Bdbrady

@themcnoisy MLB is driving the bus. They either lose the license or put it on Xbox and make more money. I'm sure Xbox threw a ton a cash at Sony/MLB to get it on Gamepass.

If the deal isn't to Sony's liking they could drop The Show, have the studio work on something else, and MLB would have to find another team to make their multi-plat baseball game.

Good time to buy. I don't dabble in individual stocks, but this is tempting. I'd imagine a kick up with the rumored State of Play coming in Feb, Horizon, PSVR2, and GoW2 coming later this year.

@themightyant I read it is looking like June 2023 for finalization of the deal.

@NOLIMITGHST I'm also preemptively mad for Xbox fans when Sony then goes out and buys Square and other studios too. I own all the boxes, but there will be many on both sides of this "war" who will be left out of Final Fantasy, Persona, COD, etc.

I'm also curious because Bethesda seemed down when Microsoft bought them and Activision/Blizz seems down now too. I want to see them turn them around and not just get IP for cheap.

We will see...

This is bad for the industry. More consolidation, less innovation. We haven't even seen Microsoft leverage Bethesda or prove they can manage that many studios.

Microsoft wading into anti-trust grounds here. I'll be curious to see if anything comes of it.

@Martsmall Jumping into ME for the first time ever. Any tips? The length is daunting, and I fear I'll lose interest 70% of the way in. Though I did beat Valhalla and P5R last year, so there is hope!

D for me. The campaign felt like a huge disappointment. It feels good to grapple and shoot, but Halo fell short of other games today in many categories. The FOBs were disappointing, kill ten enemies and you're done. There were very little vehicles used in the campaign. Environments felt the same, activities repetitive, and the world did not feel lived in. No discoverability of accidentally stumbling across something that takes you on a side activity. Graphics looked last gen and although this is the least important thing to me, it's still frustrating when the competition does it so well. And the story felt tacked on and uninteresting.

If this didn't involve MC/Halo it would universally get ignored or criticized. Destiny has better gunplay and feeling, Far Cry 6 had better FOBs and discoverability (and story) — and that was ignored! I feel this was an opportunity wasted.

I'm way off compared to most of the community here, and that's fine. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I just want better for the flagship game. It had the potential to be epic. Certainly there were a few moments with the music, but it didn't feel very epic overall.

@mousieone I agree to an extent. It seems like it happens more with Microsoft than Sony or Nintendo. You may be right about early announcements. It also could be more that they have had big announcements canceled, so now we look harder at them.

I just want to them to pump out good games when they are ready and without six or more years in a development cycle. But that's just me being greedy for good games.

Why does it seem Xbox has more of these than other developers? What is going on with studio management? It's disappointing to have things like this happen repeatedly.

Free incomplete game with $20 cosmetics, sounds like this is our new future.

Campaign was such a disappointment, the thought that even a minute of work went into these microtransactions, verses one other biome for the sandbox, a place to use vehicles, hallways that don't look the same, story, etc., is insane.

Meh. Outside of Starfield, which we don't know much about yet, I'm not excited about much. Hopefully there will be some surprise announcements.

I agree with @themightyant . I will also add that the store value is controlled by microsoft, to an extent. I see this on PlayStation where they have a mediocre PS+ month but say it's $100+ value because they jacked up the sale value.

Still, I love GamePass. I keep thinking they will pull the rug out from under us to go from sustainable to profitable. I wonder if/when that day will come.

This is disappointing. The CCP's control over content is alarming and industry consolidation, especially in the CCP's hands, is dangerous for creative freedom.

https://tfiglobalnews.com/2021/11/26/ccp-cancels-tencent/

https://www.visiontimes.com/2021/07/30/how-the-chinese-government-controls-tencent-the-seventh-largest-company-in-the-world.html

@UltimateOtaku91 AC Valhalla and Persona 5 . . . two amazing games, but they took some time.

I like that it's a shorter game. I don't need to spend 10-15 hours of my life doing padding so they can claim it's a 15-20 hours long game. Hopefully all those calling PS games DLC when they are 10 hours long remain consistent

Looked great, but what about the gameplay? I hope they have more than scripted sequences and minimalistic gameplay.

Ratchet and Psychonauts likely split the vote, robbing both great games from some well-deserved praise.

No date on Hellblade and the combat looking basic were two disappointments. But it looked pretty, so that was neat.

No date? Gameplay looked good but I was not a fan of the gameplay/combat in the first. Hopefully they have added more nuance in.

We should expect better.

Wait, 8-10 hours, I thought that was considered DLC nowadays

Excited to play and happy it's not 30+ hours of filler.

Strange poll as we can’t play the flagship game. Guess we have to take the critics at their word.

I gave them a B. Solid year, but not what I’d expect from an A year. I feel Sony had a better first half, Microsoft a better second half. I wouldn’t grade either an A.

Graphics and story seem to be the main negatives. Story is my concern, as that's the main point of campaign — driving the story forward in interesting ways. I'll judge for myself this week.

Anything good this month besides StarDew? I've already played that, XIII-2 doesn't excite me as XIII was the only FF I couldn't finish, and the others are unknown to me.

@BlueOcean Thanks! Did you mean guide as in one exists and I should find it or should, as in they really should do this?

I know this is a big ask, but it seems lots of games have a six month or one year limit on Gamepass. I'd love to see a prediction list of those that have been on a while and may leave. All too often I see a game I wanted to play on the list but it's a 20+ hour game and I have a week to burn through it.

I guess I just need to get on to playing some in my back-catalog, but I lack the motivation at the moment.

Seems like a lot of free weekends. I get that the game will be FTP at launch, but is this killing the hype or increasing it? Curious for those out there who have played it a bunch.

Any word on single player? We are seven weeks from launch.

@InterceptorAlpha Sorry to hear that bud. PC you can play when the servers are down. The fact it's not the same on consoles is bad. Come to PC and we can play!

@Balta666 no.

Edit: Apparently no on PC, yes on Xbox.

I have been playing more than I'll admit in writing. Awesome game. The last four or five days they have had server issues for a few hours in the morning. But hopefully that gets resolved.

If anyone wants to play, I play on PC. Let me know!

The idea of a well balanced game with an appropriate grind offering EXP boosters is fine to me. But I don't trust companies to not make the game harder, more of a grind, and a slog to incentivize players to pay money.

I'm getting the feeling the single player will be a bit of a mess. Why continue to hide it.

I'm loving it. Servers are down for 30 min right now, but got in right at launch for an hour. Now to find people to play with

@Fiendish-Beaver I feel you. I'm on PC and I'm not sure how I wil be playing this time around. Solo but online for trading, running with groups, or Ladder for a little and then back to Pluggy. Not sure.

Good luck!

@Fiendish-Beaver If you're playing on PC and need someone to run with, I'll be on from now until the Re-Re-Master comes out in 20 years.

@RedShirtRod That would be interesting. Given my default acquisition bad stance, I'd have to think about it more. It would set up a Sony/Epic vs. Microsoft/Steam fight, even though Sony only owns 5% of Epic.

Interesting if true.

Why? 20+ studios, if managed correct is plenty of games. Why buy more studios to further silo the market? Plus eventually you will face more and more regulatory scrutiny. I'd like to see Microsoft focus on delivering with their current studios.

@OliverOwen That would be my strategy, but I hang with the wife. Though I did get her into reading — sucker — which has increased my gaming the last week or so.

@OliverOwen I feel your pain. I am lucky to get a few hours in a week or two. I use to play several a day.

@OliverOwen I'm in the same boat Oliver. A few D2 guys/gals, but no one who dabbles in other things. We need a PureXbox group. Based on your profile pic our 30 min of game time a week might line up. My seven month old likes to swat the controller in my hand

I wish everyone could enjoy the game. I'm pumped to play when mine gets here this weekend. Hopefully exclusivity is only six months.

Any hidden gems in here? I am not familiar with any of the games.

Huge miss for them. They had a great first game that was helped by a dead January release. Now they will be lost in the noise of all the releases in Feb/March. Unfortunate. This game has been in a development quagmire for a long time.

@LtSarge I am one of those who is tired of seeing Death Loop. Looks great, I'll be playing it this weekend. However, it feels like I've seen two hours of previews/gameplay at this point. I was sold long ago and I haven't seen anything new to sell me on it in a long time.

PlayStation has a bunch of studios that should be ready to say something, so when you have a 40 min presentation and five minutes are taken up by a game we've already seen ten times--it gets frustrating.

I can't speak for everyone, but many wish that time had been taken by Factions, Bend, SantaMonica's other project, the newly acquired Firesprite, BluePoint's rumored acquisition and remaking of Metal Gear Sold, etc.

@Hellosmoothskin I agree with the others but also you. These gets by Sony are huge. They will sell consoles and millions of units.

But Xbox doesn't need to watch Sony and copy. They have their own plan and diverse lineup. Similarly, Sony does not need to copy Xbox and have a Halo, Gamepass, and Gears. Let the companies push each other but also be their own unique ecosystem.

Screen shots don’t look great, but it’s early. I feel bad for the devs, this is not how they wanted to show the game off.

Lots of fanboy arguments here. I hate that KOTOR is exclusive, even if for 6/12 months. FF7R too — such an amazing game. I don't like exclusives for gamers, but the companies have to sell their box/brand so I understand it.

@WallyWest yeah it was getting pretty rough in here. My comment was in jest

Have a good night!

@WallyWest Polyphony Digital would like a word

Edit: You deleted your comment! Not fair. Have a good day.

Lots of fanboy'ing in this thread. The acquisition seems like a good fit for Sony and PSVR2, but industry consolidation is still concerning to me — regardless of who does it. I wonder if this was done because of a great opportunity, or because Sony had cash that would be losing 5-7% value year-over-year if they held out.