crispy4000

I literally just made the comparison to an emulator texture pack job for you. It's right up there, looking much uglier than Nintendo's remaster. That's not a fanboy take in the slightest. It's pretty objectively true here, unless you think unrounded polygons look better or something nutso. Check your own bias if you can't see it.

You gotta problem with that? This looks like what a $40 remake should be. And yes, those are comparisons to Dolphin. (2nd group even being an AI texture pack)

Nothing slapdash about this. Looks like a legitimate update with new geometry, textures, lighting, etc.

So, did Retro do this? Or someone else? Bird-site comments are kind of conflicting, but looks like it is Retro.

Give me back those underworld sections from 2.

You're probably hearing that from: A) Nintendo fans who always wish for the moon from Nintendo Directs. When other moons appear, they complain it's not theirs. B) The 'Nintendo is dead to me' folks who only follow Mario/Metroid/Zelda sometimes. This was almost what we've come expect from their E3 presentations. Hopefully it's the Switch's last hurrah.

Wait hold on, that's Rex? Hahahaha. This is going to be so much hilarity if they lean into XB3's ending. Please, let us visit his homestead.

If this is the end of the Switch, I'm actually happy with the way it's headed out. Zelda is hard to judge at this point, so I won't. I'm tired of guessing what the game is, I just want to play it or get some hands on impressions of what's changed. Pikmin 4 looks great. I like the new camera, and think I see a return of the roguelike dungeons in 2. That would make me very happy, since I liked that game more than 3. Metroid Prime remake probably isn't for me, I think I beat the original like 3 times already. I do think it looks pretty good on first impression, higher budget than what I expected. Hopefully you get an option for lock-on circle strafing with dual stick controls. Several of the bosses were designed around the side hop working together with it. Baten Katios remaster looks great, especially for having both games. I wonder if they changed anything else. Upscaled backgrounds and a higher FPS? Xenoblade 3 DLC for the base game looks really nice. I could see myself enjoying the roguelike mode, that's very unexpected. The fuller DLC expansion? I'm surprised they're leaning so hard into Xenoblade 1 with it, it looks more like another expansion to that game. Not that I'm complaining, XB3 didn't go hard enough into the tie-ins. I'm super glad it's out this year. Etrian Odyssey, Samba de Amigo and Ghost Trick are alive! Neato. Nice to see the Wii Kirby remake getting some new levels of a different variety. I need to beat Oracle of Ages someday, I'm glad the GBC tier comes with the basic subscription. Maybe, just maybe, that $20 annual tier is worth it for NES/SNES/GBC alone now. That's good, because screw everything about needing to pay for online play on a console. Bayonetta Origins is more intriguing to me than the main series, which I still haven't played. I might start with it at some point. Sea of Stars looks amazing as always, but that's nothing specific to Nintendo. Level 5 isn't dead quite yet. That's cool, I guess. DecaPolice seems like it could be alright. Omega Strikes looks like a neat expansion of what Pyre tried, but I'm not into F2P stuff. Overall, a pretty great Direct. I'll be feasting with this year with Zelda, Pikmin 4 and Xenoblade 3 DLC.

Charging Sony for putting it on their service day and date isn’t nothing, especially not over years. It wouldn't come cheap. Microsoft could also play hardball on cosmetics, betas, etc. I don’t see fighting over subscription rights to be a positive development for the industry in general. Especially between Microsoft and Sony themselves. It’s begging for more sleazy deals and clap backs in ways that have little to do with game development. It harms both services.

They couldn’t compete with CoD on Games Pass just by making their 1st party games available on PS Extra day and date. That’s peanuts by comparison. Nope, it would take a ridiculous deal with Rockstar, if not an outright merger with 2K, to throw back a similar punch. No one should want that. And nothing would bring out those type of deals faster, from both sides, than CoD being exclusive to one subscription service.

As it should be. Otherwise, it'd just be a ticking time bomb for when Microsoft gets to pull the rug out. We'll have to see from the fallout if Nintendo even gets CoD games again.

Fun bit about Nintendo: I'd love to imagine someone's pride being hurt by this.

Sea of Thieves has sold over 5 million copies on Steam WWW.ONMSFT.COM Sea of Thieves has now sold over 5 million copies on Steam right after celebrating 25 million players in October. Doubt it would have gotten to this point without Games Pass being a thing.

Games Pass does not increase game sales on average. Puts that to rest. There's gotta be some outliers though.

The full CMA document. https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63e3e9aee90e0762692b970a/M_A_Provisional_Findings_Report.pdf There's so much here, including some rebuttals of both Microsoft and Sony's statements. I thought this was interesting: Microsoft's telegraphed it already.

Could every exclusivity deal be argued to “substantially” tilt the competition? That’s the key word. I think only stuff like GTA or Fortnite would be as clear cut of a case.

The regulators are ... fanboys? Might want to check your language here. Literally the same arguments being made against Microsoft buying CoD would apply thereafter to a Sony attempt. This: Is not a biased arguement. It implies they don't want a console manufactuer purchasing CoD.

Would it? It'd still be an outright purchase of the largest franchise in gaming, and Microsoft would surely put their lawyers on it to argue that they got ripped off. There's also the question if Sony would have the capital for it.

Fair enough. It's where I'd be fighting for wiggle room if I was in Microsoft's shoes.

See @Commissar SFLUFAN's post earlier. The CMA is giving Microsoft an option to consider other assets in addition to CoD resources. It stands to reason that if Microsoft offers to drop other parts of the company from the deal, the less they'll be forced to to take from CoD production. This is going to be fascinating to watch, to see where Microsoft's priorities lie.

I would say wait 4 years and it'll be $50. But some late gen Wii U games never dropped once at retail.

Yeah, Yakuza is sold out locally. I would have gone for that.

I called the CoD divestment yesterday. Sounds like they want to see some combination of studios (and other resources) dropped from the deal. I'd love to see Neversoft, Beenox, Vicarious Visions *Cough* Blizzard Albany and/or Toys for Bob negotiated out.