It’s been awhile since I finished if, but if I recall correctly,Abzu was about 5 hours.

When something that big barely turns a profit, I immediately suspect Hollywood accounting.

But if true, they made a game, covered their costs, left the company with an asset that can keep making sales, and probably developed their in-house talent and tooling along the way. That’s a lot of points in the “win” column.

Wise leaders understand that, in business, victory means getting to try another project with the same team, next year. Failure means disolution of the business. Earn enough years and projects with the same team in a row, and maybe you take one of the big wins one of those years.

Smoking kills people.

A Crazy Taxi 3/4 scale cabinet would be delightful.

That should be fun!

When then kids are ready (mine had some learning curve with the added flying) be sure to also eventually grab Sonic Racing All Stars: Transformed. It’s fantastic.

You’re right on all points.

I hope we at least get lots of lazy news reporting that refers to the lead actor as playing the part of “Zelda” - ideally live streamed and in-person, in front of the actress who plays “Zelda”.

“Well sorrrrryyyy, Princess.”

As a book and video game enthusiast, my unpopular opinion is that the average video game is a much better entertainment value than the average book.

I’ve played a lot of games and read a lot of books. When measuring dollars for hours, I think video games win.

On the one hand, I’ve put massive numbers of hours into titles like Zelda, Metroid, Harvest Moon, and Pokemon.

On the other hand, I’ve only gotten two or three read-throughs out of even some of my very favorite books.

And then the video game classics really put up some big numbers: after decades, I’m still enjoying PacMan, Frogger, and Galaga and their kin.

And then there’s the elephant in the room: Tetris.

If I had to pick - on a desert island - between an e-reader with every book ever printed, or one copy of Tetris on a Gameboy…it would be an agonizing choice.

Sounds like we agree in principle.

I’m willing to advocate for the kind of hammer that might scare some of these players into taking legal reform seriously.

I’m perfectly willing to accept other legal solutions.

I am also perfectly willing to support an administration bent on burning down the big players that are fighting for monopoly control.

Yeah, yeah. Wishes not miracles, and all that. I’ll take world peace and a pony, too.

But there’s value in discussing where the target belongs.

As long as we’re belaboring the point, mehacompanies should be require to sell divisions of their choice (cough Amazon Web Services cough.) to competitors to stay below the market cap. That way we don’t create a cliff, but still see things broken up.

Yep. There needs to be a legally mandated market cap after which the federal government automatically supervises the company breaking into smaller competitors.

Or, ideally, liquidated and sold a department at a time to existing competitors, to ensure actual competition.

You’re both right. The Internet is about 50 years old counting from first conception.

I appreciate the privacy design. That’s why I switched. I spend a lot less tone wondering if big brother is watching me through my phone, now.

But the speed is what made me a huge fan. GrapheneOS is so fast. I’ve had $1000 phones that aren’t as responsive as my $300 Graphene phone.

Since no one seems to be saying so, I’ll chime in in support of GrapheneOS. /s

I’m kidding. But really, I’m replying to you from Graphene on a Pixel. It’s terrific.

Yeah. I can’t comment on Pixel running whatever Google puts on it, because I installed GrapheneOS within ten minutes of buying mine.

That said, I think it’s a fantastic phone.

Same here.

Anyway, it’s not an arms race against the vendor anymore on GrapheneOS. Root is just a toggle switch I control, now.

I found Obsidian good, and Markor the best, on Android.

Sorry - I should have put a sarcasm tag. I was intentionally misunderstanding so I could mention that goofy Hippo.

I had blocked that game from my memory.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transformers:_The_Game

It. Was. So. Bad.

Easily makes the list of the top five worst games I’ve ever played.

I have to admit I enjoyed throwing movie Ironhide’s weight around.

But the goofy checkpoint system was just awful. The whole game was like one exceedingly long escort the NPC quest.

Edit: And for contrast: the other Transformers PS2 game is fantastic: Transformers: Armada So it’s not as if they couldn’t have done better.

Agreed. And the big Trypticon reveal. And whatever treachery Starscream and SoundBlaster were clumsily plotting.

I recall every boss fight being well worth the price of admission.

All fair points. For me, the boss battle over-acting, Shakespearian drama, and wild scale forgave the many middling bits in between.

The PS2 Transformers Armada game is fantastic. Driving around in the (for the time) open world is a joy. The gunfights are interesting and tactical. The boss flights are over the top cinematic. And the minicons add brokenly fun abilities.

War for Cybertron I and II are worthy follow-ups with better acting and story, and even more fantastic boss fights. Vehicle modes remain fun. The core shooter is solid. Only points docked in my book is the lack of minicons, and dull color pallette.

And of course, the very first game is downright almost playable if you happen to be very young and lack access to hobbies or literally any other game.

I agree. I’ve always thought that giant hippo, in particular, didn’t get enough time in the original game.

Agreed, but I imagine there’s hesitancy at MS to try again.

MS tried their hand at purpose built mobile OS during the Palm Pilot era, then again during the Blackberry era.

Windows hasn’t historically ported to small devices with great success.

Edit: I think there’s also likely some awareness (and fear) that the unified mobile PC gaming platform race is nearing it’s end, and already has two strong contenders in Linux and Android.

Ditto.

A tip for others in the same position - I recently discovered that, for me, Risk of Rain 2 is the game that made me stop missing Overwatch 2.

Yeah. Graphene is fantastic. I had forgotten how blazing fast interface and long battery life felt like before I switched.