crispy4000

I feel like I've received enough from this board in giveaways past, so just wanted to say thank you! I'll be trying to finish one of the prior games I received (Age of Calamity) instead.

I try, don't always succeed. It's better to just know they refresh on Thursdays if you don't see an update here. You should still be able to see what the next free game is from their front store page. (Rise of Industry next)

Sell your cards. It’s a pain, but the cents can add up. It’s free money, and can yield better discounts than passive reward programs. Or even free games, if you stockpile. I make about $30 a year to spend, and haven’t given Valve a dollar directly for several years. There’s other ways to game the system I won’t get into. But don’t engage with the gem system, yields are terrible that way. Same with crafting badges. Sell your cards.

Age of Calamity to prepare for Tears of the Kingdom.

*ahem*

Also, Humanity … yes.

I’m sure this will be better. It looks like the Crackdown game people actually wanted, but with some GaaSy bloat. Coming from Rocksteady, they’ll also have to prove this isn’t their Crystal Dynamics moment.

Kill the Justice League looks awesome in ways I didn’t really expect or want it to be: Vanquish + Crackdown + Spider-Man. But all the things I’m most worried about are even more of a buzzkill. Its co-op and shooting centric. It has a leveling based progression system for tackling missions. There’s glowing orbs galore on damage sponge enemies signaling weak points, even on tanks for some unfathonable reason. I’m still much more negative than positive on it. Could be great in its own right, but boy is it different the than Arkham games before it, in an utterly generic way. Why on earth did WB green light both this and Gotham Knights.

No thread? Just finished.

I beat that boss first try, well actually, second try after an astronaut figure. I was such a damage sponge at that point with my health bar and protection % that there was no stopping me from a full life meter. Trick is to kick butt in the first zone and the start of the second.

No, all things are not equal. Take it from Microsoft themselves doubling down. Hate to say it, but this is one of the areas where Nintendo might be right to not discount their games by much or throw them on subscriptions. They aren’t as pressured to make Splatoon 3 multiplayer free, or to turn Mario Kart into a mess of live-service cosmetics. (…Just on iOS)

1st party exclusives also tend to be less loaded with microtransactions and questionable season passes than the rest of the AAA industry. Part of me thinks that also wouldn’t be worth losing. It keeps a bit of a sanity check on the rest of the industry peddling too much bs.

Not a great comparison. CoD is an annualized franchise that tops annual sales charts most years, with a reach extending further into F2P and mobile spaces. Comparing it to Nintendo’s output all at once doesn’t make much sense. Or to a Spider-Man game releasing once in a blue moon. All goes to illustrate that the CoD machine occupies its own space in this industry. It really is that important. Which is why a buyout of Activision was so surprising to begin with, even with their PR problems. The idea that a platform holder could choose to rip CoD away from their competitors should be shocking. It’s one heck of a bargaining chip if nothing else. The closer (imperfect) analog is GTA, just for how much V sold. Imagine if Sony or Microsoft cinched that today, and said the other side could stop receiving them (in a decade). It’s a huge deal if those franchises appeal to your audience.

The West pushed themselves out of the handheld market. So many half baked spin-offs, barebone ports, licensed garbage, etc, over the years. They got out of it what they put in. Steam Deck has been the biggest push yet outside of Japan. And that’s because Valve can leverage what they already have.

If Doom could be ported, I don’t see why a game with a cartoon aesthetic couldn’t be. But since it’s a new IP being leveraged for Games Pass, fat chance. There’s also the PS5. Why isn’t it coming there? You already know. Nintendo doesn’t even reduce price on games that bomb anymore. If this is to stop, Nintendo either needs to trip over themselves again, or Microsoft/Sony need to make a more concentrated play for their audience. Maybe even release a new handheld. Nothing is stopping them. Nintendo still does face pressure to do new and exciting things with their franchises however, especially close to launch. The Switch wouldn’t be where it is today without BoTW. If their case isn’t appealing enough, the market can easily write them off. A New Super Mario Wii U 2 wouldn’t cut it as the big Switch 2 launch title, for example. The problem here is closer related to CoD. It’s not that no one can make a better linear military shooter. It’s that anyone who tries just isn’t going to challenge their mindshare. Plus making kid-oriented monster collecting RPGs isn’t in vogue for large publishers anymore. Just like kart racers. It’s not just about Microsoft and Sony not challenging them. Can’t really say the quality has degraded outside of Pokemon though.

Great. As I’m sure many would for Zelda and Mario. Nintendo wants to be in the console/handheld space, this is how they stay relevant there.

Saw your edit. The material difference is that you don’t lose would-be multiplatform games in the process. In other words, you and your eyes could play Starfield on a PS5. That is objectively a different outcome. Exclusives are then additions to the library, not subtractions from others. Subtractions are what Microsoft and Sony have become increasingly focused on. They’ve tried to do it small scale for the past decade+, now its moving towards console gamers picking sides based on the formerly multiplatform franchises they enjoy.

It makes no difference to you that these buyout arguments don’t apply to Nintendo. You could have just said so, instead of well, the opposite. Exclusivity is a whole different can of worms. Microsoft has tried to tilt the concept towards subscriptions, and more specifically, who is and isn’t willing to surrender that ground to them. I find it much less problematic that Nintendo keeps its own games to itself, as in the traditional model of supporting console ecosystems, than Microsoft acquiring large neutral publishers and blocking future releases from Sony and/or Nintendo. Where’s that Hi-Fi Rush Switch port?

Surely they can both be better without CoD and more valuable with it. I’m with you on hating what they’ve become.

Who is Nintendo buying? What acquisition is enabling them? What’s stopping their competitors from encroaching into their market?

Ah, that’s just what we need. More FPSs. Sucks so bad that COD has discouraged devs from making them.

Not really.

There’s also evidence that Bobby Kottick knows how to keep CoD printing money. Oh, and sweep sexual harassment under the rug.

Personally, I’d rather be impeded by a puzzle or missed detail than a heavy handed difficulty spike. So long as the solution is fair, reasonable and intelligible. Metroid games are perfectly reasonable outside of some optional pickups in Zero Mission perhaps. These games aren’t like The Witness, Fez, etc.

I think that holds water for Games Pass and Microsoft’s PC ports. Sony’s been pressured to respond, even if they haven’t been willing to go quite as far. Those are organic developments with positive, pro-consumer results in the here and now. I don’t think an acquisition war weakening Sony should be considered healthy competition by comparison. It’s just going to breed more of that, or similar moves to leverage IP that’s not owned.