Game musings and news

[Grath]

Good ol' self-fulfilling prophecy, driven by

"I won't touch (this google service) because they shut down a service that I liked"
service shuts down because it didn't get sufficient users to be worth the price of running it

[Mazian]

Reader's shutdown is specifically what made me wary of any future software-as-a-service offerings, many years before anyone even called it SaaS.

For Stadia, there was also the incredibly confusing marketing about the plans right from the start. If I remember right, the only option at launch was $130 of hardware AND a $10/mo subscription AND full-priced games. The no-hardware plan only came many months later and after the marketing hype started wearing thin, long after many people had tuned it out.

[Mongrel]

I feel really strange in some ways about SaaS. Ignoring or avoiding it, while preferring to focus on hard copies in hand and devices fully under my control feels like ludditism. But companies keep cancelling their services, shutting down servers, taking down websites, or simply changing ownership or management practices for the worse, and my paranoia about media loss has been vindicated way too many times. I genuinely wish that wasn't the case, but then you read the news and some damned dirty ape's come up with the idea to rent you your own car seats via remote unlock and I find myself mystified as to how we allow shit this transparently stupid (and greedy).

I guess I just don't trust corporations. Which, okay, that's not really a bad instinct I suppose, even with relatively benign ones.

Also the unsustainable VC-fed startup culture really sets up huge numbers of projects to fail or eventually turn exploitative.

[Thad]

Reader's shutdown is specifically what made me wary of any future software-as-a-service offerings, many years before anyone even called it SaaS.

I, uh, don't think your math is right on that one.

[Mongrel]

[Brantly B.]

Looks right.

[beatbandito]

good news: bloodborne remake on PC?

bad news: definitely a dark souls movie

[Brantly B.]

If the Dark Souls movie tells its story the same way the games do I am all for that.

[KingRoyal]

Really gives the actors the chance to practice going "Hehehhehehe"

[Destynova]

I am getting Edge of Tomorrow vibes with the MC dying over and over again.

[beatbandito]

I am getting Edge of Tomorrow vibes with the MC dying over and over again.

I am also getting Edge of Tomorrow vibes. But in more of a "make the everyman/loser lead Tom Cruise" and "take away the only female character's volition and make her a romantic interest" way.

[Büge]

God

They're gonna straightwash Lady Maria, aren't they

[Mongrel]

Even my cynical ass wasn't prepared for how low the offer was.

CW on part 2, brief mention of suicidal ideation.

[beatbandito]

What the fuck is a metaphor? The people just want a sad dad rubbing his face in a dirty bathroom.

[beatbandito]

Scary Tales is a very spooky game. It's a bunch of minigames with a hub world / framing device. The games are all well made and pretty fun, and the PSX/VHS aesthetics fit the theme well enough.

CW warning, the game does get very spooky/scary, and accomplishes a lot of the latter by depicting harm to animals.

[Mongrel]

People Make Games is putting out some truly excellent games journalism (!), with quite a few relevant hard-hitting stories on industry practices.

But of course the bit that caught my eye was the story about how Starfox owes its existence to a trio of teenage British wunderkind programmers.

[Mazian]

Riven remake in development. Just those few seconds of music hit my nostalgia buttons hard, so I guess I'm all on board.

Portal/Portal 2 is perhaps a good analog here: Myst was an impressive tech demo, then Riven is where they turned it into a genuinely memorable game.

[Thad]

Stuart Gipp says Atari 50 is the best retro game collection of all time.

I don't have much nostalgia for Atari -- my first console was an NES and Atari had the reputation of a washed-up has-been even then, and attempts to revive the brand from the Jaguar on up through the (new) VCS have only made it worse -- but I'm willing to bet there's stuff in there from the 8- and 16-bit eras that's still very playable.

And nevermind all that, it's Digital Eclipse, which, if the Cowabunga Collection is any indication, means that the behind-the-scenes stuff is more exciting than the games.

[Thad]

Yuji Naka Arrested for Insider Trading

[Yoji]

I generally try not to get hyped over new video games. I'm supposed to be an adult and a good example to children and all that stuff.

But man, it's not every day that the first new Armored Core game in a decade is confirmed.