Shagger

I'll use this video clip to show you what I mean. As the player in control of the protagonist interacts with an NPC (in this case Serana), you see various options appear to select as things to say. When you select them, the NPC responds with whatever dialogue they say in that moment. Those options you select are the protagonist's dialogue in the game. It's not voiced, but it is expressions, questions and instructions coming from the protagonist directed at the NPC. This is what I mean when I talk about a protagonist having dialogue, but not voiced. In a game where all the NPCs are voiced when the protagonist is not might sound like a weird or even bad idea, but it can work, especially in an RPG. This is what I was talking about earlier in the thread how reading the protagonist's dialogue and letting yourself hear the voice you want to hear say the words as apposed to a voice actor can actually enhance the role play experience, at least for me.

The thing is this isn't entitled customers making a fuss, were talking about the ex-managing director of one of the largest and most respected independent consumer advice organisations and watchdogs in the United Kingdom, if not the world. This is a guy that should know what he's doing, and yet here I am completely baffled by his process.

We're defiantly at a point where to many people are saying the same things for the claims not to have merit.

Don't get me wrong, I want him to succeed here, I truly do, but I'm also a realist and thus I believe he is going to fall on his ass because I don't think he fully understands how this works. Whether Sony are right or wrong in this is irrelevant, what matters is that, as far as I can tell, how Sony charges commission is the basis for his whole argument and it doesn't make sense. Not only is that a weak argument to make on behalf of the consumer anyway, is it also pretty much the exact same thing that happens throughout the industry, so either everybody is guilty of this or nobody is. Even retailers selling physical copies of games charge commission, that's how they get a cut. This would make sense if he could prove that Sony was consistently charging more for thier games on PSN then on anywhere else. I decided to test this by looking at how a random game was priced across the board and after just that on game this this theory is already looking shaky. The game I choose was Stray. Here is how much Stray costs on the British PSN Store right now. This is for the PS4 and PS5 version And on Steam... OK, it's £1 less. And I'll say, I don't think Sony can justify that. They probably would have some sort of bullshit excuse lined up, but it's starting to look like Alex Neill has a case, until you take a look at GAME, the high street retailer that operates in the UK. That's important because that is where this law suit is being filed. (BTW, I have no idea why GAME is still listing this as a pre-order when the game is already out, but I promise you this fresh is a screen snip I just took for this very post.) How on earth is Alex going to prove Sony are ripping people off when the country's most prominant video game retailer is charging a full £10 more for the same game? You see, he has not thought this through.

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.

Angry Centaur Gaming (ACG) didn't think much of it either, said pretty much the same things. So... yeah. Honestly, I think here is parts of this would genuinely enjoy, but would likely get bored of it pretty quick. At least for now, this looks like one to avoid.

I'm a little confused by this topic because a program with programmed responses and sequences of actions is what AI is. The ambitious idea you present that I've highlighted is not only practically impossible (as what you describe is basically sentience), but is also something potentially very dangerous, something that sci-fi was warned us about time and again. Detroit: Become Human, The Terminator, Horizon Zero Dawn, The Matrix, 2001 A Space Odyssey, the list goes on. Technology capable of independent thought is technology that is literally alive, and that creeps me out.

That is a brilliant point. I don't like labelling the kind of developers you speak of as "indie" for reasons I've spoke of in the past (To summarise, an indie game can come from a one man team of a shed of a huge company employing thousands because "indie" liberally means it's independently published.), but I know what you mean by "indie" developers and digital distribution really has been a godsend for them. Social media has help as well because it's empowered "word of mouth" like never before and gives good games from talented, small indie dev's a real chance to get traction and get noticed. Again, a great point @Techno that I didn't think of.

Whilst it's true that a gaming PC can serve as a utility in a way that a games console can't that's a bit of a false benefit. Mobile phones and tablets can do most of the same stuff that a utility PC does these days. Then there is there's cost. You could buy a PS5 and cheap laptop to cover both your gaming needs and utility PC needs and spend probably half money you would do building a gaming rig that can match a PS5 in terms of in-game performance. So for me, that argument doesn't really work anymore.

I'm not the biggest anime fan, so maybe I'm he wrong person to ask, but I do know of Crunchyroll. You can watch for free of pay a subscription for premium access and it a lot of content.

I've decided I'm just going to lock this topic as I'm fairly certain that this profile is just a front for promotion and this thread is bait for these exact questions.

It's been a while, but a new gameplay trailer has dropped for Black Myth: Wukong. It still looks very promising, even if this is taking a long time to come out.

Please note that the Free Games from Epic this week has changes to now include DOOM 64. check the OP for details.

Even after all this time, I had no idea there was a limit. As far as I know, points aren't awarded for likes (correct me if I'm wrong), so I don't actually see a reason to have a limit at all.

I know you specified no exclusives, but availability is main factor. Most games will run better on my gaming laptop than on the consoles I own plus with it being a laptop there is a convivence factor, so given the choice I will play any said game on PC instead of a console. However, if it turns out a game is cheaper of has some additional content on a console port, I would consider that.

You what I really hate, it's when people say "It's always the last place you look". Well, of course it is! Why would anyone once they finally find something then keep looking for it?

There are regular animals in the game and you can hunt them for resources. To explain what the machines are would lead into spoiler territory, so I'm afraid I can't really say, but the machines haven't replaced the animals if that makes sense.

Don't comment unless it's an actual nomination. You have been warned about this before, consider this you last one.

I'll cast my vote for @kingpotato. Active, insightful and entertaing, every forum needs at least one of him.

Welcome to VGR. That's certainly an impressive back catalogue.

Yay for me, I actually have an opportunity to try this game at last. I was reluctant to buy it given the mixed reaction the game had and buy the time I decided was interested, the community had dropped of somewhat. This is good for me as I know I'm not the only gamepass user who hasn't tried this out yet. I'm not that surprised. The game went multiplatform ages ago, so whilst I see he irony, this isn't that shocking.

First off, the game that @DC gave away (Like I'm sure all of the games he has given away as part of the points system) was in the form of a digital code and, as part of the system, you have to provide proof you have redeemed said code in the "Post here when you get your reward" thread. So no, you can't just sell them off. The system wouldn't exist in the form it does if @DC wanted you to do anything with these games other than play them. Second, @Yaramaki didn't win that game by "bidding more". This wasn't like the Auction No. 17- $15 Amazon Gift Card currently going on. There was a set price for the code in points, first come, first served. Check that thread for Aquadine on Nintendo Switch and you'll see the difference. Lastly, and to expand on what @Yaramaki said, even if the system in place was meant for you to sell the codes you bid for, that would be unethical. Not only is it dishonest, but it also denies one of your fellow forum members the chance to grab a game that they actually wanted. Check out this thread for Tyrant's Blessing for Steam that I recently partook in. Given that I had already got another game called Hard West 2 through bid for rewards that was very similar, I was very reluctant to go for it and would only take it if nobody else was interested: As you can see, in the end @DC felt nobody else was interested, so I got the code, but that's not the point. The point is that it's expected for people to bid for these rewards because they want them, any other motive is not appropriate. I actually held of commenting on that thread for days to give somebody else the chance to claim that game, the thought of claiming the code to then sell it never even crossed my mind. The fact you think that it's OK to claim a reward then just sell it off is, quite frankly, alarming and I'm very concerned. Just in case it is not clear, claiming an award to then only sell it off or exchange it for credit to buy something else in NOT what the Bid for Rewards section is for, so don't even think about it.

I thought it would be fairly self explanatory, but @NightmareFarm is referring to are games with protagonists (The main character(s), usually the character(s) you play as) who don't speak. Doom and GTA3 quickly come to mind as examples. Games such as Fallout 3 or Skyrim the protagonists are not voiced, but they do have dialogue, so that's not the same thing. It's not something that is very common now, but I'm not really a fan of the idea either. Just using the two examples I came up with already, in Doom it's OK because what few expressions the character does have to make are done successfully through action and gesture, so that works, but didn't realise how big of a problem this was in GTA 3 until I played Vice city. It can make understanding and relating to the characters actions and what they're going through much more difficult, especially if the game is not an RPG where you only control the character's actions in gameplay rather than thier role in the story. So games like Dragon's Dogma and Kingdoms of Amalur don't suffer much because your characters place in the role play well established through your actions, but I do believe the protagonist's vague and limited dialogue that lacked personality didn't do those RPGs any favours. Going back to Fallout, especially the earlier Fallout games, you see the difference it makes.

I've this on Steam before and the only thing that the other person can see and access are the games in your library and that's all. The have no access to anything regarding your profile including your payment info, they can't access nor change your login details and they cannot add nor remove games from your account. It just adds thier games onto your library and that's it. Fearing your sensitive info being compromised is always a fair concern, but the family sharing feature on Steam doesn't make that any more or less likely.

I find it hard believe that somebody could mistake a PSP for a Switch anyway, but if you genuinely didn't know what a Switch looks like (Again, hard to believe. Even if you don't own a Switch, you must at least have seen a picture of one.), why wouldn't you just do a quick search online? You obviously were not invested in the answer because if you were you would have looked it up, so what exactly was the point of this?