crispy4000

So if I have this right, we finally get to see their games announced in CG trailers 2-3 years ago. Can't buck a trend if you don't start somewhere. I'm hopeful this will be Microsoft's best summer showing ever. Even better if they do it without leaning on Halo or Gears at all.

Humble Choice Leak: Curse of the Dead Gods Ghostwire: Tokyo GRIME Honey, I Joined a Cult Remnant: From the Ashes - Complete Edition Serial Cleaners Sunday Gold Turbo Golf Racing

Yep. Here's the ad: They switch over tomorrow. So the deal is up for another ~24 hours.

Those are givens. This is more exciting news for everything else (1st party) that's being shown.

Save 100% on Field of Glory II on Steam STORE.STEAMPOWERED.COM Field of Glory II is a turn-based tactical game set during the Rise of Rome from 280 BC to 25 BC.

There isn't much time left, but Humble Choice is offering a $7 a month for 3 months deal. Offer only via email. I wasn't super interested in May (Spiritfarer, Windjammers 2, etc), but next month Ghostwire Tokyo is the headliner. Bought in for that.

I'm down. There's always decent sales going on, and most of the best ones happen off Steam. I pay most attention to giveaways, bundles and Amazon, and will limit myself to post those mostly. This one of the better current choices: Must-Play Metroidvanias WWW.HUMBLEBUNDLE.COM Explore the worlds of these great Metroidvania games. Get Hollow Knight, Rain World, Lost Ruins, Lone Fungus, and more. Pay what you want & support charity! Hollow Knight, Bloodstained, Blasphemous & others for $15 altogether. If for some reason you skipped out on these, it's worth the price. Hollow Knight is worth more than this alone.

This should be Microsoft's year. A little odd to tout no CG, when CG announcements are historically part of their playbook. But more importantly this means the games are ready to be shown.

Regardless, this thread is inspiring me to try Elden Ring after ToTK. Or maybe I should play Dark Souls first? Demon Souls?

Just finished my second dungeon, the Goron one. Not up with the very best 3D Zelda dungeons, but a notable step up from BoTW.

I don’t think it going action is the hold up. It’s a FF set in a less technologically advanced time, with castles and such. But without the old school charm. Square has to convince us this is the style of FF we’ve been wanting for. And that Summons are still exciting.

I'm going to post this without context, because saying what Switch game its from would actually spoil it. I remember looking around at the surrounding hills thinking there's some blemishes that kind of made it feel like a dream state approximation. Trees have obvious sprite layers as well. But with art direction this good, the Switch is capable enough to pull something realistic off in a way that can still be appreciated. This is a very selectively produced portion of the game I'm referring to, granted. Not something as sprawling or interactive as ToTK. I think that's the bigger problem for Zelda. Doing too much more than BoTW visually would have limited them. ToTK already relies on FSR1 to claw back some performance as it is.

I never go for achievements. I sometimes go for superbosses, if they're not stupid. If its a challenge designed to be interesting and not to fill a developer's self-imposed checklist, I'll usually give it a go.

If game streaming ever becomes mainstream, we'll see publishers splinter off with their own subscriptions just like with video services. Or partner with Amazon for it, like Ubisoft is already doing. The mainstream has to be sold on video game subscription libraries more than they already are. I think there's potential for us to eventually end up there. But if the games industry was being honest with itself, I don't think they can afford to charge the same for their subscriptions as Netflix/Disney+/etc. In an industry that sells games for $70 a pop, it likely needs to be more. There hasn't been a lot said about how hungry subscription audiences are for MTX purchases, which is kind of the wild card. Being cost prohibitive would likely keep the status quo going for a good, long time. I think Amazon could slide into this as a major player before people realize it. Surely they have larger plans for Luna. It's incredibly odd to me how little they've been brought up in these proceedings.

And wow, checking sources for that post, I learned EA Play isn't offered with the basic console tier of Games Pass, but is with PC Games Pass, at the exact same price. That's some scummy BS.

Content production costs are probably the bigger issue. As with gaming. But Microsoft also has leverage those companies don't. They still get get royalties for direct purchases, including DLC. And they lock out content - online multiplayer, EA Games on console - unless you pay them an extra monthly fee or buy the Ultimate package.

I'm not saying the technology is new. I'm saying the buisness model is. There's no game ownership requirement. You don't have to be invested at all outside of the subscription. And now, you might already have an xCloud app on your TV. I'd also only consider xCloud and nVidia's services to be, well, serviceable. Google's too, but it's dead, because their business model was stuck in the past. Stream quality and latency reduction has evolved to a point today where, in theory, its viable. We only got to that point <5 years ago. Sony's cloud service is a perfect example of why older streaming solutions (GaiKai) are garbage by comparison.

That's why the subscription catalog + building it into TVs is "new." That's one of their big entry points that has yet to gain much traction, but could over time.

That's probably an oversimplification. Like a lot of GaaS games, there's the question of it being ill conceived at the start. Also, why Microsoft didn't step in more to salvage it, or kill it when they had the chance. Watching Arkane Austin hemorrhage talent like that should have lit a fire to protect their investment in the studio.

Gist of it is that 70% of the staff from Prey left because they weren’t passionate about the project, in spite of Arkane management’s belief in the pitch. Originally had microtransactions. Pitched as multiplayer “Arkane magic.” Microsoft was hands off.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-06-01/arcane-s-redfall-misfire-for-xbox-panned-after-7-5-billion-microsoft-deal?leadSource=uverify wall Schreier’s dirt is here. This one’s going to be fascinating. … and paywalled. *sigh*

Cloud gaming represents, at best, a new game delivery medium that’s as much of a paradigm shift as handhelds or smart phones once were. At worst, it’s nothing. Like the Steam Link was nothing. But it is something different. The whole idea of streaming in console quality games you don’t own through a subscription, on your smart TV, tablet and phone, is something new.

Turok targeted 30fps at the time, and was one actually of the better ruining games of that gen. Only with explosions and such could it buckle down to the teens. ToTK maintains 30fps pretty well, but can dip down to low 20's with Ultrahand though (double buffered vsync), so I can see the comparison. I'm kind of okay with it, it's doing so much at times, it kind of has a classic game slowdown feel to me. OoT was only at a 20fps locked.