Buelldozer

Buelldozer, 13 days ago

With the rise of game streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Amazon Luna I predict that the console market is basically over. I honestly don’t expect Microsoft to release another console and if Sony does it’s almost certain to be the last. Nintendo may stick with it longer since they just released the Switch2 but they seem to be prepping for it with the digital key thing.

It sucks for the players but it makes fiscal sense for the Publishers and Console Makers (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) if there is an industry wide pivot to game streaming where players are required to pay every month. I know that some games don’t lend themselves well to this, yet, but it’s blatantly obvious (at least to me) that this is where the industry is headed.

We’ve already reached the end of “Console Exclusive” games and I think what comes next is “Streaming Platform Exclusive” games. I think what comes after that is the Publishers establishing their own Streaming Platforms for their own games.

This is precisely what has happened with the rest of the entertainment industry and there’s no reason I can see for gaming, which is a subset of that same industry, to do anything else now that the streaming technology exists.

Steam and GOG will end up pushed out of the market or they will also become Streaming Platforms, just ones that cater to a different set of players.

Buelldozer, 19 days ago

Likely no one. I wouldn’t be surprised if the next generation of consoles is the last one.

Buelldozer, 17 days ago

This is a couple days delayed response, apologies for that I’ve been pretty busy.

With the rise of game streaming services like Xbox Cloud Gaming and Amazon Luna I predict that the console market is basically over. I honestly don’t expect Microsoft to release another console and if Sony does it’s almost certain to be the last. Nintendo may stick with it longer since they just released the Switch2 but they seem to be prepping for it with the digital key thing.

It sucks for the players but it makes fiscal sense for the Publishers and Console Makers (Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo) if there is an industry wide pivot to game streaming where players are required to pay every month. I know that some games don’t lend themselves well to this, yet, but it’s blatantly obvious (at least to me) that this is where the industry is headed.

We’ve already reached the end of “Console Exclusive” games and I think what comes next is “Streaming Platform Exclusive” games. I think what comes after that is the Publishers establishing their own Streaming Platforms for their own games.

This is precisely what has happened with the rest of the entertainment industry and there’s no reason I can see for gaming, which is a subset of that same industry, to do anything else now that the streaming technology exists.

Steam and GOG will end up pushed out of the market or they will also become Streaming Platforms, just ones that cater to a different set of players.

Buelldozer, 2 months ago

Steam doesn’t work for most people? You sure about that? It has 132 Million active users, that’s nearly double the number of PS 5s that have been sold!

Buelldozer, 2 months ago

Very odd comparison…

Not really. There are more people using Steam than own a PS5 or Xbox X. So in what reality does Steam “not work for most people”?

you just need to sign up and you’re considered a user.

You’ll note that I used Steam’s ACTIVE user statistic. That’s not people who just “signed up”, those are people playing games on Steam.

Steam works just fine for most people.

Buelldozer, 2 months ago

I’ll have to try the UET mod but the author’s changelog doesn’t inspire much confidence.

Buelldozer, 2 months ago

It is fun, but it’s much smaller than I imagined.

It’s a product of its time. Oblivion’s game size was right at the 4.7G limit of what would fit on single layer DVD-5.

Oblivion Gates

Ugh, arguably the most boring and repetitive part of the game. Such a wasted opportunity too as they could have made each Oblivion gate be a hellscape mirror of the area that it spawned in (including towns). That would have been a fairly small amount of additional data for a huge gain in game play.

They suck, don’t do any more of them then you have too.

Buelldozer, 3 months ago

The game may be old but that doesn’t mean a particular person has played it before.

Buelldozer, 3 months ago

Upvoted for mentioning simplicity.

Buelldozer, 3 months ago

You can already rip 360 games.

Using a PC you just need to make a .iso of the disk using whatever method or software you prefer.

You can also do it with an umodded 360 console.

The trick isn’t ripping the games, it’s playing them. That’s what the hacks like RGH and now this software are for. There’s also emulation like Xenia and XenonRecomp.

Buelldozer, 5 months ago

I pre ordered Star Trek Voyager Elite Force

Hey! I had thousands of hours into ST:EF. Even clanned up for that one. Fraggers United!

Buelldozer, 7 months ago

Two days ago BlueSky was adding more users in an hour than Mastodon was per week.

Buelldozer, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago)

If you ever decide you want to see it please for the love of Tim Curry don’t watch it on TV.

The only way to experience the RHPS is at a theater, movie or stage, with a floor show. Without the floor show you will not get what makes RHPS an adored Cult Classic. Seriously, the floor show is what makes (or breaks) the experience.

If you walk into the show and you’re not surrounded by people in costumes spouting weird lines, or if you don’t see them in the aisles within the first 90 seconds of the show starting then you may as well get up and leave.

Edit: Fixed my typo’s as pointed out by @shiny_idea

Buelldozer, 9 months ago

<facepalm>

Dammit! Why did I mistype that?

Obviously it should be RHPS. Sigh.

Buelldozer, 11 months ago

Also you can somehow carry 15 different weapons and 10,000 rounds of ammunition plus grenades, a knife, a flashlight, and even a BAZOOKA…but not extra health packs.

Buelldozer, 1 year ago

I’d like to read the article but holy hell there’s over 700 companies in their tracking cookie policy!

Luckily there’s an archive of it: archive.ph/Yrcda

Buelldozer, 1 year ago

When I opened the page in FireFox I was prompted to manage cookies. I clicked on that and then clicked the “site vendor” tab.

Buelldozer, 1 year ago

Something tells me that here in the United States of Greed, such a thing is ‘un-possible’, legally speaking.

It’s not only possible it happens reasonably often. So often in fact that the “poison pill” idiom was created by companies who were doing just that.

Here’s a Harvard Law paper on it.

Buelldozer, 1 year ago

Prices of video games and consoles have actually declined over time when accounting for inflation.

techraptor.net/…/cost-of-gaming-since-1970s

Here’s an example:

PlayStation 1

Cost at Launch (1995): $299.99 Cost Today (2020): $509.19 Average Game Cost (1995): $49.99 Average Game Cost (2020): $84.85

PlayStation 2

Cost at Launch (2000): $299.99 Cost Today (2020): $450.64 Average Game Cost (2000): $49.99 Average Game Cost (2020): $75.09

AAA titles going to $90 would actually be putting them back to PS1 and earlier pricing.

Buelldozer, 1 year ago

What do you mean by “All in one save menu?” / “not windows save menu but built in save menu”? Do you mean pre-ribbon interface, because that was introduced in Office 2007 and would mean that you’re looking for MS Word 2003 or earlier.

Here, have a look at this visual history of MS Word, it may help jar your memory about which one you’re after.

www.versionmuseum.com/history-of/microsoft-word

Buelldozer, 1 year ago

You should be able to replicate that even in Word 365 (Desktop) by opening Word, going to Options, (or File then options if you have a document open) click the Save category on the left then check (or unchecking) the box for “Don’t show the Backstage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts”.

In the latest version of Word 365 if I check that box I get the floating Save dialog. If I uncheck it I get the embedded version.

Thing is I’m pretty sure that option, or something very similar, has existed in the same place with every Word version since 2013 and perhaps even 2010. You can learn more about “Backstage” here.

I think the Circuit Board Background / Theme was introduced along with theming in either 2010 or 2013 and can still be done even in the latest versions of Word 365. You can find out how to do that here.