BadlyDrawnRhino

The original Duke was much closer to what you described, funnily enough. Go back and play Duke Nukem 1 and 2, before the 3D era when they made the misogyny of the character much more overt.

That’s fair. I was thinking more about the overall aesthetic, as it’s a bit more stylised rather than leaning towards realism like in 1 and 3.

They are remaking the first game, but I don’t know if there are enough details about it yet to know how extensive the overhaul will be. The second game doesn’t need one.

There’s also the fact that hardware costs keep going up, but there’s not really a big technological leap between generations anymore. There’s little reason to buy into the next generation when the selling point boils down to “Play the same games, but slightly smoother*!”

*If there’s enough development time to implement the option to do so

One of Naughty Dog’s two unannounced single-player games has not yet been announced.

Breaking news right there.

It’s funny, I actually was thinking it’s the other way around. Older gamers have a million different things begging for attention, so longer games just aren’t as appealing anymore. Younger gamers can easily find the time to sit down for hours at a time uninterrupted.

In reality, it’s probably somewhere in between. Younger people also gave increasingly smaller attention spans due to social media, so there probably are a growing number of them that just wouldn’t sit with one game for that long.

Wonder if they’ll be recommending content from all sides of the political spectrum, or just the right-wing content…

Oh, absolutely. I was only commenting on the weird timing, the game was released 2 years after an adult rating for video games was implemented.

We definitely have an odd and often archaic view on things here in Aus. Personally I think the classifications should be a purely informative system rather than something that decides whether or not something should be banned. Films are given much more artistic leeway than video games, and I could rant for hours on the government’s stance on gambling, which is much more harmful than most things you’d find portrayed in any artistic medium.

We’ve had an R18+ rating for video games since 2013, so not sure why Hotline Miami 2 wouldn’t have been able to receive classification.

Funnily enough, I own the game on Steam, so at some point Valve also made the same mistake. But at least they won’t pull the game from my library.

I don’t think that’s their goal at all. Otherwise we wouldn’t see any sequels released on PC, that would be a much better strategy for converting players to console. The only reason publishers require their own logins in games, at least for single-player titles, is data collection. Data is very valuable.

They’re referring to Sony’s stance that all their PC releases should require you to have and sign-in to a PSN account. That’s separate to PS+, you don’t need to pay a sub.

A lot of publishers include this requirement on their PC releases, regardless of whether they’re single-player or multiplayer, and I think a lot of people are fed up with having to have so many different accounts.

That probably would be a better solution. Particularly since the rating system is pretty easy to ignore. And if they do start slapping the R18+ rating on games that don’t really warrant it like Mario Party, people will be more likely to simply dismiss the entire system.

I would hope that the government and ratings board wouldn’t be that stupid, but look at how long it took to give us an R rating for video games in the first place.

I think the government could definitely be doing more, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing to force companies to clearly disclose the nature of their products so consumers can make informed choices.

I think the major difference between the two is that in video games, the cost of the loot boxes is deliberately obfuscated through the use of whatever single-use currency the publisher has dreamed up, and made worse by the fact that the currency is only purchasable in select denominations, meaning you’re always spending more than you’re going to use.

You’re not wrong that there are plenty of examples of physical “loot boxes” marketed at children, but at least with those you know exactly how much it costs straight up.

I wish our government would look into the actual predatory practices that these publishers are using in these games, but this is a good first step. At least the EU is looking into it.

Just want to point out that it might not be OP’s fault. The ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation, not the one folks in the US will be used to) has a habit of switching the headline depending on whether you’re viewing on mobile or web. I wish they wouldn’t, the clickbait headlines can be a bit of a distraction from otherwise generally high-quality articles.

Just make sure your family has a way to access your account. I very much doubt that Valve or most publishers will care that your kids have access to decades-old games after you’re gone. Although I could see Ubisoft trying to take action out of spite, but that’s only if they’re still around by then, they’re on pretty shakey ground at the moment.

Better option if this is an important issue for you is to only buy DRM-free. You’ll have to wait for most AAA games, but most AAA games these days are increasingly not worth it anyway.

Thanks for this, I’m going to try this out on my way home. My main use for Gmaps is to determine the quickest way to and from work during peak hour, so keen to see how Magic Earth’s traffic data compares.

Hifi Rush is in Humble Choice this month, and I noticed they have a redemption deadline which is a bit out of the ordinary. So it’s possible it’ll get delisted, or maybe Humble is just playing it safe with the keys they have.

On top of the tracking within the ads themselves, you also have all of the general usage data that Google sells. They’re double-dipping.

It’ll be on Steam day one, yeah.