deerokus

The ps4.5 stuff came just as I was about to buy one too. I would wait a few months until they clear up the situation. By which point you could have saved enough for a nice PC anyway.

That's a fair point. You can see it at the moment. There is the 'leaving the EU' referendum which is happening in the UK (though still not a hot issue in Scotland where the broad majority will vote to remain). I expect we will leave because people in wealthier, more rural parts of England seem to be scared/fed up of all the Muslims and foreigners around them despite not living in areas with many such people. (The areas with strongest support for staying in the EU correlate with those with most immigration, in general).

The EU debate is of very low quality in the UK at the moment. There are strong arguments to be made for both sides, but instead both sides are just trying to scare and intimidate undecided voters with fear tactics and browbeating. Dispiriting stuff.

@eosino: as does 'Liberal' of course. In the US it means 'left wing' but elsewhere it just means supporting personal freedoms and limiting government power. Can be from left or right wing perspectives. So it's more akin to what Americans call 'libertarian' I guess, but it isn't a 1:1 mapping. In the UK our Conservative party is basically 'liberal conservatism', which is, in truth, quite similar ideologically to the US Democrat establishment (not so much the grass roots supporters). And these guys are seen as rapaciously right wing! Similarly, 'socialist' isn't as much of a slur as it is US politics.

Politics in America seems to be a weird entrenched culture divide. It's strange as an outside observer. I live in Scotland (a country which forms part of the UK, complicated to explain) and while our politics has in recent years become more divided between those who support and oppose independence from the UK, it's not the fierce cultural war the US seems to be in the US. The main battles for left and right are more over economic policies and public service provision, rather than over abortions or race or sex issues.

I will try to give an example. In Scotland we have a devolved government election coming up with 6 main political parties. Three of the leaders of those parties (including the head of our government) are women. 4 of the 6 are gay. Our Conservative party is lead by a gay woman. Our current election is mostly being fought on income tax policies. The current centre-left nationalists want to keep things the same, the Labour party (they would be considered socialists in the US, but aren't), Greens and Liberal Democrats want to put it up, the Conservatives want no change and the crazy UKIP lot (basically our version of the Tea Party, but even they think the US republicans are nuts) want to cut it. Stuff like abortion or gay marriage or LGBT issues simply aren't election issues. Nothing which has any relevance to video games is even a political debate, other than whether development studios should be given tax breaks.

We have among the most equal laws in the world on gay marriage and nobody really opposed that outside of some religious people. After the election trans equality legislation is due to be enhanced too.

Much like the Irish person mentioned earlier, politicians in Scotland (and the UK in general) who emphasise religion are deeply distrusted, partly because the UK is now one a very secular society. Research shows most people here are some kind of atheist or non-religious person - in the US it's about a quarter. Tony Blair had to wait until he was out of office before officially converting to Catholicism. Cameron has looked a bit dodgy every time he has mentioned 'Christian values' in response to Islamic extremism.

Anyway we have video game journalists of all political stripes in the UK but fewer tories because tories tend to be, well, conservative. Boring (or, sensible), money-focused people. Video game journalism as a career isn't a smart, rational or lucrative one, it's something you do because you have a passion for it (or because you want to build up enough connections to jump ship and work in PR later). Why do that when you can be an accountant or a lawyer or a recruitment consultant? I suspect that is the same in the US.

Totally. I don't even have a really up to date PC or current gen console, only a couple of games on those platfor,s really scream out to be played just and I can wait for those. I'm 32. This has happened to me before and I just stopped playing games for months and eventually came back fresh Recently though I will feel the urge to play something, sit down then get bored after 45 minutes and go read a book or listen to a podcast or something instead. Sometimes I think you just need to change up your hobbies for a bit.

I don't think it's an age thing but I'm not certain. I think I just have almost zero interest in the AAA games industry at this point because the sorts of games they make are all becoming too similar to each other. Every sequel has a bunch of features from other games thrown in to the point where nothing is distinct. The ubisoft 'shopping list' model of incredibly unsatisfying game design has infected half the industry it seems. I expected Fallout 4 to be the game to make me buy into this gen, but then I played my friend's copy and it's so watered-down from the epic New Vegas, with a tonne of busywork to fill it out.

This is even starting to pollute the indie games sector too, unfortunately. Steam has been devastated by a deluge of indie shovelware obviously, but even ignoring that the quality indies just seem to be making the same three or four genres of game. It's really weird.

I can still get lost for a week in a good strategy game, though. Oh Paradox, how I love you, and how I hope Stellaris meets my lofty expectations.

Single crediting Smash TV on XBLA. Which afaik was bugged so even if you were some kind of savant and could do that (and the level of skill required is exceptional), you didn't get it anyway.

I would suggest using the GB Video Buddy app to chromecast, a lot easier.

Cardboard is basically a throwaway toy that does far more harm than good to VR. Total crap. Gear VR is really good though, some of the same games as the full fat rift and I love using it as a Netflix viewer.

I have a gear VR, but like it less for games than as a media viewing device. I don't think I will ever play games with a headset on for more than half an hour at a time. The full blown VR headsets are just widly overpriced for what they seem to offer and combining the tech with traditional motion controls is a big mistake in my mind.

I'm not American so haven't really seen this (the UK military is always cutting back on troops these days so makes little effort to recruit, and the adverts when they do appear are mainly half-arsed cinema ones) Do you mean there are straight up adverts in games for the army? That seems kind of gross and Starship Troopers-y for sure.

You can be pretty much entirely evil in the KoToR games. Bioware don't do that anymore sadly, you can just choose to be good or 'good but a bit of a dick' in their recent games. Similarly, Fallout New Vegas has a lot of scope to play the game as an absolute monster all the way through. (Fallout 3 and 4 don't really have this, the quest design is far more restrictive in those games).

There's an indie game on Steam called Party Hard you might like. You have to murder everyone at various parties. Kind of like a cross between Hitman and Hotline Miami. Not a great game but it has some entertainment value.