I recently showed a 60-something year old relative the two GTA6 trailers, while explaining my looking forward to trailer 3 and the game’s launch.
They remembered me playing Vice City back in the early 00s, so we watched its first two trailers also and let me tell you - for all of modern gaming’s faults - marketing has gotten a lot better in the intervening years.
You’re right, we tend to distill value per dollar - but that’s a 2-dimensional equation: games can either be longer but more expensive - or shorter and cheaper.
As an extreme example, I have gotten so much value out of games like Minecraft and Vampire Survivors that my cost-per-hour played is in single-digit cents. Neither is pretty (graphically), and both were very cheap early-access titles when I bought them.
Comparatively, I can’t think of any recent AAA releases have had anywhere near the level of replayability of indie passion projects.
Bit of a tangent, but I personally think the gaming experience peaked in the PS3/X360 era - and the industry has been largely treading water ever since. Nothing that’s come out over the last two console generations couldn’t have been done on those earlier platforms (albeit with lower graphical fidelity).
How would you rank Max Payne 2 in that comparison? It was more fun (subjective), prettier (objective), but shorter (from memory).
Legitimately, SR4 was my introduction to the series and I absolutely adored the shit out of it.
If you haven’t checked it out yet - The Gat Out of Hell expansion had a very similar super-powered play-style.
It’s weird that I’m actively rooting for China to do it’s thing and begin to rapidly pump out cheap memory modules in such high volumes that they are able to over-satiate demand and put a downward pressure on pricing.
Before anyone tries to accuse me of copium or some other affliction, I would like to remind you that this is EXACTLY China’s modus operandi for the past 20-something years.
Both Samsung & SK Hynix were just in the news for issuing their DRAM division staff annual bonuses of well over $300K USD from a 10-15% pool of operating profits. The margins are there for China to squeeze once their manufacturing capability catches up - and it’s catching up very quickly.
The only thing preventing a re-release of any of these “EA Trax” era titles is that they’re not willing to pay to renew those licenses.
加油 !
I know how you feel, I have similar regrets about Psygnosis the PS1 era - so many games that meant so much to me growing up, that I we couldn’t afford to buy. Most I either got to experience through demo discs, renting, or piracy.
But it’s OK - they might not exist as a company anymore. But their former employees still do, their art continues to live on, and you now own a piece of it yourself.
Master System 2
Super Nintendo
Game Boy
PlayStation
PlayStation 2
GameBoy Advance SP
PlayStation Portable
PlayStation 3
New 3DS
Steam Deck
I honestly think the 3DS was probably the most disappointing; I bought it on a whim 2nd hand from EB Games along with a copy of a Pokémon game (I don’t remember which). Mechanics hadn’t evolved much since Pokémon Blue, and the experience was kinda “meh” overall.
I also dabbled with a few other games, but nothing gripped me. The only saving grace for that console was that it rapidly appreciated in value since my purchase (like 5x?) due to the relative rarity of that particular colorway.
I was in primary school when the Game Gear was a thing, so my memory was foggy - but the adapter was definitely a thing:
I think one saving grace for the Game Gear was that you could also play Master System games using an adapter, if I remember correctly?
Costs can widely vary, but if you know someone locally who can buy and ship it for you - you’re only out of pocket the cost of the unit ($440), shipping ($20-30?), and GST if customs flags you (~$45).
Still a lot better overall than $700inc locally - but you will be stuck with a JP language only model and any other restrictions that come with it.
僕はウィーバーです!
$700 AUD is about equivalent, given its $449 USD (before sales tax, their version of the GST).
449 x $1.38 ForEx ~$620. +10% GST = $682.
The only way you could get it for a better price would be to buy it directly from Japan, where it’s only ~¥49,980 ($440 AUD).
It become a bit of a parody of itself from the 3rd expansion onwards when they fully embraced pop culture references, but the first 6 years (up to the end of the Wrath of the Lich King expansion) it was literally everywhere (have you seen all of all of those celebrity commercials?).
It was a perfectly cromulent game as a single player - though nothing special. The real magic was playing with anywhere from 19-39 other people to co-ordinate through massive dungeons and kill the various end bosses.
For millions of people at one time or another, it was their primary way of socialising - and that was probably the most addictive aspect.
Well and truly over 10K hours in World of Warcraft, and I last played until midway through Shadowlands.
But I was also playing it pretty consistently since the two week open beta before it first launched - so yeah.
Aliens, Terminator 2, The Dark Knight are the first three that come to mind - but yes, in general sequels tend to be inferior.
World of Warcraft, but predominantly as a persistent single-player world where you can invite players in (ala. Diablo 2).
I love the world building of Azeroth (even the bow out-dated, throw-away, pop-culture additions); just wish I could play and experience it all at my pace - family life currently precludes me from being able to invest sufficient time to play an MMO.
Can they just fucking not?
We have to persevere with US corporations remaining completely and totally unregulated for the next 2.5 years at least - but we should resist any more enshittification for as long as possible - until someone _competent _ like Lina Khan can resume control of the FTC.
Didn’t think I played that, until I Googled some screenshots and it flooded me with unblocked* memories!
That was from a time when my parents would let me rent a new game from Blockbuster or a Video Ezy once a month or so, to supplement the 1-2 new games I would otherwise get per year.
I ended up playing a lot more than just the handful I remember owning - Bonanza Bros. being the most notable.
Rockstar Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was established in December 1998 as a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive.
Take-Two is already on the list, and also covers 2K and Zynga.