scrubbles

scrubbles, 3 days ago

Or, and hear me out, people just enjoy having fun

scrubbles, 5 days ago

4 felt like such a cash grab to me. No deep lore or story telling like with 1 through reach. Exposition was just spoon fed to us rather than a great mystery. Still, I plugged through, hoping maybe it’d turn around.

Then 5 came out and I gave up all hope on the franchise. Spent more time playing as Locke than we did Chief, story was more compelling than 4 but the storytelling and pacing were clunky, and it was completely disconnected from 4.

Infinite just got worse. “We lost, chief” (but we have no frame of reference, we have no idea what that means , we don’t know how the rest of the world has been affected, and then we’re put against some no name character when we really just want to know what the hell is happening off world)

scrubbles, 5 days ago

Watched a recent video on magic and writing and it applies for scifi too. Every time you add to the lore you now have to remember and support it forever. 4 just added so much that they clearly didn’t think through like that. Bungie dishes out lore in small bits from 1-3, and it was so exciting when you got just the small tiny bit of backstory. 4 and 5 then just dumped in on your plate in healing portions.

scrubbles, 5 days ago

Librarian, Didact, people they didn’t even take the time to introduce well and we were supposed to just jump on board with it. Buck was literally the only saving grace for Halo 5 in my opinion - and they introduced him in ODST

scrubbles, 5 days ago

343 could have done something really interesting if they had started with that idea vs just trying to go right for a mainline Chief story

scrubbles, 4 days ago

Agreed. It could have been such an interesting concept if it was literally any other place. Zeta halo could have been so cool, but it felt so detached from the universe

scrubbles, 7 days ago

Yeah steams silence has been deafening through this. Itch came out and explained what was happening, GoG did this. All quiet from Steam.

scrubbles, 11 days ago

I think the rails should be owned by the US, but they could be operators on those rails. Like in the UK, or how our airlines work

scrubbles, 11 days ago

Fully agree. In a civilized modern country the government would own the rails (because, I mean obviously it would) and operators would put out timetables and requests for trains - all managed by the government. Just like the UK and most other countries, the government is in charge of maintaining the rails, keeping them safe, and expansion, while the operators do what they do best - they manage their schedules and try to squeeze the most profit out of it.

It’s a win-win, private industry doesn’t have to worry about safety or maintenance beyond their own vehicles, they work with the government on scheduling, and passenger rail would get a resurgence because adding new train lines and stops would just be a matter of starting a new operator.

If you thought of a new commuter line that you think would benefit a region, it wouldn’t be trying to convince Amtrak to do it - you could literally raise the money and start your own operator, lease some vehicles, and then literally just start running your train line operated on government tracks. Just as the semis do on the interstate system, just like airlines do.

scrubbles, 9 days ago

Completely get all of your points, and respect them. I think on the spectrum of bad to perfect systems, I see the UK as “good” - but a long ways from perfect too. The US however is just obviously bad, and I think moving towards the UK’s system would be a massive step in the right direction. Personally, I think the first step is that the private companies should not own the rails themselves, they have proven that they are not the proper stewards of those systems and should not own that.

That’s step one. After step one though, I completely see your points and that there would be a lot of details worth looking into.

And, as someone how has ridden the Azuma service from London to Edinburgh 4 times - I have seen it cancelled twice. Ridiculous that in my very very infrequent trips to the UK I have seen my train trips cancelled just as many times as I’ve ridden them.

scrubbles, 10 days ago

What, you mean like a game you only buy once and just play online for free after that? Why would anyone want that?

scrubbles, 14 days ago

Yeah honestly I really can’t put my finger on it I like this guy or not.

scrubbles, 15 days ago

In fact, Ubisoft recently blamed Star Wars’ flagging brand reputation as one reason for the game’s financial failure.

God be less self-aware Ubisoft. You built a boring game with the same mechanics as all of your other AC games, and you gave it the emotional maturity of a child’s blanket. You aren’t going to be raking in money if you’re too afraid to have a story that has any emotional depth.

Here’s a comparison between Outlaws (2024) and RDR 1 (2010) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg6mvYHjFvE&t=324s

scrubbles, 15 days ago

You can really tell Ubisoft sends all dialogue through multiple committees before approving it.

scrubbles, 15 days ago

And by not offending anyone, they instead bore everyone with their flat dialogue

scrubbles, 19 days ago

It’s well known on the games industry that their largest competitor is now themselves - 10 years ago. You’re not just selling a new game, but you’re selling a new game that people need to choose to spend money on or replay an old one they love.

They have a real motive to kill games. If we can’t play the good ones from a decade ago then we’ll have to buy the new ones!

scrubbles, 19 days ago

Interesting how those more fun aspects used to just be called “the game”

scrubbles, 20 days ago

Yeah refuse to believe it’s real until it’s in my hands. Markets and suits want us to be hyped, but I’ve been fooled before.

scrubbles, 20 days ago

Volcanic hands down

scrubbles, 21 days ago

Even if it was good, the formula you mentioned has been done to death. Every game they make is that. Then they say how can we possibly make an RDR2 level game, and I think to that and there was a game where honestly the gameplay was pretty repetitive - but you don’t notice because the story is so good that of course you want to keep going.

But they make these bland corporate characters with boring stories and take absolutely zero risks because what if we offend one person in Ohio - and then it sells like crap. You try to make it for everyone, you made it for no one

scrubbles, 21 days ago

Why would we be excited or happy about this? They can still cancel it at any moment. It’s not real until it’s released.

scrubbles, 24 days ago

This is pretty standard though, I worked in computer repairs and warranties for a long time. No one covers water damage unless you pay extra for it. Water resistant does not mean water proof, and it gets wet it’s still like any other electronic

scrubbles, 24 days ago

I did, it says historically, we don’t have that confirmed right now. Yes, it might be happening, but we shouldn’t jump to conclusions. There are a few reports, it isn’t a scandal. (yet)

scrubbles, 26 days ago

The sad thing is that a few dozen people will buy it no matter the price, and will have a thousand dollar piece of e-waste when Microsoft decides to kill it off

scrubbles, 26 days ago

It’s locked into the Xbox ecosystem. Even if it can be changed, which I assume they’re going to work really hard to not allow with steamos being so easy, most would simply give up before trying something else

scrubbles, 1 month ago

So tone deaf, and clearly they’re just trying to steer the narrative.

They call out that it’s never taken lightly and it has to happen. We know. Stop killing games just says you have to do something when you turn off the servers. Either release the server source code so it can be engineered by the community, release a self hostage server alternative, even just documents or guides on how to get started.

But they’re going to try to make it about the mean old gamers want them to go broke

scrubbles, 1 month ago

Personally I agree. I’ve seen way more startups kicking off with these waves of layoffs. It’s a silver lining, not much more, but I’m happy to see people finally realizing they don’t want the big tech solutions anymore.

scrubbles, 1 month ago

Anthem will also be removed from the EA Play playlist on August 15, 2025, and EA says that the sunsetting of the game has not led to any layoffs at developer BioWare.

Is there anyone left at BioWare? What the two people who just turn on the lights every day? After DragonAge they kneejerk let everyone go rather than reflect on anything and then patted each other on the back for being such great managers.

scrubbles, 1 month ago

Personally I couldn’t stand her, but I’m glad she brought you so much joy!

scrubbles, 1 month ago

Remember kids, don’t buy into hype anymore. Hype is a marketing tool. They don’t have to make any promises that a game will be good or even come out just because they hyped you up for it. Don’t allow yourself to be excited for anything until it actually releases.

scrubbles, 1 month ago

https://poptalk.scrubbles.tech/pictrs/image/bb492203-e1f8-4659-9988-9b1000dbc3d0.png

Interesting, would be nice if they showed what the average increase in prices was on this graph too, I bet there could be a correlation…

scrubbles, 1 month ago

They ran off even their most loyal players one by one with their asinine moves. Lame games, vendor lockin, nickle and dining.

I was die hard for Xbox. Had every one, dozens of games, more probably. Have fond memories of lan parties and friends coming over to play split screen. I remember playing through halo 3 the night it dropped into the early morning, and getting the beta from Reach.

Then they killed off split screen. And lan gaming. You had to use Xbox live to play with your friend in the room. Oh no they don’t have Xbox live. Oh no there’s an update. Now they don’t have their password. They can’t join my party. The audio doesn’t work. It became a hassle to play with people

Steam just works. And it’s a fair price

scrubbles, 1 month ago

What we can? How? I’ve been eating ramen and hemorrhaging savings paying for cobra

scrubbles, 1 month ago

The silver lining for me is that they at least closed out story lines that were set up in previous titles. The blight, the origins of the chantry and maker, they ended and I feel resolved now.

I wish it had come in, as he said “a different game”, but at least I don’t have burning questions longing for a new game. Dragon age is over, the stories are done. It’s not the game I hoped for, but they closed everything out at least rather than “guess you’ll have to wait for the next one!”

I guess it’s true. This is the way Thedas ends. Not with a bang but a whimper.

scrubbles, 1 month ago

Hm the beams and cables tell me NY subway, but no third rail, and the platform is short. No license plate but that jeep looks north American. Underground like NJT? LIRR? Anyone have any ideas?

scrubbles, 1 month ago

Yeah with their “everything is an Xbox” nonsense it’s pretty clear they want to focus on the platform, marketplace where you buy games. Playing them is kind of second. I’m sure they’ll still have something, but it’s going to be more geared towards cloud streaming, pc, handhelds, and “play where you want” so they can just do the digital side. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get partners like Asus to build boxes now.

scrubbles, 1 month ago

I FREAKING KNEW IT. I KNEW THAT LEVEL NEVER MADE SENSE!

You go down, then up half, then down full, then up full. It never made sense.

scrubbles, 1 month ago

You’ve waited now 7 years - waiting a bit longer won’t hurt - but then again if you wait for the next one there will probably always be another one after that.

scrubbles, 2 months ago

So they have rounds of layoffs, staff feel less secure in their role, and they’re surprised that knowledgeable and easily employable experts are leaving for more stable roles?

scrubbles, 2 months ago

It was incredibly mid. For something Bethesda hyped for over half a decade they sure made a bland game. Throwing aside all of the incredibly dated gameplay, you hit the nail on the head. It was boring

You can tell every faction was decided by a corporate committee inside Bethesda and Microsoft. They couldn’t be too risky, couldn’t come close to possibly offending one person or risk having slightly fewer gamers. That results in a boring as hell game. Everyone was too goddamn nice in the game. No one ever got mad at you. You could punch someone in the face and the response would be “hey, that’s not nice” and then they would continue on. Hold on there don’t want to possibly scare off a potential customer by having a realistic situation there.

scrubbles, 2 months ago

God how did they fuck that up? Who thought I’d want to fast travel there? Sure sometimes, but honestly I’d love it if it showed how many minutes to destination and then you started jumping.

You’re in the pilots chair, you see 10 minutes to the other side of the galaxy where your mission is. You hesitate because that’s far, but 2 minutes away is your home base anyway so might as well swing through and drop off some stuff, make sure the pumps and extractors are working. 6 minutes past that is that side quest you’ve been putting off, I guess we can do that too. You hit the jump button, stars whizz past. You go talk with your crew, get caught up on conversations. You jump back in the chair when the 20 second warning goes off. You jump out and arrive, but there is a weird signal on a nearby planet in this system…

Now THAT’s the game i wanted. Altering one mechanic right there completely changes the entire style of the game. I will forever be annoyed that everything in the game is instant fast travel. Sure have a button there to skip if people want to, but personally I prefer to lay back and fully immerse myself

scrubbles, 2 months ago

And they wanted it that way. They were like well that’s what it’s really like! Which like yeah great, but that’s terribly boring for a game.

Another game like that was Mass Effect 1, where they had the undiscovered worlds, but even those were more entertaining. They gave you a mako, and each planet had at least one faction with at least some backstory to it so it wasn’t a complete waste. Starfield is like, nothing. I encounter the exact same building structure and camps multiple times on my single playthrough. Absolutely uninspired

scrubbles, 3 months ago

It kills me the the Jedi games, TLoU2, GoW games, they’re fun but they’re what, max 30 hours to beat? And they’re trying to up the price to 80?

Red dead 2 deserves 80. Cyberpunk in its current state could deserve 80. Both are around 100-120 hour games and I’ve replayed them multiple times. 30 hour games by proportion deserve a quarter of the price.

scrubbles, 3 months ago

But but why are the studios who are focusing on making quality games doing okay?! - asks the profit focused studios