Woderwick

If I try to put a hat on my cat I'm likely to lose most of the skin on my forearm.

@Poodlestargenerica

Same here. The assets and some staff probably got snapped up by a holding company at some point.

I think the guy makes a good point about workers unionising though. I expect there's an existing union they could join.

@Kermit1
Same here. Also, your profile pic is perfect for that comment.

If I had to choose one I think it would be the crab. I've been playing Portal Knights with my son recently and when building you can place blocks up to 25 squares away which makes big builds much easier.
You can also place blocks directly beneath yourself without needing to jump which is something else I think Minecraft could do with.

@tourjeff
Similar story for me. Picked the collection up on a steep discount, finished the first one and thought it was OK, got about halfway through the second one before binning it off.
In 2 I just found the weapons were really annoying. They were trying to make each brand of gun unique but I just found they were all crap in a slightly different way. It got to the point where I just couldn't find anything I liked so I stopped playing.

@samuelvictor
Thanks for the recommendation. I'll check it out next time I'm looking for something to watch.
I watched a film called Turbo Kid a while ago which is very much a love-letter to 80's culture and films. It's cheap and cheerful but it works very well. I've always said that post-apoc films work best on a small budget because the need to do things as cheaply as possible lends itself much better to the whole idea of people having to scratch out a living from whatever they can scavenge and this film is absolutely that. Also, it's funny and pretty touching in places. And features Michael Ironside who I've loved as an actor since Darryl Revok in Scanners.
I was an avid watcher of Alex Cox's Moviedrome when I was probably a bit too young to watch a lot of the stuff he showed but it absolutely opened my eyes to the world of cinema outside of the big glitzy hits. I loved the way he'd sometimes show films he didn't even like that much just to showcase a particular element of it which made it stand out amongst others.

@samuelvictor
Exactly that. I'm so much more forgiving of a film that was made on a smaller budget but is trying for something the creators really wanted to see made. Even if they don't always get it quite right, the fact it's not the same bland pap being turned out by the big studios to appeal to as many people as possible means a lot more to me than a huge SFX budget and a cast of a-listers.
I think my missus is thoroughly fed up of me eschewing the blockbusters she wants to watch and instead suggesting we watch Jonny Mnemonic or Dust Devil or Death Machine or Avengement (crap title, great film).

Admittedly, Jonny Mnemonic does have a great cast, but it was still panned when it came out but I love what the did. Also, I'd happily watch Henry Rollins and Keanu Reeves reading the phonebook.

Kudos to you for flying that flag for real and actually helping those sort of films reach a wider audience.

@samuelvictor
I've got a lot more time for a game made by a small outfit which has heart but is janky than a AAA title with similar levels of jank.
Half my switch library is stuff I've picked up for a couple of quid here and there which is nowhere near as polished as bigger titles but at least tries to do something interesting and is clearly something the dev wants to see exist, even if they don't have the resources/time/skills to polish it to perfection.
For example, I bought a game called Event Horizon, which is basically a cheap and cheerful port of an unfinished mobile game with stock assets. It's perpetually on sale and I got it for less than a quid simply because the entire game is pretty much the Super Melee mode from Star Control 2 which I loved when I was younger. Most people would complain about it being on the eShop in the first place but I love it to bits. More than got my money's worth and I enjoyed it a lot more than I have some very big and very well rated titles that I thought were absolute gash.

@samuelvictor
I loved Gun on the GameCube. Absolutely fantastic game...

...Except for the final end boss, which was a textbook example of how to do it wrong.

This looks, pretty janky. But I have a strange love for jank from smaller outfits so I may check this out if it goes on a decent sale. It doesn't look like 25 quids worth of gunslinging action.

This looks pretty sweet, although I'll wait for a sale. I played Inside and, while I enjoyed it, the storyline could have been a bit stronger. The puzzles were a lot of fun though, and the graphics and feel of the game were excellent.

I'll admit to being a bit disappointed that, despite the title, there's no evidence of Steve Guttenberg being in the game.

When I first saw this I misread the title as Infinity Stramash and was hoping for a Scottish fighting game. Sorely disappointed now.

@Poodlestargenerica

Nah, they're not the same at all, and cookie isn't an American term. It's pretty much only the US which calls all biscuits cookies.

Everywhere else cookie is a specific type of biscuit, as opposed to say a digestive, a rich tea or a custard cream. Or the aforementioned jammie dodgers which are prominent on both images.
And there are no cookies in either image. You think they'd have included at least one.

@Poodlestargenerica

All cookies are biscuits. Not all biscuits are cookies.

Those are all biscuits. Mostly jammie dodgers. I don't see a single cookie on either image. The Japanese one looks like the contents of a Crawford's Family Circle selection box are raining from the sky.

@WaffleRaptor01

Where they'll subsequently be "discovered" by a rogue curator and listed on eBay.

And so the circle of life continues.

@-wc-
Half-life is a stonkingly good shooter. I remember even the opening sequence where you're fully in control of your character felt like a massive thing when I first played it. And the weapon models were so tight it was probably the first shooter I played that didn't feel like an arcade game with prop guns.
I'd also forgotten how much fun TS2 was in split screen multiplayer. Me and my mates poured hours into that. And yeah, the Goldeneye lineage was clearly there but I think TS2 is the better game. The whole thing suited my sense of humour so much more.
The same team did another much underrated game, Second Sight. Totally different atmosphere but decent gameplay and it's one of the few games I've played that I'd consider having a well constructed plot.

@PizzaKing

With a boat race like his he's got every right to complain.

Wait - I'm thinking of a different Joseph Merrick.

I remember having a lot of fun with this back in the day (I think this is the game that introduced "exploding gibs" mode) but it does look awfully dated and I'm not sure if I'd want to play through the entire thing again. I may pick it up on sale at some point though as it does look like it could still be a lot of fun if you're in the right mindset.

@-wc-

Timesplitters 2 (on GameCube) is probably my all-time favourite FPS. TS3 was probably the better game (and definitely had a stronger story mode) but the challenge modes in 2, the massive amount of unlockable characters and the sheer sense of fun hasn't been bettered.

I like to take a bit of a break between "meaty" games, so it's usually something quick and fun where I don't need to invest too much concentration or worry about losing/dying.
It helps to wash away the muscle-memory from something I've devoted a lot of time to.
Stuff like a frenetic driving game or twin-stick shooter are usually good. Failing that, a few frames of snooker on Pure Pool 8 can be a nice low-key distraction.

@-wc-

I think something like Toejam and Earl would be the perfect template for a Cheech & Chong game. Would be a day 1 purchase for me.

Bonus points if whenever you try to open a door you haven't unlocked you hear "You keep knocking but you can't come in."

@HeadPirate
I originally skimmed your response about it being easier to do on consoles and pfahed in my head, thinking up a few reasons as to why that would be technically improbable (and I think they were pretty sound).
And then I read your response more fully. I had precisely zero idea that Unity runtimes were baked into the OS. I can see why it makes sense on several levels for Nintendo and devs who use Unity, but it's still a bit mental to me from a security standpoint. And this sort of situation exactly illustrates why and how it can be exploited. Same as the whole NPM thing. I read a great essay from someone about exactly how open to abuse dynamic runtime libraries are and I really should dig it out again at some point and take a copy of the text.

Digressions aside, eat the rich is a pretty good way to summarise my views.

My favourite philosopher is responsible for one of my favourite quotes ever, which at some point I'll get inked once I've worked out exactly how I want it to look and where I want it to go:

"In a rich man's house there is nowhere to spit but his face."

@SamuelVictor
Tagged you because it's not a direct response to your post but ties in with the conversation. And I enjoy reading your replies.

@Samuelvictor
I think an immediate buyback of shares would be too obvious an example of market manipulation for even these idiots to think they can get away with it but I agree that offloading them just prior to this announcement was a way to insure themselves against the inevitable devaluation and they also get to trouser a nice wedge of cash.

@SabreLevant

I find your stance baffling. You don't have to be directly affected by something to dislike it or have strong opinions on it. I'm not a wheelchair user but I feel strongly that buildings should have ramps and accessible toilets.

@SamuelVictor @HeadPirate

Yeah, I understand stuff like NPM and that software dynamically pulling code at runtime is a thing (a crazy thing, from a security standpoint) but you seem to be talking about PC installations where it likely has a central Unity runtime and this sort of telemetry could potentially be backported. But for games on Switch/Xbox/PS4 I'm pretty sure that's not happening and would contravene the store policies. Otherwise all sorts of stuff could be slipped past their certification checks.

I absolutely cannot be bothered to work out which of my Switch games run on Unity then fire up Wireshark and watch the traffic from the Switch when I launch them though.

I still stick by my original point though, this whole thing is a poison pill, the climbdown is just a pantomime and they're continuing with their original plan, just fiddling with the raw numbers to make it more palatable. Initially.

@-wc-
That made me laugh.

@Bobb

I'm prepared to be proved wrong, but I'm convinced there's no way for them to have forced it on existing games anyway.

If the code for reporting installations to Unity didn't exist previously (and there's no reason to believe it would) then realistically they can't force a published piece of software to include it retroactively.

That part was all theatre to help generate outrage so they could pretend to climb down from a position they could never have enforced in the first place.

So they announced a frankly horrific (and possibly unworkable) new business model, everyone went apeshit, and the response is to stick to the same model but reduce the initial cost of it?

That's pretty much the standard model for a soft rollout of a poison pill. The new model may seem much better in comparison to the initial announcement, but the concept is the same. Essentially it just reduces the headline prices and gives existing games the opportunity to opt out. I'm fairly convinced that from a technical standpoint it would be almost impossible to apply the new policy retroactively to existing games because the Report_Install_To_Unity code doesn't exist in anything that's already released. So the real world effect is that they're still going ahead with this Installs-As-A-Service business model, but they've pretended to sweeten the deal by dropping the amount they're charging.

Once they've got their users onto the new model they can they slowly increase the prices until they match what was initially announced, and for anyone locked in to Unity it'll be too late.

There's also the simple fact that they've invented an entirely new revenue stream that benefits no one except Unity. Installs cost them nothing. Devs don't get any form of better service because of this. Neither do people who install a game.

Unity have basically invented a reason to charge money out of whole cloth, then pretended to climb down when faced with resistance, while continuing to do exactly what they announced in the first place.

What a bunch of cu-

I never played these back on the Gamecube and couldn't remember what put me off but reading the review it was probably the ATB system, never been a fan of those.

Also, the plot to Origins sounds mental. They try to assassinate their own emperor, get beaten to the punch (stab?) and then have to work to clear their names?

I don't think they can clear their names. They were fully intent on committing treason. The only difference between them and the actual assassin is that the assassin got the job done.

@GhanaViking
The difference between the two is that Microsoft have been around for decades and knows how to play the long game. They're happy to smile and play nice for a few years because they know they'll be around to reap the benefits when the peace treaty expires.
By comparison Embracer Group are like mayflies, trying to grab everything they can and hope they grab the right stuff to come out smiling.
The new kids on the block may claim to be "embracing" other companies but Microsoft literally invented "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish".

The thing is, if you buy five companies, you probably don't need five separate HR teams, and five finance teams, etc. So to a certain extent trimming it down can be logical and make things more efficient. After all the prize they're buying is the developers and the IP, not the admin structure.
But that ignores two key facts. One is that a bunch of people have lost their livelihoods because a bunch of wide boys with MBAs decided buying stuff with other people's money was easier than working for a living and the other is that literally nobody benefits from these sorts of acquisitions.

@Jadamson929

That's unfair. In my experience those types are also skilled at cooking up blatantly unworkable schemes, ignoring anyone who presents a logical counterpoint to their madness and then blaming everyone else when the wheels inevitably come off.

@EVIL-C

Anthology does literally mean a group of things collected together. Being collected together is what makes it an anthology. So it's either a misunderstanding of the word, which is reasonable based on the sheet number of terms for collection or series, etc so on English. Or it's the result of some marketing type with no regard for correct use of language who just thought it sounded good.

I totally lost interest in this the moment they announced it as a roguelike. If I'm playing a game based on an episodic series, I'd like to feel like I'm playing that episodic series, not repeating the same first few episodes over and over. Like when you only got 3-4 episodes on a VHS tape back when VHS tapes and Saturday morning cartoons were things.

I also think it should be 3rd person. That viewpoint works better for melee combat with flashy, movement-based attacks, and would also allow me to see the cool 80's-inspired character I'm playing as.

The fact that it runs about as well as a donkey that's been shot with a crossbow just seems to confirm that everything about this was poorly implemented beyond the initial cool idea.

@Serpenterror

The does seem deliberately confusing, seeing as an anthology is literally a collection of things. But as it's a Japanese publisher, maybe it's just a missunderstanding that anthology doesn't mean the same thing as series.

@Mana_Knight
I'll accept that Ash from Evil Dead is different to the others because Evil Dead 2 if basically a remake of the first the film, but the others are the same character so it sounds more like different skins. Either way, the way I read the description was that someone gets to be Ash each round and the players are stuck being a cheerleader or homeless dude or whatever.
The only way I'd want an Evil Dead game where I don't get to play as Ash would have to be some sort of Deadite Invasion action RPG where I get to create my own character.
As it stands though, I wouldn't want to be playing not-Ash while some jammy git gets to be the Chin Himself.
This is a massive digression though. While this is pretty much the exact opposite of what I want from Evil Dead, fit those that were looking forward to it the cancellation sucks.

Looks interesting and parts of the trailer looked great. But some of the more basic enemies seem a bit too static. It's almost as though there isn't enough animation going on, and coupled with the comic book art style it makes them look more like cutouts on a shooting range than active enemies in a dynamic firefight. I'll keep an eye out for reviews though.

I've loved Evil Dead for decades now, but I lost all interest in this when I realised it was an Evil Dead game where there's a good chance you get stuck playing some random numpty while watching someone else play as Ash Williams.
Not sure why they ever thought that would be a good idea.

@LikelySatan
Yarp. I was referring to that horrible smudged icon in the screenshot.

@OorWullie
To be honest, I don't think the addition of text is going to redeem that icon.

@samuelvictor
My take on the Arthurian legends is that it was a mixed bag of tales from England, Wales and France the have been stitched together and in my opinion the more the merrier.
Artorius was romano-British, Lancelot was French and Merlin was Welsh.
The whole Pendragon thing also draws in the Cornish and I'm part Cornish so it all seems like a big party. Unless you're a peasant.
"Help, help, I'm being oppressed" etc.

@-wc-
All hail George Costanza.

@samuelvictor
Personally I love the Arthurian legends as a combination of English, Welsh and Cornish legendary. And, while Excalibur feels very English there are so many levels on which the film is amazing that I can ignore the text they've ignored in a lot of the original tales.
And even though Merlin isn't Welsh in the film, he really seems to suit the role as an outright otherworldly being.
And yeah, the sheer number of fantastic actors in the film is insane. I always smile when I see "Richard" as Arthur's supposed father.

@samuelvictor
We should probably get a room at this point.
Yes, Woderwick is a Life of Brian reference, partly because of some real life stuff that's very important to me, but also because I use it a my character name in a lot of fantasy RPGs as kind of antidote to all the puffed up self importance of the plots.
I'm also very impressed you got the Excalibur reference. It's one of my favourite films, and I absolutely love the depiction of the characters, in particular Merlin.
I could wax lyrical for hours about how good a film it is on so many levels.
The fact that you're in the industry does make sense now, reading your previous comments.

Personally I think there was a decent mix of games with some standouts, even if they're not for me.
The Peach game looks seriously cool, but not my sort of thing. If I had a daughter I would absolutely be buying it to show her she doesn't have to be the damsel, and it looks pretty fun to play through, but a bit too kiddy for me. I'd also buy it for my youngest son to show him girls don't always have to be the damsel, but currently he's running me ragged on Portal Knights.
Apart from that I didn't really see anything to excite me. Prince of Persia looks very good but the base price is 45 quid which is quite a lot compared to similar titles so I'll wait for a steep sale before I consider grabbing it
And as much as I love TTYD, I really don't have any interest in playing it again until my youngest is old enough to experience it, at which point I'll probably just sit him down with me to play it on an emulator.
F-Zero is pretty much the polar opposite of what I wanted so probably best just to swallow my disappointment. I've still got a GameCube and a copy of GX kicking around here somewhere so if I want it that bad it's not exactly out of reach.

@Samuelvictor
The fact that you got the Clockwork Orange reference makes my heart smile.

@samuelvictor
Same here, I was in my 20's then too and while I did (and still do) enjoy a nice arse and some of the old ultraviolence, it wasn't what I wanted from a sequel to a game I loved for something completely different.

The new Prince of Persia game looks pretty sweet and probably the only game announced today that I'd buy. TTYD is one of my favourite games but I don't feel any urge to play it again. The Peach have looks like a lot of fun but but something I'd pay myself.
The rest of the games don't really hold any interest for me, and the one announcement I was hoping for has just left a bitter taste in my mouth. I was so hoping for a proper F Zero game but what they announced is pretty much the exact opposite of what I wanted. It's cool for those who are into it, and it's free if you have NSO, but it's left me wanting an actual new game even more, and disappointed with what's being offered.

@samuelvictor
Yeah, I know Yahtzee, very witty and insightful guy. And I agree totally about the story. In Sands of Time the romance felt more organic and actually well-written for a videogame (most games have pretty trash writing compared to even a pulp novel in my opinion). The first sequel had fun combat but the story was dull and the opening sequence featured a girl with a very well rendered and nicely proportioned arse but also completely gratuitous and eye-roll inducing. It felt as though they'd given the sequel to a team of lads mag aficionados who had totally missed what made the first game so good. It wasn't a bad game but I think you nailed it as being built to fit into the PS2 era with all that entailed in terms of "edgy" nonsense.

@samuelvictor
Sands of Time is one my all time favourite games ever and the movement was a big part of that. It felt as though the game wanted you to succeed but without being easy. Difficult to define but I loved it to bits. I only tried the first sequel but didn't enjoy it as much. It was much more heavily combat focused and while that's not a problem in itself, it wasn't what I was looking for in a sequel.
I think this new Tomb Raider stuff is going to retain the grid based movement though. If you look at the new graphics, all the environments are still built around solid square blocks. I'd assume that's because they've stuck to the original acrobatics system, otherwise they'd have added more curved architecture. PS1 era machines were notoriously bad at drawing curves efficiently but that's not an issue today so I think they've done it to avoid breaking the traversal mechanisms.

Terrible name and the art style really doesn't appeal to me.
Also, the voice over in the trailer was so annoying it made me want to grab the guy's mic and lick him in the head with it.

@Samuelvictor
Re the analogue controls/grid based movement thing, Prince of Persia Sands of Time on the GameCube did a similar thing. Even though movement was analogue and in 3D, the actual jumps mapped to a grid layout to ensure you never got that annoying moment of jumping at just the wrong angle. It's what made the game so much fun to control and the action sequences so fluid.

I like to annoy musicians by reversing the ending of the word used to describe a player of their chosen instrument.
So a guitar player is a guitarer, and a player of drums is a drumist.
It really comes into its own when you meet a trombone player.