thats a very nice steelbook. tempting
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Very curious about what you think of Scorn. Will it before launch? 
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Does anyone remember how gamers not really thinking about finance like profit and revenue when PS+ offered free games before Xbox thought the same? I sure did. All the sudden, we take out our thick glasses that shine and act like businessman boss tier. I really donāt recall that until Game Pass existence. Why care now? Besides, Microsoft already made Bethesda money back in a quarter.
Yeah this whole generation feels like that to some extent.
Cyberpunk (for Series X) was my game of the year for 2020. And Halo Infinite (Series X) was my game of the year for 2021.
Also people complain about Gamepass but to me Gamepass has been killer. MLB the show, EA Play is awesome, TMNT, paw patrol and superpets for my son, very exited about High on Life because of the Rick and Morty connection.
I understand that some people donāt like sports games, or have a Series X for Cyberpunk, or have kids to use Gamepass, or like Rick and Morty, or have significant nostalgia for ninja turtles. The thing is Xbox checks a ton of boxes for me personally.
In truth my PS5 literally collects dust and is one of the most boring consoles ever. Xbox still attends E3 whereas PlayStation skips it. Xbox has an exciting roadmap and PlayStation has God of War followed by annoying timed exclusives that do nothing for me because I would prefer to buy multiplats on Xbox. I buy Multi plats for Xbox because the Xbox ecosystem is more trustworthy than PlayStation and I still feel burned by losing my entire PS3 era catalogue.
Anyway a lot of these points are very specific to me, which is why it can feel like Iām in an āalternate realityā like you said lol.
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Microsoft teasing theyāre gonna buy the moon
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That looks very nice.
I feel the same way. I think thereās a kind of very self-centered thinking that is either becoming more prevalent or more amplified, where people are willing to call something trash or garbage because it doesnāt fully cater to them or isnāt āperfectā. You can see this in discussions about multiplayer or āliveā components in games, or about performance. Instead of appreciating individual aspects or simply saying āthis doesnāt really do anything for meā, or āIām glad thereās a 60fps mode at allā people seem to be reaching for hyperbole more and more.
Iām really not a Halo guy, but itās extremely obvious when you see the scrutiny Infinite was subjected to. It needs to absolutely nail every one of its many facets or whatever good it did will get shoved aside.
This is where the double standards come in, too, since I canāt think of many games who were as ambitious. It has to have a great campaign including co-op, incredible multiplayer, continuous support, map creation, run well despite being open-world for the first time (and I think on a new engine?), and so on and if one of those things is off-base or delayed then come the calls for blood.
Like I said, I donāt do multiplayer and canāt weigh in on how badly they fumbled it. The disconnect with my experience is really compounded by the fact that it launched on Game Pass too, and I think this is another example of people not understanding they arenāt the laser-targeted audience. My expectation of GP is simply: I put down some money a few years ago and want access to a curated catalogue of experiences. In this regard, MS knocked it out of the park! Theyāre trying to appeal to as many people as possible to get them to subscriber for as long as possible, and that motivates them to keep a conveyor belt of varied, quality experiences running.
I used to be a heavy-duty physical games hoarded. Bought dozens of games I never touched just to have them. I had to downsize just about everything and never thought Iād enjoy the transitory aspect of GP but itās been amazing and has rekindled my enthusiasm for gaming. Instead of staring at a wall of game cases and being paralyzed by the amount of options, I get two updates every two weeks. Itās very rare that a month goes by without my thinking āOh, I should play that game Iāve been putting off since itās leavingā or āOh cool, Iāve heard good things about this game and Iāll have a chance to try it.ā In turn, this motivates me to fit in experiences in between too!
All of that is to say that to me, Halo Infinite was a fun free* experience among many. I played it thoroughly for 5 days apparently, hit credits, and moved on to the next game with a pleasant feeling towards it. It played great, and if they release another campaign Iāll be there day 1 because I had fun and it costs me nothing but time.
Unrelated but this made me feel very stupid: I was digging around in the options on my Series X to see about turning off the audio during boot, and I saw that I didnāt have VRR enabled. I donāt know how long itās been off but boy, what a goof.
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Dude, those are beautiful.
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Hmmmm depending on price I might have to pick one up
Excellent news for Fable
Anyone that follows this man on twitter knows how good his art is
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What is it?
is that the hollow knight protagonist?
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Maybe hollow knight will be a game they use to demo the streaming box?
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Oh, thatās the thing that will connect to any TV? So they apps for streaming on TV but also a stream box device? Yeah, MS is really covering all bases.
I wonder if such things can make a acquisition like ABK easier to ājustifyā too, since they will reach so many people.
Dude is 28 and already art director on Fable 
He worked on the FH5 hot wheels dlc I think, nice to see him make the switch to the Fable team.
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