Experience the Half-Life™ expansion packs like never before. Operation: Black Mesa features reimaginings of both Half-Life™ Opposing Force and Half-Life™ Blue Shift through two unique campaigns. How will you...
Rather than choosing my favourite and most iconic classic, I'm gonna select ones that would benefit and warrant more of a remaster. I'll also avoid games where I wouldn't be confident in finding a developer that could do the original justice.
I'd firstly say Command and Conquer: Generals. Shocked this hasn't been remastered or remade to a degree as it's a rare RTS that combines real world elements and is still immensely popular. EA gave us a solid remastering of the original and Red Alert almost 4 years ago but nothing since. Even a basic remaster with QoL changes and modern support would be huge and a massive win for the genre.
Lastly I will choose Resident Evil Code Veronica. I am confident this will be announced soon and it's the next logical one in Capcom's largely successful reboots. CV was a great game back on the Dreamcast and a huge step up visually compared to the likes of RE2 on the PS1. It had some massive flaws but these could easily be rectified.
Those two I would be very happy with and that's about it off the top of my head. Max Payne 1 & 2 are confirmed in development by Remedy now which is absolutely huge as the series is coming home to a developer who is getting better and better. I would've said that otherwise as long as Rockstar had no business in it but they are in the works it seems.
I didn't buy Dead Space, Hogwarts Legacy, EAFC, MW3, Alan Wake 2 or Diablo 4 as expected so I instantly saved over £350 and instead mostly played (older) titles I have in my Steam library either revisiting, or previously not played and also picked up some bargains. I don't think I will ever buy a AAA game on release ever again unless it's of the masterpiece standard and I have enough time to play it at launch. I don't own PS+ or Xbox Live or any other subscription services so I save a lot there and things like this can really add up especially if you throw in other services like Spotify or Prime.
Although these AAA-type games sell really well, many gamers seem to be holding back these days and that's down to the increased pricing and degrading of quality. The new Diablo 4 DLC could very well cost $100 which is absolutely disgusting so for the future I am avoiding these rip-off live services without much consideration. Recently I've played MGS3, MGS2 and Warcraft 3 and I've got more value and entertainment out of those than any major release will provide.
Climate change is definitely a concern but at the same time, so is fearmongering bullshit peddled by the ill-informed media. These climate extremes are nothing new - October in 2011 was pushing 30 degrees and over 100 years ago, even the end of September's could often exceed 30. In the 1970's, the UK experienced 16 consecutive days over 30 degrees before having several periods of wank weather since. Our July was miserable here and almost like a nostalgic English summer.
These incidents are just more pronounced now thanks to social media, heavily-bankrolled researchers needing persistent funding spanning decades and hypocritical climate protesters who post persistent misinformation they don't understand or can't comprehend. Even the Greece wildfires which were exclusively blamed on climate change by the Western media were actually a result of collaborated arson attacks which were filmed and published online and eventually saw 79 people identified and arrested. There were similar cases in Canada and California and once the human-element was discovered, the stories were sent to the bottom of the pile and comment sections were locked. The recent Hawaii fires which were also jumped on as a result of climate turned out to be poorly maintained electrical equipment setting fire to vegetation. Winds in the area also helped propel the fire rapidly. Once this was confirmed, the media abandoned the story and articles were 'modified' to add a speculative angle.
There is also overwhelming evidence that counter-research is being supressed from public publication at a huge cost and even Sadiq Khan was listed as an instigator as he blocked a conclusive report that his ULEZ scheme was worthless to the environment. There is no doubt climate change exists but it is very hard to have a real understanding of the true projected impact because of all this absolute tripe being peddled. Countries need to be doing more to reduce pollution regardless though.
No doubt a link with some sort of credit system similar to ones in China.
Having something like this in the free western world would be pure dystopian hell. Digital currency is already a big part of the world but that is always based on real hard currency which is still tangible and exchangeable plus it's accepted in almost every single domain. Nothing with change in that respect and governments wouldn't endorse things like NFT's as recognised currency because digital serials of pictures and other tat don't pay bills. It will always remain as underground money that is only garnered from the exchange of what was recognised currency anyway.
And the other 5% is absolute trash like Logan Paul laundering money via NFT's with his junkie buddies in that LA cesspool which is the only reason they have real money 'value'.
The pandemic was a once in a generation situation which brought on many exceptional circumstances and the treasury was ultimately called upon to ensure the continuation of the economy and for the sake of the public. Welfare makes up a huge portion of taxpayer funding and this is something people and businesses relied on, en masse during this time. The entire economy would've hit a brick wall and people would've been burning through any and every penny they had to their name irrespective of savings and future earnings.
Believe it or not, this is the completed Twitter rebrand😂 This could very well be the worst and least appropriate branding I have ever seen. ‘X’ was bad enough but this tagline is the icing on the cake for pure ludicrousness! Couldn’t have happened to a nicer site though so let the meltdown commence/continue..
I am so impressed with how far AI has come of late and seemingly so quickly but it's gonna put a lot of people out of work. I am already sick of automated shit on phones and AI will just add more dynamics and replace humans. It's also causing pure havoc with people cheating their exams and some AI programs can actually harvest people's voices which has also caused hell as people have been blackmailed, framed and even scammed. As per usual, regulation will be 10 years off the pace and rather than control how this is implemented, companies will be racing to cash in and others for dodgy means.
Could be interesting for gaming though as seen with this
However developers have already been caught out using AI to cheat development in some aspects of their games which has not gone down too well.
The changes the UK makes will make no difference to longevity of this planet's existence if the US and China do nothing. That is not to say the UK shouldn't still be making small steps to better help the environment, even if that's just to improve the air quality and energy solutions here on home soil.
Literally the whole of the UK could go net zero this time next week and China alone could absolutely negate everything we do in less than 24 hours by increasing their output by a measly 0.005%. I'm also paying an extra £7,000+ a year on haulage costs from my trade teams yet these vehicles in use 330 times a year not even exclusively to me contribute less than a single plane in operation for a week flying the same amount of time.
Countries like China and the US should be setting examples but all that's happened is other counties have made commitments and the likes of China have capitalised on such reductions in productivity by increasing their own and then bolstering their overseas trade back to the countries who reduced their own output!
That's some of the most idiotic shit I've ever read. You'll be sticking your head in the ground until kingdom come as far as I can see. Its not just heatwaves ffs but I'll leave you to it, whatever fits your own personal narrative. Nothing personal both James btw I'm beyond arguing with backward thinking idiocy, you play right into the hands of the cunts who are destroying this world.
Also, using China as a cop out is weak as fuck. Let's find someone else worse than ourselves so we don't have to do anything. Pathetic.
Fear mongering versus sweeping under the carpet lol, we're truly fucked when ppl can't see what's happening right in front of their eyes.
This is me mildly annoyed but then I'm in a rich country that will suffer a lot less than a lot of very poor people all around the globe.
So sick of this country. Full of conspiracy nuts too afraid to acknowledge that it is capitalism, colonialism and consumerism that's fucked us....apparently no it's the lizard people innit fml 😅😭
Time will tell and I've never been more certain of anything in my life.
I had a beer tonight 🙈
I know it’s not just heatwaves and I’m also not dismissing climate change - it’s a combination of media pressure on the public, shitholes like Twitter laden with misinformation, and absolute fucking morons like Sadiq Khan branding people (inducing local Muslim business owners) ‘nazi’s’ for being against aggressive environmental measures which is also proving to be a nice little forced revenue stream for his overseas business ventures.
The majority of weather events attributed to climate change these days still remain factually unproven and records demonstrate that such extreme weather phenomenons have existed long before even records began. That’s not to say climate isn’t a factor today but the media are very quick to jump and play the climate change card.
When the majority of climate protesters are hypocrites too, it can be impossible to sway other people especially with science still failing to provide concrete forwarding models. Them lot are really cashing in and they have nothing to lose and a guaranteed pile of money at their feet every 5 years.
Personally I'm so torn about the climate change debate — I believe what the scientists are saying but, the way the media are pushing it and the policies the Government are putting in place only makes it look more like another crisis the rich will benefit from. Telling us we what we can and can't do to help save the planet while jetting around in private helicopters and planes.
Can't see AI helping the working class person.
I think a lot of it is fear-mongering. Climate is definitely an issue and things have to change environmentally, but there are several hundred instances on record where extreme incidents of weather have occurred that cannot be attributed to typical aggravating human factors.
This time last year the UK had a 3 day heatwave where temps exceeded 35 and the record was broken, however 40 years previous, we experienced 15 days consecutive where it was greater than 32 degrees. The media and heavily-funded scientists tried to pin the phenomenon exclusively on climate last summer but it could’ve just been a nice few days of summer on a smaller scale than 40 years ago. It was bordering on Armageddon doomsday according to the BBC though!
If there really is an emergency then how about start grounding more commercial planes and private jets instead of rinsing the public for money simply for driving their cars on roads they need to travel down. Also doesn’t help with most protesters being hypocrites and disrupting innocent people.
AI has really made insane leaps of late and it's crazy what has been achieved. Its also quite deadly as its already been heavily abused. I've read about people being framed for crimes which have even made court, families being conned by phone from who they think are relatives and extreme cases of blackmail.
Governments couldn't even understand or control things like lootboxes so I have no hope of this being regulated properly. The US Senate doesn't even fucking know how wireless routers work so chances are AI will probably end up regulating itself😎
Twitter accused Meta of hiring former employees to make a “copycat” of the Elon Musk-owned social media site, as Meta's Threads app draws millions of sign-ups.
Threads got 30m sign ups on day one which seems a promising start and this could easily multiply especially with the ongoing dumpster fire at Twitter. Musk is literally reducing functionality and limiting usage to protect its information and internal tech but at the end of the day Twitter will always be a loss making platform so he will never be able to recoup off his $40bn-ish acquisition through net revenue gains ever IMO. Now with direct competition from an established multi-platform social media company with an existing reach of over 3.5bn people, they really are in the shit and I don't even think legal settlements or licensing could possibly be agreed because of what's at stake.
How on earth have we come full circle back round to an app that is essentially Facebook evolved when we all started to explore other apps when FB had some dubious questions over the years.
Sod it, I never really did socials when I was younger, so lets get My Space back and go there.....OR.....lets just tell everyone FG, not FB, is the place to be for all the cool kids 😎
Bring back Bebo! I still have songs to bluetooth share and pictures to publish with my Nokia😎
So Meta aka Facebook will be launching their version of Twitter tomorrow and with the latter being in a complete shit show right now, it's a good time to do it. I don't think this will come close to dethroning Twitter and it is yet another risky venture by Cuckerberg, but if there is to be a chance to capture and shake up some of the market, now is the time to do it. Twitter is scrambling real bad right now with persistent poor decisions but I feel Threads looks just like an Instagram comment section so it's really had to assess. Grabbing people from existing Meta services and then having a clear functionality will be key in the basic sense but with all their services in the decline and haemorrhaging money in new projects, this is probably 13 years too late and a step back from their common ambitions.
Is the future of Web3 gaming here? Nike have officially announced their .Swoosh (NFT collection) collaboration with EA Sports!
This could be the introduction of digital ownership in video games — bringing exposure back to the digital market.
Now... there is still a mainstream hate towards NFTs but with a big brand like Nike stepping up to the plate, could minds be changed?
Two of the greediest companies on the planet creating another revenue stream out of thin air is only going to benefit themselves. People trading real money for e-money on a fantasy economy is not wise for regular people but with the popularity of things like UT and the sneaker market, they will be able to use sports celebrities along with content creators to milk the hell out of gullible people. Hopefully like most of these ventures already, it'll be an overnight flop.
People literally can own their in-game items through marketplace purchases as it stands so owning a serial of a mass produced digital item is a huge step down or sideways step that will likely cost 100x more. It will allow cancer like EA and Nike to create a variable and dynamic market with fraudulent scaling to extract as much money as possible and leverage worthless values higher, whilst having no legality issues like they would with regulated digital content.
Owning a digital shoe collection serial which can only be used in one game is tragic. It was bad enough when this idea was mooted for microtransactions 8 years ago so to see it materialise again with FIFA and Nike where they are now is even more demoralising. These will just be common microtransactions dressed up differently that will give these corporations more money.
Genuinely surprised at the lack of knowledge and understanding around the NFT space and Blockchain technology in general. I know it's all new but I though there would be more interest in the wider community around right protection and transparency in NFTs and Cryptocurrency.
It almost appears like most people's thoughts are the exact same as the general media's... 👀
When this has been discussed in the past, it's usually been about the catastrophic impact crypto has had on the environment and consumer GPU market. I think everyone understands the concept at NFT's but don't share any enthusiasm because it's something that's been widely ridiculed in the gaming space and has not been adopted in a credible light either. Even I was making more money a day than Ubisoft were with Quartz and I think many find it baffling that you can buy virtual land in videogames that don't even exist, which cost 10x more than what real tangible land on planet earth does in some areas.
Until something positive comes out of this concept that intrigues and benefits everyone rather than individual's e-wallets, interest will be consigned to just enthusiasts. It will also require a huge amount of regulation and opinion-swinging to stem any legality and fraud concerns. When you have 'experts' rinsed of their entire wealth then the average joe isn't going to feel too comfortable venturing away from recognised, established and regulated securities.
Every blockchain game has failed, Facebook is wasting $15bn a year on Web3 ventures to end up with something worse than VR Chat and any attempt to get NFT's integrated into established videogames has also flopped horrendously. When even the most recognised and money-hungry publishers state they have no interest, then you have to wonder what the benefits are of this new age fad.
NFT's IMO are the most useless thing ever conceived in humanity. It's an unregulated sector rife with scams, fraud and other shady nonsense on top of being an incredibly lame concept and that's being extremely generous. I will never ever get my head around how a simple MS Paint picture concocted in 30 seconds can be sold for tens of thousands other than the purpose of money laundering. I just don't understand how owning a numeric serial of something digital is viable unless you can find some sucker willing to pay for it and you can cash out clean. I wouldn't even download a picture at gunpoint of the most valuable NFT and have it litter 13.9mb of a 2tb drive.
The market has deservedly collapsed in the past year since many main players are being investigated by law enforcement, and there has also been a downturn on the amount of millionaire 'celebrities' promoting things after they were shamefully scammed or just want to distance themselves at the risk of being sued advertising something they don't understand. I prefer physical things made with due care, skill or have some history. I just find it a nasty trend on a shady layer of the internet. AI art can produce way more impressive material in less than 10 seconds than anything I've seen in the NFT field.
Cash is king and you can't buy a car, holiday, food or TV with a collection of JPEG's of penises. If anyone makes a real money return out of this then fair play but me personally, I'd happily see this horrible fad die just like lootboxes.
How does that make sense? Did they not just make millions in profit?
Hundreds of millions but hey ho, I guess they want to distance themselves from this third party venture but if it proves a monumental success, that wont stop them taking the lion share of the profits and plastering their logo all over the box. What they make in an hour could easily fund this to production so it's just ridiculous really.
I had one wisdom tooth removed in 2017 and although it was a bit daunting, it actually turned out to be fairly routine in the end. Painkillers for a few days after were needed and you have to keep the wound clean with salt water but aside from that, it was a pretty simple procedure and I've had longer hygienist appointments before!
Police have sought to reassure the public that there is no concern over the incident as it was reported it was a RAF Typhoon aircraft scrambled to intercept a plane that had suffered radio failure.
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Opposing Force and Blue Shift are being remade with Valve's approval similarly to how Black Mesa was done.
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