@shrinerr: It's the oldest trick in the book on how to sell your clients the same thing twice. By making a slightly better model of the same PS4 you are effectively tempting your existing consumer base that would otherwise have no reason to purchase more hardware to go out and purchase another unit with the promise of better performance and the pressure of not wanting to experience games in an "inferior" state. If this coincides with a price drop on older models then any way you cut it, they're moving inventory at an increased rate.
What does the consumer get out of all of this? From the looks of it, not a whole lot just yet, but Sony has a lot to gain in the long run. If this litmus test on iterative console hardware proves a success they could possibly annualize the entire process much like how Apple does it. There will always be people who want the newest and fastest hardware out there no matter the price, they just need to get the rest of their consumer base to jump onboard this moving train.
They will eat losses for a bit as people who wanted a PS4 hold out for the NEO model, but once that catches on it's off to the races with "awarding" gamers the ability to buy the same console over and over again at an increasing rate with tiny jumps in performance along the way while continuing to remain way behind the PC market.
@bisonhero: I had very similar feelings about Transistor. As a graphic designer I came into the game appreciating all the art I've seen up until that point but the game itself really failed to resonate with me even on a purely aesthetic level. The areas were too clean without a whole lot of character. The entire game was a great idea that somehow didn't translate as well when put in motion - for me personally. Even the story, which is usually the saving grace of even the worst of smaller indie games, was nothing special at best and full of plot holes at worst.
I feel like Supergiant need to really leave their comfort zone as a studio and try something drastically different. Jonathan Blow might have taken his sweet time but the jump from Braid to The Witness was substantial and the games themselves while sharing similar DNA of being "puzzle" games were wildly different experiences. In comparison Transistor felt like it was limited by it's tech in a way. Like they didn't know how else to make it so they made that same isometric, static environment with really well animation sprites, but since it was no longer an action focused brawler that same aesthetic simply didn't work as well anymore. I haven't seen all that much of Pyre but it does appear to once again be that same style of a static background with really beautifully animated sprites kind of superimposed on top of it with little to no environmental interaction.
Pepsi Max is the best soda. Is Diet Pepsi the same thing? Is it a weird american/european thing?
Pepsi in all of its iterations is disgusting. Coke Zero is the way to go. Or Dr. Pepper when I want sugar. Too bad there are no diet Dr. Peppers sold in the stores here, otherwise I assume it would be my cola of choice.
I used to be a Coke man all my life as well, but that Diet Lime Pepsi has a really delicious zest to it! I still rather drink a Coke Zero or Coke Light instead of a Pepsi Max or something. But that Pepsi Lime is delicious!
@justin258: Haha that comment did in fact motivate me to make the list but I harbor no grudges! While I did think it was kind of odd, it got me thinking about which games I did actually enjoy this year. Plus this will be super helpful down the line when I make a GOTY 2016 list since I always forget stuff from the first quarter.
I do think sometimes it's good for a person to call you out when it's warranted. For instance BaronSamedi recently asked me quite bluntly why I even bother playing Dark Souls 3 since I keep bagging on it in multiple threads. Instead of getting mad I thought about it and he was right. I noticed that I had in fact been posting a lot about only the negative aspects of that game that stand out to me personally. It made me realize I wasn't really saying anything constructive anymore and I was simply venting and sometimes just being immature - no one benefits from that on the forums. That let me know that hey, maybe I should chill out and just play the game, have fun, stop acting like a child and trying to make the world know that I'm not happy with something. Totally cleared my head about the whole thing.
In the case of Mikes comment I don't really know what that was about. I didn't like Transistor and I don't really see anything too appealing about Pyre apart from the art. Should I be apologizing for having a different opinion than everyone else or limit myself to only posting happy thoughts? I mean I don't see Jeff pulling any punches when he doesn't like something. As long as you're being honest and fair it's absolutely fine to simply not like something. As long as I'm not being condescending to anyone, or trying to rile people up it should be fine right?
@cooljammer00: Oh definitely. Game does not look super amazing, which kind of sucks because from the previews I did get a retro-Hitman vibe. There aren't enough cool stealth games.
When Jeff just started pouring those POGS on Dan.. I don't know man, something so hilarious about a seemingly never ending stream of POGS cascading over him.
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