I am going to laugh my a$$ off if one of future title articles reads:

"Square Enix to acquire Embracer Group"

I own and play the game, and it feels like Dark Souls 4 to me. Sure it's not "Souls" but "Elden Ring" but just like Dark Souls the story is well nearly non-existent just stuff you get from "lore" item descriptions. Other than the open world nature of the game, it plays the same as any Souls game. So, "new franchise"? I guess technically since it's not named something "Souls", but gameplay and storywise no movement there at all. Where is this George R.R. Martin influence that was hyped?

“In death a member of project mayhem has a name. His name is Robert Paulson. His name is Robert Paulson”

I won't remember much about Meat Loaf. Wasn't a fan of his music, but I thought he was good in Fight Club. RIP Bob.

Activision Blizzard games will definitely stay on Playstation for the near term. All the deals that were made with Sony and Act/Bliz will be valid for some time into the future given that games have multi year development maps. I'd say at least 2-4 years for current and in development IP, before MS can start to lock down the games to XBox/PC only. So Sony is right in that case and they can announce that now in the press and slow down the slide of their stock price.

Dev wrote on Oct 23, 2021, 22:33:
"Please note that unlocking your device is not reversible and you will no longer receive OTA updates."

"Can I lock my device again?

The device may be put into a locked state again by issuing the `fastboot oem lock` command. "

Well which is it?

I would guess both. You unlock it and it can't be OTA updated and gets flagged (probably a hardware type flag like many samsung tablets and phones have). You can lock it again but that probably still doesn't remove the flag that your device was unlocked at some point. Most likely OTA updates checks that flag and if it was tripped it will refuse to update the device.

Yeah but as they say, the genie is out of the bottle, sure this person won't develop it, but it will definitely be developed by someone.

They definitely lost me with the subscription. The only new feature I really wanted is the one that I have been requesting for since I bought Rocksmith, a tablature mode.

As a more casual user of Rocksmith, I find subscription completely unacceptable. I haven't played Rocksmith in a long time because I find it much easier to just get the tab and learn it normally. Then if I own the Rocksmith song I learned, use that for a check against the rhythm and note accuracy. With this new version, I'd have to pay practically every time I learned a song.

Buying songs on Rocksmith means you get to keep using it cause you paid for that particular song. This one sounds like it's "netflix" like. Which means you get access to all the songs they have, but when they lose their license, get into a fight about royalties, or a competitor gets a exclusive, don't expect it to be there the next time you login. And like most streaming services, expect the prices to go up at regular intervals.

It's been a long time since I finished a Ubisoft game. The last one I played was Odyssey and that one I just couldn't stomach it anymore. It was so grindy it felt like it was another un-fun job to do instead of a GAME. I didn't even bother with Valhalla which looked to me like an Odyssey reskin.

F2P is definitely not going to earn them anything from me. I pass on any F2P game because they all just make the grind and RNG loot feel even worse than even Odyssey hoping it bothers you enough to buy some loot from the store with real money. I don't play a game as a side job of grinding for loot, I play a game because it's FUN and an escape from the daily grind of life.

Orogogus wrote on May 4, 2021, 01:49:
I believe there's a dispensation for temporary, short-term sale prices. Right now, the GTA V Premium Edition is $15 on the EGS and $30 on Steam with no coupons involved. Frostpunk is $10.20 on GOG.com and $30 on Steam. And obviously when the EGS or GOG gives away games the developers aren't matching that on Steam.

Actually if you follow the prices, they are uniform. Yes they don't have to match all the time like when store sales don't line up between stores, but if you look at the actual prices, now that GoG is selling Frostpunk for $10.20 it will also be on steam for that exact same price or lower the next time it goes on sale on Steam. Steam does not allow devs or publishers to sell at a lower price on any other store. If they do allow the price to be lowered in one store, they must match that price on steam. That's why if you see a game on sale on any other store EA, GoG, Ubisoft, Epic, etc... you can guarantee that price (at a minimum) will be the same on steam next time it is on sale.

As an example, Horizon Zero Dawn was a BIG game release. It had a generous day one price discount, it was released on steam several months earlier than GoG so Steam got a majority of the sales. When they actually surprised people and also released it on GoG, they matched the day one discount on GoG, but in order to take away some sales from GoG, steam price matched GoG as a "sale" at the same time.

As far as short giveaways go, yeah that is about the only time I can say I haven't seen steam matching them, but I am pretty sure that if steam decided they wanted them to match those giveaway deals under the same terms given to the publishers/devs at other stores then the publishers/devs would have to comply. I am pretty sure those giveaways as far as the publishers/devs go are actually "purchased" at cost by the store giving them away. That's probably why steam doesn't match them.

Kxmode wrote on May 3, 2021, 21:13:
Companies that put their games on Steam are free to sell on any other PC platform without hindrance from Valve.

Yes and no. A company can sell any of their games on any other platform but they are NOT allowed to undercut steam's prices. That's why epic could only undercut steam's prices during their sale by giving out $10 coupons, if they actually reflected a lower price in the sale, that company would have to match those prices on steam also or they'd be in violation of their steam contract.

Remember it's not just $500 more for the FB-less Oculus Quest 2, it is $500 more plus an annual fee of $180 on top. This is basically a business version of Oculus you are buying that doesn't sell the data they collect (like physical traits height, arm length, play space dimensions, etc...). There is no way FB is going to just charge you a one time fee of an extra $500. I wouldn't be surprised if someone found out that thanks to the cameras that are used for tracking there isn't some functionality that actually stores images of your play area at random intervals on their servers for the normal version of the hardware.

For some reason when I interpret those words "new pinball platform ... epic game store" all I see is - "new pinball platform on epic game store, all your old tables you bought on steam, must be repurchased."

What's really a shame is that this makes the other movies Man of Steel, Batman vs Superman really fit well into the DC Movie universe and sets up a very nice overall arch for the DC Movie Universe that we unfortunately will probably never get to see finished.

eRe4s3r wrote on Jan 30, 2021, 20:37:
Gameplay systems can not be patented. Case over.

Biggest problem is to find out for certain, someone would have to make a game where it was used, then wait to get sued, fight it, and win in court. There won't be many takers given how much it would cost even if they think they can win, and it would cost much much more if they lose.

As a PS5 buyer I have to say I am not happy with the $70 price tag. I will now wait for sales with only very rare exceptions. I bought 2 games for the release and that will be it till HZD 2. Preordering 2 Digital games for $70 a pop was really not a happy experience, though I talked myself into it because Spider-man ultimate was really 2 games so along with Demon Souls for $140 didn't feel as painful on my wallet. (~$47/game). But outside of the upcoming Horizon Zero Dawn 2, I haven't seen anything else that I think is worth $70. I guess it's time to reinstate my gamefly subscription.

Dam seriously! I was going to preorder one today but apparently, they started selling it yesterday. WTF?!?! Don't say preorders start tomorrow, then let stores sell them the day before. *sigh* Oh well no launch console for me. Not too broken up about it since I am more interested in a RTX3090 but I just hate when crap like that happens.

HorrorScope wrote on Sep 9, 2020, 00:20:
Do they even rent Re-Reckoning?

Yeah they do it's on the EAPlay service right now and available if you subscribe. I loaded up Origin after not using it since I finished Jedi Fallen Order and did a search for re-recokoning and it found only one match on EAPlay and it's not for sale in the store.

*sigh* so no way to buy it discounted on GoG, I own it but on Origin which doesn't sell it, only rents it with their crap service. lol

Well I guess one day I'll get it on GoG but not anytime soon.

When I saw only 3 episodes of The Boys S2 on Amazon I skipped watching it. I am waiting for it all to be there before I even bother watching. Amazon might just cancel it due to poor ratings, but it'll be their own dam fault. I am not waiting around every Friday for a new episode to drop, I'll either watch it all one day or I'll wait till it's all there and watch it all one day later. It's a good show but I still prefer the comic version. The review bomb IMHO is the natural reaction when you don't give people a way to give feedback and at the same time change the way you do things out of the blue.

Amazon might have wanted to give weekly releases a try, but that train has already left and going at full speed. HBO/Hulu etc went with weekly releases from the start, so not many complained, but Amazon/Netflix went all episodes out from the beginning, and now it's too late to change course. If they did this from the beginning or really just near the start like before any original shows got a second season, then maybe they could have gotten less blowback, but not now that they have some series having 3 or more seasons under their belt, all having been released all at once each season, it's too late. The train is moving at full speed, don't expect to quickly switch tracks without a derailment at this point in time. Unfortunately for The Boys Amazon tried it with their series, hopefully they will still get a chance to continue, but bean counters and TV shows always have a nasty habit of clashing in a bad direction.

The ad seems to gloss over the fact that if only the authorized mechanic can stop a predator from finding you, then if the authorized mechanic is the predator there are no unauthorized mechanics fix the things to stop them from finding you.