A second remaster of the first game.

That’s the thing though, they really were never as rabid as Nintendo. Bleem wasn’t the first PS1 emulator, it was just the fact that it was a commercial product that Sony took issue with, honestly understandably so.

There are actually PS1 emulators from the pre-Bleem era that are still available. Sony did nothing to shut those ones down because they were being offered freely.

Piracy is a totally different deal. I’m not delusional, any company that owns an IP is completely within their rights to aggressively stomp piracy at every turn, and I think it’s silly to criticize a company for trying to protect one of their main sources of income (I mean really, do people expect a company to spend billions on a product, then just be okay with the theft of that product?).

That’s not to say I’ve never sailed the high seas, or think it’s objectively wrong to do so no matter what, but I tend to save it for times where I really wouldn’t be able to enjoy the product otherwise (abandonware, or in Nintendo’s case, games they stubbornly lock behind ridiculous paywalls).

What IP does Sony hang its hat on?

Ratchet and Clank, Uncharted, Killzone, Sackboy, inFamous, God of War, The Last of Us, and if you want to go older, SOCOM, Syphon Filter, Spyro, Sly Cooper, I could go on.

I mean, I get what you’re saying, they don’t have something as iconic as Mario, but to say you’re hard pressed I think is a bit of hyperbole. Sony has had a really well rounded line of exclusives for decades. Sure, some are on PC now, but they’re expressly “PlayStation ports” not console ports.

There are other platforms and franchises to mod on

I personally disagree with that attitude. If every consumer went along with that set of ideals, every studio, firm and corporation would be free to jerk us around willy nilly because we’d just move on to the next thing. There are people out there who really don’t care about modding Skyrim, they want to mod BOTW.

I do get the Ubisoft hate, but at the very very least, they don’t shut mods down. There are still mods being actively developed for games like Ghost Recon 1 and Rainbow Six 3.

They can still get all the way fucked for pulling The Crew.

You know what they say; if buying isn’t owning, piracy isn’t stealing.

I’d agree with you, except Sony, another massive Japanese company operating in the same industry as Nintendo, doesn’t lash out this aggressively at their own community that is just desperately trying to enjoy games in their own way.

Sony has left basically all emulation projects alone as well as modding projects like 60FPS patches (there was one emulator that they took to court in the 90s, Bleem, but Bleem was charging money for the emulator. Funnily enough, Bleem won the case and was allowed to continue existing, but the company went under due to the cost of the legal battle) .

Nintendo doesn’t have to act out like this. They actively choose to stifle such products so that they themselves can offer tightly curated versions on their own schedule and at their own price. This isn’t an IP protection strategy, it’s an agressive cornering of their own market.

Especially on PC. Also, people forget that Indie doesn’t necessarily mean “made by a small team/low budget”. It just means it was produced by a studio that isn’t at the behest of some massive corperation/faceless number crunching shareholders. CD Projekt Red is an independant studio, as is Valve.

Also, some games are developed independently by small studios, but then marketed and published by a larger company. Devolver is an example of a publishing house with an excellent track record of just letting the indie dev teams they work with do whatever they want.

True, but a movie like this, if successful, has a much higher potential profit than a small drama. As an actor, why not take a bit of a gamble on a big blockbuster for a potentially massive paycheck?

Me and my sister have a running joke casting for a movie of the Uncharted games, I’m pretty sure Danny DeVito was Sully and Mel Gibson was Elena. I’d rather watch something that stupid than something as uninspired as this.

Watch them announce that Deep Down is coming out this summer.

Yeah… i don’t understand why this is a good move. Sacrificing an element that would noticably improve a core aspect of the games design for the sake of not looking at a picture for a few seconds on startup? Seems completely backwards if you ask me.

You ever look at how much a basic, non-powered, used wheelchair costs?

These high prices come with the fact that by definition, the equipment can be incredibly specialized. Unfortunately this is something most people with any sort of disability are probably completely used to.

The SOCOM and Syphon Filter games are great if you want some shooters.

Ratchet and Clank Size Matters rocks too

Can climb a screen door like nobodys business

This is true. However, even as a young person I remember the times where a game being released meant it was done, and if it was butchered, that was that. There was no second chance for the studio because the community absolutely wouldn’t trust them.

Now, that’s standard. Every AAA game is just assumed to basically be barely functional until 6+ months post launch. People have to say “why would you buy a game day one?” as if it’s a ridiculous notion to want to purchase a product that has been released onto a market. That sucks. It sucks that something that used to be a fun hobby is now a seedy grey market full of vitriole.

Man I’ve got really conflicted feelings about this game. I do think it’s great, and will probably be picking up Phantom Liberty next sale, but I never know whether to appreciate the devs for sticking with it and making sure their work lived up to expectations, or to be frustrated that I basically had to wait a year for a full product after buying for $80 CAD on day one (my own mistake, I foolishly thought CD Project was immune to such blunders). I guess it’s a bit of both. I do really appreciate all the hard work, I just wish that wasn’t on top of a bunch of frustration and disappointment.

I personally really like it. It’s rough around the edges, but IMO it does a good job of bringing back the feel of those old R6 games. Enemy AI is really good and you can customize their skill in a pretty granular manor (cones of vision, reaction times, full auto burst lengths, and much more, rather than just Easy, Medium and Hard). There’s a handful of nice levels each with a few types of missions, really nice weapon and gear customization, very snappy and authentic gunplay.

My biggest gripe is a lack of friendly AI. However, I believe this is planned, so it’s just a matter of time. It’s still a lot of fun lone wolf or co-op

Ground Branch on PC has some of the best I’ve ever seen. NPCs will, for example, if shot in the neck, clutch their throat and dynamically transition into a ragdoll as their animations become more sloppy until they go completely limp. It’s actually kind of unsettling how brutal it is.

What’s sad is that this game is a low budget passion project made by former Rainbow Six devs (the OG R6 games), not a AAA game backed by a massive corperation.

They’ve actually stated within the last year that they are in fact considering moving away from the games industry if certain things dont happen for them. This came out during the whole court proceedings surrounding their attempted Activision buyout.

I can’t remember the details and I’m too lazy to look into it again lol. There are some interesting articles out there tho

Never liked XBox controllers. They feel fat and clunky, especially trying to use the bumpers, I feel like I have to strain my fingers. I also hate the way the sticks feel in general, theres something about the friction curves that’s just… off. Idk how to describe it. Also, no gyroscope. I will praise the triggers on the XBox one controllers though. I like the shape and the amount of travel they have, I think they rock for racing games.

My favourite controller is the Dualshock 4. Haven’t had a chance to try the Dualsense but even that looks a little bloated. The DS4 is lean, has all the features I want, and those thumbsticks are the best I’ve used on a stock controller. You can practically use them like a trackpoint on a laptop, they’re very precise and great for use with a linear response curve in shooters with zero deadzone.