Kane99

I did not see this coming, but one of my all time favorite games, is getting a re-release in mobile form. The game in question is Hitman: Blood Money. One of the best Hitman games and one of my personal favorites. It's the GOAT next to the new trilogy imo. Honestly I view it above the new Hitman games, but they are all good in my book. Anyway, if you want to purchase this game, it'll put you back $15, which imo isn't a bad price. But for a game that's 17 years old, I think a lowered price would have been better. I don't think they remastered it or anything, it looks exactly the same as the PC version. The only thing I'm concerned about, is the controls. Mobile imo doesn't sound like a great way to play this game, but I imagine they did some work on the controls to streamline it a bit. What do you think?

This isn't about game trials where you can download a game for a certain amount of time to test it out. This is more geared towards those weekend trials where you can download the full game, and play it unimpeded for the whole weekend. I know Xbox does it a lot, where they'll say you can play Call of Duty for the weekend. You can still earn achievements like when you own the game, but only for that specific weekend. Unless of course you decide to purchase the game. I've yet to try a weekend trial for a game, but I was close a few times. Do you ever take advantage of these free gaming weekends? I kind of wish they did it more often so we can get more time with games before actually making the purchase for a new game.

Asset flip games seem to happen more often these days as new engines come out making the process of making games a lot easier. But a lot of asset flips are essentially developers throwing stuff into a game expecting to trick people into buying it. An asset flip is basically a game made with assets purchased from specific game engines. They purchase or even use free assets to then make their game, but don't usually do any coding or any work to the controls. They slap it on, and usually call it a day. Now we got Unreal Engine 5, which is making it easier to put an asset flip game out. Look at The Day Before as an example, it's said to have been a complete asset flip without any coding or work done to make it their own. Remember that fake God of War game that came out on Xbox a while back? That was likely an asset flip, but instead they illegally used a character skin from another game. And we also can't forget about that game that tried to be like the Last of Us on Switch, called the Last Hope. With Unreal Engine 5 providing good quality assets, do you think we might see more, shall I say, prettier fakes popping up? Now, I'm not saying asset flipping is always bad. It can work out great, but I think it comes down to if there is any work being done on the gameplay side, because a lot of these quickly made asset flips play like hot garbage. Controls are often bad, or not optimized in any way. Expect more of these bad asset flips with these game engines getting better and better. Whether it be Unity or Unreal Engine 5, or some other engine out there.

This looks like a lot of fun. Reminds me a lot of old Disney cartoons mixed with the recent Cup Head games and show, but all in black and white. This is a first person shooter though and looks to be violent. I wonder if it'll land an M rating or get a T rating due to it being in black and white. You got a bit to wait though, as it's dropping on PC in 2025.

The new Tekken is dropping January 26th of the new year, 2024. Tekken 8 to be exact. I haven't kept up with the series, probably not since like 2 or 3, so it's been a while. I am aware it's a series that has a lot of fans. I've wanted to try out some of the newer games, but never actually bothered to try, but I am kind of interested in checking out Tekken 8, it just looks fresh and new to me. And normally I am not too into the fighting genre, but I always had a soft spot for Tekken growing up, especially since I enjoyed the first two games a lot. Is this a day one buy for you?

I have been interested in getting my hands on a curved monitor since they were introduced, but the cost has always pushed me away or I just never felt the need to buy one. Prices I think have lowered a lot on them, as I think you can get a cheap brand curved monitor, but the problem with that is you get what you paid. They are a bit more affordable today, but do they add anything that a standard monitor doesn't? I suppose you get better viewing angles with a curved monitor, but does it give you any advantage in gaming? What are the pros and cons for a regular monitor versus a curved monitor?

I remember when Amiibos and those Skylander figures were hugely popular, utilizing NFC tech to scan items and characters into select video games. I want to say the 2010s were the years it was the most popular. I don't think there are many games that utilize NFC technology these days, but do you think we'll see it make a comeback? I know the figures like Amiibos, Skylanders and other NFC devices were popular, more so because of how collectible they are. I never wanted to open any of the ones I bought, as I mainly just had them up on a shelf anyway. Do you think we'll see NFC tech utilized in the future in gaming? Or will it slowly die out and be forgotten like other gaming trends? I really think NFC tech could be implemented in many things, so I doubt it'll go away completely, but I think the toys and figures won't be made for a while again.

I have never really played any of the Mana games. I might have played a bit of Secret of Mana, but it's been so long that I don't remember much about it. The series has been around for quite a long time, and has a ton of fans, especially with Secret of Mana being considered one of the best games of all time. Visions of Mana is the newest game in the franchise dropping on the PS4/PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Through windows & steam) sometime in 2024. The game looks like a lot of fun, and looks beautiful graphically. I would have expected this to come out on Switch too, but there's no mention of it. Maybe they'll make a switch port later?

I know GTA IV online is no longer active, and I doubt Rockstar has any servers still up for it, but I imagine some modders could easily figure out how to open up a private server and get the game back up and running. Lots of people do this sort of thing, and some even modify the game to mod it further. Anyway, do you think there are any people still running online sessions with people? Is it even worth going back to something like GTA IV to play online?

I've been keeping a close eye on a new football video game called Maximum Football, it's supposed to be an alternative football game to the likes of Madden NFL. Since Madden still has the NFL license there's not much else out there in terms of American football. Yeah we could go back to play older games like ESPN NFL 2K5, and I have done that, and in some ways I'd just say do that instead of playing any new iteration of Madden. But I want to see something new come out that isn't just another Madden game. Maximum Football has not released yet, but it looks like the football game I want, one with tons of customization. Madden sucks for customization. They always have the same custom team options, maybe adding a new team every year. But they are always limited to certain areas. Back when Madden brought in the custom team options, they had so many team options and you could put your team anywhere. But recent Madden games limit you to certain areas, and those teams can't be used in other cities or locations. But this game looks like it'll let you customize your game the way you want it, even going as far to customize your team logo, colors, etc, you could maybe even create your own leagues, set your own rules, create custom plays and more. Also, it's said to be free to play, which would throw a ton of shade to Madden and EA if it turns out to be good. I just wish it would release soon, I've been itching for something different than Madden. Check it out on steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1691280/Maximum_Football/

Source: https://www.videogamer.com/news/insomniac-hit-by-hackers-threatening-to-leak-marvels-wolverine-details/ This seems to be happening a lot lately. Especially on top of the past GTA VI leaks. Most leaks tend to be small little teases of what's to come, and other times it's an outright build of the game or a trailer expected to release a day later. In this case, it's hackers threatening to release details about the upcoming Wolverine game by Insomniac Games, the people responsible for the recent Spider-Man games on PS4/PS5. The group behind the attack is Rhysida, a hacker group that are demanding the devs pay $2 million, otherwise they will start to reveal details about the new Wolverine game within seven days. But, it's also being alleged that they are planning to auction it off for bitcoin, starting at 50 BTC (or $2M). So who knows if they will even honor the deal if Insomniac would be crazy to give in to their demands. I know they will not, so mu guess is these guys knew this and are planning to auction it off instead. The more worrisome part of this, is they might have some of the developers personal details and other personal/private stuff. It's being said they have access to some employees scanned passports, emails, as well as confidential and personal files/documents. What do you think will come of this? I figure the people behind this attack will eventually be caught, these days it's not as easy to get away with this stuff. But Insomniac is not going to agree to this $2M ransom, and will fight this I'm sure. Also with Sony on their side, should help a lot with the investigation.

I guess Microsoft is interested in bringing out a new tier to gamepass, where gamers can watch ads to play games. This could be a great way for gamers who aren't able to afford gamepass or don't use it often and don't feel the need to buy a month of gamepass. Right now gamepass ultimate is $16 a month I think. I don't know the other tiers, but I think there's a tier for $10 that just gets you just PC gamepass. But yeah, a free tier by having to watch some ads doesn't sound that bad. Would you be for this? https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/xbox/xbox-game-pass-for-free-microsoft-is-experimenting-with-ad-views-for-access-to-hundreds-of-xbox-games

It was far too easy for Fntastic or whoever they are to be able to essentially trick tons of people by purchasing this game being that it's likely just a giant asset flip. Asset flips happen all the time, you'll see a slew of them all over Steam and likely other marketplaces. Usually they are easier to catch because the quality out of the gate is pretty awful, but fntastic did everything in their power it to keep the bad side of gameplay under wraps, at least until the game dropped and they made all of their money. But, The Day Before is said to have been a complete asset flip, using paid assets from the Unreal Engine 5. Of course that's not illegal and a lot of devs use these assets. The problem was, it looks like fntastic just tossed these assets together and called it a day. It made it even easier to deceive the audience with how good quality the assets are. So I'm expecting even more asset flip games to pop up on multiple marketplaces soon, if not already. Especially now with Unreal Engine 5 making it so much easier to develop games with so many assets available. I think what could happen, is we're going to see more games like The Day Before, drawing interest from gamers with a fancy cinematic trailers, only to release a game with nothing that was advertised. I think we're going to see even more asset flips promoted as the next hit game, and it's going to trick more people.

E3 started back in 1995 and had a show almost every year up until 2019 during the covid pandemic. Ever since they have yet to air a new show and had already decided to cancel the 2023 showing. But now, they have instead decided to officially call it quits after 27-28 years of history. No matter how you put it, E3 was very important for the gaming industry the 25+ years it was active. But, with the way media is done these days, the show hasn't been as needed as it used to be. Now we have showcases by studios themselves, or special award shows like the Game Awards have been taking over the reveal process for upcoming games as well. There's just more coverage available than ever, and I think that's partly what killed E3. It's still weird we're not getting this show anymore, but I'm sure we'll be covered by other shows like comicon, CES, and of course awards shows. Are you saddened by the end of E3? I personally wanted to attend a show when I was growing up, but obviously that won't happen. Maybe down the road they'll bring E3 back, but I doubt that would happen anytime soon. More on this news below: https://www.pcmag.com/news/e3-is-officially-dead-video-game-trade-show-ends-its-iconic-run

Has anyone played the new Fortnite Festival mode? It dropped alongside the LEGO mode and the Rocket Racing mode. It's a new rhythm music mode made by Harmonix themselves, who were responsible for Guitar Hero and Rock Band. The mode currently only supports controller and keyboard, but they are working on support for the guitar controllers. I have an Xbox 360 guitar so I'm ready for when they support it. I tried my hands at it via a regular controller, but I couldn't get it down at all. I have yet to try via keyboard, but Idk if I want to try that. So I'm just going to wait until they add support.

Correction on the pricing, 5000 vbucks is $36, so 4000 should be around $30 or so I'd guess. Still far too much for a car and decals imo.

I broke my Xbox One this past summer when I decided to clean it out after realizing it was due for a deep cleaning. I want to get another Xbox One at some point, but would I be able to take the hard drive from my old Xbox and add it to the new one? Or would the Xbox not fully recognize it? I just don't want to have to redownload everything. I'm thinking of getting a used Xbox one and putting my HD in it. Would it work? If not, what would I have to do to make my HD recognized?

Fortnite recently dropped three new modes, one being the Rocket Racing mode, which combines Rocket League like controls with a racing game. It's quite fun, but fans are a bit worried about the bundle prices for cars. One of the car bundles is currently priced at 4,000 vbucks, which equals out to around $36 for a car and decals and other such things. That seems a tad bit excessive and overpriced. I personally don't agree with these prices, but I never cared for the pricing of cosmetics to begin with. But this seems far too high for what you're getting. Read more about this story here: https://www.videogamer.com/news/fortnite-fans-disgusted-rocket-racing-bundle-price/

Has anyone here played the new RoboCop game that dropped a little while back? It felt like it came out of nowhere, but from what I've been seeing, the game has been a decent hit. People are saying that it's a really fun game, but that it does get repetitive after a while. I'm waiting for the game to go on sale soon so I can finally pick it up. And I'm all caught up on the movies as I just watched 2 and 3.

The voice actor for Kratos, Christopher Judge made a joke that some people didn't find too funny, that joke was making fun of the recent call of duty campaign being too short. Judges joke was simply, "My speech was actually longer." The dev team behind Modern Warfare 3 weren't too pleased about what he said, and when I watched the game awards, I noticed the camera zoomed in on someone from the team not looking too happy about it. They did complain after the fact on twitter, but later deleted the tweet. I haven't played the recent COD, but I am aware fans weren't happy with the short and kinda mundane campaign. Now, I know the campaign is usually an afterthought when it comes to the COD multiplayer, as most people go for that. But there are COD fans who are devoted to the campaign side and hate when a campaign doesn't live up to much. But they have made really good campaigns in the past. Back to what Judge said, do you think he was right in saying what he said? Should he have not said it at all? Or are people blowing it way out of proportion? https://www.eurogamer.net/christopher-judges-call-of-duty-campaign-joke-didnt-land-with-some-developers

I've been hearing a lot of talk about the Lenovo Legion Go, a new PC style handheld similar to the Steamdeck. It looks like Lenovo's attempt at the mobile market. For $699.99 it better be a damn good handheld system. Would this handheld be a pickup for you if you had the money? I think the Steamdeck is still more affordable correct? The Steamdeck oled starts at $549, but that's likely with the base model. If you had to pick one or the other, which one would you pick? Personally I think the Steamdeck is better, at least for me. But honestly I'd take whatever I can get haha. Check out the review from Videogamer below: https://www.videogamer.com/reviews/lenovo-legion-go-review/

We know that the first season sets up the main storyline from the first video game, and the second season is expected to follow the second game. But I heard a while back that the show would delve deeper into what happened before the second game, and may even delve into other storylines to flesh out other characters. So it got me thinking, could the series be a way to tease the 3rd game in the series? Say they extend season 2 to include some bits after the second game to sort of push it into the third game and then a future season of the show. Now I know the show and game are essentially different universes, and there may be difference between the show and game, but I really think the show is going to flesh the characters out some more, so we can see what the characters from the 3rd game were like before. Get what I'm saying? Kind of like a semi-prequel to the second game and a prequel of sorts to the third game.

Bethesda I guess recently made it possible for mod makers to charge for their custom mods in Skyrim, and now fans of Starfield are worried it will result in mods in Starfield also being paid for. Some fans are split though as some are happy modders will now be able to make some money on their creations, but some fans worry that current free mods could be put behind a paywall going forward. Personally I am for this, if you make mods for a game, the modder should receive something at least. Well depending on how big and useful the mod is. Certain mods I can understand staying free, and I think that option is still available to modders if they want to give out mods for free. With this news, it's likely Starfield will add a similar mod system. What do you think? https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/other/starfield-fans-displeased-as-paid-mods-becomes-increasingly-likely/ar-AA1l7T8r

I didn't expect this tease last night during the game awards, but we finally got an idea of what Xboxs Kojima game will be, well what the characters will look like at least. It's going to be a horror game called OD and stars actors like Sophia Lillis, Hunter Schafer, and Udo Kier. But the biggest news is that he has teamed up with movie director Jordan Peele. You may know him from the hit comedy show Key and Peele, but he's become a star in the horror genre with his movies Get Out, Us, and most recently Nope. Seeing these two working on a horror game together is going to be epic. https://youtu.be/R2uW-9BKzuU?si=2LdV2dcMEmECopOg

I'm sure you're all aware of the game The Day Before. The one that was started by the studio that was known to fake games in the past. Many gamers had speculated that the game likely wasn't real, after countless trailers that came out, them being accused of ripping off other game trailers like GTA V, COD and even the Last of Us. So many thought it was never going to see the light of day. But, it released yesterday, and it's already proven to be a disaster. The game is said to be riddled with bugs, and the game they released wasn't even what gamers expected. It's not an open world game, and many are saying it's an Extraction Shooter. They say the servers are bad, often having trouble getting into a game. And gamers are saying it's not anwhere near an MMO like advertised. So these devs did it again. One issue I witnessed was in a tiktok video I watched last night, and in the video a guy was stuck on a save that when he reloaded, it would put him back into a glitch he fell into before. And I don't know if this game has a checkpoint system. https://www.gamespot.com/articles/the-day-before-early-access-launch-is-a-giant-mess/1100-6519774/ This guy goes over some of the problems as well: The reviews on steam are not good. Yikes! https://store.steampowered.com/app/1372880/The_Day_Before/