Given the unremarkable difference in appearance I’ve seen on the “ultra modern” Unreal Engine 5 demos, I’m all for it. We can’t get the new generation right yet, let’s stay on the old where we can manage a consistent framerate.
I understand you have a lot of demos to cover, though I can’t help but feel there’s some dishonesty about the Robocop demo. First mission gets you used to killing gangsters in simple corridors, though after that the demo actually gives a lot of focus on side quests, and very traditional “community policing”, including detective work, and many occasions of trying to find the best balance between community lenience and upholding justice. I even managed to avoid a gunfight in one case by finding clues and negotiating some of the gangsters down.
Maybe you played all that part and it just didn’t feel significant. I admit, it just felt pleasantly unexpected to me.
Hoping for fun times, but I guess I’m a little worried that the story for this expansion might lose appeal without a good conflict.
It’s very possible to make a well-written, region-localized storyline with lowered stakes than “potential end of all life”, I’m just uncertain how well they’ll do that given what the Warrior of Light has been through.
I was disappointed to hear allegations of toxic work environments in Moon Studios, the people who made indie darling Ori and the Blind Forest. So while abusive employers are certainly an important issue, it doesn’t appear to be one that’s specific to large companies. Furthermore, it was never going to get solved under the supervision of Bobby Kotick - a man who was never going to leave unless something like the Microsoft deal happened.
There’s lots of horrible companies in the world, and I salute anyone’s efforts to boycott the ones doing horrible shit. Part of the reason I’m ambivalent about the merger is, I don’t even buy (or care about the success of) Activision games. But I don’t see that as a topic directly relevant to corporate merging/growth. Two publishers merge, that hasn’t added to the amount of employee abuse going on in each of their studios.
I can understand this comment for something like an abusive mineral miner in Africa selling electronics parts, or a food corporation that makes shared ingredients. Video games, though, are much more of a finished product, and easy to find competition for.
Steam Deck has put a small thorn in their OS side. It used to be ridiculous to have a Linux gaming computer, but it’s become much more viable thanks to the Deck’s existence.
Basically to say Microsoft wouldn’t be able to pull a massive move like requiring Windows subscription prices without a lot of gamers going to Linux.
It’s definitely nicer if there’s far less visual emphasis to it, like having the score be in small font rather than slammed in the middle of the result screen.
Since there’s no functional upgrades from collecting gold, this kind of works out. A lot of time, I collected tons of gold and just never spent it.
I also wonder if matchmaking will go better. Solo queueing seems to find a lot of people instantly leaving parties, and I suspect they’re trying to find a particular “sea” with their friends to perform group invasions.
All true - and yet somehow, it still released to positive reviews. The consumer outcry came after release, the reviewers having gotten a tightly curated experience.