Olmaz

At one point, the change rate between $ and € in the game industry went from 1:1 to 1:1.14
Before, 60$ games were sold at 60€.
Now, 70$ games are sold at 80€, and 700$ consoles at 800€.

I have no idea when exactly it happened (but it's recent) and why. Does anyone have any insight on this?

@LikelySatan Look, i agree with the modern games being bloated and not fun, believe me. But a basic java game is not the answer to this.

We are sadly cursed in these days : our niche hobby has become mainstream, which makes games like Elden Ring or Baldur's Gate 3 possible, while indies like Balatro or Dead Cells are thriving, but at the same time we're flooded with bad games like what Activision and Ubisoft push out, and with all the gatcha games and other "free" MTX games...

Instead of putting a game like Vampire Survivors on a piedestal we should laud even more games like the afore-mentioned Dead Cells, which give to the player what a modern game should give, without all the "bloating" the industry delivers all the time.

Imo, VS is just a sweet java game, should be free to play on your phone and that's it. People trying to make it a "masterpiece" are just trying to be edgy in the sense they want to show they are able to praise and understand what others don't.

The side characters were great, what are you talking about? Yes, they stick to some achetypal character models, but that's not a bad thing when done correctly.

Contrary take here, maybe because I'm old : stop thinking you're edgy because you think a basic game looking worse than games from the 80s is an epic masterpiece.

This is on par with java games on websites from the early 2000s. Fun, yes, but not more than that and should be free.

Oh wow, that's incredible news! Lost in Random is one of the best hidden gems if this gen. Wonderful design, good enough gameplay, charming characters and interesting story. Go play it, it on a 85% sale on the PS Store right now.

Fantastically addictive game! A well deserve success!

That header was dirty man! Filth indeed!

@Yousef- yes, it does mean that.

So so hyped for this one! Everything I've seen is great, hopefully the final product is not full of mtx!

@Skeletor85 I think you're just baiting, but for those who don't know :

• FighterZ is a 2D fighter (like Street Fighter)
• Kakarot is a 3D adventure game with 3D anime fighting mechanics
• Sparking Zero is a fully 3D fighting game
  Just in case anyone was confused...

@Khwarezm89 AC Unity is still my favorite AC. Yes, just a tad above AC2 and Origins...
The graphic, the movement and the story stills holds up today, I'd love a good remaster.

@NEStalgia Fair enough on how France has been viewed from abroad for 1000 years, and I guess they wouldn't be wrong!

Still, this ceremony was a new low, especially for something which has been viewed globally on a major scale!

@LifeGirl yeah, as a Frenchman myself, it was even more than "tacky", it was humiliating, but also very representative of the current state of the nation : totally out of its depths, pretentiously oblivious if its decline, vulgar, and strayed away from its rich culture and history.
What a sad moment in time for France...

Not at all.

But I will admit that no Soulslike from another dev came even close to what FromSoft manages to output.

@Almost_Ghostly Let me guess : you see yourself as a tolerant and open-minded person, am I right?

Silent character may work when there is character creation : the budget may not allow for all the possibilities the game wish to offer to the player.

But if you have to play as a set character (or choose between a limited number of characters), then yes, they should be voiced.

@Contimaloris Exactly. As a non-American, it's incredible to see how people on both sides are completely blinded to what is really happening on their own side. The lack of self-reflection and the constant projection is bringing their country close to the precipice, and their media is only helping.

And with the 2 candidates on offer (if no one else is assassinated or fired until the election), there's no end to this cycle of delusion in sight.

@Rich33 And bullets flying around!

I just use PSPrices. That's it, the ps store is pure garbage and used only to buy the games.

@naruball Thankfully internet comments are not real life!

VivE la France!

I couldn't not be a pedantic Frenchman about this, please!

Damn the mix of one of the most corrupt institution on the planet (the IOC), one of the most immoral country and amoral profit-based enterprises is some way a very good symbol for today's world.
Add a pinch of war with a Call of Duty tournament and we can yell bingo.

@AfroMario So anywhere between "perfect" and "unplayable"? That's enlightening!

@Victor_Meldrew Watching the trailer, I had to check at some point if it was VR. Disappointed it isn't (apparently).

Disappointed to see Dragon Ball and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 so low...

The board game is adorable with a good amount of strategy without being too complex. Perfect to play with the family with older children, I'd say 8 years old minimum.
The art is really beautiful too.

@themightyant Yeah, I remember the first time I saw Sonic on a Nintendo console, it felt like the world was not right anymore!

Yes!!! The first one was really better than I should have been and it had a lot of fun with, count me in (unless the MTX becomes outrageous like Koei Tecmo sadly does sometimes).

This goes to show that before bringing anything down, it's good to make sure you have something better ready to replace it.
While I agree the ESA made very bad business decisions the last years of E3, nothing from any Summer Game Fest came even close to the best E3 years...

Plus, I'm sick of all the people literally bootlicking Geoff Keighly.

@Matroska Yeah I used IRC and maybe my young brain was better at grasping new and confusing things then.

But my main issue with discord is not the UI itself (even though it's absolutely terrible), it's that I just can't find what I came to find in any channel.
An anime subtitle channel : nope, I have no idea where the subtitles or links are.
A fanedit channel : nowhere can I find link to fanedits
A gaming wiki channel : ffs where are the helpful article I should find in it?

And any "chatroom" (or what looks like a chatroom) doesn't help, as I'm not even sure people see my comments, which are being swept away in a see of other non-relevant (to me) comments.

Finding any notifications of someone telling me what to do is like finding a needle in a haystack, as I'm flooded every time I connect by dozens of ads and promotion notifications.

So I think I must be using Discord for things it isn't meant to be, when it's only for chatting with friends while playing a game. But even if I were to want and try that (god forbid), I have no idea where I should start from.

So yeah, I'm officially old now...

I have a very important question : can you watch a cpu vs cpu battle?
Some of my fondest memories from Budokai Tenkaichi 3 were setting up tournaments and then watching the battles unfold.

I'm really curious about the custom battle mode's cutscenes and how they work...

Local multiplayer in what is ln fact just an empty stage is sad though...

A genuine question to all the young ones : do you have any idea why Discord's UI is so frustratingly bad?
I have been on internet since it existed and Discord is the only mainstream site I just haven't been able to use, it's just that unintuitive and confusing...

@Discol76 I can guarantee you I'm not forgetting SW is meant for kids/teenagers... I'm a father and a teacher, I can't miss it even if I wanted to!
Now, since we're sharing opinions : Mandolarian season 1 was a one-trick poney that hinged on nostalgia. Season 2 was bad and revisiting S1 after watching the rest is difficult without nostalgia-tinted glasses.

Rogue One is vastly overrated, especially for the fact that almost every character except the droid is uncharismatic and really not important character material.

Ahsoka is one big pile of feminist propaganda retconning loved characters in a non sensical and almost unwatchable state. The only way to make it watchable ls to go see the fanedit making it into a 3 hour long movie (I would advise anyone wanting to watch the new Star wars content without submitting themselves to hours of very bad TV to hunt down fanedits, I can help).

Now where we agree is that SW nerds will still watch and buy day one every SW content ... even though they'll criticize it almost every time.

Opinions he!

Yes! The Last Stand suit was my go to in SM1, glad it's back!

Who is expecting the collaboration between Ubisoft (a game maker known for its good visuals but very boring and repetitive gameplay, while forcing mtx onto players) and Star Wars (a franchise that didn't output anything good nor original except Andor since Disney bought it) to be anything else than a visually exciting but boring and safe mess?

"I guess my point is I don't define companies by their country of origin, their country's politics and I won't tar them all by the same brush."
But what about countries where you can't have a company without being constantly scrutinized and control by government, making you a voluntary or involuntary accessory to that government's crimes? China is just like that. Russia is close to it. Israel is not, companies can be openly opposed to their government there.

"Behind all those governments are just people, like you and I, trying to make a living"
I'm sorry but some people in all three governments you've cited are openly and actively organizing genocides, massacres, mass surveillance and other crimes. This is not "trying to make a living". I come from a country that fell from democracy to autocracy in the span of 10-ish years, and I can tell you that autoritarian/totalitarian government are filled with people happy to participate in all these horrors, and the country where these governments thrive are filled with people gladly profiting from such crimes. Your way of handwaving this away is very very close to the "I was just following orders" justification...

Such a fun game with a lot of interesting and original ideas.
I started it recently and playing it remotely on my phone while my newborn is sleeping in my arms has been quite enjoyable!

"You are partly right that China will often join a market with cheaper alternatives but that doesn’t stop other options succeeding and having a good market share."
The fact that you gave Shein and the clothing market as an example shows that you underestimate the impact of Chinese companies when they invest in a market.
see : https://www.businessinsider.com/clothing-brands-stores-youll-see-less-of-in-the-future-2020-7
and :
https://www.statista.com/chart/32182/biggest-online-fashion-stores-in-the-us/

As for the Chinese high quality products, as I said, it's always the strategy of presenting a few good to very good products so the customers open up to the idea of a Chinese brand, then, when the doors are open, let the cheap product flood the market.

And as for the hypocrisy of dealing with Western companies using cheap Chinese labor, I agree it shouldn't exist, but I still prefer dealing with them knowing I "may" have a chance to influence my own country's politics enough to reduce it (and at least part of the process is more respectful of Human Rights), than to finance directly a Chinese company tied to its government.

Edit: I'm genuinely curious - is there any country for which you'd consider a boycott (or at very least strict commercial and diplomatic restrictions) a good idea?

In 2024 Trophies are so common and expected, this is just weird.

@Zenos what exactly doesn't bother you?

@Zenos while I agree that seeing more and more parts of the world elevate their quality of life is a great thing, seeing countries that openly reject modern basic values like Human Rights getting more and more powerful is frightening to me.

Do you think a new multi-polar world order would make these principles more valued?

@themightyant Fair enough.

My point is this : Chinese companies have always had this approach : insert yourself into a new market with good enough products to attract first buyers and investors, then flood the market with at best mediocre products coming from questionable means of production. All this while being under the strict surveillance and direction of the Chinese government.

I don't see this as a good thing.

Apparently, you seem to think I'm wrong (even racist?!) in thinking this way. Would you care to develop your counter argument?

@themightyant thanks for making my point

And here is a big issue with modern day gaming industry (and to be frank, a lot of other indutries) : there is no way Japanese or Western producers can continue to compete without including China, which is very eager to take on the Western market.

Hence a plethora of products, which will appear at first as palatable (or even good for some) but will utilmately ruin the industry by forcing unrealistic standards of production and lowering the overall quality of the products, while being an open door to a totalitarian regime which controls every company within its borders.

We've already seen how the way China is represented in media changed these last 5 years. Now, there can't be a discussion about it without people defending it, omitting all the atrocities committed by the government and the way all companies are tied to it. Worse, false equivalence is immediately made between Western countries and China. See what will happen in response to this comment.

5 years ago, this would have been inimaginable, as most people agreed that dealing with a totalitarian and genocidal country was not a good idea while denouncing the hyprocrisy of Western government delocalizing their production in China and nearby countries.

@Jey887 I stopped at 2006 FIFA World Cup. The arcady feeling and the "star players" who had kind of superpowers was really fun.
After that, the games went full on simulation mode and I couldn't keep up.

@Bionic-Spencer Please tell me you forgot a /s ...

@IamJT I really don't get how Amy Hennig is still considered someone important in the industry. She hasn't done any meaningful job for 13 years since her work on Uncharted 3, but every project she's attached to at some point is lauded as the next big thing because she's in it.

It's almost as baffling as Jade Raymond's overwhelmingly positive reputation in the gaming media, although she hasn't produced any game for almost 10 years.

This smells like AI tampering the interview to produce a summary of what he said. a bit like what Google Gemini/Overviews is doing to your searches.

You’ll be able to use in-game currency like Drive Tickets or premium currency such as Fighter Coins to purchase songs

And again! For every thing SF6 does incredibly well, they have to add some stupid microtransactions... I love this game but really, they have to sort out these things by making most of what is mtx as unlockables.

With this and FF7's bathsuit scene, I hope the devs get the message about their main audience : we like diverse games, sometimes we seek gritty realism, sometimes over the top sexyness.