crispy4000

I’m no nerd about the parallel timelines thing in this universe, but it really does seem like you’re overthinking it if you consider it erasure. It’s heavily implied that the default timeline (FF7 as you know) happened at one point. Lots of points of deja vu and such the characters themselves experience. Maybe some of those smaller moments could be lost when you never played it and just watched or read a synopsis. And I still find it crazy to believe that you think FF7 is ruined forever, but Star Wars, naw we can just cut Luke’s Disney arc out of our head space because the original trilogy was complete. I don’t see the difference, when FF7 by the same metric, is a complete story. Even without the timeline jazz, or Advent Children, or Crisis Core, etc, that would remain true. And it’s all so silly here when we don’t truly know the consequences of the changes. To Remake’s credit, we haven’t seen any characters ruined IMO. It’s more like watching a TV show where they kill off / let live different characters than the books its based on, and they leave that as a cliffhanger for the next season. It’s not honest to the source material, but there’s the question if it ever had to be, and if you can’t deal with the implications otherwise, stick to what you know and enjoy. Meanwhile playing Crisis Core now, it does such a bad job portraying these characters that it makes the whole cast feel one-dimensional. That bothers me much more personally.

I’ll add that I’m almost done with Crisis Core right now, and if you take that game as canon (as has been stated) the ending of FF7R is much more believable. I just one shotted Sephiroth, lol. I don’t know how the ending won’t come across as something ridiculous considering.

Change is hard, we get it. Especially after playing it, I’m convinced that I enjoyed FF7R more for what it is (and anticipating what Rebirth could be) than I would have a straight laced remake that didn’t dare to change anything of significance. FF7 isn’t ruined in either case, just like Star Wars 4-6 weren’t ruined by older Lucas or Disney. Remake set the expectation that they may choose to fuck with things in the the new games with no take-backsies. If anything, I’d be more disappointed if the threads they opened aren’t closed in a satisfying way. That would pull me to your side, but that’s for this game (and the next probably) to answer. Well, other than thinking the game itself is fantastic even if you chose to spite the story.

Cool I got more time to wrap up other games now.

Mostly free stuff this past month (and a Mario Rabbids 2 gift I never imported), with a dash of Humble Choice mixed in. Bought that mainly for Midnight Suns, and perhaps Twin Mirror if I ever get around to it.

Most people are playing CoD and sports games where their friends play, so I don’t disagree. The people who do care about this stuff are the early adopters. Despair is too strong of a word for most, but as I said, it could be further eroding confidence. And the mass market isn’t immune to that, as we saw with the Xbox One. Agreed on the wait and see, although there’s still plenty to talk about now with so many journalists reporting leaks. Few people will abandon their consoles mid gen like these influencers are. But more would write them off in the future if this is what they offer.

I don’t think you need to be a Bethesda super fan to consider Elder Scrolls, Doom, Fallout, Dishonored, Wolfenstein, etc, important franchises that can influence a console purchase decision. Certainly more than the other acquisitions Phil made prior. It’s not worth playing them or their fans down any more than a Capcom or SquareEnix acquisition. In the grand scheme of things, yes, you’re only missing out on a couple notable franchises if you don’t have Sony 1st party. It’s more the general lack of fight for the Xbox console ecosystem that’s causing these fanboys to revolt. But even beyond them, this move doesn't really benefit the average Xbox owner. Microsoft is a huge corporation who bought Activision Blizzard, makes more money now that they do, and it's suddenly unsustainable for them to compete? Even if people aren't mad about it, per say, it makes Microsoft's case for the next machine tougher to make.

I hope to do the same, but will gladly wait for Sony exclusives. Don’t think they’ll be changing their porting strategy any time soon. The main reason I own a PS5 this gen is because of how PC costs spiraled.

I really hope they can extend some of their bc work to PC someday, although they might not see the worth. I’d love an official Xbox 1/360 emulator on the backend.

How are you feeling about the prospects of buying an Xbox next-gen then? Do you need another hook? Its probably a better question after Phil speaks.

Did you buy a Series X because you expected Bethesda games to not to come to PS5? Some people clearly put a lot more stock and weight into that than others. I’ve heard others say they don’t care when it’s still cheaper on Xbox with Games Pass. Or who don’t care about Sony’s games at all.

Tons of speculation, lots of leaks, but we know something is up and more games are getting ported. The point I was making is that people are justified to freak out a bit over Starfield getting ported, if it (and Bestheda exclusives in general) factored into which console they bought. On some level, they did get duped.

Bungie spent years trying to figure out what type of game Halo even was. You’re missing the point. We’ve never seen an acquisition to this effect reverse course so rapidly. It’s the kind of thing you’d expect from a timed exclusivity deal with an outside publisher, not a major 1st party release. What Microsoft is doing here is unprecedented, even for them. If it wasn’t, Rare would have never stopped making Nintendo games.

Bungie wasn’t AAA before Halo, really. Even though they made some cool stuff. It wouldn’t be the first time gamers freaked out like entitled children, and not the worst. If you didn’t jump on the bandwagon in 2008 about Nintendo abandoning you for soccer moms, you apparently weren’t thinking straight. I’d say Microsoft 2013 as well, but that uproar actually enacted some positive change once they got the message. I bet some of these personalities think they can try to tap into that again.

Sure, they’re overreacting. But I don’t think it’s wrong to be mad if you bought a Series console to not miss out on Bethesda games. And you would have gotten a PS5 instead if you only knew. Starfield was the first tangible example of Microsoft leveraging an AAA acquisition to prop up their consoles’ appeal. Most of them also did before this.

In regard to the influencers, there’s nothing wrong with feeling duped if the ecosystem you've invested in has stopped fighting for relevance. I can get that part of it. It's not just the persistent games library, but your friends list, saves, and your epeen aka Gamerscore. People don't want to have to give that up. The same hooks didn't exist back when Sega was struggling. So the "brand" means more today than in the past. Cross-buy with PC for the better part of a decade softens the blow, but probably not enough with the Windows storefront's reputation, and certain console gamers' allergic reaction to PC. Where I think it's an act is them being unwilling to wait for Phil to set the record straight. Get their reaction points in early for attention, I guess. On the other hand, I've listened to both Kinda Funny and Giant Bomb's takes now, and the whole 'traditional terms of engagement have been over for some time' shtick is getting tiresome. IMO, that actually happened when Microsoft threw around their wallet, more than any of Phil's other changes. If they want to squander the opportunity they bought because of two historically so-so generations, that's on them. It's not like they ever got curbstomped like Nintendo has. It's far more likely to me that MS corporate realized they spent too much on the Activision Blizzard deal, and the current interest rate environment isn't helping. So they decide to cut jobs and port more games. Though I'd give them a hats off to a 4D chess move at a later date... like, 10 years in the future?

Not true, it's on the arms!

Have you seen PS Plus prices lately? They don’t have to abandon the model. They can always upcharge. And they’ve learned people will still pay full launch price for many of their games regardless of a delayed subscription launch. Like copying Xbox Live, it’ll just become another way they can make more money. This why we need more direct competition. I fully believe Microsoft could compete on normal terms in the next-generation if they weren’t so intent on breaking the confidence in their boxes. I would never be happier to see Valve disrupt the market. Not because it’d be direct competition, but because an open platform console with free online and all the games would have a lot going for it right now. That’s how Sony gets checked if Microsoft sidelines their competitive goals.

I would qualify that stuff like Ori and Cuphead on Switch didn’t do massive damage, because people still see that as indie in some form.

I trust it to be as case-by-case as Sony is with their PC ports, *if* the rumors are credible. More a matter of when than if, especially once the money starts rolling in. It’s also hard to believe this was the plan all along, when some of the leaks point to internal strife over these decisions. The facts on the ground have also changed considerably since Series X stopped selling out and Games Pass growth was first put into question.

Is Life is Strange True Colors worth $13? I'm eyeing the newest Humble Choice, but the other games are don't nothing for me outside of Destroy All Humans 2 maybe. I might just wait to pick it up on a deeper cut someday.

The line was already crossed with the leak that they’d take a Bethesda game, with no prior deal in place, to PS/Switch. People are freaking out now over AAA, but realistically speaking, we should now expect Starfield to come over at some point. And it’s not a big stretch from there to Gears, or anything else. Microsoft could try to walk this back, but people’s expectations are now fundamentally changed. The damage to the Xbox hardware brand has been done.

Good games, but why are you adding years together? For a 12-month stretch?

Scalebound was mostly under Phil’s tenure. I don’t blame him for its cancellation. Though it might have been best to delay it to more powerful hardware, like The Last Guardian. It could have made it to the Series X launch as a legitimate next gen exclusive. But that would go against his cross-gen philosophy at the time. I think that’s part of the problem with him: his vision often doesn’t align with promoting his consoles well, and making those invested in them feel special. All leads to what we’re hearing today, and the crazy reactions to it elsewhere.

No reason to change it when it’s working, and apparently not hurting PS5 sales as is. … Well, maybe not in TLoU1’s case. That one could have been delayed further.