Kane99

It almost seems like every time Rockstar has something planned, someone from the inside decides to leak a trailer or leak actual gameplay like what happened a while back with GTA VI. And even before the official release trailer dropped, we got a leak for the trailer the night or two before. So, Rockstar had to do some damage control and released the trailer the night before it was supposed to unveil. I know most studios and companies have dealt with leaks before, but with Rockstar it feels a bit excessive, don't you think? They must have a lot of people working for them who just don't care, or maybe disgruntled employees. It's especially crazy as it was reported recently that a son of a Rockstar employee was rumored to have leaked the trailer. You can read about that below. https://www.businessinsider.com/gta-6-leaks-may-have-come-from-rockstar-employees-kid-2023-12

Has anyone here played this game? I recently completed it, but have been going through the chapters to find everything I missed. It's essentially a climbing game, where you climb this massive mountain tower thing, and have to find artifacts and wall murals of past civilizations. There's not much to it aside from the climbing aspect. There's no combat either. There is a story, but it comes in notes and letters you find scattered around the tower. I honestly didn't pay much attention to it, as I don't like to read pages of letters and notes to get my story. When playing, I was reminded a lot of Shadow of the Colossus, mainly for the climbing mechanics, but also I really enjoyed the way it looked climbing up this massive structure. Anyway, if you have played it, discuss what you liked about it.

I guess Elon Musk got the chance to play the new GTA VI, and he said that he couldn't keep playing it, as the first mission revolves around you shooting cops. He just couldn't do it. He of course was mocked for this all over X. He is known as a gamer, but can't handle a game like GTA? The article below even mentions he plays games like Elden Ring, and I remember he was into over watch, which isn't as violent as GTA, but it still has violence. His holdup seems to be with shooting police. But he has no issues shooting anyone else in the game? Makes you wonder. Anyway, do you think Elon is just being Elon? He just sounds like a hypocrite if he enjoys other violent video games. https://www.yahoo.com/news/elon-musk-relentlessly-mocked-saying-154505375.html

When you're in the process of creating your character for a game, at least ones that allow you to freely customize your character, do you create yourself? Or do you create a character you wish to be, but look nothing alike? I sometimes do a mix of both. Some games I will make myself in the game, but other times I will make someone completely different, and try to create a story for them. For me it depends on the game. Some games I will make myself because I want to be that character. Some games don't give you enough options to make yourself either. I have a decent sized beard and long hair, so when a game doesn't have those options, especially the beard options, I get annoyed. So if they don't have my features, I go crazy making some unique character instead. What about you though?

So not too long ago, maybe back in August I attempted to clean my Xbox One as it had yet to be cleaned in over 7 years of owning it. I took it apart and used an electric duster to clean out the gunk, but I must have done something as it wouldn't turn back on. I even replaced the thermal paste on the damn thing and nothing. It's now sitting on a shelf with a broken laptop of mine, just waiting until I either repair it, or get a used Xbone and replace it with my HD. Anyway, have you ever attempted to clean a console, or even a PC and it ended up breaking in the process? What would you do? Try to get it repaired or move on? Maybe it's time I just get my hands on a new console, like the PS5 or an Xbox Series X or S.

So I don't know if you know or not, but Steam has broadcasts on their platform, it's essentially a live streaming section for Steam users similar to what Twitch and YouTube do. But I really can't see most people bothering with the Steam side of streaming. I remember when I worked for a company a couple years ago, one of our streams we did for a new game required us to stream it through Steam as well. We obviously didn't get any traffic to steam, but I suppose you already have to be popular for that to work. Anyway, does anyone here use Steam to watch live streams? Or do you usually just go to Twitch or YouTube for that?

The Game Awards 2023 will be streaming tomorrow, Dec 7th at 7:30PM EST. What games do you want to see win? I have not played most or any of the games that made the nominees list. Game of the year could be a toss up, as it's between; Alan Wake 2, Baldur's Gate 3, Spider-Man 2, Resident Evil 4, Super Mario Bros. Wonder, and Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. If you want to see the rest of the categories and who is nominated, follow the link below. https://thegameawards.com/ As well, you can find the livestream link for YouTube below. They will be streaming it just about everywhere though, including Twitch, X, Steam, Facebook, etc.

I heard that Microsoft is working on a marketplace app to be put up on the App Store. Right now the focus is on the Apple App Store, but they have plans to get it put on the Good Play Store as well. As you know Microsoft has been purchasing up a lot of studios, I believe they got a bunch of mobile games with their purchase of Activision/Blizzard. Forgetting what the digital company was before they bought it. I want to say King, but am not 100% sure. The main reason Apple and Google have to open up their systems like this, is due to the Digital Markets Act (DMA) legislation, which now requires them to open up their store for competitors. Would you even use the Xbox app on the iPhone or on an Android phone? I don't even know what mobile games Xbox has ownership over, but if they own King they must have a ton of games they can release at any given time. Read more about this news below. https://bgr.com/tech/microsoft-is-working-on-a-gaming-app-store-for-iphone-and-im-ready-to-never-use-it/

Have you ever been to a store or shopped online and saw games without the case going for as much or even more as their in box counterpart? I've heard that a lot of sellers and resellers do this on ebay and other sites, they will look at the price charting price and pick the best price they can find. Smart collectors will simply ignore these listings, but people who are going for nostalgia and just want to get the game they played as a kid will likely put up the money for it. Do you ever let the shop owner know the prices aren't appropriate? I know people can sell for whatever price they want, but isn't there a time where you should give your opinion on the pricing? Especially if you saw other stores/shops selling for much cheaper? What would you do?

I originally wanted to get my hands on the Meta Quest 2 since my nephew got one last Christmas, but haven't bothered to save up for one yet. But then I saw the Meta Quest 3 and honestly I like it more for it's AR uses. I mainly want to be able to screenshare my PC to my headset and do work from it. The last quest had a black & white camera, while the new one lets you see in actual color when using the built in cameras. Anyway, has anyone here gotten their hands on the Quest 3? I want to buy one, and honestly the price sounds fair for what you're getting. Or should I try to save up for a more powerful headset, maybe their Meta Quest Pro which currently costs $999.99, so maybe not that haha.

If you haven't heard yet, Sony and PlayStation have been in the news recently where they have had to remove digital movies from people's libraries due to copyright issues. The catalog of stuff Sony has removed, involves around Discovery content. Here's a post for example: https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/you-dont-own-digital-media I believe you may be safe if you have something like movies anywhere, which lets you merge your digital movie/tv show libraries into one, as well, you can then watch all of your owned movies on each platform (YouTube, Amazon, Vudu, etc). But my worries now go to video games. I don't know if it'll end up being the same situation with video games, but who's to say this won't happen there as well? We don't technically own the digital games and movies we purchase, so any day they could remove your rights to them. We have a safety net right now when it comes to games we buy, as any downloaded can be re-downloaded later, but things can change. Licensing and copyright is a messy thing, and it's already had an affect on video games in terms of music licensing and other such things. Is there any bit of worry about the digital future?

I purchased an Xbox GamePass Ultimate code back in October, a 1 month card to be exact and I purchased it from a third party seller on G2A. The seller had good ratings, but I wish I had looked at them before purchasing. After I purchased, I went in and redeemed, had a hiccup at first, but it went through. Now when you redeem Gamepass codes these days, Xbox seems to force you into the auto renewal payment option, but I always go in after to turn that off. Well I did this, but when I was in there, it shows a different service to manage my subscription. It shows up as "Purchased with BT/EE". And when I click on manage, it brings me to this other site where I have no account. So some bit of research later, I check the guys reviews and there are a bunch of users having the same issue. Reached out to the seller and he said it would drop off that month. As of today, I still have it. More research tells me that people who have this really can't do anything but wait it out. One post I found online stated they contacted MS and the BT or EE company and neither could do anything. So I reached out to Xbox first, and they said they can't do anything from their end. So I contacted EE and they said that only the account holder who gave me the code could cancel this, so all they said was to reach out to who gave me the code, and I doubt the seller remembers who gave him the code. So essentially I am stuck with this. The upside is I get free gamepass until this person cancels, but the downside is I hope this doesn't end up banning me. The xbox rep I spoke to said that would not happen. But yeah, just a word of warning, I know it's been said here before by a few others, but don't buy from G2A and maybe not even from other third party sellers. Go with Amazon or the actual site itself. Has this sort of thing happened to you when buying a third party code?

Has anyone here played the new game called Lethal Company? I've been seeing it played all over YouTube and Twitch as of late and am curious if any of you know it? It's currently an early access game, and from what I saw it kind of reminds me of Phasmophobia a lot. From the streams I have watched, it's a co-op game where you are tasked with collecting scrap and junk on industrialized moons as they say, all the while there are monsters hanging about that could come and attack you at any time. I believe you can buy items like you can in Phasmophobia and you can lose those items if left behind. Or so that's what I heard. I haven't dug deep into what the game fully is, just I know it's blowing up right now. And the fact it's only $10 on steam is even better. Steam Page - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1966720/Lethal_Company/ Does anyone here play this? How is it going for you so far?

This game is said to be developed by just one person, and looks to be inspired by games like PT and Phasmophobia. Especially the look and feel of PT, but includes the ability to speak with ghosts and such with your mic like in phasmo. I hope this turns out to be as crazy as PT was, with the way you can get different outcomes, but I'm doubting it's that sophisticated. Check the trailer out below and give your thoughts on the game. The game comes out in January!

So I've noticed my PC can't play the newer Cyberpunk DLC due to being required to have an SSD, same with Starfield. I have an SSD, but I don't have enough space on it. I want to get an external SSD since I don't think I have another slot for an SSD. Are external SSDs worth it? I want to pick one up soon so I can play some games. I don't expect to be able to play all new games though, my PC is started to get dated when it comes to newer gen gaming. I doubt I could play something like GTA VI on my current setup. Are external SSD's just as good as internal SSDs?

AI is getting more advanced, so much so that popular videos games are starting to adopt AI chatbots right into their game to give more character to their NPCs. I heard a while back someone made a mod for Skyrim to make all NPCs talk with AI and it is getting better and better. Soon enough we're going to see games where all NPCs can talk with the aid of AI. I downloaded a tech demo a while ago on steam called Origins, and it had NPCs that utilized AI so that each conversation you have seems different. You use your voice to question witnesses to an explosion I think it was. And you're supposed to question the NPCs in the area. I'll leave you with the video Moist critical posted on it below, it's fun to see what direction gaming might be going. There is another game called Vaudeville that is an AI detective game. I haven't watched anything on that, but here it's okay. I hope to see more games that feature AI chatbots in the near future.

I found this interesting reddit post in r/gamecollecting the other day and had to share it. I didn't know this was a thing. But according to a reddit user, renaming of consoles was a loophole in order to sell Japanese made products in foreign markets. The image you see above is an renamed NES that came out in India. I guess after WWII, certain countries didn't allow the sale of Japanese made products, so to get around those rules and laws, they renamed the console to Samuari Electronic TV game. The same redditor also stated that the Nintendo in South Korea for example was called the Hyundai Comboy. Makes you wonder what other NES consoles are out there with different names. I thought it was cool that they did this. I'm guessing Nintendo did this themselves in order to sell as many places as they could.

VI's trailer is expected to drop tomorrow. It's crazy that we're finally at the point where we get to full on witness what the next installment is going to be. GTA VI has been in the works forever now, having GTA V out for 10+ years now. I don't know when we can expect GTA VI, but I assume either late 2024 or early 2025 for release. Now this isn't about GTA VI necessarily, but more about what will happen to GTA V after GTA VI drops. Do you expect the numbers to fall off big time once GTA VI drops? Or will is somehow survive with the community of role players out there? GTA IV for example wasn't very popular longer after V came out, so my guess is V will suffer the same fate once GTA VI drops. What do you think?

It's being reported that Naughty Dog's next game is in the works, but they made no mention of what the game could be. It could be the third in the series for The Last of Us, or it could be a whole new IP. The good news though, is that they are also hard at work on the multiplayer mode that has been making fans wait since 2020. The MP mode was supposed to drop with the second game, but never came out. Druckman himself said that they will have more to share later in the year. Do you think they will ever release the MP mode? Or will they end up coming out with a third game before that? Read more about it below: https://mp1st.com/news/naughty-dog-next-game-already-decided-on-by-studio-last-of-us-multiplayer-game-info-coming-later-this-year

That's kinda what I do, have my games set aside based on console type, but I've gotten lazy over the years where I don't bother to put them in alphabetical order. Ok, so system > genre > then Alphabetical? And damn, that's a lot of games, haha. I wouldn't want to deal with alphabetizing all of those, but the way you have your set up, it might not be so bad.

There was no way to use the console online. He may be able to re-format it and all that, but the console itself would still be banned, which means it can't be used online even after formatting. The guy requested they unban the console after they found out he wasn't the one to do it, but they still kept the ban active. Oh for sure, you can never be too safe when it comes to buying used consoles, especially if they can be banned and rendered unusable. That's why whenever I buy a used console in person, I ask to test it first. Just to be on the safe side.

I looked through the other options they have in terms of console selection, and they still rent out games from Xbox, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, and even have GBA & Gamecube listed. GBA and Gamecube dont' have anything under them, so no idea why they still have them up. They still have a fair deal of PS3, and 360 games. But for the price point, I don't think it's worth renting any of these older games haha. But, kinda cool they have older games you can rent still.

They kind of already did something similar with Shaolin Monks I believe it was. In that game I believe you could play co-op. It was essentially a beat 'em up where you played as either Liu Kang and or Kung Lao. Supposedly the story takes place during MKII. I remember hearing about it and from the looks of it, is kind of similar to the sub-zero game, but this time it's actually good. I watched a playthrough of it years ago and I think it's also more open, as you can walk in all directions instead of left and right. But I may be wrong, it's been a long time. As for future games like that, I'm all for it. More single player/co-op beat 'em ups would be nice.

Did the updates stop or was it because they weren't marketing the game enough? Because when it first came out, I felt like even then they weren't putting much effort into marketing it, and I think that too could have been a reason it failed. And, if they updated the game to fix the gripes people had, it might've even done better.

What are your feelings on modders who mod retro consoles and games? Like those who use real parts. Like recycling the shell and carts to make ROM hacks, or to mod the console to play on newer hardware (HDMI modded in). How do you feel when someone donates what was once a Super Mario Bros 3 to be used as a ROM hack? I could maybe understand an old sports game, but NES sports games are popular and some are regarded as classics in their own right. Essentially the question is, how do you feel when someone mods a retro game, and possibly ruins its original retail value and worth?