Computerchairgeneral

It's so weird to see this finally become a thing. I remember watching the original announcement video and thinking it was just another Bloodborne Kart meme. Then the creator kept uploading videos about it and I realized this was actually going to be a real game.

I've been expecting this to be a trainwreck for a while now, but I was really expecting that to be from the Twitch Plays style of gameplay, not the fact that the game had pay-to-win mechanics. It's impressive how they managed to stumble right out of the gate.

The main announcer sounds like he is just phoning this in for the paycheck and stumbles over stuff like he can't believe he has to read this. Wow. AI is so authentic these days.
More seriously, I wouldn't be surprised if more games with announcers started replacing them with AI. In a lot of those games, it's easy to tune it out and not really pay attention to it. I'm not sure if someone casually playing would even realize it's AI. I'm curious how long it will take until a publisher tries to put AI voice-acting in a game where players would actually notice the dialogue sounding unnatural.

If these rumors are true then good. Single-player games have been Sony's bread and butter for a while now. Getting their first-party studios to suddenly pivot to making live-service games was always going to have problems. Leaning on third parties and studios like Bungie makes much more sense and might actually lead to decent games in the long run. Then again this is all speculation so we'll see if Sony is actually changing anything.

Lots of good recommendations here. I'll just leave some +1s for a few I've seen here that I've enjoyed.

Blacktongue Thief: A thief tries to rob the wrong warrior and gets wrapped up in a quest to a distant land besieged by giants. The first of a trilogy, but the ending gives you enough closure to be a standalone read while also setting up where the story will go. Personally, I enjoyed the first-person narration which gives you a colorful look at a somewhat non-conventional fantasy world, although it's still fantasy. If you liked Abercrombie then you might like this. There's a similar focus on flawed characters trying to do the best they can. There is some war and politics but they are firmly in the background and far from the main focus.

Legends and Lattes: A retired adventurer opens up a coffee shop in a land that has never heard of coffee. I'm not sure if "cozy fantasy" was a thing before this book, but it's been held up as an archetypal example. The plot is low-stakes and focuses on the characters and the difficulties of running a small business. Makes a good palate-cleanser between denser reads. No war or politics.

Kings of the Wyld: A retired group of adventurers has to come together for one last job after their leader's daughter ends up trapped in a city besieged by monsters. Admittedly how much you enjoy this one depends on how novel you find the idea of adventuring groups being treated as rock and roll groups. Like literally being a stand-in for rock and roll bands with groupies, managers, and all of that. I've seen some criticism that the book doesn't have much going for it beyond that which is a bit unfair. Following a bunch of middle-aged heroes past their prime was refreshing and I think the author did some interesting things with the main character who only uses a shield in combat and whose main motivation is to make it back to his wife and daughter in one piece. Very little war and politics.

Also, I don't think he's been recommended but you might want to check out Mark Lawrence's Broken Empire trilogy. Admittedly it's not typical high fantasy and it is somewhat heavy on war and politics, but if you liked the grittier, grounded feel of Abercrombie then you might like it. It is arguably darker though and the main character straddles the line between dark anti-hero and outright villain protagonist for at least the first book. But it might be worth checking out if you really liked the First Law trilogy.

The great thing about the Yakuza/LAD games is that they could put almost any kind of mini-game in them and it just works, even if it shouldn't. Like I'm not even sure if this is the weirdest mini-game that has been in one of these.

Glad to see Starfield reach another Bethesda game milestone: outsourcing your bug-fixing to modders. More seriously, I'm excited to see what modders end up being able to do with Starfield once they get used to making mods for it.

I get their argument that a city builder may not need high frame rates, but the 5-10 fps people have been reporting doesn't seem ideal either. The management definitely should have given the devs time to work out these issues, but I'd imagine the profits they made from going ahead with the launch will outweigh any criticisms.

This was great. It's kind of bizarre to realize that Netflix is actually older than Wikipedia.

Who is saying this? Halloween is almost over. We only have one week left before every store starts playing Christmas music until January.

Not the biggest fan of extraction shooters, but the permadeath mechanic sounds interesting. Although I'm not sure how common that is in this kind of game.

Honestly, this is about what I expect from Google nowadays. It's surprising when they manage to live up to the "Don't be Evil" motto they used to have.