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Over the last week or so, a situation that started with a YouTuber under the name Quantum TV pasting his take on Elden ring has spiralled out of control into a controversy that literally threatens the next Adpocalypse. Here is a summery of the situation as I understand it. A YouTuber with a little 60k subs working in the niche AV community on the internet doing things like reviewing TV sets and producing guides for optimising displays, decided to do a review of the video game Elden Ring. Fair enough. I won't link the review as I don't really wanna send this guy traffic, but what he put up was what most of the gaming community consider a bad take on the game. He didn't enjoy the game and implied that video games should be made for everyone. I'm going to break of into a slight tangent here because, I am actually going to defend the guy to some extent here. I may even agree with him to a point as well. People who have been on this forum for some time know I feel about From Software's games. Every time I've played one, for a number of reasons, I've not enjoyed them. I don't like thier game's approach to difficulty as in the philosophy of it, I don't like thier inclusion of certain inconveniences like not being able to pause and I don't like how sluggish and enfeebling the games feel to play, but that's me. I also don't like thier lack of accessibly features, like a difficulty slider. When Quantum TV made his take, I'm not sure if he meant that all games needed to be made accessible to all, or if all games needed to be made for all. It's important to distinct those not just because they mean different things, but because one I strongly agree with, and the other I really don't. Accessibility features I'd say do need to be included in games now, there's no excuse for it. Allow people under more difficult circumstances to enjoy thier games, I don't think that's asking for much. I also see no reason any game (with some expectations like interactive narratives and some platformers) should omit a difficulty option. It doesn't take the challenge away and lets people who are more into for exploration and the storytelling experience to enjoy the game thier own way, and that's fair. What I don NOT agree with though is that every game should be made for everyone. You can't make a DOOM game that's meant to appeal to Candy Crush players, not should Square Enix make a Final Fantasy game to appeal to Call of Duty fans. Likewise, From Software, despite everything I've said, should not make thier games for me. Thier games are not my thing, and that's fine, they should do exactly what they do and make thier games for thier fans. I don't know what one of those applies to how Quantum TV feels if either of them, but moving on. How anyone, including Quantum TV, feels about Elden Ring is not the issue, it the insanity that has come in the wake of the video that's the real problem. Several Youtubers found Quantum TV's review of Elden Ring and disagreed with it, many making thier own videos reviewing the review, so to speak, offering how they feel about his take. On the odd chance Quantum TV is reading this, welcome to the internet. People are gonna have a take and an opinion on what you say and they're within thier right to do so. If woke the morning after your review to find most people disagree with you, then too bad. What you do not have the right to do is abuse the copyright system to try and remove videos critiquing your video. Even if they were, let's say, "harsh", you pull you balls out of the cabinet, strap them on and behave like a man and deal with it. You do not abuse the copyright system just because your precious feelings were hurt. Those videos obviously completely fall under fair use. It doesn't end there, though. Well known game reviewer The Act Man was one such Youtuber who had a take. Not only did Quantum TV try to get his video removed, Quantum TV called his mother to claim his son was being mean. I know what he was trying to do because this has happened before and it was hilarious, but this isn't the same thing. This was funny when Alanah Pearce told the mother of a 13 year old who sent her explicit, sexist, misogynistic messages what her son was doing, it's just petty when you tell the mother of a grown-ass man he didn't like your opinion on Elden Ring. An already frustrated The Act Man who had been doxed not long before then did something that, we all have to agree, was a bit stupid. He put out satirical, jokey tweets about doxing YouTube staff and harassing people, and YouTube demonetised his channel. The also supported a claim that there was something sexual in one of his videos where he put up a pic of a cucumber near Quantum TV's mouth as some sort of joke, which is bullshit. Whilst all this is going, no action is being taken again Quantum TV over various violations of YouTube TOS's like the aforementioned abuse of the copyright system (YouTube themselves acknowledged that the videos claimed were fair use) avoiding bans, doxing, harassment as well as Quantum TV's now deleted social media with a history of racist and horrendously homophobic comments that were liked on his YouTube channel, but no. The Act Man get's his YouTube Channel demonetized over a sarcastic doxing tweet an a cucumber near some guys mouth, whilst Quantum TV tweets he wishes death on the LGBTQ community, harasses people, actually doxes people and abuses the copyright system, yet nothing is done. The snowball is already rolling. Philip DeFranco has already interviewed The Act Man on his channel and it's only a matter of time before this story get's the attention of the mainstream media who HATE YouTube. When they do, they'll show how a childish, extremely homophobic bully who abuses YouTube's own copyright system to harass and silence people he disagrees is allowed to do what he wants on the platform whilst innocent creators get penalised for nothing. Especially given that it's pride month, advertisers will very likely stat pulling out of YouTube and thus could well trigger another adpocalypse. And all of it to tend the ego a slimly little prick who reviews TV's. This has got to stop. YouTube for thier own sake need to take appropriate action here to avoid this from happening. Pleas, check out YouTube and you will find videos from the likes of ReviwTechUSA, Boogie2988, SomeOridinaryGamers, Optimus and many others who have been covering this story better than I have and can offer the facts in more detail. There's too many videos for me to cover here, just go to YouTube and look up the keywords to find out more. #JusticeForActMan

I couldn't care less if you like it or not. The concept of "freemium" is a free-to-play, but very insidious and predatorially monetised game. I call it "freemium crap" because "feemuim" is "crap". Hence, it's "freemium crap". Deal with it.

Yes we can, it took me only a minute to google it. As of June 2022 Microsoft has a market cap of $1.811 Trillion dollars, and Sony 106.33 Billion, so yeah Microsoft is way bigger than sony

It finished 10th out of 13. https://www.sportinglife.com/racing/results/2022-06-13/windsor/688056/british-stallion-studs-ebf-restricted-novice-stakes-gbb-race

I just found out that Netflix will be doing a live-action BioShock movie, though I don't think there are any details made public yet. Thoughts?

Which is your favorite Pokemon? Mine is Deoxys, ever since the Deoxys movie came out when I was a kid I became obsessed with it. (Also this is not a real form of his this is an ongoing centaur meme about the new game Pokemon Arceus) 😆

I often find myself frustrated with open world games presenting problems in game that I feel have obvious, logical solutions, and then no way to implement them. The Outer Worlds I think has done a great job not doing this. Almost every time I think of a solution to a problem with a faction or whatever, there is a way to do it. What other games do well with this?

I didn't say Fortnite itself is total crap - we were referring to the Freemium model which governs games like Fortnite and others total crap because it is.

I never put much thought into it until today but I have to agree that "core" Final Fantasy is a bit of a myth because almost every game barring X and X-2 take place in different timelines so the lore is all over the place. "Core" Final Fantasy means different things to different people.

That's true - it is an agenda-based organization who only serves the interests of those who line their pockets.

This is a really tough one but my favorite is Rayquaza - in the movie, he was an absolute beast and the fight between him and Deoxys was incredible. I also liked how he stopped Groudon and Kyogre from fighting in the series.

I agree wholeheartedly - Freemium is absolute crap and has always been. That being said, I haven't spent any money on Fortnite and I used to grind in order to get enough to afford the passes. There's no way I'm wasting a penny on Fortnite.

I think it was more the fact Fallout 76 was a broken pile of hot garbage is what bothered the fans most, the cheaters and exploits was just a small part of it. I did here about the new DLC, it's going back to the Pitt... from Fallout 3... because, Tod Howard was out of ideas? Details from RockPaperShotgun.com

Like I said, I define freemium as some very insidious and predatorially monetised, so the short answer is no. However, that doesn't men I haven't found some decent free-to-play games. Neverwinter, Eternium, S.W.T.O.R, War Thunder, Warframe, Genshin Impact (I admit that one does have some really dodgy monetisation, but there's far worse) and Rocket League to mane a few. And not just to get this thread back on topic, I'd also give a shout out to Fortnite. I'd never play it, it's not my sort of thing, but It does seen to manage it's free-to-play model better than other games do.

I have taken time to read up everything on the case between Epic Games vs Apple. It's all down to Epic Games not being in approval of Apple's and Google Play 30% charge on transaction for purchasing V-Bucks. They had to roll an update that allowed gamers to pay to them directly which led Apple to delist Fortnite from Apple Store and Google from their Play store too. Epic Games was actually the one that sued Apple for delisting Fortnite from Apple store but Apple eventually still won the case.

I like Misty and Hilda.

He probably had zero clue what he was talking about but justin11 is right. The purple discs that a lot of the earlier ps2 games came on were cd-roms, sony ditched the format for the dvd rom format pretty early on as a couple of models have problems reading the purple discs so that may be the reason, from experience whenever i booted up a purple disc my ps2 would make a lot of noise, i've heard some slim models don't read them at all. Their was an official hard drive released for the ps2 , i have one somewhere but never used it so i can't really say much about it. Then their is also this funky ps2/digital recorder hybrid with a 250gb hdd called the Psx only released in japan. Quite an interesting piece of playstation history if you ask me. The only problem is finding a working one is a challenge these days. But damn to stay on topic how long can you get a thread going about cleaning your consoles it's already at 9 fucking pages. Guess i'll just say how i do it then, the consoles i have hooked up i dust off once a week and that is more then enough imo, all my retro games are either in special box protectors or resealable dvd/blu-ray baggies to prevent wear and tear plus they are so much easier to dust off. All my consoles i don't use are in their original boxes, stashed away in various closets away mostly.

Thanks for the input. I see now how this can work, but only @Justin11 can confirm what he was on about. I will say though that you are a testament to what is possible by just posting with care and rushing as I wouldn't have even known English wasn't a first language for you. You are absolutely right that people like @Justin11 who consistently make posts so badly written and poorly thought out that it's difficult to understand them have no excuse. The staff would be more than happy to help if they're struggling, but the never ask for help because an incomprehensible post is still post, it still counts, so they don't care. Anyway, back on topic. I do see what @Justin11 is talking about with digital games. Scratched disks and dust are real nuisance. I don't like to amid the benefits of digital distribution, but I have to be honest there is a convivence factor to it and and you don't have to worry about keeping the games in good shape or risk them not working. That is a genuine advantage.

Most of you probably have checked out our post about MetaRace, the decentralized app (dapp) you can use to race NFT horses in the metaverse. As we mentioned in that post, one of the goals of the MetaRace community was to purchase a real, flesh-and-blood race horse. Well, it happened! The MetaRace community now collectively own a two-year-old colt in the real world named MetaRace. This horse will be running at Windsor tomorrow, June 13th, 2022. This is a first not only for the MetaRace community, but for the horse as well, who has never started on a racetrack before. If you join MetaRace and meet certain requirements, you to can own a percentage stake in this horse. Good luck tomorrow, MetaRace! Join the MetaRace Discord for updates and send any other thoughts: https://discord.gg/metarace Interested in advertising your brand on VGR Forum? Send us an email - advertise[@]vgr.com

At long last, the RE8 DLC got announced. But I don't have anything to say about it. Silent Hill rumours are still running rampant. The movie director has suggested the amounting gossip is all true as well. Take care. A stalker forced me into retirement!

It depends on the length of the game and the type of game. My one day example is probably too short of a time frame for some games, but then you also have to think that reviewers also have to play multiple games over the course of a month, as opposed to a normal consumer who probably only buys like one or two. Shallow seems like a harsh word to use for the situation, because I personally don’t think you need to master or 100% a game to be able to write a review for it. I’m sure we all have games that we enjoyed that we didn’t fully complete, and some that we didn’t beat. Sure it seems more “authentic” to review a game when you 100% completed the game, but a lot of the time, you can play a certain amount of the game to get an idea of how it plays, and the general quality of it. Once you figure out the formula of how it plays, you can still come up with a score for it. Do you need to beat a game to say “yeah, this isn’t for me” or “I don’t like this game”? Or even to say you enjoyed it?

So, in other words you post should have read like this... right? The fact it took a whole paragraph to explain what it was you were trying to say says it all.

Me neither - it was a friend who recommended it as he reads the manga and I was hooked from the very first episode.

I'm not going to lie, a lot of those guys absolutely made me cringe. Just hearing what they said and how they acted totally disgusted me.

@Shagger you should've added the infamous line " Don't you guys have phones?". I just felt like article missed that critical piece lol.

Few hours before I went to bed, I still played a little bit more before finally calling it a day. It should be about at least 45 minutes that I played, until sleep says no more.

It's never easy beating withdrawal symptoms in any kind of addiction you have. If you're not determined 100% to have it beaten, it will keep dragging you back.

It's your decision to make, and if you think that it's the right thing to do, why am I to question you on that? I hope he doesn't mess it up all over again.

Thanks for the update. Well, at least it didn't finish last and that's not bad for a first race either.

There was nothing else left for most people do at home during the lockdown. If not for video games, I wonder how most of us would come out.

I have been in that situation in the past and I know how difficult it is. When you try to beat it, you keep suffering withdrawal symptoms.

Great thread when i first tought about it hell i'll just grab my rarest game or console while i probably don't want to fork out the money to buy them again they can be replaced if i wanted. Obviously i should go for something i can't replace, I always tought it was ugly as fuck but i've come to appreciate it more and more over the years this print used to belong to one of my best childhood friends who passed away from leukemia, i think it's been 9 years now. He used to be really into Pushead artwork and this print was one of his prized possesions, two weeks before he passed away he gave me this to remember him by, the cool thing about it that i never knew that he hid a farewell letter inside the back of the frame where he thanked me for being such a good friend and whatnot, i only found out about the letter a couple of years ago. Anyway sorry if it's nsfw, you know you should be working instead of browsing the internet.

For the improvement of discourse in games because it encourages people reading and quoting the article? Absolutely. To draw in clicks? Absolutely not. It only takes one outlet to stick with scores to suck up all those eyeballs. I compare it to nuclear warhead disarmament: everyone agrees it's a good idea, but it requires everyone do it or else it makes you vulnerable. And who wants to be the first to sacrifice their readership? Ha, my thoughts exactly. 1-100 or decimal point scores do nothing for me. I spoke to my editor about my review criteria upon joining the paper, and my scoring is as follows: A technically bad game I didn't enjoy. A technically bad game I did enjoy / a technically good game I didn't enjoy. A technically good game I did enjoy / a technically bad game I greatly enjoyed. A technically good game I greatly enjoyed. God Tier. Since becoming 'pro' I've yet to assign a game a 5/5. It's clear, concise and it's easy enough to be consistent by. Plus my scores needn't be published: they're just as useful as an internal guide for my editor and I to discuss what I've written. It's not perfect, but it's the best system that takcles what Jim Stephanie Sterling called "hate out of ten" I've seen so far that isn't just getting rid of scores. See above with my system. Had I reviewed it at the time I would've given God of War (2018) a 2 with my system. That's still a good score because even though I couldn't stand playing it, I can't deny that it looks, sounds and plays well. The content of the review would only reflect that score being justified. I would choose not to review a sports game, but then I'm in a position where I that's an option. If I did review a sports game I'd take the piss, turning it into an attempt at a comedic piece. But let's say I have no choice but can use my system, I'd only be able to rate it a one or a two: either I enjoyed it or I didn't, because it's not going to be technically competent. Not for the kind of money they save recycling assets. I could easily do a retrospective on the Fallout series. I'm really into tabletop roleplaying games so I could go into how it was originally going to be a Generic Universal RolePlaying System (GURPS) engine video game, and how its creator Steve Jackson denied the rights because of the gratuitous violence featured and didn't want that associated with his brand. If I had to cover the history of the genres though, I'd be fine talking about how the games used to be Computer Roleplaying Games (CRPGs), and the backlash Bethesda received for turning them into first-person shooters (FPS). That's definitely a bit of history worth looking into. But my ideas don't really mean diddly squat until I sit down with a medium salted caramel & cream frappé, a notepad and a pen, and write. Once I zone out and let the hand do the work, there's no telling what will happen. Ah, interesting! If you recommend any particular titles I'd love to hear them (maybe not on this thread as it may derail things). I made a fatal error earlier dubbing it a fan project: it is, but it also contains excerpts from journalists and game devs. Dear me. So a bad example, my apologies for not doing the investigative journalistic leap of using Google to verify things before posting! 😅 It's my understanding Ready Player One is the sequel to Blood, Sweat and Pixels. Might be worth checking out if you like the former, but don't quote me on that.

After working in IT, I realized a lot of PC gamers aren’t really that knowledgeable in computers, but act like they’re computer geniuses. They’re pretty clueless on computer stuff outside of gaming, because they tend to hunk that if something isn’t catered to gaming, it’s useless.

Nothing is ever going to stop me from getting Far Cry 3 next week after reading this. I have around $60 casually coming my way, so it's a done deal. Thanks for further throwing more light 💡 on the game. It's been very helpful in my decision making.

None of that changes the fact that people can and do pay money for an advantage in FUT over other players. Buy buying more packs than you can just naturally earn by playing the game, you increase your chances of getting higher value, rarer and more advantageous player cards to build you ultimate team with. That makes it pay-to-win. This is disgusting in a free-to-play game, but on a franchise that demands at least full AAA price year after year (and you have to buy the game year after year as your FUT progress is re-set each time the new game comes out, another bullshit move from EA), it is despicable. I'm glad you find it amusing, somebody should, but personally it makes me feel sick.

This is stupid. The people who funded this study are stupid. The "Scientists" who performed the study are stupid. What they "discovered" here is that when people (whether it be kids or adults) spend time engaging with a hobby, it provides relief from anxiety and escape from the pressures and stresses of day to day life, you know, WHAT HOBBIES DO BY THIER VERY NATURE! When are these ignorant pricks going to realise that gaming is no different? I mean for fuck sake, it really isn't that complicated.

Hitler was none of that. He was never able to successfully win a campaign. He would send the nazis into battle, and when they were on the brink of victory, he would order a retreat. He was an idiot when it came to warfare, despite having fought in WW1. If you want someone to think about along those lines, Genghis Khan would be a much better choice. As for me, I would pick some uncaught serial killers and use them as assassins. Mainly, the one that I truly admire. The Zodiac Killer. He was pure genius. Jack the Ripper would be up there, as well as Spring Heeled Jack. Maybe DB Cooper could fit the bill. The Bone Collector could be another. Another would be whoever, or whatever, killed Elisa Lam.