#which was the price of a launch xbox one. which is what i have. and its chugging along

[clockworkslick]

I have this weird irrational fear (not a major thing) that I'll never play a new game when it's new ever again. the last game I played new was elden ring, and that's because it was also on xbox one. I'm mostly worried that I'll never have the ability to spend an ungodly amount of money on a new console, and its not like I can just get a good pc since my macbook (inb4 "oh complaining about money while having an absurdly expensive apple product", I had help paying for it and my school lied to me and said it was required before I enrolled.) still works and it seems silly to have both. also because it's expensive as shit.

[satoshi-mochida]

Ogre Tale for Xbox Series, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch launches July 11 - Gematsu

MAGES. will release side-scrolling beat ’em up game Ogre Tale for Xbox Series, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Switch on July 11 for $19.99, the developer announced. Microsoft Store (Xbox Series, Xbox One pre-orders are available now at a $14.99 discount price.

Ogre Tale first launched for PC via Steam on August 20, 2020.

A major update is also now available for the PC version, which adds the following content:

Fixes for Steam Deck

Fixed a bug related to frame rate.

Adjustment of behavior when connecting an external controller

Adjustment of Some User Interfaces

Added a function for bulk sales in the store.

Added description to the special move detail screen.

Adjustment of Game Balance

Level cap changed from 50 to 100.

Added “Nightmare” and “Nightmare+” difficulty levels.

Weapons with “Multi-Jump,” “Dash in the Air,” and “Dash Attack” skills were added from the beginning.

Drop rate of items has been revised upward.

Lowered the number of times to raise the level of ultimate moves.

Lowered the conditions for obtaining some achievements.

Here is an overview of the game, via MAGES.:

About

Join ogre sisters Ran, Hana, and Yume, and their feline mentor, Iroha, in a battle against fairytale folk heroes-turned-villains via this action-packed tongue-in-cheek 2D beat ’em up romp set in modern day Japan!

Story

Hundreds of years ago, there dwelled ogres alongside humankind. These ogres were known to cause no end of problems for the humans they came upon, leading them to be feared and hated, regarded as monsters and demons. One day, a trio of soon-to-be folk heroes named Momotaro, Kintaro, and Issuntaro decided enough was enough, and set foot upon the land from whence the ogres came: Onigashima. Their goal was to confront the ogres on their own turf and take them down once and for all… and so they did. After a long struggle, Momotaro and his crew successfully defeated the leader of the ogres: the beautiful yet dreaded Iroha (CV: Yukari Tamura). And with Iroha’s defeat, the ogres themselves fell to ruin, and peace once again reigned for humanity. Momotaro, Kintaro, and Issuntaro were heralded as heroes, and they all lived happily ever after… Or did they?! Tokyo, present day. Iroha, having used an ancient technique for reincarnation upon herself just moments before her demise, has lived many lives in many forms. Finally, after nearly giving up hope, she discovers the last surviving ogres: a trio of sisters bearing the name of their ancient homeland, Onigashima. She (or, now, he, as a male cat) raises them as her/his own, strictly teaching them the ways of the sword so that one day, s/he may lead them into battle against Momotaro and reclaim the ogres’ rightful place in society. And fortunately for them, Momotaro is indeed still out there! Specifically, a guy named Momotaro—who happens to be a 37th generation descendant of the original—just so happens to have been toiling day in and day out as a host in the red light district, and has finally reached his breaking point. He has PLANS now, and suffice it to say, they’re not exactly folk-heroic! So, hey, this was supposed to just be a petty revenge story, but with Momotaro suddenly turning evil due to systemic depression, maybe the ogres can actually be the good guys this time around! Lucky… them, I guess? What even IS this story, anyway?!

Characters

Playable Characters

Ran (voiced by Yoko Hikasa) – The middle sister. Always has a sword at the ready. Innately controls fire, so many of her techniques are fire-related. More of a doer than a thinker, Ran is the type who will hit first and ask questions later. Comes across as stoic but reliable.

Hana (voiced by Ayumi Takeishi) – The eldest sister. Armed with a whip and a longbow. Don’t let her gentle voice and calm-seeming personality fool you: she’s 100 percent sadist. If you cross a line with her, she’ll mess you right up. Generally serious and confident, she’s nonetheless the voice of reason among the three.

Yume (voiced by Hina Kino) – The youngest sister. Outwardly flaunts her metal club, but also has bombs at the ready. Does not think things through, ever. She acts purely on instinct at all times. Educated through games and anime rather than textbooks, with expected results. Lures you in with her cuteness, but then absolutely demolishes you with words and weapons alike as you approach. Most definitely hazardous to your health.

Non-Playable CharactersIroha (voiced by Shigeru Chiba) – Legal (?) guardian of the three Onigashima sisters, and general chief of their operations. Possesses the reincarnated soul of the ogre leader who died hundreds of years prior. Struggles every day to raise his charges as true ogres, teaching them everything s/he knows. Yet, in the end, is still just a cat.

Momotaro (voiced by Yoji Ueda) – Momotaro the 37th (Momotaro XXXVII?). Presently works as the #1 host in Kabukicho. Though probably not for much longer, all things considered! Basically, he’s the last boss. He’s had enough of the host life, and now wants to try his hand at being a supervillain. Turns out, he’s well suited to the role!

And Many More, such as…Tsuru no Ongaeshi – The Vengeful Crane.

Urashima Taro

System

Story Mode – Select from the three Onigashima sisters and challenge main missions and side missions as the tale progresses, leveling up and earning items and money (to spend on items via online shopping, of course!) that help teach you new skills and toughen your stats for the inevitable face-off against Momotaro! Between each mission, listen to witty and often fourth wall-breaking banter among the girls, their cat guardian Iroha, and a wide variety of villains. This story doesn’t take itself very seriously, and neither should you! Just kick back and enjoy the ride!

Cooperative Multiplayer – Up to three players at once can join the fray in this chaotic frenzy of a mode, wherein a number of enemies not seen anywhere else can be encountered, and a vast fortune can be earned through contiguous beatdowns and massively one-sided fights (I mean, it’s three of you against one boss enemy! OF COURSE you’re going to kick yokai tail!).

[blazehedgehog]

Physical or digital media?

I would be a 100% physical media person if I could help it.

There are too many stories of games getting delisted for licensing or whatever. A developer pays for a celebrity likeness or a top 40 song or a specific model of car and five years later, whoops! The rights expired! The game goes poof. It's like it never existed. Doesn't matter how good or bad the game was.

And keep in mind, even a bad game is going to be somebody's favorite, and they deserve a way to still experience it.

If you have a disc, that disc is forever (within reason). If it's a digital game, it gets deleted from that reality. Literally deleted. I bought Forza Horizon 3 on PC a few years ago because Microsoft had the foresight to warn people when it was getting delisted. And thankfully, the servers are still up, and Microsoft says they are, at least for now, committed to letting you redownload delisted games that you paid for.

But that won't always be the case, and it's already happening that some games can permanently disappear. The Wii Shop Channel is gone now. All those Virtual Console games, all those WiiWare titles, if you missed your shot to download it from Nintendo, it's gone now. Doesn't matter how much you paid. If you connect that console to the internet all you'll have is an error message. The clock is also ticking on the 3DS and Wii U eShops, which are slated to close at the end of this month.

Stadia, in its entirety, is gone. Most (not all) of those games are available on other platforms... but if you bought it on Stadia, you will have to buy it again somewhere else, and hope that one day, that too does not also go down.

There are always gestures of preservation efforts made by the community. And I'm thankful for those. The Wii Shop Channel is gone, but all of those games have been backed up by pirates years ago. Believe me, I'm no stranger to the methods used to play games like Castlevania ReBirth or Fast Racing League, which died on the Wii Shop and have never been ported anywhere else to this day.

But there are a lot of assumptions made in things like that which may not have practical solutions. Like, how many of you reading this blog have ever tried to emulate an original Xbox game on the PC? Microsoft only lets you access a small percentage of the Xbox library through their official backwards compatibility, but what if you want to venture outside of that?

It's not an easy process. Compatibility is a mess, system requirements are all over the place, and you have to get very specific dumps to even get the games to boot at all, assuming they can actually run. Yes, the data has been preserved, but it's not worth much when you can't do anything with it or need to spend $1500 on a PC good enough to run the emulation software.

It will always be easier to own the disc and throw it in the original hardware. A lot of Sega Saturn emulation still isn't an especially easy thing to run smoothly unless you have an above average gaming PC. I'd have to spend at least $300-$400 just to upgrade my system's CPU, but a couple years ago I spent $110 on a RetroTink2x Pro and I can hook my real hardware up to that just fine.

But even that's becoming it's own problem, because all of the greasy collectors have been moving in for years now and driving prices up on even the cheapest, most recent trash. The aftermarket is all but disappearing -- up through the launch of the PS4, it used to be you could find PS2 games for pennies. Now used prices seem to stay pretty much lock step with retailer MSRP (that's the price you pay for brand new shrinkwrapped games, kids). You might be lucky to find newer games on Ebay for a couple bucks off, but it's not like it used to be.

There are more and more and more stories about grifters like WATA coming in and "officially grading" retro games to be fake collector's items, leading to awful headlines like a copy of Super Mario 64, one of the most ubiquitous and common N64 games ever made, selling for a million dollars. That's like selling a bucket of tap water for a million dollars.

Buying physical is becoming a landmine because it's feeling like if you wait too long then you're at the mercy of scalpers and grifters and "collectors" who think they can throw a loose cart of Super Mario 64 up on Ebay and get $50-$70 for it.

A part of me wants to slap on a tinfoil hat and say that this was a plan. Ten years ago, the used games market was the enemy for a corporation like Microsoft, because it was a method to get dirt cheap games without any of that money going to them.

And though they backed off from that after it publicly damaged the Xbox brand, they are still pushing very, very, very hard to move everything to digital where the used games market does not exist. The next generation of Xbox after the one we're on right now probably won't come with a disc drive at all for how much they push the all-digital Series S in the marketing.

How do you hurry that along? Turn the used games market in to "the collector's market" where those old games like Halo 2 are much more expensive and much less convenient than just buying a digital copy of The Master Chief Collection for $20 on the Xbox Store.

And make no mistake, it is more convenient. Speaking as someone who has moved into smaller and smaller spaces over the last seven years, there comes a very real moment where you have to get rid of pieces of your life. Being able to plug a single box in and have my 18 year old Steam account with 1500+ games certainly seems a lot more comforting on the surface than having to lug five tubs of plastic cartridges and game discs around everywhere I go.

But what if the unthinkable happens, and Steam shuts down some day? I cannot reliably back up 1500 PC games. What if it gets stolen tomorrow and I can't get access back? Is convenient always better? Like, yeah, somebody could break in and steal my retro games, too, but that's a lot harder to do than breaking into my Steam account.

And this isn't even touching on the complications of ownership rights, and how certain businesses are trying to redefine what it means to be a "service" because that allows them to bypass the ownership laws meant to protect people like you and me.

The reality is, because of space, price, and availability concerns, I only really buy physical games if they're meaningfully important to me. And if they're important to me to own on a disc, I usually end up buying them digitally too, just for the convenience of digital. The Xbox 4 might not have a disc drive but I'll still be able to play the digital copy of Sonic Unleashed on it some day, while also being able to pop that same disc in my old 360, assuming it still works.

There are forces at work here and as always their goals are to take more and more and more of our money away from us. They have discovered a lot of great ways to do that. Buying physical is getting to be almost a matter of protest at this point.

[monitorchakas]

Sad and angry about halo hours

Lovely isn't it? How Microsoft decided to wring halo dry of any money it could get from it with low effort on the content

only to then just abandon it? The "flagship" game of their stupid console

Think about it. Halo Infinite was promised to be a 10 year service for us, promised to have splitscreen campaign (first on launch then 3 months later (then never)), and much more!

Look where that's gone, after we paid $60 based on the promise of splitscreen campaign they scrapped it. They literally lied to the fans multiple times. Who cares though because Microsoft has your money ;)

That ten year plan has also been scrapped because something about their precious engine that theyvworked so hard on for such a long time is too difficult to work on!!

Plus the infinite multiplayer shop charging you ridiculous prices for armor and color. OH BUT ITS FREE TO PLAY! Well I paid for the campaign and with the old games buying the campaign let you unlock all the colors and armors for free with the campaign.

Meanwhile its unplayable with the terrible de sync which they acknowledged existed haven't heard of it being fixed?

Cherry on top they fired everyone from campaign team (we have their money no need to keep that and work on what we promised) and who knows who else go fired.

Because one thing that is consistent is 343i giving updates on stuff they are cutting because "uwu not enough resources!!!"

Dont get me started on Master Cheeks...

Fuck these people I wish it were different I wish there were hope but halo has been left bleeding in a ditch to die and other games will take its place

The xbox showcase confirmed that

[eziojensenthe3rd]

Midnight Gaming: Drop Dead Red

So last night I played Paint The Town Red past midnight, checked socials later to find... nintendo has announced an open playtest for an upcoming feature coming to nso + xpansion pack.

So Nintendo Switch Online is the paid online subscription of nintendo similar to xbox gold and playstation plus. It is one of the cheapest of the three though the online on switch has been lauded as spotty, it has gotten better over the years. Theres also the offering of classic titles that can be played on a subscription from NES, SNES and game boy, which is essentially the current iteration of the old Virtual Console service that was on Wii. Theres also the expansion pack which is an upgrade to the base subscription which adds a selection of Game boy Advance, N64 and sega mega drive games along with access to some dlc for certain games though the jump in price and spotty emulation at launch made the NSO expansion pack a very hard sell. Its alteast a bit better now but you dont often hear people recommend getting the full package.

So colour me intrigued when nintendo announced an open playtest for an upcoming feature for the NSO + Expansion Pack.

The only conditions you need to apply is to have an active NSO + Expansion sub. Now what exactly is this feature they are testing? Im not sure at the moment but i'm hoping its gamecube and wii support, though more likely its something else thats not really that exciting. I've had nintendo let me down before.

Anyways, speaking of things that are related to the colour red....

Paint The Town Red is a voxel-based first person brawler available on steam where you enter a level and start a no holds barred brawl in the area that doesnt end until your the last one standing. The name is certanly accurate since a lot of the levels by the end do end up painted red with the blood and viscera of every single person who was in the area at the time.

Seriously, the games use of Voxel graphics ends up making it almost as gory as the Mortal Kombat series with how much bodily damage you can inflict on enemies to the point of their own skeletons popping out of the voxel meat just to say happy halloween.

A lot of objects can be picked up and swung as a means to defend yourself during the hour of violence such as glass mugs and bottles, chairs, plates and weights, to more convential weapons such as blades, bats and firearms. Not too mention you fill up a power meter that sits above your health, with every enemy eliminated, allowing you to use one of three skills when you have enough so you can inflict some more damage. One small issue I have is that health can be troublesome to manage since you dont really get any health recovery unless theres a health pickup placed in the level and if theres isnt one or you already used them up, you'll find yourself needing to be careful when your mopping the last few brawlers and since enemies can do a quick lunge that if unblocked can hit you for a lot, it can lead to a death or two and a restart.

The game does have a nice variety of content available with the scenarios which are your basic levels where you get your ultraviolence on. An arena mode which is essentially your survive as long as you can mode. A freaking roguelike mode called Beneath with character classes and passive unlocks, yeah thats pretty neat. And then theres the user-made levels which are just levels and themes available through the games steam workshop. And yes, I played the Family Guy level.

So to wrap this, PTTR? Neat lil game, definatly a lot on offer especially for ultraviolence fans. Theres also a vr version available for anyone with a headset.

Im still a bit curious as to what Nintendo is planning with that upcoming feature they're looking to test, but im not sure I really wanna spend roughly £40 so I coukd try to apply for the test.... I dont suppose anyone would be... nice enough to buy it for me?? For the sake of journalism naturally 😏.

So thats Midnight Gaming, sorry for the delay but wanted to take a few days for my health. Feel free to leave feedback and game suggestions. See you all tomorrow.

[nielsmichiels]

I have some thoughts about the Activision/Blizzard takeover. Well, more about some of the xbox gamers that support it. Year after year since the ps4 launch i had to hear that it "wasn't fair" that PS had some exclusives (which most of them were first party titles or completely new franchises) and microsoft apparently had nothing. And that this deal and the Bethesda takeover is somehow some "devine justice" for being "ridiculed for having nothing". Meanwhile i remember the thirteen years when Microsoft just flopped a bag of cash in front of developers and made twenty seven instalments (that i know off) of multiplatform games (or even playstation mainstays) to make those instalments exclusive on the xbox and xbox 360. Just one generation where the roles are reversed and they feel it is justified that Microsoft just bought a huge chunk of the third party multiplatform ip and make it exclusive to the xbox/gamepass. I have to say it, but what a bunch of hypocrites. Sony plays by microsoft's own rules just a couple of times and Microsoft just flips the board. And these hypocrites praises them for it. I never had a high opinion about Microsoft. I know the company for thirty years now. I remember when they tried to monopolise the OS market. I remember when they tried to monopolise the search engine market I remember when they tried to monopolise PC gaming. I remember the twenty seven games they robbed us PS players off with the xbox. I remember when they tried to increase the price of xbox gold multiple times for no reason. Including two years ago and now they forced gold into gamepass. I remember the xbox one. A DRM filled machine "entertainment system" that made it unable to not only sharing your games with somebody else (let alone sell them) it also had a mandatory spy camera that you couldn't turn off. Oh, and let's not forget about the allways online part. I remember Donald Mattrick repeating that the kinnect, allways online and the drm were "hard coded" into the system and that it was unable to "flip a switch" to remove them. .........Only for a couple of weeks later after well deserved protests from the xbox playerbase to find out they could flip a swith and remove that. And gamepass.......... Gamepass is in my eyes a trojan horse that could destroy gaming as we know it. If it is successfull we will enter an age where we no longer have any rights to our games, that we don't own our games that we payed hard cash for. That they if they wish could just cut our access off, willie nillie. And you couldn't do anything about it. Or just increase the price. They had no reservations to try it multiple times with xbox gold, what will prevent them from doing it with gamepass? And people ask why we Playstation gamers (and probably some pc gamers too if they have the same suspisions i have with gamepass) have reservations with this buy out. This massive change in the gaming landscape. I wonder why people trusts that company still. Now i can understand that Playstation has its flaws. Its cybersecurity is a mess. But they never have tried to screw me over as a gamer. Microsoft/Xbox has.

[transgirl-gaming-thoughts]

My Thoughts On: Nintendo for $70

Being a Nintendo fan is getting harder and harder for me. Don't get me wrong, I love a lot of Nintendo IPs, but when I think about Nintendo games and consoles I love, I don't generally jump to the Switch... Not to mention, Nintendo consoles have always been underpowered compared to the competition, but now that they're aiming at this hybrid console thing, while it's still a neat idea, it's very very hard to justify paying industry standard prices for games that are comparable to the Xbox 360 and PS3... from more than 15 years ago.

(thoughts continue under the cut)

This only gets worse when I see them charging $70 for Tears of the Kingdom. Sony and Microsoft are charging $70 for their biggest current-gen games because they're bigger than any games of the past have been, but Nintendo charged $60 for WiiU ports of games that weren't that impressive to begin with, and retailed for $40 at release on the WiiU. A lot of the best PS3 and Xbox 360 games resell online now for $10-$30, and I'm buying games of the same power and scope from Nintendo for $60... soon, that could be $70. Am I the only one that feels weird about that? Does this feel wrong to anyone else?

The sequel to the Switch is rumored to be on par with a PS4/Xbox One, which is a big step up and could lead to not only great Nintendo originals, but also better third party support. However, PS4 games sold $60 MSRP. It feels right for Nintendo to start making games on that level, and charging on that level... but instead, their prices are trying to compete with the scope of PS5/Xbox Series games at $70.

In my mind, and take this with a grain of salt as my opinion only, I want Nintendo to properly justify their game prices. Return to the home console/handheld console split, and make a home console on par with the competitors, plus a handheld that is probably weaker, costs less, etc. but still offers unique gaming experiences! Make home console games that run on comparable hardware and offer comparable experiences to what people from Sony and Microsoft are giving us, and then I'll be more willing to pay $70 for it.

OR, if Nintendo wants us to accept that some games are just worth more, they need to accept that some games are just worth less. So many Nintendo games come out with little content or unfinished/unpolished aspects, and they charge us full price regardless. Not to mention, these games rarely go on sale, so this is essentially the "new" price forever. Lots of games, including ports and smaller remasters, deserve a $40-$50 price point, and just don't earn the full $60.

I haven't bought a new Switch game in a long time, mostly because I just can't tell if it's going to be worth my $60. I didn't buy Tears of the Kingdom (at $70!!); I didn't buy Kirby and the Forgotten Land; I didn't buy Pikmin 4. I love all of these series! And in hindsight, I really want to play Pikmin 4, but I'm still torn on TotK and Forgotten Land. I wasn't willing to risk that much money at launch, and I'm still not sure if I'm willing to pay that much, and will most likely buy these games at a discount, used. I love Nintendo games and consoles, they're the reason that I'm as in love with games as I am, but if they can't rectify their content versus their prices... well, they won't be seeing much money from me outside of console purchases.

[author-morgan]

thoughts on the AC crossovers?

First, let me preface this by saying Ubisoft’s quality control before releasing new content is absolutely horrendous. Every update with free content for Valhalla, this crossover included, has crashed the game back to my Xbox home screen, made loading times three times longer (it literally took 9 minutes and 24 seconds for the River Raids to load —yes, I timed it), and corrupted saves. Also, I think the autosave may be malfunctioning, but I am not 100% sure of that yet. But if I’m being frank, Valhalla has been a steaming pile of shit since launch with all the bugs, glitches, and corrupted saves, but that’s another rant for another day. I will never be buying another Ubisoft game at full price, though.

And to make things even better for the crossover, throughout my entire playthrough of the Isle of Skye arc, Kassandra’s lips never moved once for her dialogue, so that was certainly a bummer.

On to the actual crossover. I thought it was extremely lazy. It’s no secret Ubisoft’s storytelling capabilities have been in an exponential decline since the change to RPG and the loss of Desmond (Origins is still very good, though), and I couldn’t help but feel the entire time this was just something ripped from fan theories and thrown together rather hastily. To substantiate the importance of this arc to the continuation of Odyssey, I think there needed to be more content in Odyssey’s base game. The Korfu questline? Definitely should have existed in the main game and not as additional content tacked on almost four years later without ceremony. That said, I did enjoy the Korfu quest and the explanation for what happened to the Leonidas Spear for it to end up being buried with Herodotus. And at the end of the day, I just want more from Odyssey and its protagonist because there is so much potential to explore history than just doing crossover events.

I will say one of the prime reasons I did not like the Valhalla arc was the lack of emotional stakes and attachment I have toward Kassandra as the Eagle Bearer. At this point, it should come as no surprise if you’ve been following my Assassin’s Creed stories for the past three years, but I played as Alexios. He was my first choice and will continue to be the character I prefer no matter who Ubisoft says is ‘canon.’ The same goes for male!Eivor, I picked to play solely as him without a second thought. Neither of these was a hard choice.

If Ubisoft is going to continue giving us choices as to which gender we can play as the protagonist, then they need to make good on those choices for the duration of the series. And yes, this is entirely possible. My nemeses from Shadow of Mordor transferred over into Shadow of War. I have spent 300+ hours with Alexios. I have only done one 28-hour speed run with Kassandra through the family storyline for the sole reason of seeing Alexios as Deimos. It’s very jolting to have invested that kind of time into a game only to be told the character I chose is completely irrelevant because of ‘canon.’ Like cool, great job Ubisoft, you just alienated over 2/3rds of players who picked Alexios.

This same sentiment carries over with Valhalla. If you are going to give us a choice, then carry through it. It was so jarring to have male!Eivor misgendered (can you imagine if it had been the other way around 💀) repeatedly and then to have one of the final cutscenes of the main story feature female!Eivor, regardless of the 200 hours I just invested into the game playing as the other choice? It makes me wish they would go back to only having one protagonist with a fully developed story (like Bayek or even Ezio) or continue with what was set up with Jacob and Evie in Syndicate —both genders are canon and their storylines.

[magog-on-the-march]

“People used to say that Microsoft was stealing the exclusives. There’s a certain truth to that,” says Lorne Lanning. In the summer of 2000, Lanning was overseeing development of Oddworld: Munch’s Oddysee – the third game in the lauded Oddworld series – for PC and PlayStation 2. But the studio was slowly sliding towards crisis. Threatened with budget cuts by publisher GT Interactive, the studio’s engineers were also finding the PlayStation 2 extremely difficult to program on. “The PS2 got supercomputing capability into an affordable consumer electronic box. But the expense of that was that no one knew how to use it,” Lanning explains. What’s more, Sony’s response to the developer’s tribulations was dismissive. “The attitude was kind of, ‘You’ll figure it out’.”

[...] For developers, Microsoft offered greater financial security and a more collaborative development environment. When Lanning’s team encountered problems with the mathematics required for the jump between 2D and 3D game development, the Xbox team sent several engineers to the studio to help them resolve the issue – something that game publishers, let alone console manufacturers, hardly ever did. “They left their families and came down for months,” Lanning says. “They helped us to deliver.” This approach wasn’t exclusive to Munch’s Oddysee either. “There were always some Microsoft staff practically living in our office to get everything finished to the right quality bar,” Chudley says. “We were always made to feel special by the Microsoft team members, and felt (internally) that we were only second to Halo, which was clearly their flagship title.”

[...] Lanning, meanwhile, sometimes questioned whether Microsoft fully understood the appeal of its own console. Like the PS2, the Xbox supported DVD video, but when Lanning saw Munch’s CG-rendered cutscenes running on the console’s development kit for the first time, they were so badly compressed as to be virtually unwatchable. This led to an intense meeting with Microsoft. “I started saying, ‘What DVD means to the public is higher video quality,’” he explains. “And someone said, ‘Well, do you have any marketing research data to support that?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, for Christ’s sake!’ I just totally lost it.” Moments like this made Lanning doubt Microsoft’s ability to handle a console launch. “When I heard things like that, at times I’d think ‘Maybe it’s not going to succeed.’”

[...] While Arctic Thunder’s failure stemmed from internal issues, there were other games whose sales were at least partly inhibited by Microsoft itself. Europe was the most lucrative market for Oddworld, but Microsoft’s approach to pricing the Xbox in Europe meant that it was much more expensive in some countries than others. According to Lanning, this seriously damaged Munch’s Oddysee’s sales. “Going into [launch] Europe was our biggest success, that was our best performing territory. And it was nothing. We got almost nothing out of Europe.”

After Munch’s Oddysee, the studio never worked exclusively with Microsoft again. Its next game, Stranger’s Wrath, would be multiplatform, as would all its following releases. Lanning cites Microsoft’s internal restructuring and the departures of major figures in the Xbox’s development, such as project visionary Seamus Blackley, as reasons behind the shift away from an exclusive partnership. “The culture was changing. And that was changing terms and agreements and things,” he says.

But he still views the Xbox launch as his most exciting time in game development. “In terms of passion, the idea of going out there and trying to conquer the world, the Xbox release really stands out for me in history.”

[repentantsky]

5 Gaming Controversies in 2020, That Just Seemed So Avoidable

Gaming has over the years, been full of controversies, some caused by bad management, some caused seemingly by human error, and some that just seem avoidable. 2020 has had a slue of these controversies, so let's talk about what happened this year that ticked all of us off, but didn't need to. 

5. Joy-con Drift. 

Nintendo will probably appear on this list more than once, but the most obvious controversy caused by them that could have been avoided, is Joy-Con drift. The Switch has had issues with this since not long after release, and if the PS5 and Xbox Series X are anything to go by, it's natural to assume that issues on a new console are expected, in fact given the history of console launches, I 'd say that is unavoidable. However, the Switch is going to be four years old this coming March, so for this persistent issue to still exist, it seems like a lack of concern from Nintendo. A number of class action lawsuits have been filed against them because of Joy-Con drift, and as recently as October, in order to try and deny the problems coming from those legal cases, Nintendo denied there was anything wrong at all. They've had years to fix this problem, and didn't even manage to do so with the Switch Lite, which is a much worse situation for Lite owners, as they'd have to give Nintendo their whole console to get it repaired. Then there's the fact that they originally charged almost as much to fix Joy-cons on regular Switches, as new Joy-cons cost to buy, and even suggested that Switch owners should plan to buy a new set of Joy-cons every two years. While they did eventually reverse course on that due to pressure from lawsuits and general backlash, it's safe to say, Nintendo went really anti-consumer with this, and as you probably know, it's not the only time they did it this year. 

4. Crunch 

While crunch has been a part of this industry for far longer than the Switch has, people really started to take notice of it this year after many developers were interviewed about their horrible working conditions. Naughty Dog, who was seen as one of the better developers out there got hit pretty hard after Jason Schreier wrote a piece about how bad their hidden crunch culture was. Crunch in the industry is seen as a major problem, because at times, due to a lack of a union, developers are overworked, and underpaid, and many of them, are either looked down upon by their fellow developers for not partaking in it as much as others, or more importantly, by their management, which could jeopardize their career. Mandatory crunch is also a thing, sometimes seeing developers work twelve to sixteen hour days, and only getting paid for the first eight or so. It only gets worse, when you realize, that delays tend to cause more crunch, because more ideas are shoved into a game when more time is given to develop it. An article by Kotaku, made a valid point recently, when it called out The Last of Us Part II and Naughty Dog for winning best direction of the year at The Game Awards, despite their crunch culture. Many games have gone through it this year, espeically after COVID caused delays, but none may be more announced than CD Projekt Red, something you've probably seen me talk about here before, but that I'll save for another entry down the line ... when it called out The Last of Us Part II and Naughty Dog for winning best direction of the year at The Game Awards, despite their crunch culture. Many games have gone through it this year, espeically after COVID caused delays, but none may be more announced than CD Projekt Red, something you've probably seen me talk about here before, but that I'll save for another entry down the line ... when it called out The Last of Us Part II and Naughty Dog for winning best direction of the year at The Game Awards, despite their crunch culture. Many games have gone through it this year, espeically after COVID caused delays, but none may be more announced than CD Projekt Red, something you've probably seen me talk about here before, but that I'll save for another entry down the line ... 

3. Xbox Series X and PS5 pre-orders. 

Microsoft and Sony, despite being on the cusp of a new generation, spent the majority of the year keeping certain secrets from the public in a bid to outdo each other price wise for their console. While in the end, it played out exactly as most people predicated, top end consoles priced at $ 499 with variations priced one hundred, and two hundred dollars cheaper respectively, they took too long to get to that point, and pre-orders were a mess as a result. Sony announced it's prices and said PS5 would go on sale only a few days removed from that reveal. While that was already a problem, most people need more time than that, the fact that certain retailers let the pre-orders go out early, only added to the confusion, and bots ended up sweeping the majority of the consoles anyway, because those were easier to set-up for scalpers, than buying the system outright. Microsoft tried to be a bit better about that, and give people more time to prepare, but that also fell through, as the demand for the console, was much higher than the supply even tried to prepare for, an issue both systems faced. Even Japan, which is notorious for not selling Microsoft consoles, sold out far quicker than anyone could have expected. Had Sony and Microsoft just put the prices and pre-orders up earlier, and let them be bought over a period of a month or so, instead of just one, super hectic day, all the issues could have been avoided. which is notorious for not selling Microsoft consoles, sold out far quicker than anyone could have expected. Had Sony and Microsoft just put the prices and pre-orders up earlier, and let them be bought over a period of a month or so, instead of just one, super hectic day, all the issues could have been avoided. which is notorious for not selling Microsoft consoles, sold out far quicker than anyone could have expected. Had Sony and Microsoft just put the prices and pre-orders up earlier, and let them be bought over a period of a month or so, instead of just one, super hectic day, all the issues could have been avoided. 

2. Smash Bros, Splatoon and musical takedowns

Nintendo is back on this list as they recently fell under fire from fans of the Smash Bros community, for disallowing a major tournament to take place, because it simply chose to emulate a game that is out of print, using a mod called the Slippie Mod , so those partaking in the tournament, could play from home, instead of having to meet and risk spreading COVID to each other and tournament goers. A few weeks later, several people in an official Splatoon tournament changed their names to show support for the Smash Bros community and Nintendo's response was to shut down the whole finals of said tournament, in an attempt to try and lower the visibility of support for people who simply felt wronged by Nintendo. This of course backfired because it's the internet, and that's not going to go unnoticed, which only made them look worse. Not long after that, Nintendo started taking down videos and songs on YouTube that were from Legend of Zelda, Mario Kart Wii and others. Hundreds if not thousands of videos were taken down, and while Nintendo was within their rights to do so, they crippled several channels by issuing copyright strikes against them, which not only removed their ability to make money on their channels, it can disable streaming, and even cost them money they are no longer making, to try and get their channel back. In the end, Nintendo was in their rights to do all that they did, but that doesn't mean it was the right thing to do, especially in 2020, where leaving these things well enough alone, would have only led to more people enjoying Nintendo products. Instead, games like Bravely Default II and other major upcoming Switch game releases, are facing potential boycott's, because of Nintendo's sour attitude towards it's own communities. It was once said, that a corporation, is within their rights to make people hate them, and Nintendo has embodied that well in 2020.

1. Cyberpunk 2077, The Whole Thing

Cyberpunk 2077 is a game that has been worked on for years at this point. It was announced the January before the 8th gen consoles, the PS4 and Xbox One released, and only managed to come out, about a month after the following 9th gen began. Despite this fact, the game runs horribly on consoles, and requires a pretty beefy PC to run well. The delays that happened in 2020, which lasted 8 months, were supposed to be about optimizing the game for 8th consoles, which are by far still the largest market for any multi-generation, multi-platform titles, but it came out recently that CDPR lied about that, and were instead focusing on the PC release. They also lied to Sony and Microsoft about how well the game ran, lied to their consumers when they didn't put out any review copies for the game before launch, lied to everyone regarding returns, which only came up three or four days after the game launched, meaning digital owners were pretty much out of luck, lied to retailers who's reputations were put on the line based on their return policies, and oh yeah, they lied about crunch to. They also promised the game would release “when it was ready” and obviously lied about that as well. Lying is a choice, and CDPR has lied, and lied, and lied. It wouldn't be shocking to find out more lies were made by them in the coming months, such as maybe the two major upcoming patches in January and February not being as effective as they are proposed to be, or the fact that they will need more patches after those to run properly. They even lied about in game content, making it seem like the path you choose in the start of the game would last a long while and have a major effect on the game, but that doesn't appear to be true either, as many people have gotten through the start of the game, in about 20 minutes. It's a shame really, to see a game with such promise, be ruined by such habitual liars, but alas, here we are. Even time might not save CDPR as they are currently as a loss of billion dollars total because of this disaster, and their trust with consumers is all but gone. 

Can you think of any other avoidable controversies for 2020? Let me know with the notes below.   

[dominickkuoc850]

The 3 Greatest Moments in GTA Online Name Generator History

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Created to let mods on the server/client side of operation, FiveM performs independently of Rockstar's GTA Online in addition to validating the player's copy of the game prior to launch.

Modifications are obtaining a lot more and far more preferred each and every single day because the game has been out for a extended time and there are not lots of factors left to discover.

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Firstly, Gunrunning needs you to obtain a Bunker, the least expensive of which costs $1.2 million. Do not waste your time stealing supplies because it is as well much of a faff, spend for them, and direct your in-home NPC staff to manufacture-only because researching is a waste of time. You can then verify in remotely via the SecuroServ option in the Interaction Menu anytime you want to monitor your progress.

Most Effective Video Games Of The Decade (2010

The combat engine has in no way been a GTA sturdy-point, but the addition of first-person turns shootouts into a thoroughly decent FPS. It is no Battlefield, but getting capable to ironsight for accurate shots to the head liberates combat from the twitchy, heavy, cover-primarily based affair it was before. There’s tactical bite to the gunplay now, and pulling out a shotgun for close range blasting feels satisfyingly brutal. Far better nonetheless you can shoot out vehicle windows for brilliantly correct drive-by shootings. This fully adjustments how you’ll play against the cops - luring them close adequate to take a pot shot at the driver before speeding away to safety. Whip out an AK, take down the pilot, and watch it spin to its doom.

If you don’t have one particular however, now is a excellent time to get one. In particular considering More About GTA 5 Online Generator No Human Verification that the army automobiles are locked until you do own one. Mammoth Avenger – With a price point of $three,000,000 even with the discount, this 1 is high-priced. But it is a mobile command center, can transport your individual automobile, and doubles as both an armed jet and a helicopter. This week you can earn double cash in Simeon’s open planet missions, Motor Wars, and all Stunt Races. Our Quarterly Reports provide a handy list of the 25 very best games for each platform, both for the existing year so far and for all time. Right here are the ideal games out there for the Xbox 360.

How To Locate The Gta 5 Letter Scrap Places

With the suitable group and ample luck, you may breeze by means of each and each and every a single of them, but it’s the moments of circumstantial chaos that present the most entertainment. By investing in certain providers prior to killing their rivals' investors or owners in assassinations, you can make substantial amounts of money. You are going to have to wait until the story mode is more than ahead of doing this, since you won't have adequate money to make a huge profit until right after the game's campaign is over.All of the assassination missions are completed by Franklin, and offered to him by Lester. As soon as you've completed The Merryweather Heist, the option to acquire the Sonar Collections Dock in Paleto Cove will unlock.

There are certain mods that offer you with even missions that are even more intriguing and creating the game even bigger and enjoyable to play. The mods you use can just about modify every aspect of the game there is and providing you a completely new and exceptional practical experience just about every time you use a new mod. There are so quite a few mods and the modding community altogether is so active simply because of the truth that there is no much more content in the game except for the multiplayer modes. Now make no mistake the only transform is in this mod is your own character, the planet itself is not affected straight by the mod and you can do what ever you want but the rest of the items in the identical are exactly the exact same. There is no storyline or mission as iron man, mods have limitations like these and therefore you can not build missions employing them. Let us give an example about a mod and see if we can realize them a bit greater? Initially and foremost, let us begin with the easiest one, iron man mod which is rather popular in the GTA modding community in which the key character you play is turned into Iron Man or is just wearing the suit.

[yourmoontothenightsky]

Best Console Accessories for Xbox Gamers

Whether you are in search of audio gear, good residence devices or GPS and outdoor electronics, we have the electronics upgrades you want. Xbox Series X and S proceed Xbox's assist of mouse and keyboard management, so we rounded up the best keyboards to make use of together with your subsequent-gen console. 

As for greatest accessories, I'm a giant fan of the Alexa integration Microsoft has put forward lately and might't recommend an Amazon Echo enough. I want I could advocate the Cortana-powered Harman/Kardon Invoke, nevertheless it doesn't appear to be Microsoft is severe about its own assistant's future. All those 4K recreation assets wreak havoc on a game's installation dimension. 7 Best Pink Gaming Chair Models [2021 Edition]

Red Dead Redemption 2 is over 100GB, for instance, and can little question get even larger with subsequent DLC and updates. And that voraciousness solely grows if you think about digital add-ons and DLC, and the huge variety of patches and updates that trendy video games all require. 

A noticeable upgrade from the original Kraken, the newest version is louder and delivers clearer sound than ever before, and with it at present promoting for across the $50 mark, it's also extra inexpensive. While it won't compete with high-end studio headphones that price hundreds more, it's nonetheless a really sturdy headset that's a pleasure to sport with. Dowinx Gaming Chair Review: Does it Live Up to the Hype?

A big step up from the solid however flawed 360 controller, the Xbox One Wireless gamepad feels like its pulled all the most effective parts from its predecessor and stuck a number of points (particularly that d-pad). 

No matter whether or not you want it for co-op or as a replacement to your old handset, getting a spare Xbox One controller is all the time a good idea. Xbox Game Pass is definitely one one of the best things Microsoft has carried out lately - it's principally Netflix for video games. It also helps things out by centralizing the headset commands proper underneath the controller. No longer will you need to really feel around on your headset's wires to find the amount and muting controls; it is all proper there on the controller no matter what headset you've got linked. 

Enjoy entry to a wide library of video games with models just like the Xbox One. It's backward appropriate with older Xbox video games, so you'll be able to play games launched on earlier models. As a member, you'll be able to play cooperative and competitive on-line multiplayer, as well as acquire access to the Instant Game Collection, which options a wide range of games chosen by Sony. You can even attempt games before you buy, in addition to get unique and early access to select betas and demos, reductions, and generally even video games themselves. The Gamer Collective.

Your PlayStation Plus membership additionally extends to your PS3 and PS Vita systems if you have these, too. The PlayStation four Camera lets you play, problem, and share your gaming moments. Online multiplayer is enhanced by way of clear audio and movie-in-image video sharing. Other options embody facial recognition, voice instructions, walkthroughs in HD video, and voice chat by way of four built-in microphones. 

 Included is the rechargeable battery pack and a cable to connect the controller to the Xbox One for playing while charging. The Xbox Website claims that the controller will have the ability to charge whereas the console is on standby mode, and that controllers will take "less than four hours" to get totally charged. Playing online without a headset is like digging a hole and not using a shovel.

[crescentgames272]

What do each part do for a gaming pc

Unforgettable Moments In Gaming Part 3

It really is time to recognize the finest gaming blogs of the year. EDIT:I made use of to watch the Feedback video over at G4 just about every week, but it is gone down hill the last couple of occasions I watched it and now that Adam Sessler isn't on it and they have that girl from IGN that every person hates in each and every episode I just cannot be bothered to watch it any far more. Nevertheless worth going back and watching some of the older ones though. Klepic applied to be on that show and back then in the early days was when it was the very best. Back when they in fact talked about gaming news with some semblance of intellect as an alternative of just gushing about what ever game they are told is cool this week.

You are quietly accepting and at peace with your choice to become a board gamer for life. Your family knows you adore board games and almost certainly play them with you. Your friends know really like board games, and you have good gaming groups. You have committed to assigning aspect of your home to be a board gaming area. For the first time, you've started to eliminate games from your collection. Perhaps you have sold the games, or you basically do not have space to preserve virtually all of them. Mentally you accept that you do not will need to play every game, and you have likely narrowed down a handful of games that you want to play often.

I got into action games late but when I did it completely changed how I viewed gaming forever. The game which brought me round was Viewtiful Joe. Right here was a game with a deep and open-ended combat method which seemed to be constructed as a means for the player to express creativity. This system is then pitted against opponents and obstacles which have been created from the ground up to interact meaningfully with the core program. The course was fixed, but the technique for dealing with that course was completely down to the ingenuity, talent and inspiration of the player. You play like you have a huge audience watching and the game regularly entices you to increase the concentrate is not basically on acquiring the player from A to B, the concentrate is on finding the player to play Viewtifully”.

The Acer Predator Helios 300 is a great inexpensive gaming laptop that proves that even if you never have the type of income to acquire the MSI GS65 Stealth that also characteristics on this greatest laptops list, you do not have to sacrifice too a lot when it comes to power. The Acer Predator Helios 300 packs some outstanding elements, such https://crazyrock.online/ as a new 8th generation 6-core Intel Core i7 processor, Nvidia GTX 1060 graphics card and 16GB of RAM. Even though it's nonetheless an highly-priced proposition compared to standard laptops, for a gaming notebook you are obtaining a heck of a lot of energy for the price tag.

Live in the planet of games on this site that is committed to providing out magazine style assessment contents on the hottest games, features on the gaming neighborhood and multiplayer user interface for its readers. How to download games on laptop or computer. Purchase games & game keys with Green Man Gaming - get the most effective rates, amazing bundles & exclusive game deals every day! Take a look at to discover Green Man Gaming.

7 and a Half Very Simple Things You Can Do To help But GAMING

CrystalSkull is packed with enough options to assist you create nearly any kind of gaming web site with WordPress. The integrated assessment system means your content will rival the articles identified on the major gaming review internet sites. With CrystalSkull, you will be in a position to develop your personal custom criteria for your testimonials, then add a score for every single item, ahead of awarding a final general rating for the assessment.

The stereotypical image of the geeky gamer, sitting alone in his space, playing video games all night extended, is lengthy gone. Gamers have turn into the genuine stars of social media. No other niche has grown so immensely with the age of social media than the field of gaming. Supported by social media like YouTube and the reside-streaming platform Twitch, the numbers of gaming channels boomed. No wonder that brands recognized the possible that these gaming influencers bring with them. We have put with each other a list of some of the biggest gaming influencers you need to know.

Microsoft — with our nearly 40 years of gaming experience beginning with Computer, as well as our breadth and depth of capabilities from application to hardware and deep encounter of being a platform firm — is well equipped to address the complex challenge of cloud game-streaming. With datacenters in 54 Azure regions and solutions offered in 140 countries, Azure has the scale to provide a good gaming experience for players worldwide, regardless of their location.

Augmented reality games are becoming a front-runners of gaming industry. Currently, this is not just the fantastical concept. AR games allow you to fight aliens, capture fantastical creatures, defend kingdoms in the real world. And all of this is possible devoid of super pricey headsets - just an AR-enabled smartphone or console is essential. Wolf's Gaming Weblog is on a run to give you the most correct and honest critiques on the prime games in Xbox One, Personal Pc games and Board games. With this website in your bookmarks tab, the weather is usually great to get your hands on some on the net games.

The Game Fanatics brings to you accurate critiques, podcasts, gadget articles, gaming articles, and weekly YouTube videos about terrific on-line games. The internet site is dedicated to showing the planet some of the greatest games launched and the developers of the very same. As a user reaches a gaming web page, they anticipate to come across loads of visual content and media files. So, give them what they want. In order to provide a properly-structured presentation of your content material, use galleries on your site's pages and posts.

It's February! In 2017 that indicates that we get six extra weeks of winter AND your yearly dose of video game statistics and trends. We're taking a appear at major events and shifts in the gaming industry and contemplating the existing state of gaming. Take a peak, or keep for a week! All statistics are thoroughly researched. See sources at the bottom of the web page for extra information.

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There's never been a far more exciting time to be a gamer. The variety of experiences provided by today's games is unprecedented, and realizing what you want is the first step in making your dream gaming getup. Do you want cutting-edge graphics and gameplay that only 4K and HDR provide? Prefer to take your game worlds on-the-go? Appreciate revisiting wonderful retro games from yesteryear? Believe of Finest Invest in as your nicely-stocked gaming quartermaster, prepared at a moment's notice with all of the ideal video game offers, gadgets, games, and high-powered consoles to elevate your gaming to the highest level.

Considerably, for a lot of of these folks, their mobile phone will be their first computer system - a so-known as ‘mobile-very first generation' - so most of the things we do on desktop or laptops, they will be undertaking on mobiles, again which includes all their gaming. Right here is a few of the most effectively-identified gaming internet sites where you can get the newest news from.

In the ‘90s, televisions got bigger, and gaming consoles got a lot more powerful. Nintendo and Sega fought for the leading spot with the Super Nintendo Entertainment Program, and the Sega Genesis, respectively. You are going to come across all the retro games for SNES and Genesis you loved back in the day in a single easy spot. From Golden Axe to Mega Man X, all your favored 16-bit titles are offered at the Retro games store.