Flamekebab

Wonkers, that's... sad.

(I love the whole series)

Ye gods. A new GTA game should not take THIRTEEN YEARS to come out. The games make more money than Portugal - how is their project pipeline this bad?

Are we looking at less than one GTA game per *decade* now?

I feel like this console generation has dragged on and on with so few exciting new games. I've been waiting to buy either a PS5 or a Series X and when I look down the exclusive lists I sigh with boredom. What happened? Was it games as a service that happened?

The previous generation wasn't anything super exciting, but it feels like we're just trending downwards. On consoles I want big, flashy experiences, not indy games. Nothing against indies, of course, but I can play those on my Steam Deck.

Optimistically priced, as I like to think of it.

I can get a second hand one from CEX today for £350!

Thank you! I hate how many people act like dark mode is The One True Way these days. No, I don't want to use feckin' dark mode, I'm sorry I don't have your 1337 h4x0r eyes. I have shoddy astigmatism eyes and find it very uncomfortable to use dark mode.

Is there a version of this that wasn't awkwardly resized?

Is it going to be the size of a small fridge like the base model?

I'm part of the admin team for a group on Facebook dedicated to a niche wargame. Anyone can apply to join but there is an entry question. The question itself tells the user where to find the answer (it's both on Wikipedia and in the rules of the group!). We still get people that either don't answer or put something like "I can't be bothered looking it up".

Those people do not get to join.

I'm firmly of the belief that if people are working to maintain a space for you then it's on you to put a bare minimum of effort in to be allowed to use that space. We curate the group to keep content on topic and try to keep it a nice place to be.

The nuance is of course in what level of gatekeeping is healthy.

I don't like that there's so few people questioning the core concept of "one platform for everyone".

Why does it have to appeal to everyone? Why can't its audience be a subset of humanity who like nerdy shit? It's what I liked about Reddit in the early years - it wasn't completely inaccessible but it was niche enough that there was a bit of a filter, allowing me to find content and people that appealed to me.

Aiming for lowest common denominator doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

The race to the bottom continues.

If we reword the question as "Is Elder Scrolls 6 doomed to be a mediocre experience?" then my money would be on "yes". Bethesda generally seem to aim to make games just as good as they need to be to make money. Capitalism over creative expression.

If the game is good enough to get people to buy it and consider buying the next one, that's all the effort it's worth putting in (as far as publishers are concerned). It's not a new approach, they've just had a lot more practice at it than game developers/publishers had in the '90s.

Temper your expectations as unless you're willing to buy a few million copies yourself, they can't justify the cost of caring what you think.

...and no, I do not approve of this system one jot. It's gross and antithetical to creativity. I'm glad we have a lot more independent developers who aren't as beholden to neoliberal capitalism these days.

I've been enjoying Assassin's Creed: Odyssey. It's got just the right level of compulsivity to keep me playing without destroying my life. Pretty relaxing, to be honest, although I don't think "easy" mode is actually easy!