JumpingJackson

I bought a 4TB USB drive for the one. I’m happy using that and having the patience to transfer games if they won’t boot from that drive.

I think the thing I miss the most is it not feeling like an arduous slog like it is now. With modern games once you're past the initial idea of the game I get to thinking 'what have they cut out to sell to me later?', 'how is the company trying to pull a fast one with this games?', 'whats the depth of the corporate claws in this game?'

Gaming felt fun and exciting. Good graphics without it having to be hyper realistic and this being reflected in the cost / dev time. Fallout 3 and New Vegas do not look like pretty games but the graphics are absolutely fine for a game.

RDR is outshined graphically by RDR2, but if they came out with RDR3 and said 'we're going to make it look like the 360 game' I'd be ok with that.

Now with most releases it feels like 'here's this great game... BUT:'

Plus I was in my early twenties back then. I hadn't been ground down by coalition / Tory Governments, Brexit, Covid, cost-of-greed crisis, Russia etc.

Thinking about it some more, I want Blinx 3.

Was this the same in the UK? I remember getting mine on launch day with Halo and Munch’s Odyssey. But in my head that was February, not November.

Or I’m misremembering and I didn’t get it on launch day. Remember getting it from Electronics Boutique in Derby though.

Got my GBA there too. That store got a lot of my money.

@TheOldHunter4K even today that first time you hit the ridge before descending to McFarlane Ranch. I could look at that for hours.

@GamingGod Sorry I think I’m a bit out of the loop. What’s the complaint about backwards compatibility?

@Lrapsody Not one game does it feel forced. I genuinely can’t say I’ve noticed other than games were the core character focus is their grappling with those changes eg Tell Me Why. And I enjoyed that. I enjoy learning about the perspectives of others.

Not got a problem with FF7’s save the planet from our own destructive tendencies ideology? Hell even FF9 has a main character who lives a lie about who they are inside. Maybe it’s a particular ideology? What’s your issue? Race? Gender? Sexuality? Upset that not all characters are as close minded as you?

It’s not a big deal. Let people be who they want to be, and let games - like films - be a barometer of society. Which at this point includes shouting about the trans message because toads like you have a vendetta about people being who they want to be.

As we float on a giant rock in a massive galaxy.

As I’ve said on NL, wonderful news that it’s a free upgrade. Especially since I’m not giving Rockstar a penny until the union busting allegations have been found to be untrue (or never if the opposite).

@OldGamer999 I’m not particularly interested in my new games pushing the graphic envelope, and I quite like my current games just playing / loading better / faster.

But I would like some new games and not just re-release after re-release which is how it feels (even if not strictly true).

@TheMule1983 I hope this is satire.

@Elbow No I’m concerned that anyone made this outside of satire. The U.S. Government making this was my worst fear that I knew was real when I saw it.

But I didn’t want to believe.

@lacerz Christ I hope this isn’t real.

I’m curious about these prequel missions. Didn’t Reach end with MC being loaded - in stasis - on to the Pillar of Autumn, then they jumped into hyperspace and the we have the start of Halo 1?

Unless they’re going further back than Reach and / or you’ll play as other people.

Not a new game then? A remake of a remake.

I do not believe him.

10 years to make a new one and they haven’t. Shame.

And that trailer massively oversells the story and your impact on it.

Grim Fandango all day.

Well, there’s the kiss of death.

@Krzzystuff Ha, I thought the exact same when I saw the article on BBC News. I prefer their journalism (for the most part) to others, but they aren't half slow with a lot of things. You know a company has made a mistake when it gets BBC time.

@electrolite77 the point is we shouldn’t be buying the games at this price. Do I need to talk slower or louder?

@Timppis "frankly in my view childish and idiotic." | "It's just stupid in my opinion"

A teacher, so willing to throw around the word 'stupid' as it relates to someone's opinions? Great.

As a society we have allowed gaming to become weaved into the fabric of existence and companies know this and are trying to squeeze people in the same way every other company - energy, groceries, healthcare etc. They are all at it. To tell one of them this is ok, is to let them all get away with it. The classic American line 'the market will decide', the markets run by the companies.

There can be a hard limit, the tired trope of 'games haven't risen with inflation' is just that: tired. Do you feel better when you are told "Oh, we know these groceries are expensive, but technically they're cheaper than they were 10 years ago, even though your wallet doesn't feel that way and your pay hasn't kept up."

If games are too expensive to make, then stop making the same photo-realistic swill that we put up with now. Go back to smaller, more focused games, where graphics aren't the be-all and end-all and bring the cost down that way.

And the problem with games being £70 is that you absolutely will see people not buying them. We have not had the first nor second Christmas period since these price hikes. You have the die-hards buying games at the moment. The Christmas season is where you get parents looking at the cost and thinking 'no, this is too much'. Companies lose money, staff lose jobs, all because the post covid shareholders want that covid-era growth and priced games too high.

Silksong, for example. Shovelknight for another.

And I don't for a second believe that you're a green politician, and if that is the case, I suspect you've picked the wrong party.

Not cancelling, just not renewing.

I’ve been thinking about this (because apparently I don’t have enough to think about 🫩).

I’ll preface this with I’m only going on little tidbits I’ve read here and there; I have done zero actual research.

Doesn’t the Microsoft CEO really dislike like the gaming division and wants to get rid of it if he could? They’ve been - seemingly - moving to a third party model.

The Saudis et al have just made a move to purchase EA for a lot of money. Could this be a plan to make it look super profitable (or super profitable-looking) in order to entice Saudi money to come and buy the gaming division?

@Timppis economics beginner? Or read something on Reddit you can parrot around? Stand together never on the side of big business. Inflation blah blah blah. Pay packets have not kept in line with inflation, so £70 is not £70 to the average wallet.

@Timppis The world we are in now, I can't tell whether this is parody or you're a shareholder.

@Alex79uk I too am surprised but heartened. I’m glad to see people waking up. Now, if we can just get them to get Nintendo and £70 games off their altar…

Article has the same energy as '£60 for 15-20 year old games is good value' over on NL.

Didn't wash there. Doesn't wash here.

Does this mean new story content? I don't know if I'm in idiot-mode but I felt like it wasn't clear.

@cross717 I've stuck with them as I liked their backwards compatibility. Though I noticed that recently I've been using my shiny Series X to play games from 15 - almost 20 - years ago.

But where do we go? Nintendo are doing some dodgy things, Playstation feels like it has a dearth of first party games and have often shown their hand to be anti-consumer.

Maybe the future really is handheld PC's that operate on a TV like the Switch does and ditch the console world. But I really don't want the faff that comes with a PC.

Ha, absolutely not. Not a snowball's chance in hell. Remember though, buying Activision won't lead to price rises.

We really, absolutely need to support each other and talk sense into the corpo-apologists (e.g. "$30 is still a good deal") and stand together until this nonsense stops happening. Keep meeting their cost-demands, and they'll keep pushing them up, stop doing it, and we'll see them come back to reality.

@Ricky-Spanish Kenan be schemin’

Having a bash on Flight Simulator and reliving my holiday through Jasper National Park.

Too expensive and not really interested. Though I’ll admit that I don’t really know much about handheld gaming beyond Nintendos offerings, the Steam Deck, and my beloved GameGear if we go back far enough.

Are they PC’s? Could I buy one and play Settlers 2 on it from the comfort of my sofa rather than my desk chair? Is it just an Xbox in a handheld wrapper? Is it locked to the Xbox storefront?

All questions I need to research before I can really decide either way.

@Lup There has got to be a better way the internet can agree on to demonstrate sass than writing LiKe ThIs. Italics maybe?

@FrenchVaniIIuxe it’ll do nothing to their bottom line but I’m here for the news about Xbox which I got on the bandwagon with on launch day with the first Xbox. But I’m not giving them a penny more of my cash with this massive firing debacle.

Again, won’t affect them, but will make me feel like I’m doing something.

My plans for Thursday at 11am involve painting my hallway and then demolishing my kitchen. I’ll swing by for the updates later.

That way I get the info, some DIY done, and avoid Apple-esque words like ‘gorgeous’, ‘brilliant’, ‘game-changing’ which have invaded all product presentations.

And you guys get my clicks, so everyone’s a winner.

@Jenkinss I played it years ago on the switch and the only thing I remember about it was the reference to Curse of Monkey Island. I might give it another play through.

“You can ignore them if you want to.”

If you add to the end of that sentence:

“But people won’t, and instead bitch and moan about it”

Then you’ve got a slogan for the modern day everything.

I might give it a bash, but I turned S3 off because of the number of times I was doing something wrong, but the game wasn’t forthcoming with what I was doing wrong in order to rectify and practice.

They’re hardly going to say ‘don’t worry you can skip this one’ are they?

It’s the trudging back and forth between sofas and bosses that really irks me.

@SodaPop6548 I was playing Fallout 3 earlier today and I had a memory flashback to playing the DLC on a sunny evening, talking to my Dad. And I was also thinking that I haven’t had that much fun with an overall console since the 360. The creativity, the passion, the fun, the enjoyment of it rather than complaining about technical stats.

I miss that era.

Have we got a price yet?

@Lrapsody Right there with you.

@SmokeEmAll I'll let those 9000 people soon to be without an income let them know that 'it's no big deal, there's hundreds of thousands left'.

Empathy seems to have gone the way of the dodo. And I would be remise to point out that if we start arguing over this then they've won. This is how they do it, argue amongst us who should be poor and destitute, rather than focusing on those that are hoarding the ***** money.

@Fiendish-Beaver I said to my wife that Nadella looks like what you get when you have to give a description to someone who makes those ‘the person we’re looking for looks like this’ pictures (e-fit?), and the only description you give the artist is “they look like a c***.”

@Wizzle8899 Plenty of immersive games on the N64/Dreamcast/PS2.

And further, what's your solution?:

• AAA games are rocketing to a price most people aren't willing to pay (I'm talking about wide general public here, not our echo chamber of gamers).
• Companies saying that these are getting too expensive to make
• Big companies being taken over and then raided by shareholders

Surely the solution is smaller games, smaller companies, little to no shareholders (I would be ok with the John Lewis approach of employee's being offered shares/profits)? Smaller games are going to come from less intense graphics, less focus on the unnecessary like ray-tracing, photo-realism. People who say (I understand this isn't you) that they can't enjoy a game unless it's photorealistic are lying to themselves, they're the same close-minded people as those who say they can't enjoy theatre because it's not like a film.

Sack him now and oust Nadella.

Impacted me in that there is absolutely no way I'm buying into this ecosystem any further after this layoff chaos. F-'em.

Also, while not actually wanting to insight violence, I really wish they wouldn't make these statements. Speaking so full of sorrow about the ends to the income that allows the people working there to live, while remaining employed and with that apologetic but happy smile they have makes me want to punch them in the face.

Other thoughts:

1) I thought PD was quite far along now?

2) Hopefully, these 8-to-10 year gaming cycles can be seen for what they are - far too long. And if they need to lay people off, and the costs are too high, then perhaps finally they'll come to the realisation that N64 / PS2 / Dreamcast era games were the right size and scope to feel grand, memorable, and most of all fun. And we don't need photo realism either.

@BaldB3lper78 I am absolutely with you. While not going so far as to cancel / get rid of my current Microsoft stuff (which, in fairness, is the free OneNote account and whatever games I've bought). I have no active subscriptions with them.

I'm, like you, tired of this repeated ad nauseam nonsense. Buy. Realise they don't know what they're doing or why they bought them in the first place. Layoff and let IP's that people liked die.

It's not just Microsoft, and it's not just gaming, but it's a sickness. And while me not spending any money is likely to not even be a blip on their radar I have to support (or rather not support) in line with my moral compass so I can feel at ease in the quiet moments.

Honestly I don't know what else we can do but hope others decide that enough is enough too, and that these companies hoarding the money and the software just isn't the right thing to allow.

I also hope, anyone reading this that is at the beginning of their own business, that you don't rush to sell as soon as someone comes knocking, and you see the value (for yourself, your employees, your fans) of remaining independent from this distasteful chaos.