Kane99

The UK game store in question is GAME. It's a popular store that is close to what we have with GameStop in the US. According to staff of GAME, there are rumors that they will no longer be accepting trade-ins going forward. It probably stems from many stores outright dropping physical media, well as it goes for movies and cds, video games are still up on shelves for now. Do you see GameStop making the same move down the road? Or is GameStop forever going to stick to trade-ins? I mean, they are always prioritizing the trade-ins over new copies, but if we start to see less physical media, that means less physical games and these stores will have to adapt to either going for retro games or doing what GameStop does by selling toys and other such things. I'm sure other stores and mom & pop game shops will still offer trade-ins, but it's probably going to be less and less with the physical market dying out. Is GameStop next? Read more about this news below. https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/other/uk-s-biggest-gaming-store-rumored-to-end-trade-ins/ar-AA1n13Et

Have you improved any of your skills from playing video games? Maybe you have better hand eye coordination, or you've gotten better at problem solving. Maybe you've learned how to be a team player from gaming, maybe it's helped you with your creativity and more. Has gaming in any way, helped you improve on certain things in your life?

Like Crazy Taxi without the crazy. This looks more like your usual sim game, this time you take over as a taxi driver who runs their own taxi business. I think it looks relaxing, and I can see myself playing this if it isn't too pricey. Sometimes it's nice to just sit with an easy game and relax in its world. :) Anyway, is this something you'd check out? It drops March 7th 2024 and will release for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.

It feels like a good time to remaster the Gears of War series, and it looks like Xbox might actually be doing it. As it's been rumored to be in the making for a bit, and now it's also rumored that it's currently in the testing phase. Recent rumors state it's currently in testing, so it could be closing in on a possible release date. The collection will have the first three games, and it is said it will have a lot of what Gears of War: Ultimate Edition remaster had. Rumors also speculate that it could be revealed around the Xbox Summer Showcase along with a new Gears of war game. Would be cool if this is all true and we get a tease to the project soon. Read more on this news below. https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/gaming/rumor-gears-of-war-collection-might-be-in-testing/ar-AA1mYQsx Are you psyched for a possible Gears trilogy remaster?

A new Xbox Developer Direct is happening again, this time in just a few days. Developer_Direct as it's being called, will take place January 18th 2024, starting at 12pm PT / 3pm ET / 8pm UK time. They will showcase some of the upcoming video games, some of which include the new Indiana Jones game, Avowed, Ara: History Untold, and Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. It's also being said that the ZeniMax crew will be showing off some new stuff for The Elder Scrolls Online in their own little show to follow the Developer_Direct show. Not a big lineup of games. I doubt they will reveal any new games during this show though, seems more like a show to give us updates on these upcoming games. You can find more details on this event here - https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2024/01/09/xbox-developer-direct-2024/

I always find it beautiful when a popular video game pays respects to a deceased fan of theirs, by inserting them in the game or inserting a note or an Easter egg referencing them. I think they did something for a World of Warcraft player who had passed away. They have a memorial for him in a certain area in the world. And I think there's been cases of other games paying respects to people who had passed on. Would you like to be memorialized in a video game like that? I'd be dead so I honestly wouldn't care, but I still think it's cool, because then that persons children or family can see that this person meant something to a lot of people. Or maybe just a few, but I still feel it's special for friends and family. What do you think? Would you want a memorial in your favorite video game after you died?

With Silent Hill 2 getting a remake expected to drop this year, it made me wonder about some of the more forgotten or less known horror titles getting their own remakes or reboots. One game I remember being somewhat popular after its release, was a game called Rule of Rose. I believe it's the one with the woman and her dog fighting off creepy masked children. I saw a playthrough of it years ago and thought it was weird and crazy, and I feel with its popularity today, it would be a great idea to remake or reboot the game. Another one, though a bit more popular, would be The Suffering. I think it had a sequel, but I forget. I can see an updated take on the game going over quite well, especially if they keep it in the prison setting. One last one would probably be Cold Fear. This game was under-looked by many because they decided to release it not too soon after Resident Evil 4 came out, so they kind of shot themselves in the foot there. But it is popular among gamers who did give the game a chance. The game takes place on a Russian ship where there are human enemies along with zombies. I think this could easily work as a remake or reboot. I'd love to see this world more realized. It's Ubisoft, so maybe one day they'll dig in their back catalog and remake it. But those are just a few. Do you have any forgotten horror games that deserve a remake or reboot?

This actually looks really good. According to the games website, It's a first person driving survival game where all you have is your car. The intent of the game from what I can tell, is to go to certain areas to collect resources and parts for your car, to continue your journey. It looks like the car is the most important thing you have, and you'll have to constantly upgrade it after traveling to certain areas. Each area poses risks to the player and their car, to the point you will be repairing your car often. I just want to take the car out for a ride and relax with the music. :) Check out their website below, it's dropping February 22nd 2024. https://www.pacificdrivegame.com/

This looks like a Doom clone, but with Dinosaurs. Son and Bone was recently announced with a new trailer, showcasing what the gameplay will look like. It reminds me a lot of Doom, but also maybe a bit of Turok. But the differences here, is that there looks to be some humanoid dinosaurs too. It kind of looks dated for a PS5 game, but maybe it'll be a fun game. The studio behind it made Quantum Error, but I don't think that had great reviews. I'm not expecting this to be a hit or anything. But it looks like it'd be fun for the right price.

Do you ever have times where you lose all interest in a past game you used to love? Maybe it's a game you played the hell out of, and have tried to come back to it, but just can't. I liken it to GTA V. I used to love playing it, but after the online grind, and the way the game ended, I sort of lost interest in the game slowly. I did play it some every so often, but as of late, I won't touch the game. I have it installed, but the only person who does play it, is my brother. I don't even want to play a second of it anymore. Idk what it is, maybe it's because I'm all played out and doing the same thing over and over got to me. I just hope GTA VI isn't much of the same when it comes to the online mode and even the story, because I have a feeling I'm not going to enjoy it as much as past games.

We see many sites that save video games from being forgotten, but what about the endless amount of mobile games that come out on the app stores? We've had app stores since probably around 2007 with the first iPhone, and ever since we've had an app store with just about every mobile device. Now, what happens to the many mobile games that die and are forgotten to time. Do any of these games see life on other platforms? Or maybe do they see life on other app stores? Is there a site that lists all the defunct and dead mobile app games? Maybe a site that lists the history of mobile games from flip phones up to smart phones.

Remember the awkward E3 reveal of Wii Music, where Miyamoto and some people from Nintendo got on stage and hammed it up playing Wii Music? Or how they attempted to is how I should have put it. I just remember how awful the presentation was, and how the music didn't really sound all too great. Did anyone here play it? I guess it wasn't well received by gamers when it was released. Rerez has a good video about the game. They make some fun videos bashing bad games. Actually, I might have a copy of Wii Music that I got years ago from a friend. I'll have to look for it. :D

Source - https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/sag-aftra-signs-deal-with-voiceover-studio-for-ai-use-in-video-games/ar-AA1mHShG I did not see this one coming, considering that I thought the whole purpose of the SAG-AFTRA was to protect actors and voice actors, and this seems far from helping actors at all. But then again, I should have remembered these guys were up against the actors and voice actors recently during those recent actor/voice actor strikes. I think there is still a strike between writers and even writers in video games, so idk what's going on with them. Just sounds like bad decision after bad decision to me. Anyway, they recently signed a deal with a AI voiceover studio known as Replica Studios. The terms outlined at least sounds like it requires consent from actors and voice actors before they can create digital voice replicas of them. As well, there will be requirements for the safe storage of these digital assets. I wonder if they then own your AI voice or if the voice actor gets a say in what their voice can be used for. I hope it's the latter. They make a point in the article that AI isn't going anywhere, that it's here to stay. It almost sounded like they demand that we get on board with them using AI or something. Just the way it was put. What do you think? I am split on AI, as I know it can very well take jobs away from people if the point is to use AI as an alternative to voice acting, and I don't want that. I do like the idea of using AI in some of the NPCs in a video game, but for the main characters, protagonists and most of the side characters, all should be voiced by real life people. But I don't mind AI used in smaller doses, around smaller, less important NPCs, the ones that don't have names. But, I get that it's impeding on the lives of actual voce actors and I don't want to see any voice actor losing a job because of AI.

Twitch has recently laid off over 500 people, and according to the CEO Dan Clancy, it's to "rightsize our company." He also said this it's "necessary to ensure that we can continue to serve our streamers sustainably without impacting their ability to support their careers on Twitch." They don't say what workers were let go. But they claim it's to sustain the business and had to cut costs because of it. I just find it odd that a company by Amazon, needs to layoff so many people. Doesn't make sense to me. I wonder how much this CEO is making, or any of the people in power over there. I bet they don't do half of what those 500+ people do on the daily for them. Here's the full story: https://comicbook.com/gaming/news/twitch-layoffs-over-500-people-amazon/

Doesn't Sony own the rights to Syphon Filter? Or was it like 989 games or something like that? I forget. Anyway, I would love to see a reboot for Syphon Filter. Or hell, a remake of the first three games even. I'd take a reboot though, because I could see a reboot going over well. They haven't made a game in the series since 2007, so it's due for a comeback right? Would you be into a reboot of the series or maybe a remake of one or a few of the past games?

I think it'd be cool if gaming sites teamed up to do yearly tournaments between each other. Like, maybe even VGR could do something like that. I don't know if VGR has ever done a gaming tournament or game nights, but I think it'd be a cool thing to do. Maybe users can join and play for certain sites and whoever wins gets a prize or something, or a site badge for winning that year. I don't think I'd partake in an actual tournament though, as I get too much anxiety from competition. It doesn't have to be gaming sites either, could be any community that wants to have a tournament like event with their community. I always had this idea, if I ever got popular streaming or something, I'd maybe do a tournament among friends, and the prize would be a championship belt with their name on it or something. Would you ever host a tournament with other sites or just for your own community?

I love seeing old hardware get a bump in life by receiving a fresh new game. And this time around, it's a brand new Game Boy game. The game is called Cel Story and it's developed by Cel and published by Phoenix Ware/Bitmap Soft. It's a sci-fi adventure game where the main character crash lands on a planet, resulting in his ship being damaged along with memory loss. He has to navigate this planet all the while trying to repair his ship. The game will work on the Gameboy, Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, and the Analogue Pocket. It's currently priced at £45.00 or that's around $57USD. So a bit pricey for something like this. Would you spend that much money on a new game for a retro console? You can buy the game here - https://www.phoenixware.co.uk/product/cel-story/ And a press release about it can be found here - https://thegg.net/press-releases/the-epic-sci-fi-adventure-cel-story-is-available-for-the-nintendo-game-boy/

VR Skater is a VR skating game by DEFICIT Games that is currently in an early access state. It's currently available for steam but is coming out for the PSVR 2 once it comes out of its early access stage. It's good to know we have an option for skating games like this, because I can see a skating game in VR working quite well if done right. The game does have pretty good reviews on steam, though it's only been reviewed by 191 people. This game is already available for purchase on steam under early access, but come January 15th, it should also release for the PSVR 2 and should come out of early access. Steam - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1285920/VR_Skater/ Looks like it'd be kind of easy to control, so if I can ever afford to get my hands on a VR headset or a PSVR 2, I'll probably check this out eventually. More on this news (PSVR 2 release date, etc - https://xrsource.net/5108/vr-skater-grinds-out-of-early-access-next-month/)

I'm surprised there's no topic on this game yet, but then again I didn't even know about this game until recently, as I've been seeing videos of the game on Instagram, and it looks like the game has received an increase in popularity due to it. I just downloaded it on Xbox Game pass and have yet to play it. Who here has played it? Is it any fun? I hear it's a 50 vs 50 tactical fps that takes place during WWII. Reminds me of when Call of Duty used to be good, and actually looks to be a more realistic take than most COD games have done in recent years.

Take this with a grain of salt, I don't know how true this is, but if true, would be pretty cool I think. According to this article - https://www.gamefile.news/p/sea-of-thieves-playstation a source within Microsoft teased that there was some interest in bringing Sea of Thieves and some other Xbox exclusives over the the PS5 and even the Switch. I don't know if any of that will happen, but I did hear rumors that Microsoft wanted to put their games on other platforms a while back. Do you think it could happen?

Samsung is working their way up to cloud gaming, and part of that is making their own controller, well not exactly. Samsung will be teaming up with other controller makers to make Samsung branded controllers. They will be working with PDP (Performance Designed Products), which are known for their controllers. I have a few Xbox Controllers by them and they are pretty decent in terms of cheap controllers. The new one from Samsung & PDP is said to be going for $49.99. That's a decent price considering a new Xbox or PS5 controller will cost you around $55-$60 or more. These new controllers are meant for Samsung tvs though, as they're trying to build on their cloud gaming. But, I'm willing to bet these controllers will work on PC as well. More on this news can be found here - https://www.zdnet.com/home-and-office/home-entertainment/samsung-has-its-own-line-of-video-game-controllers-now-heres-the-first-model/

Has anyone played this game? It looks like it's inspired by fatal frame and a bit of Silent Hill. Though I did get some Deadly Premonition vibes from the trailer. It's a third-person horror game from the team at Digital Happiness. I can't say I've heard of them before, but I'll admit this looks decent enough. Just wonder how the switch will handle it. Doesn't look like it'll be a resource hog or anything like that. Is this a buy for you? More on this news here - https://thegg.net/press-releases/the-third-person-horror-game-dreadout-2-is-coming-to-the-nintendo-switch-on-january-18th-2024/

It's surprising to me how much Rockstar has forgotten about their original GTA games that featured a top-down perspective. They did it again with Chinatown Wars, but that's really been it since. I'm surprised we haven't gotten a remaster of the original games. I think fans would love it, and it would bring attention to what started GTA on the mega popularity it is at today. And without those initial games, we might not have ever had GTA as we know it today. With that being said, do you think a remaster or remake of the classic GTA titles would work? I'd love to see Grand Theft Auto and its expansion packs (London 1969 and London 1961) as well as GTA 2. I hear the GBA version was also top-down so maybe GTA Advance as well. I doubt Rockstar would bother to make this a reality, but I think fans would buy it up. And I imagine it'd be a lot easier to do than what they did with the recent remaster trilogy. What do you think?

New details have leaked about an upcoming handheld console from MSI called the MSI Claw. There was an image leaked of the new handheld and it looks pretty decent. Looks similar to what ROG and the Steamdeck have done, but I'm liking the color scheme more with the Claw. You can view the tweet showcasing the new handheld below. What do you think? As for the specs, It'll have an intel processor, 32GB or ram, Windows 11 pro and more. You can see the full list of specs here - https://mp1st.com/news/msi-claw-gaming-handheld-image-and-specs-leak https://twitter.com/wxnod/status/1743109589980385512?s=20 Some of these specs may not be 100% legit, considering this is from a leak, these can change before release.

There's a lot of games I found growing up, that truly were something special. The likes of most GTA games I'd like to revisit for the very first time. For me, I think it would be either Sonic the Hedgehog, or Super Mario Bros. 1 and 3. As a kid those games were life changing to me. They're what got me into gaming. So to go back and experience them for the first time, I think would be cool. What are some games you'd like to experience for the first time again?