PlasticFrogCG

It's a shame that things have gone this far because now politics get involved, and nobody ends up happy when talking politics. As I grow older I see government as a necessary evil that we should have as little as possible of. But here, we brought this on ourselves. We kept saying it was headed in this direction but we kept enabling the developers, who just got greedier and greedier. I don't know what's going to happen, but I do know one thing, you thought these greedy AAA corporations were bad? They got nothing on the government. And we just let them have a little taste of the power they can wield over the gaming industry. See? I told you nobody ends up happy talking politics.

I think I'm more excited about this than Cyberpunk 2077...even though I'm pretty sure I'll probably understand the story for Cyberpunk more than I will Death Stranding.

Right there with you. I used to get excited when a big company announced a new game, not I see Facebook posts about Bethesda's plans for Elder Scrolls 6 and I'm filled with dread. It won't last. It will come crashing down eventually. But who knows what will rise from the ashes...if anything.

I have to say I like this format. I try to keep tabs on several game reviewers (LegacyKillaHD, YongYea, Jimquisition), but I have to say Team Angry Joe is the most entertaining. The format reminds me of sitting down with my own friends and talking about games; and seeing OJ, Alex, and Delrith get equal time on camera really makes Team Angry Joe feel like a group of game journalists rather than just one guy (even if Joe's name is at the top). Of course, I still like to see the rants and Joe's full reviews complete with hilarious skits, so never change that! Now about the Epic launcher. To tell the truth, I've had an Epic account ever since Unreal Tournament 3 came out, well before they turned their service into a full-fledged store. However, after losing interest in the UT franchise, I played everything on Steam and forgot about the account. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and the release of Satisfactory Early Access. I was interested in the game but not keen on getting it because of the standing issues with the launcher. Aaaaand then my dad and my sister (blissfully unaware of all the news surrounding this topic) bought the game and dragged me in. So I dusted off the account and what should I find but that for some strange reason the purchasing region was set to Thailand instead of good-old USA. Fortunately, I caught this strange detail before I had saved any credit card data to my account (since it wasn't a store when I created the account), and fired off an email to Epic customer service. Make no mistake, the launcher is garbage, difficult to navigate, and lacking in features that I'm so used to having in Steam, not to mention it seems to gobble system resources whenever it's running. However, Epic's customer service IS top notch, and my account was fixed promptly. So they have that going for them. Overall, if Epic can fix some of the glaring issues facing its platform, I can see it becoming a worthy competitor for Steam. But they should have gotten those items into place BEFORE launching their service. Now, about Satisfactory. Aside from a name that makes it really difficult to Google stuff for (seriously, type in "satisfactory tutorial / map / tips" and see how many results pop up that have NOTHING to do with the game), it's a really FUN game! I've had Factorio on my Steam wishlist, but never purchased it because the concept seemed very daunting. Satisfactory shares a similar concept of factory building towards an end goal, but played from a first-person perspective. And it is a pleasure to play. The early access part may turn some people off, but unlike other games *cough* ANTHEM *cough* Satisfactory released with six out of nine tiers of machines and mechanics to tinker with and a lush and beautiful world to explore. There is so much stuff to do just in this early stage that you can spend several hours just experimenting. And there is more on the way! Trains, nuclear reactors, giant monsters, and the mysterious "Project Assembly" are all lined up to come down the conveyor belt. Unfortunately, it's a bit uncertain if the developer plans to release on Steam, or if it will be exclusive to the Epic launcher. Since I already have it, it makes no difference to me, but it is something to consider for anyone else interested.

I watched the trailer, but I didn't really watch any of the gameplay videos before this. That looks awesome! I played the heck out of Tenchu: Wrath of Heaven, it was one of my favorite games on PS2.

Hollywood is a bit more unforgiving when it comes to genre movies. Not that another movie with this premise doesn't have potential to be good, but the critics would automatically be drawing comparisons to what they know (Hunger Games and Battle Royale). If the new movie wasn't up to standard, production companies would drop the idea quickly and look for the next "big thing". This is something the video game industry actually needs to learn to do.

Yes. Go back to sleep, Cyborg, you're dreaming.

You know, I've often thought "maybe I should talk on Discord more, actually engage with fellow gamers". And then I think "nah, I'd only end up lurking there like I do here"...until I find something witty to comment.

Half Life is dead, and it should stay that way. I'm a HUGE fan of the franchise, I have yet to play anything that came even close...with the possible exception of Prey. But at this point, I'm considering the possibility of a third game from the point of how the games would play if you binged them one after the other. The jump from HL1 to HL2 isn't bad, and there's always Black Mesa to make the transition easier. But game design and technology has changed too much since Episode 2 came out; Valve would have to purposely release a down-graded game so that jumping from HL2:E2 into HL3 wouldn't feel completely jarring.

Thanks, Kaz, I'll have to look her up. Fortunately, the problem turned out to be that the imprint wasn't entered correctly, and I was able to leave the price at $17.49 USD. And thanks to purchasing my own ISBN numbers and opting for Amazon's expanded distribution, my new book should now be available worldwide, including Down Under! I even wrote them in British English for an extra challenge. In fact, oh would you look at that! A shiny e-book for just $4.22AUD! https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B07P8FQGV2 For the US audience: Paperback - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1732913803 E-book - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07P8FQGV2 Also available in other markets, but I won't flood the page with links. The stories are plain, old action/adventure with furry characters, because it's more fun writing about a seven-foot (2.2 metres) tiger cracking skulls and dodging bullets. The Black Horns does pick up immediately after the first book ended, but I've (hopefully) included all the relevant details from the first book that should allow new readers to jump right in.

So, I'm very close to publishing a second book. But I'm not there yet because I've run into some issues with Amazon KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). One "solution" to my problem suggested that I needed to raise my book price in certain markets so that the royalties amount could also cover the printing cost. This was something I really, REALLY did not want to do. I'm not really in it for the money, I just like writing and want to share my stories...and make at least a little extra cash on the side. But as the total cost for my 500-page novel got closer and closer to $25 American, I began to think "I love my book and think I'm a good writer, but who in their right mind is going to pay $25 for a self-published book? Even a good one?" So my question for you readers in the AJSA Community is, would you? To me, that's quite an investment unless you're already familiar with the author and believe their work is worth it. If I wasn't familiar with the author, no, I don't think I would pay that much. Fortunately, it looks like pricing was not the problem, and I brought it back down to $17.49 (which is about $0.30 above the absolute minimum price Amazon will let me set). Stay tuned for a shameless ad when I do eventually get it published.

Hehe, yeah man, California is an oddball even by American standards. There's an old joke that their state slogan is "Land of the fruits and nuts", but of course, that's delving into a more political avenue, so we'll drop it like a hot potato right now. I already have a big trip planned for this year, visiting The Mouse in Florida (Disneyworld). But I'm hoping maybe next year I'll plan a trip to Australia.

This is extremely disheartening. I played the demo with a friend, and for the most part, I was enjoying it. But all the things I didn't like about it were exactly what Joe pointed out and I was hoping they would fix them sooner rather than later. At this point, I still want to get the game, but it won't be until it's had a dramatic drop in price and made substantial changes to the gameplay.

You are, of course, assuming EA lets Bioware live long enough to make another Dragon Age game. And that they're allowed to make it on their own instead of having EA put their grubby hands all over it. I enjoyed the demo for Anthem, but I didn't see anything that made me want to purchase the game on release. I expect it to be half-price only a few months from now, if not going completely free-to-play.

I'd...rather not. My desk is a mess. But I'm running Windows 7 on a 3.4GHz Intel i7 with 8GB of ram and an Nvidia GTX 960. I haven't had to build a new PC in at least 7-8 years because I always seem to have enough to run the latest games without issue. That might change as things move into 4k and Windows 10 becomes the only operating system supported, but for the moment, I'm good. All the games I have on my "to be played" list are last gen anyway.