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Alex Neil has launched a €6 billion dollar lawsuit towards Sony for overcharging for digital purchases. His statement is: "With this legal action I am standing up for the millions of UK people who have been unwittingly overcharged. We believe Sony has abused its position and ripped off its customers." Read the rest here: https://www.ign.com/articles/sony-being-sued-for-5-billion-over-playstation-store-prices

I might not be getting this game now. A review from GmanLives goes in depth about many issues the game has. Supposedly it's a bugged mess, the characters are boring, npcs and enemies don't know what the hell they're doing and so on. I guess it takes a lot from past games in the series, but doesn't do them well. Here's the review: https://youtu.be/U0XjOhCLssc

One big thing is that better AI is not always more fun. For the game I'm working on, we did a huge AI overhaul. As part of that we tested 3-4 flavors of new AI code. One of them was this super advanced almost human like AI. It was amazingly hard, enemies would flank you efficiently, they'd hide from you and sneak attack, they'd pick up weapons off the ground, they'd communicate with each other, at one point I thought they were just fucking with me and we were secretly playing multiplayer.

If you were going to become a professional esports player, what game would you pick to play? Why would you choose it?

I'm all for consumer rights and very much against anti-consumer anything, but if this guy Alex Neill is serious about taking this to court, he had better be ready to get crushed. Not just in gaming, but whenever a store sells something, digital or otherwise, that they themselves didn't make, there's commission of some kind on it. Keeping this more indigenous to gaming, though, the only way this guy could have a case is if Sony overcharged on PSN compared the same games sold new elsewhere, but as far as I know the prices are pretty much the same unless somewhere happens to have sale on. So I'm with @DC on this, the fact that this is all apparently based of off Sony's commission (pretty much at the same 30% rate as Steam, GOG, Xbox and Nintendo. Epic is actually significantly lower than the others at 12%) means this suit is doomed to fail. His heart in the right place, but he dove head first into this without a clue how deep it was. Even the comments section of the article is showing little support for him and mostly people struggling to make sense out of this.

It's a ridiculously high price tag, but the cost to make something that looks like the below image can't come cheap. It is made with businesses in mind rather than households; obviously anyone who can spend $35k on a personal VR set up probably earns that money back quickly.

What about arthritis and overall bone/joint/muscle discomfort? This seems possible especially if one has poor posture and an inadequate gaming set-up and chair agronomics. Furthermore, looking at a monitor for long periods of time can cause eyestrain and weakened eyesight.

The code that controlled NPCs in games has been called AI since the first games. But in reality for the most time that code had very little or nothing in common with what computer science calls artificial intelligence. NPC "AI" in games work based on a predetermined set of parameters and triggers, there is no actual intelligent thinking involved. On the other hand making NPCs actually intelligent, doesn't necessarily mean a better gaming experience. We do not want a carbon copy of reality in our games, we want an isolated haven where the rules of engagement are clear. Intelligent enemy AI would make the games way too frustrating and unpredictable. Preventing the game from fulfilling it's purpose as escapism.

Even before the pandemic, digital distribution was taking over physical sales. It was also never been a secret that the convenience of digital distribution was that you don’t have to leave the house for it, like why else would AAA titles get digital distribution? I’m not singling anyone in particular out for this, but an observation I’ve seen that’s pretty common, is that people who are really anal over physically collecting for one form of entertainment they care about are okay with digital distribution of a hobby they don’t care about. I’m a big music nerd, and some people here might scoff at this, but I’ve run across a ton of people who complain about people listening to music through streaming and MP3’s, and tell you that physical is the only way, but they’re okay with consuming video games and movies/shows through digital means. People who consume all their media via physical means are the true rarities out there.

Arc sys work is my fav because they make consistently top tier fighting games. I really like their deep air dasher combat stlye and anime visuals compared to other FGs which just feel bland in comparison. My least favourite is naughty dog because their games look very dull and I don't like the slow cinematic story heavy trend they set for modern gaming with Uncharted games and TLOU.

Yeah so? We have every right to decide how we purchase something. I hate going into stores because of the people and the whole Covid thing has kept me from desiring to be in a store with a bunch of other mouth breathers. For shame? What shame? As long as I'm happy isn't that kinda the point?

Wow, thanks again! That's super nice of you.

Aside from streaming animes on YouTube, my next go to platforms are as follows: - Crunchyroll - Gogoanime.so. - AnimeFreak

I think the Gamecube was cool, but that is the era in which Nintendo fell from grace, so kind of an interesting and strange milestone to achieve I guess. What's most interesting is the fact you can't find a PS5 but still managed to sell a healthy amount of them.

Consequences. A good side quest result changes the world permanently after it is completed. A character dies, or moves, a building changes, maybe a bridge is built, or enemies are no longer in an area. Maybe even something as simple as your relationship with the NPC is altered and interacting with them in the future leads to a different result. The effect of your actions are felt.

I just woke up sleeping off a lot of whiskey, but now after seeing that trailer, I think I'm drunker than before. That or I'm stoned as hell. Or maybe I'm thinking that the guys that made that game were the ones drunk and high.

A good side quest imo should tell a good and compelling story, should reward you properly for completing them and above all should give a sense of satisfaction for taking the time to go of the beaten path . Some games that have brilliant side stories are skyrim, the witcher series, kingdom come deliverance and any bioware game just to give some recent examples. I'm personally a fan if they stretch out side stories over different quests and tell a complete story like the factions quests in skyrim or some of the witcher 3 quests. Bad quests are offcourse the fetch quests that don't really have any significance to the game and are only there to lenghten the game, offcourse ubisoft games really have a habit of doing this where you have to collect a certain amount of things only to unlock a costume that isn't anything special other then being a cosmetic item. I know i'm a sucker for this myself aslong as they are showing on the map i don't really have a problem with this myself. Rockstar is another company that is guilty of this as good as their games are, much of their side quest are just boring and frustrating as hell, collecing waste in gta 5 is boring and tedious as fuck let alone collecing the ufo parts that don't show up on the map once you start that mission, so you have either spend 100's of hours looking for them or look up a guide online. Same with rdr 2 where you have to collect bones, why can't they show up on the map, why isn't there an option to buy a map for them, whoever tought this was a good idea at rockstar i don't know fire them for my part. I've also find that a lot of jrpg's have these boring side quests, since i'm currently playing dragon quest 11 let us use that game as an example like you have to get a certain material for somebody which you can only obtain by defeating a certian monster, when you complete it you get 10 silver ores, a crafting component that is common and pretty respawns at the some locations everytime you enter a certain area. What's the point atleast give me something decent for my efforts. Alright i'm off to defeat 10 monsters in dragon quest 11 maybe that npc who gave me that quest will give me a pat on the back and will be saying good boy, you completly wasted your time here have a few herbs for your efforts.

Seriously, I'm not sure if there's any gamer that enjoys the nonsense of fetch this or that side quest. It can be very annoying most of the time and it's not worth the effort put into doing that. Take for instance what you experience in playing the side quest Scan the Keepers in Mass Effect 1 where you keep running around the Citadel trying to catch the little wired aliens and having them scanned with a device. Finding them can be very annoying and frankly frustrating because some of them are damn buggy that you can't even find them.

It has to compliment the primary gameplay loop. If it's going out of it's way to be different, and it's better or worse, then the question is "why isn't the rest of the game like this" if it's better, or "why is this in the game" if it's worse. An example of this would be the Spyro the Dragon franchise. Nearly all of the games are collectathons: you go around seeking treasure and other things necessary to complete the game. I've played the first game more than any other because all of the activities revolve around the three gameplay mechanics: charging, flaming and movement in some fashion like jumping or gliding. Even the Flights are just upgrades to Spyro's existing abilities like full traversal and the supercharge. Where the games fail is Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer onwards. Shooting lizards with rocks? OK, fine. Using the ice breath to reach platforms to ring bells? Not too shabby. Using a trolley which doesn't control well to go in two directions and use a cannon that requires laser precision? Not acceptable despite the "having trouble with the trolley, eh?" meme. The problem with that is I'm not playing the character I'm here to play: I'm playing as the trolley which is an objective downgrade. Spyro: Year of the Dragon sort of sorts this out with characters like Sheila or Bentley the Yeti, but characters like Sgt. Byrd and Agent 9 especially go against the solid movement mechanics and lack of precision required. Things get even worse in Spyro: A Hero's Tail, where Sgt. Byrd replaces Spyro in the Speedways, and Blink the Mole goes underground but isn't quite as fleshed out as he needs to be to entertain in a mini-game or his own spin-off. A Hero's Tail's other mini-games involve being in a hamster ball or firing a cannon, both are decent enough but I'm not playing as Spyro: I'm playing as a hamster ball and firing a cannon. Let's look at Japanese RPGs for other examples. Yakuza is known for its serious story with a camp tone, but it's better known for its side quests contain nothing but goofy characters and requests from the mafia enforcer with a heart of gold. Most of the quests given to Kiryu require him to do what he already does: punch and kick lots of people. The times it doesn't such as managing businesses and collecting cash, or the other bloke's name whose name I forget who runs a club, are so confident in their ability to deliver a refreshing downtime experience. While dating sims, toy car races and arcades don't necessarily belong, they do an excellent job of grounding them into that world. Western developers take note. However we can also look at Final Fantasy's most notorious minigames from chocobo racing to Squimball or whatever it was called in FFX. The reason Bravely Default did so well is because it wasn't full of rubbish like that: as egotistical as the name is, like Immersive Sim (more on that soon), is because it is bravely returning to its default design philosophy. We come full circle when we look at Western RPGs: most of the quests I enjoy are the ones that are based on the core gameplay mechanics. If they're better, like Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's sailing, then one must ask the question: why is there Assassin's Creed in my boat game? A good side-quest doesn't necessarily have to be tied to its core gameplay loop, but if it isn't it's taking a risk that may well not pay off. If the players aren't willing to go out of their way to try a new activity, why would developers go out of their way to make it work? One final comment about Western RPGs, some of which developers call iMmErSiVe Sims (I'll be the judge of what is and is not immersive, thanks), is that these do a great job of providing the means to go about the same side-quest differently. Deus Ex is probably the best example, as one of the first games to be thoughtful about the question what if the player wanted to do [thing]? They made a point about simulating first person activity beyond solving every problem with a gun. BioShock, a spiritual successor to System Shock et al follows that exact same formula, as long as you solve every problem with some form of violence. TL;DR it's about complimenting or being based on the primary gameplay loop. There are exceptions, but painfully few in Western game design philosophy.

I feel like EA may be starting to let their devs do their thing. I at least hope that's the case. If EA actually allowed their devs to do their own thing, and take as much time as needed to finish a game, then I don't think EA would be this hated.

I have had Amazon Prime for years and I never knew that they offered this service. I will definitely be checking this out to see if I can find anything that may interest me.

The Outer Worlds PS4 version on PS5 is incredibly buggy. In fact, I am now suffering the Ultimate Consequence every time I die in the game, which is a complete freeze of the system, often resulting in the system shutting itself down. … I now have to be really focused in combat.

Yes where I'm living we have major full city lockdowns still, can happen randomly where the entire city goes into lockdown for weeks at a time.. plus must get tested every 72 hours... its rather painful xD