bear

Looks more and more like this deal is going to go through inside Microsoft's original timeframe.

I think it's almost inevitable that one out of the likes of Retroid, Anbernic etc. end up making a dual screen emulation device as the market is getting so crowded for single screen devices that they'll have to start carving out new niches.

Thats supposedly a Retro City Rampage theme for the 3DS but I couldn't redeem the code through Nintendos site.

This sounds awful. How many games are out there doing third person stealth well nowadays, Hitman and The Plague Tale games maybe (edit: Last of Us)? I don't have nostalgia for Syphon Filter but bringing it back just so you'd have a name to slap on a CoD competitor seems a waste.

Irritatingly I do remember reading a story saying that Blizzard were trying to move away from releasing a handful of mega games that take 5+ years to make to a more regular release schedule for "smaller" (although still very big) projects. My annoyance is down to not being able to remember if it was Mike Ybarra or Jason Schrier that said it. World of difference between those two. I wonder how much of Activision is even in a position to start producing other games at this point. Over the last ten years we've seen studio after studio get dragged in to some sort of support role for CoD or Blizzard.

I'm struggling to think of games that Atari own that Nightdive could give a good update based on their track record. Alone in the Dark or maybe Mission Impossible from the PS1/N64 era but even then there's licensing issues. I can only assume that the plan is for them to continue updating late 90s/ early 00s titles with a few touch ups but with the backing of whatever this version of Atari is behind them.

The ready to use stuff can also be a decent first step towards trying different types of dishes as well. My knowledge of cuisine east of Berlin or south of Naples (I'm not going looking at a map to see if thats particularly accurate but I like the stupid turn of phrase) is pretty fucking dismal so buying something like red curry paste and being able to serve up a passable curry with (badly) cooked rice in around half an hour is a blessing. Back on topic, one thing I never buy in the shops is Soda Bread. They all seem to have too much bread soda in them. It's meant to be used as a leavener not as a flavour. It's a scourge that has even spread to most recipes you see knocking about. All these foolish fools putting in two teaspoons of bread soda when you'd get the same amount of rise and better tasting bread from a single spoon.

MS were offering Sony a three year deal on CoD earlier in the process, it now look like they'll get ten. Theoretically MS could start fucking around and try to offer Sony worse terms than what's on the table now but that'd surely hamper any future gaming related buys so they'd be foolish to go down that road.

They paid to make Tomb Raider 2 onwards exclusive during the PS1 era.

So they're adding Mean Bean Machine, but it's the Game Gear game not the Mega Drive title. What a strange company.

Some stories based on what MS have said to the CMA. Microsoft: Ten years is plenty of time for Sony to make a Call of Duty rival. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/microsoft-says-10-years-is-sufficient-for-sony-to-develop-call-of-duty-alternatives/ Microsoft: After we buy Activision Call of Duty will be better on PS5 because their controller has haptics and shit while ours doesn't. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/microsoft-suggests-call-of-duty-would-be-optimised-for-playstation-if-its-activision-deal-goes-through/ I feel like I should post a three hour YouTube analysis of these major stories next.

There was a rumour going around about a remaster of GX before the last direct but the Next Level part of this latest rumour seems to have originated from someone who pays for Twitter Blue so it's hard to take them seriously.

I'm wondering when the discussion about this deal will move beyond the affect it will have on Sony and start talking about PC and potentially mobile. I've been guilty of the same thing myself but it feels like in the short term at least the deal could do much more harm to the likes of Epic or GoG and their efforts to claw some bit of market share away from Steam. As of right now there isn't really an alternative to Gamepass on PC. EA and Ubisoft have their subscription offerings but have either of them reached a million subscribers?

I think they meant that MS had no choice but to sit on their hands while Square Enix sold off Crystal Dynamics and Tomb Raider. If the Activision deal wasn't going through then you'd have thought MS would be first in line to buy them when they got the chance.

Presumably because having the likes of Candy Crush and Call of Duty on their store from day one would make it much more appealling.

When they announced the deal they said they expected it to be completed by the end of June 2023. Hard to say it's taking forever when it could still be done by then.

https://www.ft.com/content/7707705e-b288-4531-b30d-7fa993325018 I know this has been rumoured but I believe that's the first public confirmation from Microsoft that they want to put an Xbox store on iOS and Android.

Amazing, so the officials managed to annoy and confuse everyone watching the race for absolutely nothing in the end.

AKNES Gulikit Hall Sensing Joystick Replacement for JoyCon, Right and Left Joy Con Controller Replacement Thumb Stick Accessories Repair Kit for Switch OLED/Switch/Switch Lite, No Drift (1 Pair) https://amzn.eu/d/4kmJbGC Those are the sticks I got. Relatively expensive for a pair of sticks but they are easy enough to fit provided you follow iFixits guide carefully.

Alpine looked decent enough yesterday, I'm curious to see how far back they are from the third place battle.

On the Joy-cons specifically I don't know how much more expensive it would be for Nintendo to go with hall effect sticks. I installed a hall effect stick in my left Joycon a few weeks ago and the replacement part was, naturally enough, the same size as the one I replaced. It didn't involved any sort of soldering on my part so the joy con assembly process would be unchanged for Nintendo. It really does seem like they've done the math and have concluded it's worth more to them to continue using the inferior sticks as they'll sell more joy cons that way.

Oh my. That ticks an awful lot of boxes for me. Sidenote, it's sorta crazy that we're seeing hall effect sticks and in some cases triggers from smaller companies like Retroid and Retro Fighters while the console manufacturers refuse to embrace the technology.

I think the little black dots near the shoulder buttons are L3 and R3 buttons.

The PowerA controller is the one in the top left which I assumed is what Shimmy was asking about. It's Bluetooth only so always needs batteries. Forgot to say it has gyro controls. The purple GameCube looking Joy-cons are these Nyxi wizards: https://nyxigaming.com/products/nyxi-wizard-wirleless-joy-pad-for-switch-switch-oled They just work like regular joycons and have a built in battery.

https://www.powera.com/p/nintendo/nintendo-switch/controllers/wireless/wireless-gamecube-style-controller-for-nintendo-switch/ A frustrating controller as it's close to great. As an alternative to the Switch Pro controller it's fine as it has all of the same inputs, including L3 and R3, and it's able to wake the system up from sleep mode so if you just want a switch controller with a GC layout then it's worth considering. There's no rumble and it takes AA batteries, which can be a plus or minus depending on your preferences. Big issue is that the trigger buttons are a lie. When you pick it up you'd assume it works like a GC controller as they feel the same with a bit of movement followed by a thunk as the button clicks in fully. Problem is that the travel is just for show, it doesn't do anything and it's only the click that registers as an input. That's fine on Switch but means that this isn't the perfect pad to pair up with Dolphin.