Hangout The Games Hangout Thread

[Static]

So what all did you guys like in the Direct?

 

[Sanity Check]

Looking for something new.

Ended up with a strategy card game called splinterlands. Its like a browser based version of pokemon / yugioh / magic the gathering card battles.

Its much more engaging with better gameplay and replay value than I expected. The rules and parameters of each game are randomized. They shift to keep things fresh and unpredictable, which is good.

My record is something like 600 wins with 300 losses. I must be channeling my non existent inner korean that plays games 48 hours a day to enjoy this level of success. Not certain how I'm coming out ahead here, I never played any card games before.

Still playing splinterlands.

Except now they're paying me NFT blockchain peanuts for it.

 

[Jammin]

I'm currently playing House of Ashes, the new game in the horror anthology series by the Until Dawn studio.

So far I think it's really good. They of do the Telltale games interactive movie thing better than Telltale ever did. I hadn't played the previous ones because they didn't seem like my brand of horror. I like the creature feature stuff and that is very much what this game is. It feels on par with Until Dawn, even if I enjoyed that setting more.

--- Double Post Merged, Nov 6, 2021, Original Post Date: Oct 27, 2021 ---

Finished House of Ashes and I loved it.

As a fan of creature features and action thriller type movies this felt like one of the better versions of that in an interactive format. It's probably 6 or 7 hours to playthrough and well worth it, IMO. It's about 90% as good as Until Dawn in it's own way. Not scary at all but very fun.

 

[Farfalla]

Hey, freaks.

We'll hold a Mafia Game after the holidays.

In this game, new or less experienced players will be teamed with old timers that will advise them so they can rapidly get the gist of the game for future editions.

If you're interested in joining us, check more about it here~

 

[Demonspeed]

Top 100 Games by the Japanese.

Thoughts? I am surprised to see Splatoon so high. Never played this game. Didn't know it was this popular.

 

[Jammin]

Looks pretty much like I would have guessed for the most part. Extremely Nintendo heavy. Few surprises on there though. Little surprised I didn't see a Yakuza on there.

Most positive surprise Suikoden 2 at #19. I like that.

Most negative one was Final Fantasy X at #9.

 

[Nii]

Pretty expected for the most part, yeah. Lots of recency bias on there too, like Pokemon Sword/Shield or Diamon/Pearl being that high.

Top 100 Games by the Japanese.

Thoughts? I am surprised to see Splatoon so high. Never played this game. Didn't know it was this popular.

It was insanely popular in Japan, back then I saw fanarts and comments everywhere. Never really generated much hype in the West, but in Japan it was huge.

Most negative one was Final Fantasy X at #9.

The Japanese love it for some reason lol. Probably because it was the first one on PS2, and everyone played it. It had its moments, but I would say 7,8, and 9 were all better. At least it's good to see that 12 and 13 aren't on there

 

[Riku]

Splatoon just wasn't huge in Japan, it still is. It's a very popular e-sport over there as well.

--- Double Post Merged, Dec 29, 2021, Original Post Date: Dec 29, 2021 ---

I'm a little surprised Undertale is that high. Very impressive for an indie title.

 

[Jammin]

The Japanese love it for some reason lol. Probably because it was the first one on PS2, and everyone played it. It had its moments, but I would say 7,8, and 9 were all better. At least it's good to see that 12 and 13 aren't on there

That's sort of what I figured. It's just strange because some pretty eclectic classic RPGs made the list. Like Suikoden II and Tactics Ogre and like you said 12, 13, and 15 didn't. Yet there it is. Final Fantasy X.

Which is not a terrible game, to be fair, but it's so much worse than the 5 games before it. And Tactics, which I also would have thought would make the list.

 

[Sanity Check]

Thinking about getting Guardians of the Galaxy @ 35% off.

 

[xi0]

Crazy. First Bethesda, now this. Not a huge fan of moves like this generally, but Microsoft has been decidedly less assholeish in the gaming space in recent years, and given the kind of shape Activision-Blizzard has been in, the result really can't be worse than where they are now IMO. Get rid of Kotick ASAP though.

 

[Faust]

I was just gonna post this tweet as well.

I didn't see that coming.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 18, 2022, Original Post Date: Jan 18, 2022 ---

Yeah, get rid of Kotick.

 

[Riku]

That's big.

But yeah, boot Kotick finally.

Interesting. Seems like a risky move, considering ActiBlizzard is the rock bottom reputation-wise now. Though that could mean Microsoft just got very valuable IPs for relatively cheap just now.

 

[Faust]

Hope they actually make/develop games (free-to-play preferably) that are worth playing with this acquisition.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 18, 2022, Original Post Date: Jan 18, 2022 ---

To the moon!

 

[Jammin]

That's pretty huge. And as bad as this is for the competitive balance with Sony and Nintendo. I see this as potentially something that can only be a good thing for me as a consumer of games.

Here's the thing about Activision Blizzard. They are already spiraling downward. At least speaking from my narrow interests as a gamer. Under Kotick they've been chasing money so long and so hard that honestly I stopped even seeing them as a source of games for me to play. They just don't release anything for me. Am I worried about them "ruining Call of Duty"? Hell no. Blizzards catalogue? Nope, Blizzard did a fair job of that themselves. They employ a huge amount of talent and have them working on, what is in my view, monotizable trash. That was never going to change.

Now it has chance of changing. Not sure how big of a chance. But it's something.

 

[Faust]

That's big.

But yeah, boot Kotick finally.

Interesting. Seems like a risky move, considering ActiBlizzard is the rock bottom reputation-wise now. Though that could mean Microsoft just got very valuable IPs for relatively cheap just now.

$68.7 billion being relatively cheap...

Unchecked Capitalism ka.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 18, 2022, Original Post Date: Jan 18, 2022 ---

 

[Sanity Check]

Its a stab at market consolidation.

There are so many developers with new faces arriving all the time.

They probably won't be able to achieve it.

Not the way its been done in other industries.

 

[xi0]

$68.7 billion being relatively cheap...

Unchecked Capitalism ka.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 18, 2022, Original Post Date: Jan 18, 2022 ---

It's corporate-speak BS IMO. Most analysts seem to think that's the case as well. Spencer made a point to say once the ink is dry everyone will report to him. The internal memo Spencer wrote in response to the ActiBlizz mess makes it hard to imagine they'd keep him.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 19, 2022 ---

Its a stab at market consolidation.

There are so many developers with new faces arriving all the time.

They probably won't be able to achieve it.

Not the way its been done in other industries.

It's to get more games on Game Pass. CoD as well as Blizzard's catalogue being on Game Pass is going to make them a lot of money.

 

[Jammin]

Yeah, he's not going to say "I can't wait to fire this Kotick guy" even though I would bet that's exactly what Phil Spencer and the people at Microsoft are thinking.

The more I think about it the more of a risk this seems like it is on Microsoft's part though. 68 billion dollars is a lot of money. Even for Microsoft.

This will certainly give even more strength to game pass and their xbox platform. But in peak conditions at maximum profit this deal would take a while to pay for itself much less turn a profit. The upside is huge getting Call of Duty and Blizzard's catalogue. But serial mismanagement has taken a toll on all of those properties. Gaming playerbases are riding high now but there is some question how much of that will prove to be a covid bubble.

If they can right the ship with things like Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, World of Warcraft and get Xbox and Windows exclusive games out there then their position is going to incredibly strong over Playstation in the console market. But, as with the Bethesda purchase, the games themselves take a while to make. So if things start going downhill at Activision Blizzard with the next batch of games Microsoft could easily be left holding an incredible bill.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 19, 2022, Original Post Date: Jan 19, 2022 ---

Another consideration in the sort term is the chip shortage. Like, lets say Xbox comes out with an Xbox console exclusive Call of Duty next year. That's great. Playstation call of duty fans would go to buy an Xbox only to find out they can't because they don't exist. You can only make so much profit selling something you don't have enough of as it is.

And cryptofarmers have made getting PC gaming hardware a bit of nightmare even on top of that. You want an RTX 3000 card these days. Good luck with that.

 

[xi0]

This isn't something that happened on a whim. Microsoft has probably coveted ABK's properties for some time now and the stock price being at an all-time low due to insane abuse and mismanagement just made it easier. I have no idea whether it's a good price or not, but it does stand out to me that Microsoft bought ZeniMax for like 8 billion, while this deal is for nearly 9x that. As beloved as Bethesda is, I guess they weren't bringing in the kind of money that ABK properties have. Have to remember they're also getting things like Candy Crush in this deal, as well as Hearthstone and the mobile Diablo game that will likely be an earner. CoD just kind of dwarfs most other games that aren't the annual EA Sports shitfest too. ABK games have longer and more "accepted" monetization models too compared to the Bethesda games as well.

Whether this is a smart move or not, Microsoft is valued at something like 500 billion dollars, so they can "afford" it I guess. Given the kind of money ActiBlizzKing was making prior to the stock price tanking, it's probably worth it. This is the precise reason why they had no interest in getting rid of Kotick. Their yearly revenue has been between 6-8 billion since 2015.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 19, 2022, Original Post Date: Jan 19, 2022 ---

Then you take that existing revenue and wonder how much more money Game Pass would make, a subscription model that doesn't exist for the customers who already play those games. It's going to be an incredible amount of money added on top of the 6-8 billlion those games bring in already.