crispy4000

Star Fox 64 is my first vote. Even the slowdown feels good as you wreck shit. Hades is my second. Absolute perfection. It’s my point of comparison to every other top down or isometric character action game.

That doesn’t reflect the reality of the situation here. Microsoft’s moved on from buying single developers (albeit quite a few at a time in 2018) to Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. They’re picking up huge swaths of development resources and IP all at once. That’s of far more consequence than Sony moneyhatting a select few Square/Konami games from coming to Xbox. Unlike their past deal with Bloodborne, they don’t even own these franchises after the dust settles. If this is Sony’s response, they’re simply not keeping pace. It’s scummy, sure, but grasping at straws by comparison. Sony would need their own mega-publisher M&A to play the same game of hardball. No one should want any of this for the industry. We’ve had two gens of softball exclusivity deals and multiplatfrom normalization. The pendulum is starting to swing back, spearheaded by acquisitions.

I don’t know what’s so hard to understand about buying out a publisher being a bigger deal than repeatedly contracting them for exclusives. If Microsoft was after Square-Enix this whole time instead of Activision, all of this FF stuff from today would matter for almost nothing. Because Microsoft could twist the entire franchise against their competitors, permanently if they so chose. That, and all of Square’s other IP. I don’t say this to handwave away what Sony is doing as something not so bad. It may very well be all they can afford to compete in this environment. They’ll probably lose out to Microsoft long term if so - who is literally in the process of buying the largest 3rd party publisher.

It’s paid once, and it’s done. No chance of the other side cutting a deal from under their nose in the future. They own the talent, if not also the IP with it. Sony absolutely got burned as such with Deathloop and Ghostwire. They would have put that money elsewhere if they saw it coming. You could also point to Crash.

Returning to Fallen Order after getting in the mood watching some Disney+ Star Wars. It’s still a surprisingly good game to me. There’s still a tinge of jank occasionally but there’s some really nicely designed maps to explore.

With Games Pass on other consoles being off the table (as it always was) and new subscriptions slowing, I think Microsoft's priorities will shift back to growing their console install base at the expense of their competition. They're already everywhere they can be with GP. Sony and Nintendo aren't going to throw in the towel. That means more Microsoft exclusives: subscription exclusives and not-on-Sony/Nintendo exclusives. Some properties are such established cash cows it makes sense to keep them fully multiplatform (ie: CoD, Minecraft, Overwatch). But I'd bet the majority of games from acquired studios will stay on platforms that allow for Games Pass. This is Microsoft's end game: buy up big, notable studios, turn people's heads from the platforms not friendly to their interests, own the living room. I don't think any console manufacturer expects to ever be the only one in buisness. But they all want to be on top. And decidedly so. Games Pass gets bigger when Xbox gets bigger. I also expect a much greater push for international markets within the next decade, after the dust settles with Activison.

Encased was yesterday's, gone now. Speculation is that tomorrow is Death's Stranding.

They’re playing the old dirty game. The new dirty game is buying mega-publishers, a clear escalation on Microsoft’s part. Without the same access to capital, of course they’re going to complain.

Greak: Memories of Azur on GOG.com WWW.GOG.COM Greak: Memories of Azur is a side scrolling single-player game with hand-drawn animatio

*Ahem* Greak: Memories of Azur is free on GOG. I beat it this year:

Got mixed feelings here. This sort of thing has long been part of the industry, under the radar or not. Nintendo paying to keep Monster Hunter off Vita is a notable example - it likely led to the platform's early death, if not also Sony's hard exit from the handheld space. These kind of deals suck for everyone, especially if the bill for development isn't fronted as part of the deal. On the other hand, it's still small beans compared to buying the exclusive rights to a well-established studio's IP forever. This is essentially what acquisitions are. Microsoft's put on a metric ton of pressure in the past 4 years, they're hardly one to talk about keeping games from their competition. All the more reason why I'm partial to PC gaming nowadays. It's one thing if I need to buy a console to play a game. It's another if I can't play it because I pick the wrong side instead of the neutral side.

Microsoft confirms that Sony has blocked these 4 games from hitting Xbox forever | Windows Central WWW.WINDOWSCENTRAL.COM Bloodborne, Final Fantasy VII Remake, and more are apparently being held hostage by Sony. They also claim Bloodborne, but given no PC release and Sony publishing / owning the IP there’s likely more at play.

Decided to fire up the Immortals demo on my PC, in typical Ubisoft fashion the CPU burden is heavier than you’d think. Was going to pick that up for $15 for the complete edition on Ubisoft’s store, but I think I can wait now. Crash 4 should run better, I haven’t even made it through 2 or 3 yet so I won’t pick it up this sale. I wish they put the CTR remake on Steam already. I might not pick anything up. It’s actually a pretty good sale this year IMO, just not on what I’d want.

A few other indies and and smaller games with historical lows across any storefront: Huntdown - $4 Kaze and the Wild Masks - $5 Spore - $2 (for shits and giggles) Black Mesa - $5 Thumper - $4 Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales - $6 Lost in Random - $6

As far as the sale goes, the only thing kind of tempting me right now is Crash 4. It's $16.59 if you own the trilogy and Spyro collection, which many will after that insane humble bundle a while back. Microsoft will soon own those franchises though, and might start giving them away like the Bethesda stuff.

The ones who buy cards to complete them. I think every badge that gets generated also gives a chance of someone else getting a free booster, though that probably doesn't apply to the sale cards.

Pro tip, seek discounts in bundles, especially complete the pack ones: https://steamdb.info/bundles/ Probably the best way to make these sales worthwhile.

Thanks to people like you, I get more free games.

Yeah, I think I spoke too soon. At least the deals seem to be viewable if you check SteamDB.

I was able to vote on the GOTY awards, go through my discover cue, and sell all the generated cards for half a buck in the first 15 minutes of the sale. Valve's servers are holding. It's a Christmas miracle.

I want one. When the 50x series is here.

C&C Remastered Steam key ($4) - Amazon Lost in Random Steam key ($6) - Amazon Anthem Origin key ($2) - Amazon lol

No one should have to pay that much for these GPUs, especially the 4080. On paper, it sounds like the exact card I’d want to carry forward for many years, but the price is bonkers.

They do, in the sense that I'll wait on playing certain games if the PC version is significantly better than consoles. I'm not touching Control just yet. Or 30fps only console games like Plague's Tale Requiem. Or as funny as it is to say it... Witcher 3. Now seems like a terrible time to upgrade. I'll build when I know it'd pass this gen with flying colors, without costing an arm and a leg. Until then, I'll probably gravitate to prior gen games, indies and exclusives. Same thing I did last gen before I built.