The way I see it: PC has a high upfront cost with minimal maintenance/upgrade cost to continue using it with newer releases for years.

Consoles have a cheaper upfront cost but no maintenance/upgrade. Once it’s obsolete (as determined by the industry, not the owner) then you are forced to buy a new console for new releases.

For me, in practice, I know for a fact that I have spent less on my PC components and games than I would if I wanted the same experience on a console.

I’ve been a PC gamer for 3 decades. Most budget conscious PC gamers I know upgrade individual components as needed. Done this way, you can easily get more for your money than having to buy a new console every cycle.

I think he’s talking about the next Mass Effect game.

Good. I hope more forced live service games flop so execs will get it in their heads it’s ok not to make a live service game and still make money from it.

Do they think they’ll get more back from selling people’s data than they’ll have lost in sales?

Yes

I don’t know about PS2 HDMI, but they do make composite to HDMI converters

I’m ok with how Valve is doing things right now. If they followed the same path of EA, Blizzard, and every other big developer from the 90s/00s we’d be on HL5, L4D9 Left for Deadest, TF 3 but it’s a live service on season 15 and constant price increases on the season passes.

Let them experiment and dip their toes into new game types.

It’s the enshitification taking hold, which is essentially Wall Street pressing their thumbs on creators to squeeze out every bit of money they can.

There are diamonds out there though, and not a surprise they always come from private or indie companies. These are the games I’ve gravitated to.

Fucking corpo talk. No they didn’t shutter the studios, they just fired everyone who makes up the studio.

Exactly! I especially like your point about T2. I don’t think it’s wrong to put a lot of money behind a AAA game, but there needs to always be a balance weighted toward the creative/entertainment value (whether it’s innovative game mechanics or story driven).

Once that balance shifts to the business side by focusing on recouping the investment is when a project is at risk for not being received well.

I think all gamers are ok with studios making a profit on their games, but don’t try to fleece us.

There are too many breakout indie hits developed by one person or a small team that prove this isn’t true across the industry.

AAA development may be that way because there are higher expectations, just like blockbuster movies invest heavily in special effects and A-list celebs. But at the end of the day gamers just want to be entertained.

Some people enjoy the history behind the record. This video is for them. If you don’t, then it’s not a video targeted to you.

I’m right there with you. Hopefully mobile for 2 is better suited for phones, makes it easier to find the time. The first one is designed for tablets and makes reading and playing cards difficult.

I’m waiting on the PC version and a decent steam sale. Patient gamer for life!

That’s the thing about campaigns, right? It’s good to know when to put characters to rest and start with a new story.

If you make something and give it away for free, that’s fine.

If you make something and I sell it to the masses for a profit without your permission that’s theft.

Dig deep enough and I’m sure you’ll find wall street at the bottom of this hole. They are the source of all enshitification.

I’m old enough to remember the OG Mortal Kombat controversy. If I recall, the Sega and SNES versions were different. I believe the SNES version had no blood and the Sega one had blood.

I’ve been out of the loop, didn’t even know these existed! I’ll have to give them a look. Thanks!

Don’t remake it like FF7. Keep the isometric view, add quality of life features, optimize the grind for modern audience, update graphics, add voice actors if desired.

Not every thing needs to be remade to look like modern Final Fantasy. I love the sprite age of FF games and think there’s a good opportunity here.

No doubt it will be another handheld running Windows though instead of Linux

I will game on a Windows based PC, but Linux is a must have on hand held - Windows is too resource intensive, developers are not going to be able to get the same OS optimization out of Windows that they can with Linux

I’m basing my judgement of the VA off a short clip on Steam. I read that this is the type of game you want to experience first hand so I didn’t watch too much more on it for fear of spoiling the experience. Thanks for the feedback, I think I’ll try it out.

Has anyone played it? I looked at it on steam and the VA seemed subpar. Is the story really so good so you should go in completely blind?

This is one of those games that defined my childhood. Like the nerd, I never beat, but I revisit it every few years. Maybe I should make the effort and push to the ending.

Same energy as CEOs demanding workers return to the office