Topic: The Chit Chat Thread

@Ralizah I honestly think I was more optimistic during the Wii U days with Nintendo than I am with Sony and Microsoft just now. At least you knew Nintendo were talented and would bounce back, at their own pace. I only see it getting worse with these two, a certain lot will buy this console and Sony will see that as reason enough to continue down the path of burning absolutely any goodwill they still had.

@Anti-Matter if you go onto the game page for whichever game you want to remove there's an option for it there

@MatthewJP @Yousef- @JohnnyShoulder I'd like to start off first by saying I appreciate your mature, kind and honest words. I think I will vary gaming with other hobbies and interests as well as slowing down the pace of my gaming and perhaps mix my gameplay of ER with shorter games in the future. SH2 Remake is coming out soon as well. I had a dream last night about being able to play og RE3 on a Ps5, Idk if this is even possible, haha? But if it is then something like that or SH2 Remake could be a welcome change of pace.

Kind regards. And all the best, with your own gaming, alternative hobbies and quality of life.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I usually game in chunks, usually 2 hours at a time but I'm not putting any limits or anything like that, just fitting it around with whatever I've got going on that day. I used to get a bit stressed out that I wasn'y getting enough gaming time, but I've chilled out about it these days, and enjoy the longer sessions when i can get them.

Good luck, and hope you get out of your gaming funk soon!

@Ralizah yeah there’s not a lot of positive to say. I glance on all three but push square is where I post the most due to ten years worth of familiarity where I basically know everyone here but never made an account till recently. The slippery slope Sony is going through is quite fascinating. It feels like Sony is doing a speedrun of their early ps3 run. It’s kinda bizarre to see all of this unfold. I think the biggest atrocity so far is the price discrepancy. Why make UK residents pay an extra 200 dollars? Is this some cruel trend I’m not aware of?

@nessisonett Huh, I knew the color looked different! I’ve had curry, but only a while ago when I made it and it was def a little darker. Fascinating story though, I would’ve never guessed. xD

@nessisonett I actually really liked the Wii U, but recognized the possibility that Nintendo might be forced to reckon with a substantially downgraded presence in the industry in the future. Thankfully, that didn't happen, and they're inarguably at the height of their success as a manufacturer.

Microsoft has been lost in the weeds since the late 360 era. But Phil Spencer has ruined the brand even more thoroughly than Mattrick did. I don't really see a path to recovery for the brand, and I don't think Microsoft does, either, which is why they're seemingly moving in the direction of being more of a multiplatform publisher going forward.

Sony... is in a weird place. The brand itself is still strong and trusted worldwide, but one gets the sense that the company leadership isn't really sure how it wants to grow the brand going forward. The everyman's Sony of the PS1/2/4 eras seems to be transitioning into more of a boutique luxury brand, like Apple. But they're not even fully committing to that. They're also really struggling to make their first-party development efforts work after training up an audience that seemingly only wants to be play blockbuster AAA titles, which is just not financially viable long-term given exploding development costs for big games now (not to mention how long they take to develop!).

These troubles all seemed really obvious to me given their trajectory as a brand since last generation, so none of this has shocked me. I'm just glad Nintendo is still a fairly traditional Japanese console brand and isn't losing itself in a swamp of American corporate greed like Sony and Microsoft are.

@Yousef- Sony seems to be playing it safe with their biggest market (North America) and is jacking up the price significantly on everyone else.

This is worse than the PS3 days for me, frankly, because at least they still invested in a greater diversity of first-party software and were doing cool stuff like releasing the PS Classics line. Also, consumers held them accountable for their poor choices through the power of the wallet. But the difference back then was that the Xbox brand was strong and resilient. I know: I was a Playstation gamer since PS1, but Sony's pricing options led me to going for the 360 instead. Without viable competition in the same space, Sony feels free to be as greedy as possible.

@Ralizah I liked my Wii U too, I only got my PS4 in 2017 so it was the way I played a lot of games. And you can’t say it was a boring box either, the Gamepad still hasn’t been matched in convenience for a lot of games. Even when Nintendo are in a rough patch, they still are consumer facing and are trying to push the boundaries. Sony at this point are perfectly happy for you to wait 6 years for a £70 game, while trying to flog you a more expensive way to play that game you bought the original console for. Smaller budgets, smaller and more efficient development times, smaller games. I’d be perfectly happy with that. Astro Bot didn’t exactly take an age to make.