swthompson

I've always found console upgrades unnecessary - the whole hype cycle around arbitrarily cutting off the old hardware made sense a few decades ago, but right now it's just a marketing ploy to get people excited for the new thing. Companies hoarding their exclusives and trying to spin their new gaming box as some revolution are still just tedious anti-consumer practices that try to convince you to buy buy buy.

The reality is and always has been that the last plastic box you played games on was just fine too. That's never been more true in the era of more advanced technological solutions, dynamic resolutions, and scalable game engines that can still run on older PC's. Not to mention that the games themselves are all still basically unchanged in design and structure so far.

Sometimes I'm more of a romantic but I react to all the ink spilled over the good old days of console generations with a "good riddance."

I think the answer is that FH5 is less of an overhaul to the Horizon series (in gameplay, simulation, and graphics) than both the mainline Motorsport or Gran Turismo sequels are going to be.

As excited as I am for the game, it seems like an iteration on FH4. The tech is mostly the game, just ramped up. A few new gameplay mechanics, but nothing dramatic.

Can't wait for the expose revealing Chris Pratt is blackmailing all of Hollywood

I guess I don't really care much about one of the previous games since I have the magical ability to ignore stupid canon, much like I do with Star Wars.

I think the bigger mistake here is the creepy child anime doll art style they continue to go with, despite their low-end technical engine features not really working well with that look. The game really just looks extremely off-putting, and both 4 and 5 suffered from this. At least 3 looked nice since the PS2's limitations made that anime look fit the capabilities of the time.

Ah, maybe they're related! The universe of Star Ocean just features a lot of fans of making child dolls in their MMO world. I take it all back, it makes perfect sense!

I guess I don't understand what about this would make someone feel burned. Even if it's not very good it was never a real central point since it's still clearly in-progress. Did you really have to invest any money and effort into this? Did you not try it with a bluetooth controller first before buying an overpriced controller shell?

I gave it a try a few times, starting in the first beta wave. It's clearly gotten better (the series X hardware on the other side is really helping) but on a phone none of these streaming solutions feel any better than laggily controlling a 480p YouTube video. I'm not sure there's much of a way around that - games may need to be built with that in mind, much like how on a Switch you need a portable-readable UI. I really wouldn't categorize it as terrible though, just mediocre.

At the moment I don't have much use for this tech, since I already have a few fun phone games to play (solid indie titles get released at a good clip) and I own a Switch. But it could open up opportunities to play stuff I can't otherwise play. I don't have a console for Judgment so if they ever put that game on Game Pass I can stream-play it on my PC.

I have to copy the RSS feed from the Grubbsnax page into my Podcasts app and manually add it as a show. Just clicking doesn't work for me. YMMV.

Yes, it's not in the Premium episodes feed anymore. It has its own now. You'll see the RSS link on the Grubbsnax episode page if you select the audio version.

Gears 4 and 5 are the two best games of the generation, imo. I think they're far, FAR better than the Epic era of the series. Significantly better pacing, world building, characterization, and art design.

Forza Horizon 3 and 4 were incredibly fun. I still fire up both.

Some folks really like the Ori games. I don't; they're too hard. You never feel any sense of empowerment since any new game mechanic is going to immediately be followed by a demand for mastery.

Never got around to Dead Rising 3 or 4. Good?

This is pretty neat. I'll probably want to replay the game in like a year or two, so this works for me.

I don't feel any annoyance at playing the game once through at 1080p 30fps. It was great then. Just means that whenever I revisit it, I can enjoy it at higher fidelity and frame rate.

I'm pretty much done with console exclusives these days. So bring em on.

EDIT: Oh yeah would love to get GOW 1-3 too. A fun mashy brawler, why not.

Too much for me. I would like to poke back at the N64 catalog but not these games, and not for that much. Maybe in a few years after Nintendo slowly doubles the library by inches at a time.

Gamecube games will be sold $30-60 at a time in various collections and HD remasters. No chance we'll get a big wave of them.