That was an incredible opening for a game! Makes me excited for what is to come from Larian Studios. Also, that persisting rumor that the end image had something to do with Elder Scrolls 6 was put to rest in a very cinematic way, I knew it wasn’t associated with Elder Scrolls 6. Just like Jason Schreier had already indicated in a leak post. Bethesda could never and will never at the moment, nobody with that level of talent is there anymore.

BDobbinsFTW seems pretty dialed into what’s going wrong now and in the past that lead to this outcome. I agree with a lot of what he’s saying because, even as a bystander to the COD scene, I can remember noticing what he was talking about. The gradual enshittification of COD as a franchise. To address the symptoms, the root cause must be dealt with: billionaires and the people that support their stupid schemes that break economic systems.

The original game Styx game is quite janky in my opinion, with random frame drops and finicky character actions. It wasn’t for me, but thank you for the recommendation.

The Thief vibes were stellar in Dishonored, I liked it more than Dishonored 2 to be honest! Dishonored had the right amount of stealthy gameplay, places you could hide easily without too much issue. I succeeded most levels as a ghost or with few kills, solid stealth gameplay!

Exactly, as I don’t expect QA done by something that can’t think or feel to know what actually needs to be fixed. AI is a hallucination engine that just agrees rather than points out issues, in some cases it might call attention to non-issues and let critical bugs slip by. The ethical issues are still significant and play into the reason why I would refuse to buy any more Square Enix games going forward. I don’t trust them to walk this back, they are high on the AI lie. Human made games with humans handling the QA are the only games that I want.

Ew, sounds like a great reason to not buy any Square Enix games…

LOL Good thing I am going to continue my boycott of anything EA, I can’t wait to see how hard this is going to fail.

Software emulation is where I lean, in terms of emulating games on my computer! That is a road that I will travel with older games, at least. Other games can be played via Steam’s Proton Compatibility Layer, my GOG games run fairly well using Heroic Launcher (barring exceptions like Daggerfall). I don’t have a real interest in deeper modding of consoles, it’s not all that appealing in my opinion.

This might be my last time that I do buy a console for this reason; if I can’t audit it, there is no reason to possess it! Getting a new computer with higher specs would last me for many years, and my old PC can be used for a personal NAS.

The EU would be the one to attempt to strong-arm Microsoft at any rate, since they care about their citizens. Making Microsoft create an Office version for Linux, is highly unlikely; as that isn’t in Microsoft’s best interests (despite it being beneficial for consumers). In my case, I can get by using open source software; LibreOffice Writer for general documents and Bibisco for creative writing.

You don’t have to ever fully switch, there is an option to create a dual boot situation; a distro and Windows can coexist on the same machine. Or you could use Windows via a virtual machine when you need Office.

The Snowden revelations are something I forgot about, this is a valid observation that you’ve brought back to the forefront of my mind. It was one of the many times that Microsoft was revealed to be an unscrupulous corporation.

Yikes, whenever Microsoft tries to placate people after getting caught doing shady shit…It always feels like an admission. It makes me happy to be on Linux, I don’t have to worry about this bullshit. Though, I am now side-eyeing my Xbox because if they are doing this on PC, it’s a matter of time before Xbox is infected by their AI garbage.

Hmm, how unsurprising because that is prime malicious attacker bait right there…

I haven’t played in a while, this is piquing my interest again! I love how vast this game is becoming, more major gaming studios need to follow their example when it comes to rehabbing a game that came out initially as the worst version of itself. Still haven’t even gotten to the center of the universe, I might try again as the path is really weird.

I’ve gotten pretty far in the game before having to put it down for a bit, it’s a great game for certain! I do enjoy the level of detail in terms of how NPCs act and respond around Arthur. Red Dead Redemption 2 is certainly a huge step-up in terms of quality from the original game.

I’m not particularly keen for GTA6 as those games tend to be off-putting for me (mechanically and story wise), I also hate driving in games…Unfortunately, GTA tends to involve a lot of driving.

Good, they needed to have sense knocked into their incompetent heads. This was such a big price hike in such an economically uncertain time. Thankfully, consumer outrage was strong enough to convince them to lower it back to a price that I still consider too high. I miss the $60 dollar price tag. 🥲

ROFL Pathetic for the Department Lead to not even check if the slop was correctly generated! This person should’ve been laid off, but, somehow survived the unnecessary layoffs. Just because Microsoft wanted to burn money on AI, risk a lot on something that doesn’t actually generate meaningful profit. Tragic, and I hope it hurts them badly.

I’m not particularly excited about this upcoming dumpster fire…Already took it off my Wishlist.

Microsoft is literally scorching earth in their Xbox Gaming Division…Gotta chase those short term profits, I guess. 😡

More bad news from Xbox, I was hoping they’d cut Phil Spencer lose instead…They need a brand-new lead to make Xbox awesome again. I can’t say that I am surprised, though, as this game has been in dev for 7 years. However, there should’ve been something that could be salvaged and made into a viable game.

Oh no, this game is going to bomb so freaking hard…I can’t wait for the shitstorm that is going to go down over this!