IntrepidWombat

@Propaperpusher AI benefits shareholders and some classes of consumer. Many people in tech aren't sleeping great. I get pit in my stomach every time I see an IM or email from my boss that it's going to be the day that I get let go. That's an experience that a whole lot of people are living right now. Assuming that it only affects everyone in a "positive manner" is naive at best.

I wonder if it's all publicity. I also half expect GameStop to throw in, "Okay, but what about an extra 5% in store credit?"

The lack of rumble is a deal breaker. It also looks like it's not going to fit into a charging dock. It's a pass for me, but I could see a controller like that in my future if they manage to get everything right.

@glennthefrog Eh, probably not. Not unless it's a fully featured console anyway. If it's just a low end, barely functional emulation box with no other interesting features, then I don't think it counts, and I also think it suffers the same fate as the PS1 classic.

Come on Sony, re-release the PS2 with built in HDMI, DualSense controller support, a PSN interface to download and play classic PS2 games natively with a disc drive to play physical PS2 games, wired controller support, and memory card ports.

This will never happen, but at a competitive price point, this thing would be popular.

U4 should have ended hours before it actually did. So much of the game felt tacked on - I was so ready for it to be over that I didn't really feel anything but relief when the credits rolled. I keep with the popular opinion the U2 had the best pacing, best setting, everything - a real gem.

@TheDarts Hah yes, 100% she had a point.

@get2sammyb My understanding is that New Balances are for middle aged guys past their prime. Haha.

Christmas 2006 was a wild time. One story that sticks out was a couple weeks before Christmas. People wanted PS3, yes, but everyone was wild for Wii. Nine calls out of ten were from desperate parents looking for one. We had lines to check out wrapped around the store. PS2 was still selling great - I think that was when it dropped to $99, but I can't be certain. 360 was pretty big too, we were just about a year into its life.

An older lady is next in line - I had noticed her standing there for about 20 minutes or so with nothing in her hand, but figured she just wanted a gift card. She pulls out her wallet and says nonchalantly, "One Wii, please."

"I'm sorry ma'am, we're sold out."

She gets this disgusted look on her face and points behind me to the display (you know the kind - empty system boxes stacked up on high shelves) "You've got stacks of them right there."

"No ma'am, they're empty display boxes."

She spent the next couple of minutes demanding the manager (You're speaking with him), telling me that I was running a horrible, deceptive business (She's probably right, but it has nothing to do with the boxes), and how dare I lure people in with empty boxes (Not my choice, but they're inside the store... I'm not luring anybody in with them) until a customer unloads on her. I don't remember exactly what he said, but it was along the lines of "Look, he's doing the best he can - every store chain is using the same empty boxes, nobody has them in stock, and you're not helping anybody."

She left in a huff and I never heard anything about it (which means she never called corporate after making the threat a dozen times, or my DM never brought it to me), but that's the only time I ever had a customer insert himself into another customer's ranting where I was actually grateful for it. He was a regular, and I hate that I can't remember his name, but he was the guy who came in and bought every obscure JRPG that came out and asked about Riviera: The Promised Land for the GBA about once a week.

It wasn't a "and everyone clapped" moment because the store was packed and two other registers were going, but it's something that stuck with me because it made my day suck a little less.

@BanChatum I don't know what makes me feel older. The aches and pains from yesterday's manual labor marathon or this gem from PushSquare. I was a GameStop manager for the launch of PS3 and Wii. Oh man. Time to buy some New Balances, I think.

Busy weekend - we're moving my wife's business into a new location. Lots of furniture to build and some plumbing to finish, but it's going to be awesome.

Pragmata was fantastic. After finishing it up this past week, it'll be hard to decide my GOTY. I left a few trophies on the table, but I can't be bothered.

If I get some gaming time, it'll be split between Leon Must Die - fantastic, but I keep trying to use Pragmata controls and die as a result, so I need to reacclimate to Requiem - and Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. I like Metroidvanias, but the difficulty on some of them is a turn off. I love the balance in Deedlit so far.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

This looks like something that scratches the, "Man, that Leon combat is fun. I'd like to do just that without the Grace section" itch. I'm going to give this a go in the next 40 minutes or so. Really looking forward to it.

I've got Bawkbasoup's first play through going in the background. Looks like a lot of fun, reminiscent of Revelations 2 raid mode. I'm looking forward to jumping in tonight.

I'm leery. On one hand, I could always use another survival horror in my backlog. On another, I feel disappointed when developers abandon the identity of what made them successful to imitate what someone else is doing. I don't know that this is what they're doing - it may just be the natural progression and growth of what they had, which is great. I just hope they're not trend chasing and lose their identity as a result.

If they do a physical release, then yeah, I'll 100% do it. I love these games.

@Starkei UK prices are VAT inclusive. US prices do not include sales tax since it varies by municipality (city, county, and state set sales tax). The $69.99 game is actually $76.81 in my town. Still, £70 is like $95. You guys are getting screwed.

Sunken cost fallacy in full effect?

Pragmata is the only game I've had time to play this month (and a bit if Lunar before Pragmata came out, but that doesn't count). I haven't been able to play anything at all in days, so I'm itching to get a controller in my hand at some point this week and finish out the post game. My backlog is starting to grow faster than my in-game hours counter.

I am out of town with my wife for our anniversary this weekend. I brought my little retro handheld thing along, so I may sneak in some F-Zero and Tekken 3 if there's any down time. Beyond that, I reckon I'll continue with Pragmata if I get any time tomorrow evening.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

It was a very good game. Not the best ever. Not even the best that I played last year, but it was a good experience. Narratively, I didn't care for the twist, but it is what it is. It's in maybe my top 20 or so RPGs.

@ozkrmz My favorite thing about PS5 has been how snappy everything feels. The load times are very fast thanks to the storage. I only really noticed it when I went back to the PS4 to play something with my family. I also appreciate how easy it is to expand storage internally, the more modern wireless network controller, and the USB-C connector on the controller.

I just bought my son a 2TB SSD for his PS5, and the darn thing was 60% of what I paid for the system itself. This AI madness and the cost of anything silicon is to blame, I would think.

What a great game. I'm working my way through the post game still and really enjoying my time with it. I haven't had time to play any games for a few days and probably won't until maybe Sunday evening, but I'm looking forward to finishing the "other" ending.

I do think it's incomplete - it's not in the ESRB site at all for any platform (searching by both this name and the original name used in North America, Tales of Destiny II). It would be curious if it was exclusive to Switch in Europe only. May just have to wait a bit and see if there are further updates.

Just Trails for me. Maybe Phantom Blade 0, we'll see.

2028 maybe? I wonder if it will be cross gen. It will be interesting to see how they thread that needle. I'll skip it regardless. Rebirth is my biggest disappointment this generation.

@DennisReynolds Rev 2 Raid Mode deserves all of its flowers. That's the game that pulled a lot of people back into the series.

It's why I never pay more than a rental fee's worth for a digital game. I don't reckon I'll even do that anymore. No disc no buy moving forward.

I hope so. The best game you've ever played is one that fits your vision of what a multiplayer game should be. If you're a talented game developer, of course the game that you developed is the best one - it's a reflection of everything you want and nothing you don't want in the experience. Kind of a weird statement.

@ozkrmz Goodness, I didn't know that was possible. Thanks.

@ozkrmz Didn't give a penny to Sony, but you have a PS+ Subscription for the next 4 years? How's that work?

Prices are reasonable. Hopefully he ships to the US - I'm going to try to order a few.

Edit: Yup, they do. $30 for the RE2/3/4 bundle shipped to the US. Looking forward to it, thanks for the write-up!

Still working my way through Pragmata. I think I'm closing in on the end of the game. It's been fantastic! It's raining here, so no outdoor work. Maybe I'll come up with something easy to do in the garage. Our push mower wouldn't start for my son this past week, so maybe I'll work on that.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

That Leon cake is peak. The little medallions on the side look exactly like the decorative letters in the RPD do in the game.

@Arkz How dare you enjoy something?! You must be doing it wrong! Come on. Go touch some grass.

@Arkz At first I thought you were full of it. My typical distance is about 13ft - the recommended distance for that sized display is between 6 and 8.9 feet, so I set up right at 6 feet and gave it a test. And you know what? I still think you're full of it. It looks fine.

Playing on base PS5 hasn't left me wanting for anything. It looks excellent on my TV. Calling it "poor image quality" is not accurate in the slightest.

Capcom is cooking with gas, and I love it. This Monster Hunter game seems right up my alley, I just didn't get into it from playing the demo. Still working through Pragmata and loving the experience. Not sure if it's one that I'll platinum or not, we'll see, but I do intend to pick up every little collectable that I can. I can definitely see the Resident Evil 4 influence in this game, most notably in the boss designs.

I spent a lot of time with it this weekend - Capcom did awesome here, and not just with the gameplay. The most memorable games tap into emotions on some level , whether that's anger, love, jealousy - you get it. This one taps into my primal fatherly urge to protect. She already reminds me so much of my daughter at that age to boot. It doesn't hurt that it's just so darn fun to play and explore.

Lots of Pragmata this weekend. I have a few parts arriving today, so I may start digging in to the Polaris ATV when I get the urge to do something with my hands.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

Yōtei over E33 for music is WILD!

Good on both of these games though. I really enjoyed my time with Dispatch.

This dropped down to $30 on Amazon, so I went ahead and ordered it (in addition to a few others because I was in a splurging kind of mood). I may hit this one up after Pragmata.

Okay, hear me out. I have an idea for an extraction shooter.

Game developers of failed, high budget, live service projects are all kidnapped sack-over-head style and taken to a remote island. They must team up with their own team (or defect to another team!) to take out the other teams in order for a chance at redemption. None of them have ever shot guns before, so they'll be using sling shots, water balloons filled with skunk musk, and coconut launchers.

The losers have to move to France and work for Ubisoft making licensed platformers in permanent crunch until they retire.

We shall call it: Con-Guard Game$: The Escape.

Joel was prolific. VAs make a huge difference. I haven't played MGSV because Keifer Sutherland is #NotMySnake.

If Troy Baker had voiced Snake instead? Maybe I could have stomached not having David in there.

Happy for those guys. Love the premise of the game - I do wish they had maybe let it bake for a while longer before unleashing it on the public. Maybe this is a No Man's Sky kind of turn-around but massively sped up? I'll look forward to playing it perhaps later this year after it's dropped in price.

With this kind of single player success under their belts, I wonder if they'd be tempted to do something in the Eve Online universe. No live service shooter or VR fighter game, but a single player adventure in that world would be amazing. I can't sink the time that I used to in Eve (my main will be 19 years old this year...), but being able to spend a bit of time here or there in New Eden would be cool.

I skipped Spidey 2 entirely. The first one is enough to scratch the web swinging itch. I have no doubt that Spidey 3 will be highly-reviewed and make a baskillion dollars, but Marvel just isn't for me these days.

Capcom and Falcom fans are both eating great this year. I couldn't be much happier with this year's slate of games between these two.

Outstanding. Thanks for the write-up. Mine has shipped. It'd be rad if it got here early, but if not, I'm cool with settling into it on Friday night after work.

When they said it was the best version of the game, maybe they meant it was the most true to the Bethesda identity? Skyrim YLOD 2 of my PS3s, so this just feels right!

I finished the Platinum on Requiem last weekend, a rarity for me. I've been cycling through games trying to find one that I look forward to playing rather than doing it out of convenience - Lunar: Silver Star Story (PS4 Remaster) is one that I spent some time on in the last week, so that may be it this weekend.

I've had a hankering for something similar to Unicorn Overlord, but nothing is really scratching that itch. Fire Emblem: Three Houses is a recommendation that I saw quite a bit, but I just can't get into it. Alas.

Have a great weekend, everybody.

They didn't say no AI, they said no AI visual tech. Which is fine, to be honest. I bounce ideas off of an AI nearly every day. I'm a one man department, so it's nice to have. I wrote a real slapdash piece to get a proof of concept over the finish line last week, and it took something like 40 seconds to render. I spun up a conversation with my AI assistant on Monday to get some ideas, and yesterday, I finished up a re-write that renders in two seconds instead.

It not only speaks to how awful my first go at it was, but also how just having that LLM you can bounce ideas off of can be really beneficial. That's the kind of usage I would hope to see in the future from game devs.

Yes, I believe I will. That looks great.