General Game Chat

[Moonface]

Yeah, until they reinstate the sales for those people in the 170 countries that do not support the PSN, I won't consider this a true walkback. They recommended TOS-breaking workarounds when this was still in the pipeline, btw. This whole thing is "we didn't think this one through".

I'm under the impression that Steam were the ones to remove Helldivers 2 from sale in those affected countries. As for recommending people break ToS, Sony already encourage that by selling PlayStation consoles in those countries that lack PSN which forces people there to either have no account or make one that is set to a different region. If Sony sells their systems in a region, that region should have PSN with no excuses, especially if Sony have the gall to be selling PS5 Digital consoles in those regions.

If nothing else, I'm glad so many people realized the fault wasn't so much with Arrowhead but with Sony and went after Sony accordingly. Too often the developers are the ones thrown under the bus for stupid shit the publisher decides on. PSN should have been optional with rewards for people who do connect their accounts as an incentive, that way nobody gets shut out in regions without PSN and those with PSN access aren't forced to get an account.

It's like recently there was a game that has a physical art book that if you get a copy for PlayStation, the artbook is censored but the Switch copy does not come with a censored artbook. There's no good reason for doing that either and if you're censoring stuff that Nintendo isn't then you're definitely doing something wrong. All this stuff just tells me that even with Jim Ryan out the door Sony still have their heads shoved firmly up their own arses from overconfidence due to the PS4.

[Moonface]

Microsoft Closes Multiple Bethesda Studios
Microsoft has closed a number of Bethesda studios, with Matt Booty, head of Xbox Game Studios, saying the "changes are grounded in prioritizing high-impact titles and further investing in Bethesda’s portfolio of blockbuster games and beloved worlds which you have nurtured over many decades."

Matt Booty also shared what will happen to each studio, its games, and employees, in regards to its closure:

• Arkane Austin – This studio will close with some members of the team joining other studios to work on projects across Bethesda. Arkane Austin has a history of making impactful and innovative games and it is a pedigree that everyone should be proud of. Redfall’s previous update will be its last as we end all development on the game. The game and its servers will remain online for players to enjoy and we will provide make-good offers to players who purchased the Hero DLC.
  
  
• Alpha Dog Studios – This studio will also close. We appreciate the team’s creativity in bringing Doom to new players. Mighty Doom will be sunset on August 7 and we will be turning off the ability for players to make any purchases in the game.
  
  
• Tango Gameworks – Tango Gameworks will also close. We are thankful for their contributions to Bethesda and players around the world. Hi-Fi Rush will continue to be available to players on the platforms it is today.
  
  
• Roundhouse Games – The team at Roundhouse Games will be joining ZeniMax Online Studios (ZOS). Roundhouse has played a key role in many of our recent game launches and bringing them into ZOS to work on The Elder Scrolls Online will mean we can do even more to grow the world that millions of players call home.
  

Furthermore, a small number of roles across select Bethesda publishing and corporate teams will also be eliminated. All of these closures and changes are made with the expectation "that we can invest more deeply in our portfolio of games and new IP."

Microsoft also announced layoffs for 1900 staff from its video game work force just over three months ago.

Source: IGN

UPDATE!
Xbox is apparently planning more studio closures and layoffs, according to a new report: Bloomberg | Microsoft’s Xbox Is Planning More Cuts After Studio Closings

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Arkane Austin doesn't surprise me, but to see Tango go under after they shadow dropped one of the sleeper hit games of last year is ridiculous. All that says to me is it doesn't matter if you make a great game if it's doomed to generate no independent revenue by being mostly consumed through Game Pass.

Edit: Wow, and now they're possibly going to do even more cuts. If this is because of the money spent on buying Activision Blizzard, the deal should have never been allowed to happen. I also saw someone point out on Twitter that Xbox have shut down more studios this year than they've released games, which is just sad.

[Moonface]

I had no clue this was being made, but I saw that someone made a level builder for Mario 64 and it looks so cool!



I love how easy it seems to be to just put a level together even though it's 3D, and I'm a little tempted to try making something in it but I know nothing about Mario 64's mechanics whatsoever.

[Moonface]

Yooka-Replaylee! | Reveal Trailer
Yooka-Replaylee is a remaster of Yooka-Laylee that brings a whole host of improvements to make this the definitive way to (re)play(lee), including a new camera, improved controls, ability tweaks, remixed and new challenges, modernised visuals and more! 

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Unexpected thing to see since I feel like once this game came out originally it just fell out of discussions because of the dated problems it had. I remember we had a thread for this game on the old board though so I figured maybe some folks here will be interested to learn about this, especially as it'll probably get lost amongst all the Summer Game Fest news that starts tomorrow. Hopefully this remaster can fix whatever issues the original game had though.

[Moonface]

I just learned that TrueAchievements runs a yearly event called Leap Year Frog, and while I can't comment on how previous years were the 2024 event is nuts.

Basically, you have to earn one achievement in a game in 24 hours, but then the next day you have to play a different game and add another different game and earn an achievement in each of those. So the days would go like this:

1. 1 game, 1 achievement
   
2. 2 games, 2 achievements
   
3. 3 games, 3 achievements
   

You get the idea.

It started with 2805 entrants, and is currently down to 4. However, today is day 151, which means yesterday those four people had to play 150 games that they didn't play in any of the 149 days beforehand, and earn an achievement in each of them. I'm sure now you can see just how ridiculous this whole thing has gotten.

Here's the page with live updates of the event for anyone who might want to see how long these four people can last: https://www.trueachievements.com/event/l...-frog-2024

[Maniakkid25]

That is a "Nope" kind of challenge to me. Like, you need to structure a year around that just to be able to complete that, with games planned out in advance to be played in order to get this done. That just sounds like an anurysm waiting to happen, to be honest.

[Moonface]

That is a "Nope" kind of challenge to me. Like, you need to structure a year around that just to be able to complete that, with games planned out in advance to be played in order to get this done. That just sounds like an aneurysm waiting to happen, to be honest.

What gets me is the prize is only for a TrueAchievements Pro subscription for the number of days the winner survives for. If my math is correct, today is Day 158 so the prize isn't even for 6 months of that subscription yet, and the yearly cost of that subscription is only $30. That's a ridiculous amount of work and commitment to get what will likely be less than $30, and anyone who doesn't come first just gets nothing whatsoever. The event still has four people competing, and I can't imagine dedicating 5+ months to competing in an event to come out with absolutely nothing, especially when the demand increases significantly with each passing day. Like damn, at least give top three some amount of the Pro subscription and then add on extra prizes for those positions based on how long they last or something.

[ShiraNoMai]

I imagine the true reward is just the feat of doing it at all (and being able to say you did), cuz that actual tangible reward is insanely lame. Though, I'm unsure what kind of reward would actually be satisfactory for doing such an enormous ask. Maybe a winning lotto ticket or something

[Dragon Lord]

It's not as hard as it sounds, really. Since they are doing it on Xbox, they can use lolGamepass to just find a bunch of shovelware games that you can earn at least 10 achievements from in 30- 60 minutes, or find a bunch of games that give you an achievement just for starting them. It's just the typical trophy/achievement hunter method.

Now let's see them make this event getting 100% in games, instead of just individual achievements. I want to see someone 100% 150 games in a single day.

[Maniakkid25]

It's not as hard as it sounds, really. Since they are doing it on Xbox, they can use lolGamepass to just find a bunch of shovelware games that you can earn at least 10 achievements from in 30- 60 minutes, or find a bunch of games that give you an achievement just for starting them. It's just the typical trophy/achievement hunter method.

See, you say that, but the numbers don't add up, here. Xbox Game Pass has only around 400 games on it, and when you actually do the math, you hit that number by day 29. 150 days is literally 11 THOUSAND games when you do the math, so even with Trophy hunting games on Steam, Game Pass, and PSN, you're stretching that rubber band HARD to get those achievements. By any metric, this is an insane thing to do, and an impressive feat.

[Moonface]

To add, only a single achievement from each game counts, so how many easy achievements a single game offers is redundant beyond the first.

Going by this page, there's 42 pages of games with achievements and it totals to 250 entries a page, so that makes for 10,500 games total (however it's somewhere more like 10,250 because page 42 isn't a full page of entries). I tried finding a calculator online to figure out how many days that allows for, and it's somewhere near the 150-160 mark. That challenge on TrueAchievements has ended at 165 days, so either that was the maximum number of games to use or the last person left also finally stopped simply by being the last person left. I doubt it would have had much longer to last though, and the standings chart only goes to Day 167 so my guess is 167 days is the maximum possible. Playing 10000+ games over 165 days for what amounts to $13.50 of a $30 subscription is fucking ridiculous and I don't get why anyone would subject themselves to that much time and money cost (because those games aren't all on Game Pass) for such a paltry reward.

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In other side news, since we currently lack a general Tales of discussion thread, there seems to be strong evidence that Tales of Xillia is being remastered for current consoles. I can't recall if any of the Tales of players here liked that particular game or not but thought I'd mention it for anyone who is a Xillia fan.

[Dragon Lord]

Yeah, I've been hearing about the rumors of the Tales of Xillia remaster (apparently it was leaked in Europe). I'm hoping that if it's true, they'll have Xillia and Xillia 2 bundled together in it like they did for Symphonia and Symphonia 2, wouldn't make much sense not to do it that way again.

Anyways, in the case of just the first Xillia game, it's okay. I'd say it's middle of the pack in the series. Nothing amazing, but it's not bad either. Combat is pretty good, story is okay enough, characters are kind of hit and miss though (but Milla is hot so it's okay). You can't go into it expecting to be one of the series greatest, like Vesperia or Berseria, but at least you're not getting a Symphonia 2 or Graces out of it either.

[Moonface]

The leak I saw had the game listed on what I think was some Singaporean websites, but they were providing some product code in the description that could be entered into some search site that brought up results for Xillia Remastered being registered as that product code by Bandai. I didn't get to check it first-hand unfortunately because the product sites took the listing down. Maybe we'll see it at TGS near the end of September if it turns out to be true?

Also I forget which one, but wasn't there a Tales of game that got remastered but only the first game was actually given the treatment while the sequel got neglected? I saw people worrying Xillia 2 would end up with the same fate but I can't remember the game they were referring to. x.x

[Maniakkid25]

So I never said anything because I'm basically the only one on this platform that's effected by it, but Microsoft shut down the Xbox 360 shop today. This means you can no longer purchase games on your 360. Granted, you can still buy 360 games, but only on later consoles; you're limited to what's left on your purchase history for downloading on a 360. This includes all DLC.

I was hoping that it was going to happen before midnight tonight, but I guess I was wrong. It's... sad, knowing there are hundreds of games with content now just gone to the ether. It sucks.

[Moonface]

I was hoping that it was going to happen before midnight tonight, but I guess I was wrong.

Why did you want it to close before midnight?

It sucks to see yet another online storefront close up shop for good though. At this point, we've lost the following digital game storefronts on these systems:

• Nintendo DS (2017)
  
• Wii (2019)
  
• PSP (2021)
  
• Nintendo 3DS (2023)
  
• Wii U (2023)
  
• Xbox 360 (2024)
  

The only older digital storefronts still up are the PS Vita and PS3, which were supposed to have closed down alongside the PSP but Sony changed their minds, saying those two systems would retain their digital stores for the foreseeable future. I doubt they'll last much longer, especially when Nintendo and Microsoft have removed the ability to buy digital games on everything from the same generations as those two systems. I did for a moment think Xbox One had lost digital store access too but realized at the last second that the Xbox Store was discontinued from the platform and replaced with the Microsoft Store.

I wonder which platform has lost the most digital-only games that can't be purchased anywhere else anymore? (Or at least exclusively on console, since anything that got a PC release will naturally be on a digital store unless it got delisted.)