Gaming news too small for its own thread

[Hohum]

In all honesty I'm generally not that interested in game mods, but this one for FFVII on PC is pretty cool:

https://www.techspot.com/news/78501-final-fantasy-vii-mod-uses-ai-neural-network.html

Combine that with the beacause re-translation project (that will hopefully be finished and bug free by some point) and you'll have a pretty good remaster of the original game to play.

[briareos_kerensky]

Screwattack is closing down. TBH I was amazed to learn they were still around a couple of years ago, I've never watched anything from them except AVGN stuff.

[Asura]

Screwattack is closing down. TBH I was amazed to learn they were still around a couple of years ago, I've never watched anything from them except AVGN stuff.

Yeah; it's been an interesting 12 months. Machinima and ScrewAttack have closed and Channel Awesome, whilst still operating, has been pretty much demolished after a scandal. It seems much of the "early YouTube" has really begun to fall away.

[Lebowski]

Epic are trying to protect there gravy train, in shock news next months season pass will be free but only if you complete a number of tasks, they really must be seeing a massive drop off of revenue to be trying this hard to drag people back form Apex Legends.

It's pretty much them saying "come back this instant and you get the next £10 season pass for free"

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-02-14-fortnite-season-8-battle-pass-will-be-given-away-free

I think its a bigger issue and its that Fortnite has been a bit of a culture rather than a gaming fad, Every one of my sons friends has played it and has access to it whether its on a crappy laptop or a mobile phone a ps4 or xbox they can play it and talk about it whne not playing it its all they have done.

I think the novelty is wearing off and its getting a bit stale though, I'm not getting nagged for v-bucks at all and the recent missions and extras like the prisoner hunt have been left unfinished. hes got bored of it and so have a lot of his friends, Apex legends is all i see on his TV at the moment its new and interesting and a bit more grown up. I bet a lot of the 12+ players will move over to Apex and Fortnite will now be seen as something for players that are younger.

[Neon Ignition]

Wouldn't surprise me, it taps into the content issue I have with the genre. PUBG is the best at delivering new maps yet the buzz has mostly passed for even that so with Fortnite, despite the season approach, it was always a risk as when the big event happened I went back to it but it was largely the same as back when it first launched. Once you start to get bored of these things you're only real option to properly freshen things up is rival releases. If you've released a BR title and your plan for content for the next 12 months amounts mostly to some new weapons, skins and themed events then you run that risk.

[Dogg Thang]

I'm a little too removed from Fortnite to be sure in any way but I have a suspicion the longer-term effect is going to be pretty damaging in that it is planting a free to play app store type seed onto all systems now. This is a model that works incredibly well for some for a while - companies can rake in amazing amounts of cash. But not many of them at any one time. It's kind of an all or nothing model and each success can leave a whole lot of those nothings in its wake. I'll be curious to see what the long term effect is of a generation growing up with these games.

[Lebowski]

I'm a little too removed from Fortnite to be sure in any way but I have a suspicion the longer-term effect is going to be pretty damaging in that it is planting a free to play app store type seed onto all systems now. This is a model that works incredibly well for some for a while - companies can rake in amazing amounts of cash. But not many of them at any one time. It's kind of an all or nothing model and each success can leave a whole lot of those nothings in its wake. I'll be curious to see what the long term effect is of a generation growing up with these games.

i think with Fortnite where its succeeded over something like, black ops 4's battle royal or PUBG isn't just down to the fact its free it has the youth market too. Even if pubg or blackout went free to play i don't think it would see the same up-take as Fortnite, i certainly wouldn't let my son play black ops due to the blood and bad language.

[Dogg Thang]

Even if pubg or blackout went free to play i don't think it would see the same up-take as Fortnite

I think you're right. But I also think it could be way harder for companies to get all those Fortnite players to part with 50 quid for a game in a few years time.

[Neon Ignition]

Fortnite also had phenomenal timing on its side. They were so slow at getting PUBG onto consoles that Epic were able to get Fortnite in place, in better condition and before anyone else. Everyone else now is automatically at a disadvantage.

I suppose the Epic Store makes sense in that it's an attempt to secure long term high earning success where Fortnite won't be able to.

[Asura]

Fortnite also had phenomenal timing on its side. They were so slow at getting PUBG onto consoles that Epic were able to get Fortnite in place, in better condition and before anyone else. Everyone else now is automatically at a disadvantage.

It's also the "season pass" model was a real master-stroke.

Digital content is great in many respects, but it has a very key problem - ever since all of those stories about kids racking up big bills on mobile games, parents have grown wary of buying their children virtual currency.

The Season Pass circumvents this by letting the kids pester their parents for a physical thing they can buy in WHSmiths on a card - or if not that, a single, reasonably long-term purchase that gives weeks of "play", instead of having to pester for 50 gems every 20 minutes.

This is why it was so popular with tweens who normally lack the ability to buy digital content. It's similar to why World of Warcraft was quite popular with a similar demographic.

Then it just snowballed.

[Cassius_Smoke]

I think this is going to be a big problem for Anthem. It's trying to compete with this market but I can see it desperately shouting from the sidelines while everyone plays F2P shooties.

'look at me!'
'yeah yeah, in a minute, I'm just gunna shoot my mate in the face for free'
'but you can shoot things here too!'
'for free?'

[QualityChimp]

https://www.yankodesign.com/2019/02/21/the-gameboy-lost-some-weight-and-got-curvy-displays/

THE GAMEBOY LOST SOME WEIGHT AND GOT CURVY (DISPLAYS)



"In the interest of nostalgia and Nintendo’s obsession with it, here’s the Nintendo Flex, a fan-made GameBoy update that gives the age old classic handheld gaming device a time-appropriate revamp. The Nintendo Flex is to the Gameboy what Daniel Craig is to Sean Connery. Same James Bond, but modern. (Sames Bond?)

The Flex comes with a few very welcome updates. Bigger screen on a device that’s the same handy size (albeit thinner). The screen’s also mildly curved, giving you a slightly panoramic experience and adding just a tiny couple of more display inches into the same framework. The Flex retains the same keys and controls, but gives them a makeover too, opting for flushed surfaces rather than the original GameBoy’s chunky keys that stood out from the surface. There’s even a contrast slider on the side of the Flex.

The Flex’s biggest overhaul, however, is the change in Nintendo’s cartridge system. Flex ditches the large squarish cartridges for something much sleeker and thinner, looking almost like a stylus. The stylus-sized cartridge slides conveniently into a slot in the Flex’s base, locking in place and becoming impossible to remove while in the middle of gameplay. You’ll be happy to know that the Flex also packs a Type-C charging slot and a (hallelujah!) 3.5mm audio jack, just like old times. And it also comes in the same classic old-world white color! (P.S. Brownie points to the designer for also designing a curved packaging box for the curved device!)"

[ItsThere]

https://www.yankodesign.com/2019/02/...urvy-displays/

THE GAMEBOY LOST SOME WEIGHT AND GOT CURVY (DISPLAYS)



"In the interest of nostalgia and Nintendo’s obsession with it, here’s the Nintendo Flex, a fan-made GameBoy update that gives the age old classic handheld gaming device a time-appropriate revamp. The Nintendo Flex is to the Gameboy what Daniel Craig is to Sean Connery. Same James Bond, but modern. (Sames Bond?)

The Flex comes with a few very welcome updates. Bigger screen on a device that’s the same handy size (albeit thinner). The screen’s also mildly curved, giving you a slightly panoramic experience and adding just a tiny couple of more display inches into the same framework. The Flex retains the same keys and controls, but gives them a makeover too, opting for flushed surfaces rather than the original GameBoy’s chunky keys that stood out from the surface. There’s even a contrast slider on the side of the Flex.

The Flex’s biggest overhaul, however, is the change in Nintendo’s cartridge system. Flex ditches the large squarish cartridges for something much sleeker and thinner, looking almost like a stylus. The stylus-sized cartridge slides conveniently into a slot in the Flex’s base, locking in place and becoming impossible to remove while in the middle of gameplay. You’ll be happy to know that the Flex also packs a Type-C charging slot and a (hallelujah!) 3.5mm audio jack, just like old times. And it also comes in the same classic old-world white color! (P.S. Brownie points to the designer for also designing a curved packaging box for the curved device!)"

That is what exactly? A designers wishlist? Surely it can't be a commercial product?

[Asura]

THE GAMEBOY LOST SOME WEIGHT AND GOT CURVY (DISPLAYS)

Hope this wasn't designed by you QC as I'm about to say something awful

But this looks like something designed by someone who has seen a Game Boy but never actually used one, and thinks for some daft reason that they know better. The circular dpad? Curvature which shows up reflections in a screen which is usually held around 45 degrees to the horizon?

[QualityChimp]

S'OK, bud.
It just popped up in my Google news feed and I copied and pasted as I thought it looked interesting.