The campaigns are excellent. And, it’s an awesome function to be able to switch between legacy presentation and upgraded for all the games. Particularly of course, Halo 1/2. You’ll love the Halo 2 anniversary stuff. They did such a great job recreating all those cutscenes.

Yes!!!! Was praying they’d go back to it. If done right (multiplayer. Single player is mostly fine), so much game there. Even with all the bugs and issues, still a pretty incredible package currently. Fixing the multiplayer playlists, cleaning up remaining bugs, enhancing it for X1X, I’m back in. Still own my copy…

“but I feel like there’s gotta be a better way to do this”

What you described in the intro paragraph is a prerequisite for me. It’s why I buy so many (and primarily) open world games. I enjoy getting to live in those worlds. GTA IV/V, Red Dead Redemption, Witcher 3 (ironically, playing as I type this), Stardew Valley, etc. I found myself doing a lot of that even in games that…

I’ve personally always been a proponent of games going up in price. Not all. Also, always a proponent of a sliding scale (which, we sort of have now, at least on the digital distribution end of the market). But, clearly there needs to be a higher tier for these mega tentpole games. With how risk averse the major…

You’re a beautiful writer Kirk. This is now two Stardew Valley articles I want to hijack a sentence or two of for my headstone. Touché, sir. As far the concept, wholeheartedly champion ignorance in gaming. Feel like the crowdsourcing that’s come from YouTube/Twitch/Reddit/etc has done as much harm as good. Along with…

I’m open to interpretation. Either way, they definitely lucked out on this product. The information you mentioned doesn’t throw a wrench into what I mentioned because what I mentioned is eluding to the broader way Nintendo does business, which of course goes far beyond these Classic consoles. Because they sell…

The last two years, it’s been a mixed bag or so. Whenever they add new vehicles, I presume it’s too expensive for me to afford (and of course, I’ve rarely been wrong), so I mostly ignore that stuff. Inversely, they’ve done a lot of great things as far as new modes and events (Cunning Stunts races, PubG/Twisted Metal…

The SNES Classic is the equivalent to your average general release Jordan shoe that comes out every weekend. Resellers on average can only sell it for double the price of retail almost exactly (maybe $5-$10 over). Obviously, including shipping costs, not a lot of profit there. Slim margins. And, it makes sense. Even…

Yeah, they added a ‘Limit Drivatar Aggression’ option in 6.

No one ever mentions the user experience when describing the ills of NBA 2K. The Microtransactions suck, and they’ve been handcuffing the RPG progression since 2K13 (If I remember correctly you started as an overall 60/extremely sluggish progression). The biggest problem for me, the transition to this quazi open…

It’s absurd in a vacuum. When you understand the hooks of all this stuff and why society has devolved into this, much less absurd (although certainly still absurd). The constant worship and false gratitude for the military, mostly (if not exclusively) self serving. It’s a way for people to mask the fact that (most)…

You should check out NoClip on YouTube. Danny O’Dwyer (formerly of Gamespot) started a crowdfunded documentary brand (ad free) and channel that spotlight the details of how games were made in a longform professional style. They’ve done Rocket League, Doom, Final Fantasy 14, and Frog Fractions already. Witcher…

I think you’re going to love your Xbox One X, short term and long term. From the perspective she’s coming at it from, Heather isn’t wrong. Not much to be excited about at launch for X1X (especially since you don’t already have Xbox games that would be getting X1X enhancements). However, I think you’re going to be…

I appreciate you sir lol. And yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. I think it’s a safe assumption that the future of console gaming is cross play, full forwards and backwards compatibility for all games and accessories. And, I think that’s great. Particularly for consumers. People will spend so much more money, knowing they…

Yeah, it generally takes awhile (years) for permanent price cuts to digital games. Especially series and sequels. Something to do with not angering retail by undercutting them on price (even for old games), as I understand it. If I’m not mistaken, 2K14/2K15, NBA Live 16,etc just recently got cut to $30 digitally.…

Glad to hear it! Truly. Lucky kid haha. By the way, Microsoft posted this on YouTube earlier. More helpful context for you in it:

Hi. Phone analogy is tricky as the business model for smartphones facilitates a new phone (or at least a 1.5 upgrade) every year. Xbox One X is a significant upgrade over its predecessors (Original Xbox One, and the refreshed variation of it, the Xbox One S). 4-6 times more powerful. It’s technically both an update…

Gen x Millenials (86-96 or something) vs Gen Y (97-06 ish) Millenials. To your point, less about blame (hurled at any generation), more just the realities of competition. The toy market thrived for decades because toys had a monopoly on kids attention, long before Television/cable television/video games were a thing,…

You stole my heart with that last sentence, sir/madame. Touché.