JayJ

The FTC has truly sunken to the lowest that organization has ever been.

New controller is the only exciting thing here, hopefully we finally get the Elite 3.

@ZYDIO Sounds like GTA3, VC, and SA lol, those games really didn't hold back when it came to the dirty gritty depiction of big cities. They also didn't hold back when it came to political incorrectness, they seemed to take pride in their ability to push boundaries and offend the up-tight and overly sensitive.

Now a days it's like I totally relate to your fear, because I have seen so many once great names watered down and turned into politically correct garbage. I mean just look at how the latest Saints Row turned out, I downloaded it on PS+ and I could only get through the into before I deleted it, the whole thing was just so awful, toned down, and playing so hard to appeal to political correctness in a game where that sort of direction seems to be completely at odds with what it wants you to be doing.

Honestly, this is why I have been rapidly losing interest in keeping up with the gaming industry these days. There is just enough out there to still keep me interested, but it feels like I have been clinging on for a while now and ready to move on with my life. So many new games just aren't what gaming used to be, the whole hobby feels like the Fisher Price version of the scene I used to know. It's pretty much impossible for me to get hyped up for or interested in any new entries in franchises that I used to love. Sort of the same way I feel about a lot of new movies as well, entertainment just isn't what it used to be.

@ZYDIO Yeah that's another thing really, I have a hard time seeing today's Rockstar having the same edge they had. Heck even GTAV and IV felt notably toned down from the 3-SA games, and they came out when people were far less sensitive to everything.

I am not hyped for GTA6 to be honest, simply because today's Rockstar isn't the Rockstar I knew and loved. I have seen this happen to many times by now, beloved developers growing and growing, key members leaving, and them just not being what they used to be.

This shouldn't surprise anyone.

@Pusher2021 Yeah I don't get how they couldn't get proper working mirrors in this game. I could maybe understand the limitations they had last-gen, but when working with consoles like the Series X and PS5, it feels like there is no excuse for that.

I agree about the boats and planes being out of place, but honestly, this feels like what The Crew 2 was trying to be. I always preferred the first Crew over the second, but this could fix my complaints. That said I am in no rush to get into it.

Beacon pines is a great little game if you haven't played it. Highly recommended.

@theduckofdeath Sounds like a good reason to have a concept known as difficulty options, kinda funny how some people seem to forget how that has been a thing that many video games have offered for a very long time.

Sorry if that came off as condescending, but it blows my mind how I see this aggressive push for some hardcore "one size fits all" approach to difficulty, as if everyone should have the same desires for the same reasons.

Gaming should be for everyone, not just the people who demand the most hardcore experience. Heck you can even apply this towards people who want the most hardcore experience, look at how some people are complaining about how bosses got nerfed in an Armored Core 6 update. If they had difficulty options those people could have simply selected the hardest option and they would be fine, but thanks to the one size fits all approach they are now upset.

@theduckofdeath Funny, as I grew older and more experienced I lost favor for games like this. I think I was the most into "hardcore" gaming in my teenage years and early 20's. Now that I'm older I don't really want to deal with that most of the time, hardcore games are a young man's game.

Sounds like both Microsoft and Sony are going to drop all support for Unity games on their platforms as they won't want to be charged for every download on their services (PS+ Gamepass). That will be a MASSIVE blow to Unity, them literally losing out on the two biggest platforms. All they will have remaining is Switch, PC, and mobile, where they will be experiencing a developer exodus.

Expect Unity to go bankrupt in the next year or two.

It's hard for me to game as much as I would like these days, been pretty busy lately. No doubt I have more great games than I have time to play them these days.

@OldGamer999 Whenever I see souls-like, I just assume it's going to suffer from the complaints you acknowledged. I think you have to enjoy being punished in order to really enjoy these games. Excessive difficulty and unfair bosses comes with the territory.

@GeeEssEff These souls-like games are usually a favorite among video games journalists for some reason. Nothing about this impressed me really, but then again I am not a fan of the genre.

Well this is kinda boring, just a plain color, nothing you couldn't do on design labs.

The best racing game on Series X? Sure. The best racing sim right now? Doubtful.

Glad I can play a trial of The Crew Motorfest, I loved the first game but was a bit disappointed by it's sequel. Hopefully this is more of a return to form or simply something I can get into.

@Vipor007 I never stopped playing this, I simply take breaks from time to time. There is nothing else quite like it on the market really, I mean there's a few other open world driving games but Forza is by far the best at what it does right now.

This new island concept sounds fun and interesting to me, something it needed for the creative track/location design aspect.

$150? You can buy a collection of old broken 360's for that lol.

@GuyinPA75 Yeah seeing the Japan tracks from Forza 4 would be incredible for this game. It's what they really need IMO, something to make it standout.

This is why I don't even bother with online multiplayer anymore, and if I do use online multiplayer why I won't be using any voice chat.

It's sad, because online gaming used to be fun with a sense of community, but that's been lost ever since dedicated lobbies went away. This is basically the final nail in the communications coffin, absolutely no point in risking suspension by using voice chat. It's not even a "well don't say profane things" situation, because all you have to do is get frustrated and react apparently.

It's like when I play video games I just want to relax, not walk on eggshells worried I might get my account banned for some asinine reason, that's the opposite of relaxing. I can't help feeling like too many people these days are just way too uptight about everything on the internet these days. It's like they want every online space to be squeaky clean enough for toddlers, ignoring how adults like to play games too, and how adults playing mature games shouldn't be held to the same standards as children playing a child's game. It feels like Microsoft is trying to play mother-hen with all of us.

Heck I remember how Nintendo's Miiverse for the Wii U quickly became a failure due to over-moderation of the community. It was so bad you could get banned for making a fart joke in a game with fart jokes. Eventually everyone got tired of getting banned/suspended for stupid reasons and simply stopped using it, which led to it's quick demise because the only thing anybody could share anymore was sketch drawings of Nintendo characters.

@IronMan30 Based on the feedback I have been reading over from people who bought the game, this is basically Dark Souls with mechs in the sense where it plays a lot like a Souls title and is as difficult as them as well.

@GunValkyria Yeah they used to make these special edition consoles for the public, now it's like they just make nothing but these contest specials.

I was going to get Armored Core but the feedback came in with everyone complaining about ludicrous difficulty so I am just going to pass on that, a real shame because I love mech themes but I simply have no interest in games with punishing difficulty and no accessibility options.

So I guess I'll just be playing some GT7 and FH5 until Starfield drops. I also wanted to check out Everspace 2 and beat Tinykin before it's removed from Gamepass.

Looks like this one is going to have more of a focus on SUV's.

Still waiting on feedback for this one.

I think I'll just stick to playing MGS1 and VR Missions on my PS3. I'm fine with the old MGS HD collection for 360.

Cool I guess if you happen to be a big Buffalo Bills fan.

@sixrings Problem is there is already a COD and it is still super popular. Trying to do the same thing as something that is already popular with a maga-franchise is not a good idea for media. I mean what makes you think this will be able to compete directly with COD and pull it's audience away? I think this would have a far better chance trying to carve out it's own niche.

CrossfireX is a good example of what happens when a game tries too hard to chase after the COD audience.

Cool, I'll see how it is whenever it hits Gamepass.

These things are meant to be bought on sale.

End of an era but I am not surprised seeing how the Wii, Wii U, and 3DS stores shut down. It's actually amazing how the 360's online store has lasted this long.

Can't say I am really effected by this, I have long stopped buying stuff there, mostly because I was always really into the Xbox One and the backwards compatibility there really replaced it.

@NEStalgia Yeah all pretty spot on, it's scary times we're living in, that's for sure. Crazy how gaming seemed to have become such a part of all this, simply because it's a big popular media format centered around a younger audience. It's like the 2010's, the last decade essentially, was this era where everything got taken over and consolidated by large mega-corporate multi-nationals who basically own everything or manage to have controlling interest in most things around us.

Then there's how you can connect this to basically every noteworthy authoritarian movement of the 20'th century, showing how it was basically something that has been slowly building that recently exploded thanks to how easily today's mega-media and internet could be controlled by big money interests. Almost like the world has been headed towards some form of multi-national corporatism, at least that seems to be the goal.

I guess the worst thing about all this is simply how it effects all the regular people, like us, who just wanted to live their lives and enjoy the kind of entertainment they like. While we can still do that I suppose, it's not something you can really do anymore while trying to be a part of the current scene. You more of less need to delve into more enthusiast and retro based scenes, because so much in the way of modern offerings just aren't appealing anymore.

Weird thing is, despite how it seems like nobody really likes or is satisfied with this stuff, there has never been more mass consumption of what is out there. I can't help feeling like standards keep getting lower and lower to the point where public/media praise just doesn't really mean anything to me anymore. It's like I'm simply getting to this point where I just really don't care about what the latest things are because so little of it manages to really appeal to me, like they are always figuring out some way to ruin everything.

@NEStalgia Yeah, well said, and you're really extending this conversation well beyond gaming right now. These are all things I have watched slowly develop as a millennial who was initially raised with "web 1.0" in the old age of the internet when corporations had a small presence and everyone was into a rebellious freedom of expression and information approach.

Well over the years, especially in the 2010's, I have watched the internet go from that to today's mega-platform corporate-centric "web 2.0" where only the approved expressions are allowed with information tightly controlled by big shadowy authority figures who seem to be tied in with big corporations and big government.

I think smartphones are really to blame, because they are basically the reason web 2.0 is a thing to begin with. It's all about the app effect, everyone started using apps for everything on smartphones, and it has resulted in these apps essentially replacing websites, which allowed them to grow into big corporate interests that can be easily controlled.

Then you have social media, and all of the effects that has had. That's another elephant in the room, the way it has become controlled by the same shadowy authority that seems to censor everything else these days. The result is today's social phenomenon being largely engineered by big interests, be it corporate or government.

So when we try to evaluate what is going on with the latest generation of young adults, they're basically hooked on this little world that has been created for them. When we try to evaluate what is going on with the markets, it's all connected to this little world as well. Basically, it's almost like web 2.0 has morphed into a "matrix" like situation where everyone is plugged into it and being controlled without their knowledge.

@NEStalgia Yeah it seems like there is an increasing divide between the zoomer generation that grew up with mobile phone gaming and older generations that grew up with consoles and PC's being the only real gaming options like millennials and gen xers. The zoomers seem to have far less of a problem with this sort of thing, but then again what they seem to flock to is very fad based, like everyone is playing this one game then they all move on to the next, but Fortnite has probably been one of their primary go-to games that has influenced most of the industry lately.

I guess this just makes it easier for the gaming industry giants to chase after mobile market inspired tactics and trends. If they aren't trying to cash in on the competitive gaming "whales," they're trying to cash in on the online marketplace zoomers. Makes me wonder what the long term effects are going to be, and how this might destabilize console markets.

So yet another "how do you do fellow teenagers" - the video game. Something copying popular trends with no originality. I can't imagine this becoming popular in a sea of games that look and play a lot like this.

Wow, the bump to 1000 tuning slots is a huge deal for me, the old limit was hugely imposing to me as a tuner that shares a lot of tunes. Now I can upload all of the tunes I have had to keep to myself.

@robe Yeah it's odd how some people will aggressively defend every anti-consumer decision some big corporation makes. It's like they're being paid to defend these decisions or something.

@BAMozzy Yup, been saying that for years.

Plus, it's kinda funny how they're charging $150 for a $10 downloadable game just to have a bunch of junk thrown in.

@GuyinPA75 Good example there of how e-enforcement is often unfair and ineffective. It's simply way too selective, too much bad behavior goes ignored only for some people to get singled out for no good reason when you take a look at all of the behavior that goes unpunished.

@NEStalgia Funny you bring up the early arcade era, because there is a good reason why arcades eventually failed for the most part in most parts of the world. The corporate suits eventually got too greedy and made everything such a ripoff to where most people eventually lost interest.

Like I remember in the 90's, arcades were where you would find all the latest bleeding-tech gaming, it's where you would find sophisticated new 3D graphics and control methods well before they would appear on home consoles. Thing is home consoles eventually really took off, especially the PS1 because it managed to largely capture the kind of gaming and advancements that arcades could offer with a far more friendly approach. Heck that is basically how buying home consoles and games became justified, you could get the same great games you would be playing in the arcades but without all the ripoff monetization meant to continuously extract money out of you, you just had to buy the console and the game and that was it.

So now it's like everything has finally gone full circle, with home console makers embracing the kind of tactics that has driven so many people away from gaming in the past. I guess they are hoping to have a casino sort of success with it, getting some loyal players who just continuously pump money into the games as their go-to thing.

This does all make me wonder though about the future of gaming right now. It seems like Nintendo is the only major platform not doing this and sticking to a more traditional approach, and we are far from the only people I have seen talking about how this has been turning them off.

@Snake_V5 When it comes to authoritarian measures and the people in charge of them, it's very rare to see much in the way of fairness or justice. It's usually a judge jury and executioner approach, just slapping you with a violation and never bothering to look into it enough to overturn it.

This can become especially problematic when action is taken quickly and unfairly with little consideration for if a violation claim is legitimate. Honestly, this whole approach just feel like they're trying to make you walk around on eggshells for a questionable benefit at best.

@RetroMan71 Yup, that was all very shady and it's why the critic vs user score became so polarizing. Sadly these kind of manipulative tactics have apparently become an industry standard, especially so when a game goes live service.

It's like I didn't really mind when companies like EA, 2K, and Activision were doing stuff like that, because I expect them to be shady and manipulative, but I really expected better from companies like Sony and Microsoft, so it's sad to see 1'st party go down this road.

@NEStalgia Yeah well I think that's what happens when video games become a "service." It goes from being a game that I play my way to a game I am forced to play THEIR way. They always intentionally make these games as grindy as possible because it's all about maximizing the amount of time people put into a game and influencing micro-transactions to speed things along.

It's like when games go live service, they go from being entertainment centered around a developers or audiences passion and interest to something that merely pushes the interest of corporate executives and investors.

So it's no wonder we're finding ourselves no longer interest in games like this, because it's simply not the kind of gaming that we grew up with. This is a lot more like casino gaming, it's just predatory and centered around people trying to make more money and keeping people hooked like they're working a slot machine.

@Moonglow I think that's why so many old games seem to age so well compared to more modern games. They were focused on what mattered and didn't depend upon visual fluff.

@shoeses This feeling seems to be prevalent all over the gaming industry these days, and it's far from being limited to the Xbox community, other communities are just as bad if not worse when it comes to that. Features are going away while they try to find new ways to force you to play the game the way THEY want you to as opposed to, you know, you just doing what you want because it's supposed to be entertainment.

It's like they have gotten so caught up on trying to cash in on current trends and schemes that they have completely forgotten about why so many people play video games in the first place. The people defending it these days are usually just the people who are the most sucked into it, and the most dependent upon it. Sort of like how you will see "whales" defending predatory micro-transactions.

@JakobU It's funny how the more I hear about this new Forza Motorsport, the more I am turned off by it.

Biggest problem I have right now is how they are trying to do so much to be more like Gran Turismo, that I would rather just continue playing Gran Turismo 7. I originally loved Forza for what it did differently from GT, but now it's like I only have the time and interest for one live-service racing simulator, and I haven't seen anything that convinces me this game is worth getting into.

They are going to have to prove how they have better simulation and physics if this is the direction they are going in.

2009's MW2 besting 2022's MW2, as it should.

@PartyMarty Yeah if IGN is critical of a game it's probably great, and if they think a game is great I'm probably going to be critical of it.