Video Games

[skullman80]

The exchange has gotten crazy price wise. I still go in occasionally just to browse and I get with their overhead they have to charge more ....but yeesh. Even ebay is cheaper usually.

They do have cheap VHS tapes though which I appreciate lol.

[dodint]

I have no frame of reference. I had just come from CD Warehouse that had no selection, but what they had was cheap.

[DigitalGypsy66]

[Morkle]

The exchange has gotten crazy price wise. I still go in occasionally just to browse and I get with their overhead they have to charge more ....but yeesh. Even ebay is cheaper usually.

They do have cheap VHS tapes though which I appreciate lol.

I remember when the exchange was dirt cheap. I'd buy a movie a week, and the last time I was in there, I saw a bunch of overpriced stuff and never went back.

[tifosi77]

PS5 Scalpers Having a Hard Time Selling Consoles

PS5 scalpers are apparently having a hard time offloading their inventory after Sony officially put an end to stock shortage stemming from the pandemic. Like other in-demand products, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S suffered from restricted supply for nearly two years after launch – a situation made worse by scalpers who sought to take advantage of global supply chain disruptions.

[nocera]

So apparently Jedi Survivor is a mess on console (and PC to a lesser extent). Redfall reviews are abysmal. Why does gaming suck so much right now?

[NTP66]

Heard the same, and am glad I had no interest in either. The two titles I'm looking forward to are probably still 3+ years away, too. Starfield is looking like it'll manage to be a disappointment, too.

[nocera]

This is the first generation where I've honestly considered jumping ship to Sony on the next go around. I can't bring myself to spend another $500+ this gen. Although, I wouldn't mind picking up a cheap PS4 to catch up on those exclusives.

[DigitalGypsy66]

Why does gaming suck so much right now?

Games are getting exponentially more complex to design, program, and support (and more expensive to produce). Yet, the release cycle - tied to corporate quarterly reports - remains the same. Execs need games out in a certain quarter to make profit and sales estimates, whether the games are ready or not.

I feel sitting on the games until they are ready will make more money for a studio than releasing a half baked, buggy mess.

Compound the buggy messes with live services and users feel compelled to play these games early because of FOMO.

BF 2042 has made steady improvements since its terrible launch in late 2021. It has, by far, the least amount of content - weapons, gadgets, vehicles, and maps - of any BF release in the franchise's 20+ year history. Yet the content is tied to a live service/season pass that makes it difficult for new players to compete with day one players. Take for instance my son, who just started 2042 this weekend. He has NOTHING unlocked, other than the basic dodint weapons. None of his vehicles have unlocks, making it tough for him to compete against players like me who have all of everything unlocked. He's having a blast regardless, which is really good btw.

So: studios rush these games out, and gamers buy them before or near release date because of FOMO or spoilers in the case of Jedi Survivor. The games are awful, get a bunch of negative press and reviews, and spend six months or longer fixing the game for PR purposes for the next game. The investors rejoice.

[skullman80]

I was going to pick up Jedi Survivor cause I played the one before it and enjoyed it but never finished. Guess I'll wait for a patch now.

The one thing Sony has this generation (and last really) is their exclusives have all been basically top tier and worked from day 1. Spider man (both of them), Ratchet and Clank, Horizon Forbidden West/Zero Dawn, God of war (both of them), Ghost of Tsushima, Last of Us (1 and 2), the Uncharted Series.

I know some of those have made it to PC, but they were PS4/5 only for a while and they were all great games. They will have a few missteps from time to time (Death Stranding etc), but for the most part you know what to expect.

It's the reason I've not strayed over to the Xbox side, too many good exclusives (for my playstyle at least).

[NTP66]

Xbox has had an unfortunate recent history with rushed titles, some of which are in even worse shape now than when released (Halo Infinite).

[nocera]

Microsoft is miles behind Sony's exclusive game. It's not even close at this point. What keeps me on Xbox is multiplayer. My friends have Xbox so it's easier to party up with them if we're all on the same console. The number of friends who actively play is dwindling by the day, it seems. Getting old is a dodint.

I have always been a big proponent of Game Pass but lately I'm struggling to find the value vs the cost. If I were paying monthly, I'd cancel but since I banked a couple years I'm sticking with it. I'm not sure I'll re-up though. If the Activision deal somehow goes through and COD goes on game pass, that would be enough for me to do another 3 years.

I mostly play online multiplayer, and mostly third party games. I could do that on either system, and with Sony crushing the exclusive game, I'd probably enjoy the PS5 more at this point. Regardless, there's been a severe lack of quality online multiplayer games this gen.

[NAN]

I only have one more challenge to complete on Hyrule Warriors, then I've completed it 100%. It wasn't too bad overall. Some of the challenges were difficult, but I was so leveled up with a few warriors it wasn't too too bad.

But this challenge: The Seige of Fort Heteno is pretty damn difficult. I'm going to give it a few more tries, and if I can't beat it, then I'm just moving on to Metroid Dread.

[NAN]

Why does gaming suck so much right now?

Games are getting exponentially more complex to design, program, and support (and more expensive to produce). Yet, the release cycle - tied to corporate quarterly reports - remains the same. Execs need games out in a certain quarter to make profit and sales estimates, whether the games are ready or not.

I feel sitting on the games until they are ready will make more money for a studio than releasing a half baked, buggy mess.

Compound the buggy messes with live services and users feel compelled to play these games early because of FOMO.

BF 2042 has made steady improvements since its terrible launch in late 2021. It has, by far, the least amount of content - weapons, gadgets, vehicles, and maps - of any BF release in the franchise's 20+ year history. Yet the content is tied to a live service/season pass that makes it difficult for new players to compete with day one players. Take for instance my son, who just started 2042 this weekend. He has NOTHING unlocked, other than the basic dodint weapons. None of his vehicles have unlocks, making it tough for him to compete against players like me who have all of everything unlocked. He's having a blast regardless, which is really good btw.

So: studios rush these games out, and gamers buy them before or near release date because of FOMO or spoilers in the case of Jedi Survivor. The games are awful, get a bunch of negative press and reviews, and spend six months or longer fixing the game for PR purposes for the next game. The investors rejoice.

All of this, plus like you stated, they can "fix" the game via updates now, where in the past, once a game was out, that was the finished product and there were no updates.

[nocera]

Source of the post once a game was out, that was the finished product and there were no updates.

Most of the time. Some games were released with undiscovered bugs, and if they were bad enough there would be a brand new production run of the updated disc or cartridge. In the case of something like Donkey Kong 64, they ended up having to bundle the expansion pack with the game because the developers couldn't fix a bug without it. WWF No Mercy had to recall the original run of cartridges after a bug was discovered after launch that caused saves to be erased.

It was rare, but it did happen, and it was much more costly so you best believe they did a **** ton of testing before launch.

[Morkle]

Microsoft is miles behind Sony's exclusive game. It's not even close at this point. What keeps me on Xbox is multiplayer. My friends have Xbox so it's easier to party up with them if we're all on the same console. The number of friends who actively play is dwindling by the day, it seems. Getting old is a dodint.

I have always been a big proponent of Game Pass but lately I'm struggling to find the value vs the cost. If I were paying monthly, I'd cancel but since I banked a couple years I'm sticking with it. I'm not sure I'll re-up though. If the Activision deal somehow goes through and COD goes on game pass, that would be enough for me to do another 3 years.

I mostly play online multiplayer, and mostly third party games. I could do that on either system, and with Sony crushing the exclusive game, I'd probably enjoy the PS5 more at this point. Regardless, there's been a severe lack of quality online multiplayer games this gen.

I would say games becoming cross-platform, and Sony finally launching the ability to join Discord parties has dramatically closed the gap. The only thing I miss about Xbox is Forza, and I can 100000% live without it.

[NTP66]

My GPU is up sometime this year, and I'm not so sure that I'll be renewing it.

[nocera]

Yeah, depends on the game really. PUBG, as expected, shits itself when partying up with a player on another console. COD tends to handle it better, though the in-game chat on both suck. I guess Discord would solve that. It would still go from "it just works" to a bit more complicated.

I would also need a pro controller with offset thumb sticks.

[NTP66]

Yeah, the PS5 controller can get ****. Gimme an Elite 2 any day of the week.

[Kane]

I'm playing Jedi Survivor on our Xbox Series X. I've had maybe two stutters in 4-5 hours of game play, but otherwise it runs great. I know the PC version has way more problems though.

[Morkle]

PS5 controller took me all of 20 seconds to get used to.

[CBear3]

This is the first generation where I've honestly considered jumping ship to Sony on the next go around. I can't bring myself to spend another $500+ this gen. Although, I wouldn't mind picking up a cheap PS4 to catch up on those exclusives.

TLOU being the only one I'm really missing.

[skullman80]

The Ps5 controller is amazing, huge step up from the PS4. I never hated the xbox controller and I'm sure its what you are used to, but the ps5 controller is really really really good.

[Lemon Berry Lobster]

Haven't played many video games because nothing is really all that interesting. However I did download a Pokemon fan game that you start in Kanto, and is basically the same as Red and Blue but you are able to fuse Pokemon together so it turns into a bit of chasing the dragon.

[Viva la Ben]

I don’t play much during the week. I’m a weekend gamer now, and Escape From Tarkov is still my favorite FPS of all time