In a world where games are scored across a full spectrum 0-or-1 to 10, then yes - anything 4-6 would be considered middle of the road.

However, due to a number of factors - that’s unfortunately not the reality we find ourselves in.

Firstly, “mid” is hard to define as it can mean anything from ‘mediocre’ to ‘fine, but forgettable’.

Secondly, ratings/scores tend to skew upward as people tend to reserve 1s for outright scams, broken games and review bombs. With 2 & 3 often used for ‘asset flips’ and similar non-games - so we end up grading on a curve from 4-10.

This also works well for mainstream outlets as it keeps advertisers happy, due to arbitrarily inflated scores.

Lastly, in a world of cumulative media (new releases don’t cause older ones to stop existing) - even ostensibly good games will fall by the wayside as players have access to 10/10 titles from previous years.

So all things considered, a 7/10 is well and truly “mid” in this topsy-turvey IGN-eque world

Conspiracy Theory: All that hubbub about an $80 base price was just to deflect from the fact that most sales are likely going to be funneled to the $100/130 editions…

Honest question; was it not possible to mod the original JoyCons to add hall-effect joysticks?

Yes, end users should not be responsible for having to do this - but if a cottage industry exists to repair/upgrade drifting joycons that would be awesome to see.

Yes, it was developed by Curt Shilling’s 38 Studios - but it was actually largely financed by the state of Rhode Island, and the studio ended up defaulting on payments!

Honestly, the story of the game’s development was more interesting than the story within the game itself!

Oh no doubt, my (vague) memories of it are definitely in vivid bright colours.

I originally got it as I was looking for a single player World of Warcraft-like experience, and I did play through a significant portion of the main story - but eventually went back to WoW as it didn’t quite scratch that itch enough.

I probably should revisit it sometime in the near future - hopefully on the Steam Deck (haven’t checked compatibility).

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

Had all the individual makings of an exceptional game (with input from Todd Macfarlane, R A Salvatore and Grant Kirkhope), and while it was definitely enjoyable enough - it lacked any wow-factor whatsoever, winding up an otherwise forgettable 7/10.

1. Largely yes, though there are a number of titles which are currently experiencing issues: Official Compatibility Guide

2. Yes: Official Guide to Transferring Data from a Switch to a Switch 2

There’s a lot of noise and disinformation floating out there, here’s the simplest explanation:

The Switch 2 will launch with three different types of physical cartridges denoted by serial numbers to describe their purpose:

LB - The cartridge will work on Nintendo Switch 2 consoles only.
LP - Game Key cartridges in which a digital download is required.
LN - The cartridge will work on both Nintendo Switch 1 and 2.

Please, please, please don’t be a micro-transaction laden download only title! 🤞🏻

I loved the PSP versions growing up, and this series holds a special place in my heart. I really hope they do it justice…

Consider this an opportunity to take the money you could have put towards buying this game, and instead use it to purchase stock in Konami.

Not only as an investor will you have the ability to voice your concerns during meetings, if enough gamers were to do this - they could eventually wrestle controls of the company away from those that seek to monetise every single goddamn thing, while shitting on the creatives that created the work they are now trying to leech off of.

I don’t want the current iteration of EA to succeed; but I do want them to return to form and help* nurture quality releases of Command and Conquer, Mass Effect, Dead Space, Burn Out, Need for Speed, Road Rash, Theme X, Sim City and about a dozen other dormant (or mismanaged) franchises.

Could I get similar experiences from other publishers and developers? Absolutely — but I’d much rather we as gamers have a broader choice in the future of our hobby, rather than continually whittling down our options as quality developers get swallowed up and spat out by the current industrial machine.

Realistically yes, you are correct.

I’m sure we all (at least those old enough) to remember that Boycott Modern Warfare II Steam group screenshot.

Idealistically, imagine that for every release - instead of giving EA that $80 dollars, 10% of gamers put that money towards a share instead.

So that would work out to be ~$200m in lost upfront sales, and up to $540m in lost recurring spend (microtransactions, battle passes etc.).

That would only be enough for gamers to own 0.5% of the company after the first year, but keeping this up for multiple years could have a downward pressure on EA’s stock price long-term as they miss their financial forecasts - increasing gamer’s buying power on shares.

Within a few years, these “Gamers United” would begin to have sufficient stake to influence board decisions (for the better).

The best part being that, the entire time, EA would continue to pay dividends to them (currently at a rate of ~$3.10 per share, per year), while they still technically own that money - almost like a corporate savings account.

*Edit: out of the three companies I randomly picked, Ubisoft would actually be the softest target - as their market cap is only $1.38b, so gamers would only need to acquire ~$700m of shares to wrestle control of the company!

I really wish gamers could unite in a way that they buy out sufficient ownership stakes in these terrible publishers that they force them to treat development studios better, and not push out half-finished slop filled to the brim with predatory monetisation.

EA, Konami, Ubisoft would all be ripe for a renaissance if that were to pass.

I’m going to hold out for Cyberpunk 2222, personally.

So is the main benefit to this that you could host your totally legitimate back-ups on a NAS, and access them from any on-network device?

If so, can you share save states this way?

So the gaming equivalent of ‘chasing the dragon’? That tracks!

I’d take SMW over SMB3, but I can’t really fault anything else in this list! 😅

Are there any region-free 4K blu-ray drives available? I’m asking for a friend.

I know the whole “Year of Linux” is a worn-out meme by now; but things are a joke, until their not - best case in point would be AMD CPUs pre-Ryzen compared to now.

Steam Deck sales may not compare favourably to Switch / Console sales - it’s hard to say as Valve are privately owned and under no obligation to publish numbers. But all of a sudden, we can add a not insignificant portion of Windows handheld users to the mix (not 100%, but not 0% either).

Microsoft clearly sees this as an emerging risk, which is why they’re partnering to create an Xbox-branded handheld.

In terms of online representation - it’s also a case of chicken and egg. Online games don’t support Linux due to anti-cheat implementations, so online gamers don’t use Linux. Plenty of single-player offline experiences exist for us!

I know, right?!

I just hope that there’s enough movement in the market to not just push more developers to support Linux as a platform, but to disincentivise them from punishing players through lack of anti-cheat / incompatible DRM.

Also, low-key hyped for the (hopefully) eventual Steam Deck 2 once the market has re-aligned to a ‘new normal’ and Valve can once again push the envelope further!