Withywarlock

That's exactly the point, they don't have Microsoft's budget so they're going to buy up stakes until they completely own it in the long term. How long that'll take is anyone's guess.

Getting FromSoftware would be such a powerful move. Since bloodborne they basically only delivered goty level games. If they acquire FromSoftware they will keep releasing games everywhere except some New IPs once in a decade like bloodborne it's just win-win

I also heard that the Embracer group is trying to buy into FromSoftware as well. So it could be a competing thing between Sony and Embracer on who gets most ownership. I could see those two trying to buy it outright at some point. I wonder how something like this would work if they both bought 50% each, or close to that. 

If I'm paying that kind of money for a poster, it better be printed on the back of a first draft of the frickin Constitution.

and here i felt stupid for feeling bad about pick pocketing the AIs in skyrim. lol!
i can't do stuff like that phosphorous thing...i'd quit the game and delete it if i had to do that. i don't like killing animals in games. games like fortnite and splatoon the violence is cartoon violence. it's easier for me to accept. i still don't like hurting animals in games. i play minecraft in peaceful/creative mode. a gamer friend of mine plays tomb raider and i can't watch. i mod his stream but i can't watch when he plays that game. certain games just bother me and i won't watch or play them. i've been having some heart problems so i gave up my skyrim and all my shooter games because they cause too much anxiety. i've never really been into violent games but during the pandemic for a while they scratched an itch that needed scratching. i don't know that i'll ever be interested in the survival mode on minecraft. i just like cozy games mostly. the most chaotic game i have right now is my fall guys. lmao!

This game is such a product of its time, in world where everyone was bumping out call of Duty’s and making you mow down endless people without batting an eye, this game tricks you beautifuly into playing its game, and you make the same choices as walker and make the same excuses as him too. You don’t even stop to think until someone else has already suffered. I’m glad I experienced this without spoilers all those years ago. And that many people are aware of its genius.

Time for a good old fashioned poll! As topic title says What Gaming subscriptions do you have and are you satisfied with them? Why not? Do you pay for any of the more expensive premium services like xbox game pass ultimate or playstation plus premium or just go for the base version?
As for myself I just pay for xbox live, while it's probably just a waste of money as i don't game online, i feel like i still get my money's worth with the free games with gold program.
Edit : if you feel like i left out any major subscription service please let me know so i can add it into the poll.

Does anyone here still subscribe to gaming magazines? I imagine most magazines don't come out physically anymore, but mostly digitally. Does that count towards this topic? I miss the days of gaming magazines when they also offered game discs. Good times! 

Those were the days when magazines came with a demo disk, while the magazines were mostly shit like opm you just got these for the demo disk, good times as a kid and a great way to discover new games and kill a few hours in anticipation whenever your parents would give you a new game. Oh man more simpler times that sadly will never come back.
I had a subscription to retrogamer for the longest time but that was until a few years ago because they starting to focus more and more on old mostly british computers then anything else it diden't interest me all that much anymore and since it's coming from the uk it was like 125 euros a year for subscription which was expensive for a magazine that i just tended to flip trough quickly once before throwing on top the pile. 
I still buy a dutch magazine called power unlimited every month but don't have a subscription for it.
 

I love this question, and goes beyond just asking for good music. I can't provide as good answers as others here but I hope they'll suffice all the same.
Medievil & Medievil 2: That's not a spelling error, the games were called Medievil. Composer duo Bob & Barn made some terrific tracks for their games, fully understanding the tone the games and levels required. The first game is rather haunting, preferring horror to comedy, and the music does an excellent job of aiding the atmosphere. Meanwhile Medievil 2 is more comical, but allows itself many triumphant and adrenaline-fuelled hits such as its boss themes. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. As a parody of 80s crime films and TV shows, Vice City is as much a character as Tommy Vercetti. The game borrows a lot of inspiration from the 80s and uses its music well for its several radio stations, proceeding to raise awareness of the hits back then even today. Its implementation of music is as cheesy as everything else it does. Left 4 Dead: Not much to say on this one, it's chilling when it wants to be, provides alerts and cues when necessary, and the final victory songs make the player feel like it's not over and they've only bought themselves a brief respite. Regarding Doom (2016), I found the music to be sensory overload and just listened to the first two Doom games' soundtracks as they at least try different styles of song. It wasn't just heavy metal, Mick Gordon's contributions being one of the myriad reasons why I consider Doom 2016 to be 'Doom by committee.'
That said it's a perfectly reasonable answer to the question. I guess my problem with it is its soundtrack is too pronounced and deliberate.
Good choice. I think that's the first game or series of games that firmly grounded the importance of soundtrack in video games, and did a lot to elevate the medium. No longer were they just little ditties or background noise, Martin O'Donnell's music was as much a part of the game as the locales and characters.

Mass Effect games are a big one, with the music setting the proper atmosphere and mood. That Normandy theme always gets me.
I feel like Detroit: Become Human had some decent tracks too that enhanced the thrill and emotions of the scenes, like "Now", from Connor's chase sequence. God, that was so good. Made the scene so much more intense:
 

You can't mention video games that had decent link up with impressive soundtracks without mentioning the Halo Series. The way the game's music flows up in the storyline and development of the game is a grand masterpiece. 

I must admit, of all the games I expected to get a mention in this thread, Animal Crossing was right at the bottom of this list, but is what @Tonberry said is accurate and depending on what the social perspective of yourself is as the main character there could indeed be a lot more to this than meets the eye. I haven't played the games myself, but maybe my own preconceptions and assumptions about the franchise has led me to underestimate these games and develop something of a prejudice of my own about them. This is interesting and really want to learn more. Can either of you offer more information and/or media on this?

Thanks! 🙂
I really need to get back to watching The Wire and The Sopranos someday. I had to stop when I went on my SMT binge, pausing all the shows I was watching. I just got started watching season 2 of both Wire and Sopranos too (and season 2 of Breaking Bad as well).
The Wire is a tough show to watch though because of its pacing. lol I had to replay certain scenes sometimes because I would miss out on what the characters were talking about. It's easier to follow the show though than say... Mad Men, which I was also watching season 2 of.

Welcome to the VGR forums, hope you enjoy your stay!

PS: Nice to see another Wire fan! "What's a Baltimore Knot?" 😅

I always take whatever Gamers™ say is the "true" anything with a pinch of salt (read: utter contempt). I've seen too many people with unwashed arses and ill-fitting clothes tell me what is true or not, and quite frankly I don't care for being told what "true gamers" do. My ideal experience is playing on Easy, mowing through the ranks of the unholy as a supersoldier. If that's wrong, I don't want to be right.
Having said that, I don't begrudge anyone for playing on Hard mode and above: it's supposed to be set in Hell after all, and what better way to experience that than to use the zippy movement and bunnyhopping to evade overwhelming firepower? It's a shame too many people however begrudge me for liking the opposite end of the difficulty spectrum.
The 'true' experience is what you like. Whether others agree, including the developers, is another matter entirely.

They don't get any better after the first ones (not even the reignited trilogy does much to bring in people who thought differently about Spyro). If you can get Enter the Dragonfly on Gamecube (or the Dolphin emulator), that's a decent entry but stretches out the basics of Spyro beyond what it should be, and it's not even that long a game either.
A Hero's Tail is fine but it's not like the other Spyro games. I'd only recommend that if you want something similar but freshened up by a new gameplay philosophy.
If you really want a generic PS2 platform game The Legend of Spyro trilogy is a reboot with more story, celebrity voice acting, and the hallmark of PS2 platform games: crap combat.
Skylanders isn't really a Spyro game, it's more just an ARPG with lots of characters with mildly different moves, and they're not particularly challenging games either so it's not like you need tons of them. One of each element will suffice and they're as cheap as chips on the used market.
Those are the only games I recommend to someone who isn't fanatical for more Spyro. I hope that helps!

I read more into what they are offering with these voice options and honestly I think it's really cool. Not only will it help with accessibility for some, it could be a useful tool to interact with your game even better. Talking to NPCs and stuff, doing certain commands and so on. It sounds a lot more advanced than what I first thought. 

That'd be my guess as well, but I'm clueless as to why Dead Island 2. Why not a game that has lots of micromanaging that's faster with voice rather than going through a visual interface, such as a real-time strategy (RTS) game? One such example was Tom Clancy's EndWar which had exceptionally responsive voice commands, which was necessary because of how much time could be wasted issuing commands in a rather hectic game.
For the record I'm not against Dead Island 2 being 'hands-free' eventually. I can't see Alexa Game Control being ready and Amazon do not possess a good track record for developing their ideas, especially in the tech space. If this flops it might be the last time we see a hands-free game for a long time, especially on a scale that Amazon could do it if it goes well. Not to mention how Dead Island 2 has been in development Hell; it'll be a miracle if either of these projects launch successfully.
I hope, for the sakes of voice-controlled video games more than Amazon or Dead Island's dignity, this works out. It'd be such a well-needed leap for accessibility in games.

Denuvo and other DRM has been known to cause performance issues such as frame-rate drops and loading time problems, however negligable. These issues are mostly experienced on PC especially with older hardware, and while I give more credit to the Switch than others regarding its hardware capabilities, it still needs all the resources it can get. It doesn't need to be bogged down further by DRM.
It offers no benefit to the customer and at worst it means the pirates get the better experience because the game's performance isn't compromised.
It's highly unlikely that it will: see this exhaustive list of cracked games from four years ago. There's been a lot more games with Denuvo since, and a lot more cracks since then. The hardest games to break open are those with additional DRM, such as VM Protect & Uplay, which Ubisoft employs... meaning Denuvo on its own doesn't work. For physical games, I'm not so sure, but I imagine those who want in will find a way in and then share it online.
Regarding carts being stolen I'd love it if Denuvo had a way of returning carts to their rightful owners. It's a shame it doesn't, and this is Nintendo's first step to harming the idea of swapping games or selling them used.
I get the appeal of cracking down on emulators for the current console, I find the practice abhorrent when Switches are available, affordable for what they are, and there's plenty of copies of games new and used. The developers and publishers can still make money on them, unlike say a Nintendo 64. Shigeru Miyamoto isn't getting a penny for a copy of Super Mario 64 sold on eBay, but he could for Super Mario Odyssey bought new from GAME (well, that's not entirely how it works but the sentiment is the same.)
I wish I had your optimism. Very rarely is DRM removed for the legitimate purchasers once it's demonstrated the anti-piracy measures to have failed, meaning we can have goodbye to many games that end their publishing agreements and licenses.
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.
I agree with you entirely but I want to highlight this particular line. Discourse on piracy, especially from developers and publishers, is rarely truthful let alone useful. According to sexual harrassment apologist and Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemont, PC has a 93-95% piracy rate... which means their DRM is effective 5-7% of the time.
Whatever the real figures are (which they can't know anyway), they haven't really lost a sale because it's unlikely that many pirates are the 'ethical' kind who use it as a demo first.
I hope Nintendo have been paying attention but again I have not one iota of faith.

Fifa and Madden have literally been the same game reskinned over the past decade with previously removed features being re-added in more recent games as "revolutionary" gameplay. Most of the same bugs are still in these games and haven't been fixed either.

Now that I think about it - my parents used to make me play games like Mortal Kombat and Manhunt as a kid. They didn't see any problem with the amount of violence in the two mentioned titles. I personally think age 3 or 4 is a good age to start but make sure the child does it in moderation. As for what is acceptable, I'd probably start them off with something a bit more subtle like Ratchet & Clank and not Duck Hunt like my dad did lmao.

I was going to say that but seriously a good shout.
Resident Evil 7 is scary but I was more scared of running out of ammo if I'm being honest. Like what kind of Resident Evil game has scarce ammo? That's the biggest gripe I had with this game - I mean the family that's hunting you down throughout the house can hear or sense you if you're close enough and they can run through walls. You can't even throw a punch lol.
I like this one as well - one of the first boss fight with Pyramid Head while you're trapped in the room with him swinging his blade around was scary but the music and lighting plus the bad camera angle is what really made it terrifying.

Don't play a ton of (survival) horror games myself but i'm guessing you could pretty much nominate any survival horror game as a candidate for this thread. Offcourse one game in particulair comes to mind the almighty and arguable the best horror game ever made -> Deadly Premonition but since i've brought that game up enough already why not leave it at that do consider it my number one pick for this thread. My nominations for this thread will be a bit off as they are not particulairy horror games but nonetheless are worthy of a mention.
Among The sleep -> you could call this a horror game eventough i find it more of an adventure game then anything else where you play as a toddler who is trapped inside a scary dream and goes on to search for his mother, it only takes 3-4 hours to complete so perfect game to play on a rainy november evening, since you play as a child some of the shit is really disturbing well imo.
Graveyard Keeper -> has you managing a medieval graveyard where you bury the dead yourself, offcourse in typical fashion you have to make some disturbing choices along the way as to upgrade your graveyard. That along makes it having a disturbing atmosphere while still being a relaxing gaming experience. what more can i say about Graveyard keep if you like stardew valley and have 20 bucks to spare this will be your jam i'm sure.
Gleaner Heights -> Yet another stardew valley clone yes i know but hear me out, while not as refined as stardew valley it's a more sinister or macabre version of stardew valley, while all the usual life sime and farming elements are there it's only the surface once you start digging deeper you'll find a suprising dark/disturbing adventure game waiting for you. 
Maybe not choices you'd expect here but why not think outside the box for once. It would have been so much easier to just resident evil or clock tower but you know not really a fan of those games anymore.

Whenever their parents decide they can, it's none of my business. As a former child myself though I was playing video games at around the age of 3 or 4, playing a rather unhealthy amount of frustrating games from Super Star Wars to the Super Scope's unreliability (it was an early light gun, you can't expect much from it; well, at the time you could because it cost a fortune). I'd like to think that were I to introduce my hypothetical children to video games they'd be at an age where I can get them to play responsibly: a certain distance from the screen with a set amount of time, and looking after the systems they're playing on.
This is the fourth time I've had to ask this morning and I can only hope this helps with your further contributions to the forum @Nebulous, but what age do you think video games are acceptable to play, and why?