michaelenger

@shindig said:

Jeff was always good at balancing the madness of the GB crew with asking actually good and pressing questions, which I will definitely miss.. but I also love to see the effects of Dan unleashed.

@broshmosh said:

I have spent years fighting the FoMO and have (sort of) come to terms with the fact that I won't be able to play all the big games, especially not around release. I had some money left over and picked up Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun so I can enjoy that while everyone is off to Hyrule/Hell.

I remember when this happened and it was devastating. I was surprised at how strongly this affected me, but it showed me how much this site (and its members) meant to me.

In remembrance lots of us changed their profile pictures to ones of Ryan and I haven't changed mine since.

I have a 360 in the basement that I periodically bring out and play on, and the nostalgia hits hard whenever I see that old interface. There was something special about this time when companies was just figuring out how to do digital games and their stores. In my head Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and 'Splosion Man are two games that encapsulate this time: a (slightly clunky) 3D action platformer made with Unreal Engine 3 and a quirky indie game that was my first foray into downloading games on my console.

I will also forever connect this site with that era of gaming and I have many memories of listening to the GB podcast while gaming on the 360.

The guys at Nextlander have played it a bit on stream and it definitely looks like my kind of thing:

Its situations like this which is why I'm bullish about getting things added to Internet Archive, copyrights and IP rights be damned!

When things fade from popular view they stop being attractive (or profitable) for bigger companies to fight over, which puts them in danger of being exploited by bad faith actors. Die-hard fans can do great work keeping something alive, but they aren't savvy enough to see through the lies claims of a career grifter like Tommy Tallarico. So if the IP rights get ripped from the hands of the people who genuinely care and things get locked away into vaults or spat out in terrible ports, we can always go make our own collections and curations with the existing games...

With blackjack and hookers!

I can remember thinking when VR first came out that it wouldn't really be that revolutionary for games because people really like sitting down and playing games the way that they've always done. VR won't replace current gaming, but should instead try to be a different type of experience.

I remember an episode of VRodeo where the crew explored Google Earth as being the thing that showed me what VR could do. It's not about how we can shape existing gaming experiences into this new medium, but instead give people the chance to be present somewhere else. I want to be deeply immersed in a world and I don't really care about shooting things, or getting points, or progressing towards a goal other than indulging my own curiosity.

I guess what I want is the Metaverse™, just without having to pay for it with my soul.

@thepanzini said:

It got the attention of my boomer ass, at least :P

But you're probably right. Marathon doesn't really have the sway it did 20 years ago and is probably just slapped on this project because they could. Then articles will be written about how "Bungie is reviving a dormant IP!!" instead of "Bungie is making yet another sci-fi shooter??" It'll be to Marathon what Mario Kart is to the Super Mario games.

I think you might be right.. it just feels like one and has that lovely always-online requirement that never backfires /s

Oh yeah, I remember those days.. wasn't even that long ago.

I think that bringing back the Marathon name was done to try to get enough people in the door at launch. It's been ages since I actually played Marathon, but the announcement got me keen on checking the game out and I'm probably not alone. "Legendary" IP combined with well-known (and well-liked?) developer means that it may not be DOA when it launches.

@therealturk said:

Yeah, this is what made me so crazy hyped when I saw the announcement video. For a good few minutes it was all "the madlads fucking did it" but then reality had to come in and ruin everything.

That's a fair point and I am painting over a lot of subtle differences with the same jaded brush. I just can't tell the difference when it all seems to be about doing the same repetitive runs/raids/quests where the reward is gear with slightly higher stats or filling progression meters. But that's probably just my limited view, having never played Escape From Tarkov for example, so I will use the correct terminology from now on.

You do make a point that this is different enough, and in the current zeitgeist, to make publishers think they can get away with releasing yet another "play forever" game to go fishing for whales with.

A part of me conflating the two game styles (and lots of other live-service shooters) is that I find it so crushingly disappointing when so much effort and creativity goes into making something that feels wasted on the gameplay it's attached to. All that deep lore and hyper polished aesthetic becomes set dressing around a hamster wheel with a credit card slot.