Corvak

@mellotronrules: This pretty well nails it.

I've been following this game, despite having no plans to play it (partly due to genre, partly due to the load times on my old launch PS4 being rough) What fascinates me is how divisive it seems to be, for a game that probably set sales records for a Sony first party game. Friends who were into the first seemed to love this one. But then I unexpectedly bounced off of Animal Crossing pretty hard this time, so I get how some people who didn't like it might feel, particularly if they're stuck with a digital purchase.

The thing about games criticism is everyone has their own taste in games and the best review to read is often by someone who shares them. This doesn't mean only read the ones you agree with, but often the reviews you do agree with - the text, not the score - are an indicator that the writer is going to enjoy the same things you do, making their reviews a better tool to drive a purchasing decision, if you are on the fence about a game. And for Naughty Dog....you should really stop your VPs from arguing about reviews on twitter. It really does look bad.

Part of me wonders if the timing of the release.... COVID, a lot of people out of work or worrying about their jobs, the widespread injustice and protest, politics in general... has people on edge and predisposed to get into arguments easier.

For this case specifically (Mulan), definitely not. I wouldn't have gone to see it anyway.

But for a movie i'd like to see, still no. It's triple the price of seeing it in the theater, and I am not even getting the big screen surround sound experience. (without spending hundreds on a setup that just isn't feasible in an apartment)

If the cinema charges $10-16 for a movie, I am not going to pay more than that to watch it at home. I will just wait and spend the $30 on a blu-ray if its something I am really anticipating, or pay significantly less than $30 when it pops up on a digital rental service.

Stardew Valley

Sony may win on price, but will it matter?

Microsoft has already conceded the "hardware fight" if it still exists, due to how they have announced Series X games will work. With all Series X games still running at lower res and fps on Xbox One, not to mention PC. The thing about hardware, is that it never really makes money. It's frequently a loss leader, and at best sells at a razor thin margin, because they have to keep doing price drops to widen the install base. I don't expect Microsoft's compatibility to continue forever - eventually games won't run on an Xbox One S, and eventually the X may get left behind as well. Main question is how good developers decide to be at supporting that - it's closer to a PC than a console, the Xbox One is the minimum spec, with the Series X reccommended.

I am not sure what kind of profit MS gets from Game Pass vs. what they lose from not making as many direct $60 sales, but it has to be doing ok or they wouldn't still be doing it. Though I would guess some of the lost sales are made back from an expanded number of people buying DLC for game pass titles.

What if Sony quadruples the Series X sales numbers, but Halo Infinite runs away with game sales due to Steam and Game Pass? I mean its possible people just...don't jump onto a new console gen at all. Since we still don't know much about launch titles other than Halo, its all conjecture - I think we will continue to see Sony have more console exclusives, but nobody not owned by a platform is going to make anything exclusive unless they get paid to do it, particularly with PS5, Series X and PC being functionally identical now. That said, I think Sony's initial sales hinge entirely on what comes out with that system.

My feeling is that if the rumors are true and we are looking at $500+ USD (So like $650 here in Canada?) we are going to see a couple things. First off, more people than usual are going to hold off on making the switch, and keep playing their PS4. Some people might just sit on the fence and wait for a game they just don't want to miss, or the inevitable PS5 Pro.

Secondly, we might get another uptick in people building gaming PCs, which even with the PS4 being relatively affordable compared to PC, that still seemed to happen in 2013 and continued throughout the generation. I have a feeling its a demographic thing, with millenials in their 30s, now with families and kids, finding it more convenient to play games on a PC or laptop than taking up the family room TV.

I have to admit, whenever I fire up my PS4, the loading times feel like agony after getting used to having SSDs on my PC, so I am looking forward to faster systems.

I go to the cineplex because I live in Canada and there is only one theatre chain left.

We don't even get second run places.

Related, I don't go to movies much.

I feel the same way about Apex as I do about Overwatch and League of Legends, which is i'd love to play a single player game in that setting. The competition never keeps my interest for more than a match or two - and these three games all offer just enough of a story beyond just fighting each other in an arena that I would love to see it fleshed out, even if it wasn't as a shooter.

I was actually going to buy Anno 1800, too. Maybe I should try and strongarm dawn of discovery into working so I can get my city building fix. Damned exclusives.

Doom 2016

Well, I had a medicre interest in Anthem, and Apex lost me as soon as it mentioned "battle royale". I think Anthem just needs to focus on PvE/cooperative gameplay and it wont really have much crossover.

If Anthem has the destiny problem of "well you beat the thing I guess all thats left is kicking at the daily grind every day until the next DLC in six month" it will be quickly forgotten.

Honestly, not super interested.

I mean, i'm not a fan of how Steam has managed itself the last few years.

But i'm also not a fan of going back to where every game had its own launcher, it's like installing stuff off of discs back in the early 2000s, but now everything has a user account with a password I have to manage, and that makes me worry that it is a vector for identity theft/credit card fraud.

I suppose the optimal solution for me, would be for games to be able to authenticate without having to run the Epic launcher so I can continue using LaunchBox (a third party frontend) to maintain a single game library, if I have to start using their store.

Generally, I go for Steam, because as a Canadian, the best deals on games come from Green Man Gaming, which deals in steam keys for the most part. When everyone hiked AAA prices to $80CAD I had to cut back. (Even if it is "just the exchange rate" I didn't magically find an extra 25% to spend on games, because I am not paid in US dollars)