J4MES OX4D

VR has literally come nowhere since Half Life Alyx and still the majority of publishers are still unwilling to take a risk and there's nowhere near enough specialist developers in this field. The Quest 2 has really driven sales as a great entry-level piece of kit and has captured exclusives like Resident Evil 4 VR but even then, it's not really grown much Facebook themselves are burning over $10bn a year on AR and VR as part of their Metashite and they've come out of it with nothing more than something weaker than VR chat. Apple are just trying to get ahead and they will just end up with technology that is heavily under-utilised and then deemed a waste of money flop. If they had a string of compelling software to immediately push boundaries then it would be an eye opener but as per, it'll be a fad that YouTubers and some celebs schmooze over and then it'll be back in the box for the foreseeable.

And when they operate abroad they have to follow laws in those external jurisdictions. They also cannot withdraw their services when they have legally binding commercial contracts in place and as I said earlier, it's not just about profits - Microsoft would probably lose 100x their UK revenue in overall value if they pulled a move like this as this would have a reaching knock-on effect to hospitals, education, military and other ethical services. Not even companies like Alphabet and Meta who have their on on-site lawyers full time in the UK High Court due to continual litigation have such disrespect from local judgements. If MS didn't bork their proposal then they wouldn't have egg on their face. They don't seem phased by the FTC which is far more significant but I'm sure they can buy their way out of that one. No way would Xbox lose an entire market either not in their fragile situation - in fact, Activision would probably be better off without Microsoft. This is a deal to benefit executives pockets only. The consumer and staff will experience no change whatsoever and if anything like we saw with Bethesda, the acquisition will have a far greater negative impact. It's not like either of these companies need the deal either - it's just a desperate attempt to chip away at Sony's dominance using money because MS have absolutely nothing else to offer other than a ever-stale game pass and Redfall. The deal will eventually go through as the CMA will buckle if they price is right with the chancellor or if they make some further amendments to get it over the line. The deal is absolutely nothing to celebrate for anyone other than the money men at MS and Activision. It's also put MS in an even worse light that what they are right now from a market player standpoint and just shows that corporate greed and blackmail is still rife within American companies.

That's just a baseless threat from an immature corporation and would prove the CMA spot-on in part of their wider findings. The funny thing is that they are still being sued in the US by the FTC and had to make astonishing concessions just to get the EU in their pocket. No uproar about that but we all know why. As predicted, they are now playing the 'victim' card in a lame bid to get the deal over the line with the CMA and limit the amount of amendments they may have to make to do so. I'm surprised the chancellor is even entertaining this as other companies would not get such privileges but he'll no doubt get a nice backhander out of it. Other companies would've done a blanket appeal as is their right but as per, an American one resorts to blackmail. Microsoft are failing so hard with Xbox right now, any withdrawal of their services out of spite and disregard for law will be the final nail in their coffin in the gaming sector. The disrespect of local laws in domains they operate and other businesses is pretty disgusting but I'd expect nothing more from these politically connected American corporations.

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.

Decent Metroidvania bundle on Humble Must-Play Metroidvanias WWW.HUMBLEBUNDLE.COM Explore the worlds of these great Metroidvania games. Get Hollow Knight, Rain World, Lost Ruins, Lone Fungus, and more. Pay what you want & support charity!

Currently sitting at 92 on Meta! Excellent news after many original concerns and it seems a very fleshed out package with lots of original inclusions and heaps of depth

Game will release in early access June 22nd.

Surprisingly good it seems after such a rocky development road with delays, overhauls and even more delays

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.

I hope they release the Master Collection Volume 2 at some stage - MGS4 really needs a multiplatform release.

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.

TLOU final part Great to revisit this again to completion for the first time since the remaster back in 2014. I did have another crack a couple of times on the PS5 with that game but checked out after a couple of hours. Picked Part 1 up with a voucher on PC and so pleased I played it through again. Big step up in visuals which is impressive considering how good they looked a decade ago. Only other improvements are to the UI and animations but a lot of work clearly went into this to bring it in line with Part 2. Definitely recommend grabbing this and if you've played it on the PS3/4 previous then still worth playing through again if you can get it in the sale.

TLOU again

Insane that Luton are in the Premier League when little of a decade ago they were our arch rivals in the Conference - they used to get bummed by teams like Braintree and Barrow🤣 They’ve come a long way in that time and so have Coventry after dropping down to League 2. Dabo on penalties was always a huge risk but they will be disappointed at how they played especially first half. In other news, Dortmund bottled the Bundesliga in humiliating fashion in their own backyard. Not much sympathy in the world of football after that - Bayern literally gave it to them on a plate all season too.

I swear to god every new release these days comes with a day one developer apology It's becoming a normal trend now. Absolute shambles!

Yeah, hindsight is a wonderful thing and that decision was the biggest 50/50 probably ever in football - had they not played him and lost too, it would've been seen as one of the biggest regrets and bad decisions made in football. I think with Spurs scoring plenty in his absence, they should've left him on the bench at least until half time against Liverpool. Moura, Llorente and Son were proving to be a force. He contributed very little in the final overall and really took the sting out of Spurs's attacking threat from those games previous. His performance against Italy in the Euro Final really bemused me - he literally spent the whole match chasing shadows at a jogging pace offering absolutely no press or pressure and all it achieved was him getting knackered. Southgate didn't utilise him very well on the day but surely after an hour, he should've changed his approach. It's even important games like the FA Cup 5th round against Sheff Utd Reserves where Spurs outright fail and miss out on a big opportunity and he offered very little when it really mattered on the night.

Some more info The Metal Gear Solid collection will also include the first two Metal Gear games | PC Gamer WWW.PCGAMER.COM Kept ya waiting, huh. So were getting Metal Gear 1 and 2 plus MGS's Integral Missions expansion which is a surprise bonus. Also the MGS2 and 3 ports will be from the MGS Collection that released on console about a decade ago. Not sure about the original Metal Gear Solid though but I am literally praying it's not the Twin Snakes port. Can't see it being this if they are porting the VR Missions standalone title and it makes me wonder if they will do a ground-up port for those two. Not too keen on the GOG version and I also wouldn't want to see them releasing some sort of upscaled ISO. Be interesting to see how they do this but having established builds for 2 and 3 3 is a good start.

Just realised this game is made by Daedalic Entertainment - they've really dropped the ball with this one as most of their games are of really good quality from design to execution. I'm gonna guess they wanted a piece of the LOTR licence but weren't willing to pay top dollar for a premium part of it so they instead got themselves some cast-off portion of it. Bit like how the Vampire Masquerade and Warhammer IP's have their licences wide open now but at varying costs. They're definitely not gonna make a return on this that's for sure!

I think he should leave in the summer and if he's destined to win something, it will be with someone else. Best for all parties IMO. Can't fault his loyalty over the years especially with the topsy-turvy nature of ownership and management of the club. Harry has had his chances to win things though - 3 cup finals with Spurs, a few semis and the Euro 2020 final and he's failed to perform in each one and not scored either. I actually think his 'big game' performances have been very costly when it's mattered but then again, he's partly the reason why they got there in the first place. Just wish he had that extra conviction.

Even more TLOU

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Fallout New Vegas Ultimate Edition FREE on Epic https://store.epicgames.com/en-US/p/fallout-new-vegas--ultimate-edition

Absolute load of crap apparently. Prime example of a film that didn't need to be made or a story that needed to be told. Biggest gripe I have with these new Indy films is that they've lost the charm that the original trilogy had. The CGI in this one looks utterly shocking with its cartoony style and poorly done effects. That alone kills it for me - at least in the older films they were ingenious in dealing with tech limitations and stunts were done for real. The new ones just seem so lazy and artificial with a reliance on special effects. Such a wasted opportunity. If they went back to basics instead of going for these vastly exaggerated scenes then it would at least give the series back some style even with Ford being about 96 years old. The story doesn't seem to have any purpose either and doesn't do anything other that give Jones another adventure that he didn't need to go on. Another landmark franchise trashed by Disney.

I didn't watch it (never really bother with these things) but it looks pretty disappointing overall. Biggest announcement was Metal Gear Solid Delta and then there was Spider Man 2 but other than that, nothing really significant. I am happy to see The Talos Principle 2 showcased as the original was excellent though.