industry is fully aware of this fact.

@Th3solution I expect them to raise monthly prices soon. Microsoft did as much. First they announced price hikes - then a few days later they started closing loopholes and ways to find discounts. Usually a gut punch is followed by a series of jabs to the face before the grand knock-out blow.

@Impossibilium if you aren't harassing individuals or partaking in criminal acts with a company - harassing companies is the very best option for them not taking advantage of people. It is the only weapon people have against unfair practice. Heck, even unions are basically designed around harassing companies to get what labor wants.

There are many examples of it working wonderfully. Give companies operating like this the respect they deserve - which is none.

Release dates for Gran Turismo Blu-Ray with hilarious outtakes included.

@Slayer25c Nintendo discounts their first party games to $40 every now and then. 3 or 4 times a year. Nothing big but a discount none-the-less.

Why discount when your game is a top 10 sellers for 5 years straight? You don't.

@RoomWithaMoose NSO still has NES, SNES and Gameboy games (some of the greatest games ever made) included with their online service. At around $1.75/month it is objectively better than...this.

Those games also don't leave after a year.

Very cool but I am ready to hear more about Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess.

@UltimateOtaku91 No, you are paying more. How can you say this isn't a price increase when they increased the price?

There is a term called 'float; which is important to banking and things like yearly subs. This is similar. When you pay for a full year at a price higher than a monthly sub you are essentially giving the company a loan. In this case (unlike a bank) they are getting it for free - no interest.

You pay more for a month by month because they don't get all of your your money now. Money they can do anything with. Invest it in capital. Invest it in bitcoin. Put it on financials to their favor, etc.

You are not saving less. You are giving Sony a larger interest free loan on future services.

Sony probably had to increase the price because of how hard Gran Turismo predictably bombed at the box office.

@StrawberryTurtle this one is. The game got almost perfect scores across the board - including sister sites of push. This one was delayed - they had to think about it for a bit if you catch my drift. A 7 is like getting an 'F' in school - they hardly ever give anything lower than an 8. For a classic everyone is gushing over? Come now.

odd don't you think? notice my prediction in my last sentence - even though it is being called out now - it will still happen. should be a gas!

Unfinished games and to sell you loot boxes, cosmetics and battle passes. A few live service games are great. Most are not.

Once the core game is finished then development just focuses on feature creep. It is really boring most times.

I have seen enough. I don't pre-order but I'm buying this box on the first day at local retail.

Genshin Impact and now this are two of the easiest games to not even think about, for around 2 seconds, over the past decade.

@Kidfried I can't speak for the cans but I do really enjoy my JBL Flip and have for years. For it's price it is a good and very durable product. I abuse the thing in the shop and on the beach and it still sounds the same as the day i bought it.

As for the other suggestion I bought an expensive set on over the ear Sony headphones - and they broke within a year - I won't ever get anything Sony audio related again. Which is disappointing because I was enjoying them mightily before that.

Any other suggestions of gamer headphones you can use outside of games - that don't make you look like a gamer right away (these are indeed ugly)?

It is amusing that Sony is picking up Microsoft's tab.

@InsaneWade Square's entire business model consists of reselling people the same games over and over and over and over and over again - they are never going to release their games on another company's subscription.

Sea of Stars is the only saving grace here. I'm happy both PS and Xbox players get a crack at it on their subs early. I guess they figure both Xbox AND PS users don't buy s***. Just Switch owners.

3 remake announcements per day zzzZzzZzzzz

I just want atmospheric and otherworldly mystery. Less focus on monster killing and more focus on mind bending story and uncomfortable fear.

@Porco except for No More Heroes!!! Good series.

@Porco I played Lollipop. Back in those days if it was weird and available in North America - I'd usually buy it.

Grasshopper, while I like the direction they were going with the whole 'gaming is punk!' thing, always seemed like a poor reflection of Clover Studios/Platinum. Cool ideas and characters - but the play wasn't very tight at all. I liked the characters but it always seemed it was trying to be over the top with sex and violence to capitalize on a GTA addled fanbase. At the end of the day it just wasn't all that good.

This post would probably be better in the Lollipop thread

@MikeOrator I think the PC master race thing is just a meme to get under the skin of complete weirdos. It has worked for well over a decade.

Imo, the Switch is easily the best of this generation. It really isn't very close. Even the sub is better than Microsofts really - for the fact you get classic, truly timeless games, that don't leave the service, that cost half as much (Sony's sub doesn't even register it is the worst of the pack).

Switch enthuiasts enjoy when they get bashed. It is ridiculous and reeks of some strange jealousy.

cheers everyone have a great weekend of gaming! Only a few weeks until the truly big hitters arrive!

My step-grandfather showed me the schematics for the Playstation 6 right before I killed him.

"Are you interested in a new PS5 model?"

Not necessarily this one - it is still ugly. But if Sony does a complete physical redesign then I am interested. I believe the ps5 is the ugliest console, by a large margin, in the history of gaming and any new direction would be welcome.

@Porco now 10s are handed out like candy to classic remakes. Like really what is the point.

I was reading the old reviews of Lollipop Chainsaw today (the game was never very good) just to satisfy why I didn't like the game. I read a few. They were critical, much more critical than most writers today. I find reviews largely meaningless today - outside of the technical aspects.

My assumption is because games are becoming like movies - incredibly stale and uninspired. A tiny handful of decent games (like movies) a year. People are starting to clamor for remakes, treating them as if they are original games, because they have so little to look forward to. [please don't respond with your boring list of ho-hum 2024 releases they are as boring as the copy pasted list]

This looks pretty awesome. Hopefully it will be responsive to ball placement somehow - although I don't see how it could.

@jdv95 I'd guess roughly around zero people. They will see a mech and not associate the two.

They obviously do this for the news articles - not for the bus ad.
They do one bus. Always in London, always a double decker. The bus service probably has one bus dedicated for this type of advert ploy. The bloggers fall for it (every time) and print the ads they don't get paid for.

It is a cost effective strategy.

@gaston except Quake 2 isn't a port. It is a remaster with many MANY added features. RDR has fewer features than the original game. So minus features.

@Cutmastavictory fret not, your post was still 'commercially accurate".

Most gamers are stupid and have no will power what-so-ever. CEO was right - the game is "commercially accurate" and will sell well.

@EvenStephen7 people used to debate all of the time about paying $10 for 4 CoD maps. It seems trite now.

Battlefield Bad Company 2 had the first large scale dlc I know of - it was $15 which people thought was soooo high. It had huge maps, new assets and licensed music to go with the 1970s theme. To this day it's the best dlc I ever paid for.

It would cost 30-40 today. Or they'd simply make it a new game.

@EvenStephen7 Horse armor was $2.50 I believe. All of the people on the forums saying "IT'S ONLY $2.50 IF YOU DONT LIKE IT DONT BUY IT" ruined all of gaming. It is their fault.

When Bethesda and Valve hatched a plan to charge for modders work (70-30 split to Bethesda/Valve) people got so mad they backed off. It works if the ire level is high enough.