Month: August 2024

I know interviews exist with the people at Microsoft. I know there’s people with more info on the subject than I, but it’s not gonna stop me from trying to figure out Microsoft’s idea for buying a studio and releasing on multiple platforms.

We’ve looked at this before and it really just comes down to money. It’s a big company and the bottom line for that big company is money. What makes the most money for us – release on multiple platforms.

I mean, that’s the nuts and bolts of it, to me. There’s nothing else behind it. There’s no shared unity or trying to play nice or anything you might be led to believe. It’s money. It has always been money and it will forever be money. Anything a big company does is for money. They may talk about how they do things to help the environment or some other charitable causes, but that can all be traced back to money. Even spending money is done to make more money.

The game trailers, the E3’s and not-E3’s, the gameplay videos, the interviews, the stages and presentation, the teases – ALL OF IT – is done to make money. Or to at least entice you to give them some of yours. And this isn’t an argument for you to NOT do that. It’s your money, do with it what you will. But you giving some of it to them is what they hope for. Be it in the purchase of a console, a game, DLC, down to a keychain or even a pen. Give them money, that’s what they want.

So when you hear us trying to go over the reasons for Microsoft (or Sony, or Nintendo) for doing what they are doing, we’re missing the bigger picture in that discussion. And it’s money.

They’re the same picture.

And I plan to let go of some of my money at, hopefully, some point in the future. Seriously, Ubisoft, I’m offering you money and I suspect I’m not going to be the only one who wants to give you money for a new Splinter Cell. Ubisoft, it has been 4,005 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Is it really time to upgrade?

I don’t know if it’s my weird sense of time, but it seems way too soon for me to be thinking about getting a new graphics card. But now I’m realizing how LONG it took before I moved onto the 3080 that I currently have. Due to the inability to find the cards because of COVID it was well over a year or more before I grabbed one. And looking at the 4070s currently, they are seemingly cheaper than what I paid for a two year old 3080.

We got into this discussion when looking at the PC requirements for the new Star Wars Outlaws game. It was nice to see more than just the min-max specs. Hopefully, more studios will show us more options. More than the consoles, PC’s have a wide array of different methods of displaying a game. You have at least three different resolutions to pick from, you have different targets of FPS, and then you’ve got wide and ultra wide monitors. So it’s good to see they take that into consideration, just sad to see that my current card (for THAT specific game) can’t pull off 60FPS at 1440p.

And yeah, I know PC gaming is more tweaking the settings than it is actual gaming but that’s actually the fun part to me – finding that sweet spot of performance and looks. It’s just nice when you have the card that allows you to really adjust that to your liking. And it’s also nice to not have to worry about whatever is thrown your way.

To be clear, I’m not worried about games coming out that I can’t run. This card is still a beast of a card and is working very well. It can decently handle any game out right now that you can throw at it. Maybe not at max settings but easily enough that I can hit a target FPS without really worrying too much about lower settings. It’s just that, when you’re looking at the min-max settings on games and your card begins to trend towards the lower settings, it puts that notion in your mind about moving up a step.

It makes me wonder what kind of PC I’ll have whenever a new Splinter Cell is released. Ubisoft, it has been 3,998 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Just a head’s up that we won’t be doing a show next week.

If I paint the state of Destiny 2 in some uncertain light as far as the future is concerned, that wasn’t my intention. That game will be fine to an extent. The die-hards and long termers, as I once was, will still be there playing it most likely. It also serves as a nice meet up with friends who play on the regular and run a weekly raid or dungeon or whatever is currently on offer. I suspect there’s plenty of those people to keep the game afloat for some time depending on what gets offered up on a regular basis.

Honestly, though, I can’t really say if it’ll be enough year after year. And I don’t mean that in some sense that they may not offer what it takes to keep people to stay. I actually mean I don’t know what is going on in the game anymore. I don’t know storylines or content drip or ANY of that sort of thing. I am out of the loop on the loop. But my clan is still playing it, still doing weekly raid nights, still running the grind. However, the drop off comes from people who would step back in the game when new content hit and that average has dropped immensely. And it isn’t likely to increase now that they don’t seem to be doing big expansions year after year. Also, given what we know of the layoffs and everything that went down this week, it may be some time before anything big is brought to that game to pull players back in.

And while you might think I’m disappointed to find out there is no Destiny 3 in development (any new Destiny game would allow for me to jump back in but I am forever banned from Destiny 2), I’m okay with it. This means my group of friends can look elsewhere to move on from the game if they want and I can join them wherever they decide to land. There’s a good bit of other looter shooters out there to accommodate all of us and where they go I will definitely follow.

As long as it isn’t some battle-royal shooter thing.
Having to do with NOTHING that I’ve said previously in this post, I’d just like to remind Ubisoft that it has been 3,984 days since a new Splinter Cell game (non-animated series or guest spot in another game franchise, remake, BBC radio drama, or VR exclusive) was released.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS