This is the shittiest upcoming Holiday Season in the history of gaming.

[Jeff Kelly]

I approve, I don't get you but I do approve

On a more serious note. Germany, so no KFC.

[Mortriden]

On a more serious note. Germany, so no KFC.

What?  You poor soul.  Such a guilty pleasure.

Edit: The Czech Republic and Slovakia aren't that far away, road trip for you!

[Tebonas]

I'm surprised, the first (and last) time I ate at KFC was in Germany, in Hamburg to be exact. Directly next to the Reeperbahn.  

[HaemishM]

I'm confident that I can assure you Microsoft and Sony's decision not to publish Bayonetta 2 had fuckall to do with any thoughts of bad PR from hypersexualization or the lack of ethics in games journalism. 1.4 million copies just isn't shit to them because they are both stuck in the mindset of "if it doesn't sell 3 million+, it's not worth funding because we won't give anyone less than $100 million." Profitability isn't even a concern anymore unless it reaches a certain super-hit threshold of profitability.

[Teleku]

On a more serious note. Germany, so no KFC.

What?  You poor soul.  Such a guilty pleasure.

Edit: The Czech Republic and Slovakia aren't that far away, road trip for you!

They are all over Poland as well.

Edit:  actually, just checked the wiki and it says they have over 100 KFC's in Germany.

[Maledict]

I'm confident that I can assure you Microsoft and Sony's decision not to publish Bayonetta 2 had fuckall to do with any thoughts of bad PR from hypersexualization or the lack of ethics in games journalism. 1.4 million copies just isn't shit to them because they are both stuck in the mindset of "if it doesn't sell 3 million+, it's not worth funding because we won't give anyone less than $100 million." Profitability isn't even a concern anymore unless it reaches a certain super-hit threshold of profitability.

Sorry, but that's rubbish. Sony has been funding indies and smaller games out the wazoo this generation. Knack was never going to be a 3 million seller, and neither is no Man's sky. Infamous 3 was a big success when it hit 1 million copies. same with Killzone: Shadowfall.

Bayonetta 2 wasn't funded presumably because the odds of it selling over a million copies for a sequel were very low, or because they thought the image of the game didn't fit with what they wanted (which is fair enough - the game looks ****ing stupid on first inspection).
 

[Margalis]

I don't think this had anything to do with money though, or the quality of the product. In the 4 years that separate Bayonetta from Bayonetta 2 a lot of things happened, and clearly Microsoft and Sony didn't want to be associated with what is seen as a game plagued with hypersexualization issues. Coming 2012/3 when they got offered tto back this project, they probably thought "we can do without more negative headlines".

Sony publishes God of War, why would they give a shit about controversy in Bayonetta?

Sega and Nintendo have a pretty good working relationship now, I'm sure that plays a part. (Sonic in Smash, Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, etc) Beyond that I assume what Haemish said is correct, that the game wasn't going to be a mega-hit so Sony / MS weren't interested. It's true that Sony funds a bunch of small indie games, but those are small investments from a different group within Sony and is done specifically to build up indie cred.

[Venkman]

Agree this holiday season is weak. Assassins Creed is turning into the Star Trek movies of video games. The anticipated launches this year were either broken (Watch Dogs), weak (Titanfall) or limited (Destiny). And one of the best recent games (Shadows) was a surprise. DA:I doesn't suck, but that doesn't mean anyone was really anticipating it. CoD:whateverthefuck apparently doesn't suck either, but it's getting harder each year for anyone to care. And Far Cry 4 looks great, but isn't significantly different from 3.

The rest moved to next year, in part because the consoles are struggling. They're struggling because by the time they launched, $600 PC rigs were already better, midcore games (by way of Steam) gave us something of a PC gaming renaissance, and tablets took all the money so big companies could make small bets by relaunching yet again all the mechanics first invented for the Atari 2600 while the people with real ideas either sold out for stability or joined the I'm-an-arteest circuit.

tl;dr mature market is now elderly market

I'm still having fun. But we've arrived at the Drunk Wives of Beverly Hills age of this shit.

[Jeff Kelly]

Edit:  actually, just checked the wiki and it says they have over 100 KFC's in Germany.

I've never seen one in all of my 38 years. You can't throw a brick without hiiting a McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut or Starbuck but I've never sen even one KFC.

[Falconeer]

I know you didn't ask for this, but since it's random trivia time, Italy has plenty of McDonald's and Burger Kings, but no Pizza Hut, Starbucks or KFC at all.

[Jeff Kelly]

I've been playing some GTA V on PS 4. It's a huge visual upgrade and it runs very very smooth - apart from a few minor judder issues due to the 30 fps. This makes the bullshit Ubisoft "CPU bottleneck and thousands of NPCs not shitty programming and project management" excuse for the broken as fuck AC:Unity launch even more of a bullshit excuse.

I wonder if they really think that anyone believes those stupid excuses.

[Velorath]

I've been playing some GTA V on PS 4.

Is there a particular reason why? I seem to recall you not liking the game too much on its original release.

[Jeff Kelly]

You remember correctly. I bought it mainly to own at least one game that actually makes use of the PS4's performance. More of a 'let's see what that machine is actually apable of' purchase. (As most of us have done at least once after buying a new console or PC).

I'm mixed on GTA V. It's a very impressive technical achievement and I appreciate the amount of effort and technical prowess that was necessary to make it. From a systems programming standpoint it's impressive and one of a kind really. Prior to the release of GTA V a lot of industry professionals would have claimed that this kind of game is impossible to make on a PS3 or XBox 360.

That's why I also like it for the fact that it's pretty much a testament of what you can do even on outdated hardware if you're really committed to it and have a programming and design staff that actually knows what they're doing. It means you can always bring it up when yet another developer cops out of a crappy launch with weak excuses like "thousands of NPCs" or "CPU bottlenecks" or "games is hard, man". This is what you can achieve - from a technical standpoint - when you spend your huge dev budget on actually making a game instead of thinking up business models and co-marketing deals.

I don't particularly like the game they made on top of that impressive engine very much but I wanted to own at least one game that actually shows the PS4's capabilities to some extent. I'd rather double-dip on a game that I find technically impressive but just didn't like very much instead of trying my luck with Ubisoft or Bioware or the latest Call of Duty.

Might not make a whole lot of sense but that's it.

[edit: fixed two glaring errors that quite bothered me]

[Jeff Kelly]

Maybe that summarizes the 2014 season up pretty well too. I'd rather buy a game I don't particularly like for a second time simply because it's the only thing coming out for my new console that I'm even remotely interested in.

[Velorath]

You remember correctly. I bought it mainly to own at least one game that actually makes use of the PS4's performance. More of a 'let's see what those machine is actually apable of' purchase. (As most of us have done at least once after buying a new console or PC).

I'm mixed on GTA V. It's a very impressive technical achievement and I appreciate the amount of effort and technical prowess that was necessary to make it. From a systems programming standpoint it's impressive and one of a kind really. Prior to the release of GTA V a lot of industry professionals would have claimed that this kind of game is impossible to make on a PS3 or XBox 360.

That's why I also like it for the fact that it's pretty much a testament of what you can do even on outdated hardware if you're really committed to it and have a programming and designer staff that actually knows what they're doing. It means you can always bring it up when yet another developer cops out of a crappy launch with weak excuses like "thousands of NPCs" or "CPU bottlenecks" or "games is hard, man". This is what you can achieve - from a technical standpoint - when you spend your huge dev budget on actually making a game instead of thinking up business models and co-marketing deals.

I don't particularly like the game they made on top of that impressive engine very much but I wanted to own at least one game that actually shows the PS4's capabilities to some extent. I'd rather double-dip on a game that I find technically impressive but just didn't like very much instead of trying my luck with Ubisoft or Bioware or the latest Call of Duty.

Might not make a whole lot of sense but that's it.

Fair enough. It just stuck out because I reread a bunch of that thread a week or two back when it had been bumped up.

[Jeff Kelly]

I was pretty angry because I felt - and still feel - that the impressive engine they've made deserves a much better game than the one they came up with. It's pretty sad that Rockstar isn't in the tech licensing business, I'd very much like to see a new Elder Scrolls or Fallout game that uses Rockstar's tech as a foundation.

Let's hope that Rockstar will eventually release add-ons for the single player since we probably won't be getting another Red Dead game any time soon. GTA San Andreas and GTA 4 had quite a few that were actually quite good (Lost and the Damned or the Ballad of Gay Tony for example)

[Soulflame]

I'm not sure what sort of non-AAA things might appeal to Schild, but I thought this looked pretty cool.  And interesting.

I'm fairly sure I'll pick up a copy for eldest for Christmas.  Possibly two or three (or four) so the family can play together.

[Nebu]

I'm not sure what sort of non-AAA things might appeal to Schild, but I thought this looked pretty cool.  And interesting.

I'm fairly sure I'll pick up a copy for eldest for Christmas.  Possibly two or three (or four) so the family can play together.

I love the look of that game.  I wish I were coordinated enough to play it.

[Khaldun]

I met one of the developers a while back. I like what they've been trying to do with it.

[Sky]

Let's hope that Rockstar will eventually release [...] Red Dead [for pc]

FIFY  

Actually, I take it back. If they do get around to it, it will probably be way too late to be worth the bother (Manhunt, Bully).

[Cyrrex]

Sky, at this point it seems like you should know at least one soul that owns a last gen console, and another that owns Red Dead.  Borrow that motherfucker, is what I am saying.  Still ranks on my top 10, maybe top 5 all time games.  You obviously want to play it, why wait for something that is never going to happen?

[Sky]

I don't actually know anyone who owns a console (that I know of), locally.

I had thought of grabbing a PS4 at some point, but it's tough for me to drop enough money for a nice new gpu++ on a walled garden that will only play two games (RDR and Madden). Though I do also dislike the crappy thumbstick layout of the PS4 controller. And I don't know if it's backward compat anyway.

Console exclusives can bounce up and down on a rusty knife. I mean in their butts.

[Yegolev]

Backward compatibility is not strictly available in the PS4.  We are free to re-purchase new versions of old games, or to stream some for a hourly fee, but you can't put any other disk in there and have it work.

Although I haven't actually tried any PS2 or PS1 disc, I expect it won't work.

I've realized that the path to PS3 games on PS4 is via the streaming service, since it allows Sony to avoid writing any emulator and to charge a hourly fee.

[Samwise]

Backward compatibility is not strictly available in the PS4.  We are free to re-purchase new versions of old games, or to stream some for a hourly fee, but you can't put any other disk in there and have it work.

Although I haven't actually tried any PS2 or PS1 disc, I expect it won't work.

I've realized that the path to PS3 games on PS4 is via the streaming service, since it allows Sony to avoid writing any emulator and to charge a hourly fee.

And thus ends my brief flirtation with consoles that began when I bought a first gen PS3 (which to its credit had full backwards compatibility).  I can still get games I played in the 90s to work on my PC without having to pay anyone an hourly rate.  PC master race for life, yo.

[Cyrrex]

Wait...an hourly rate?  That is their solution to the BC issue, to stream shit at you for an hourly charge?  How much is it per hour?  Do you pay for the game and the streaming?

Mind blown.  So dumb.

[Yegolev]

http://www.playstation.com/en-us/explore/psnow/

Web site says something about a weeklong rental being about a dollar a day.  I only ever rented games when I was a poor kid in 1980's Alabama (correlates to 1960s anywhere else) with a dad who preferred to ridicule my gaming hobby over pretty much anything else he might have done with me.  Now that I'm a grown-ass man, I'm not into renting games at all.  Or visiting my dad.

[Margalis]

PSNow is a stillborn abomination.

[Signe]

You really should visit your dad. 

[Cyrrex]

Speaking of Sony services, I have to say that after an initally cracking start, PS Plus has become utter shit.  Happened right about when PS4 came out.  It was once the case that you could look forward to a pretty decent PS3 title for free every month (an aged AAA title or whatever).  Now you get a shit indie title for PS4, some other shit title for PS3 and then the obligatory VITA game no one has ever heard of.  I've basically stopped checking.  Maybe I should check.

[Hawkbit]

Yep.  Mine was set to renew on 12/1, but I cancelled.  I don't think they had a game in the last six months I downloaded. 

[Yegolev]

You really should visit your dad. 

Let me give you his phone number.

[Sky]

Wait. They call it 'pee snow'?

[Yegolev]

Well, it is a streaming service.  What would you call it?

[Sky]

'Explosive diarrhea' doesn't really flow off the tongue as nicely.

[Yegolev]

No, no.  You don't get the shit all at once with PSNow.