@peteskerritt.com The Pope knows that the majority of people won’t stop watching his platform, no matter how shitty it (or he) is. Video game fans need their trailers. They need to be mad about award winners and losers (even if only a precious few are shown on camera).
There’s nothing to really fill a void.
@peteskerritt.com To earn a quarterback rating of 0.0 is quite the feat.
@peteskerritt.com Key cards are a waste of plastic. Digital with a catch. If it’s less than 10-15GB, I just buy digitally and save myself the step of having the get up and pop the license key in.
But third-party monsters larger than that just go on the XSX which has 3TB of storage and plenty of room.
@peteskerritt.com Don’t get me wrong, now— FarSight’s tables could be quite buggy at times with unexpected behaviors. The team was not perfect… not even close.
But you could get in a scoring zone with FarSight. Zen? Not so much, at least not anymore.
Zen’s own tables are more forgiving, which is weird.
@hexxmaniac.bsky.social We need a team to branch out and find the root cause.
@peteskerritt.com Ultimately, it’s a decision individual consumers will make. Will you reject AI, thus slowing or stopping new game purchases… or is AI just not that big a deal, and will you keep the status quo? That’s what will define the future. Not a grand-scale movement, but individual choice.
@peteskerritt.com The industry knows that consumers won’t seriously turn against them. They’ll learn to accept AI in game development like they’ve done with practically everything else. They think it’s just a small group of people with loud voices complaining, so their outrage matters not.
@peteskerritt.com The hubris of the modern video game industry prevents it from taking public outcry and threat of boycotts seriously. It’s so used to consumers bending over and accepting what’s shoveled toward them that nothing shy of a complete financial collapse will force change on something like the AI takeover.
@hexxmaniac.bsky.social UnbeLEAFable.
@peteskerritt.com It was the biggest telegraphed beatdown in the console space since SEGA sabotaged the Saturn in the US and Nintendo rejected CD-ROM tech with N64. That was also an easy win for Sony, despite the PlayStation’s freshman console status.
Steve Race’s “$299” still reverberates in my brain.
@peteskerritt.com The original Xbox is still a very worthwhile machine to own today. Many of the games are relatively inexpensive, so (re)building a decent library isn’t too fiscally challenging. PS2 has more games, and Gamecube has key exclusives, but Xbox might be THE way to get the general Gen6 experience.
@peteskerritt.com Multiplatform games tended to run best on the Xbox, thanks to its power under the hood. The onboard hard drive meant a lesser need (if at all) for memory cards— and, for sports video game players like me, it was a godsend. Sports sims on PS2 often most or all of the space on a single memory card.
@peteskerritt.com Microsoft built on the modem-in-the-box strategy that the failed Dreamcast had, and upped the ante by supporting broadband with the Xbox. Xbox LIVE (RIP) was the first paid online service for consoles, clocking in at $50/year. It was a nifty option, but nowhere near a necessity for gaming.
@peteskerritt.com The choice to lock DVD playback behind an extra peripheral was dumb. Microsoft’s biggest competitor (and juggernaut in the space) in the PS2 had free DVD playback, which unquestionably made it a very popular machine and gave it a distinct advantage over Microsoft’s more powerful box.
@peteskerritt.com Custom soundtracks were a big deal. Ripping tracks from your favorite CDs and using them as music in games was sweet— I did this with the Burnout games, for example. Oh, and for Links 2004.
The hard drive also allowed for audio customization in some sports games, which was really neat.
@peteskerritt.com Microsoft was ambitious at the time, aping Sony’s original PlayStation strategy by delivering a solid first-party lineup of games to go with steady third-party support.
Halo was the obvious killer app, but I like to reflect on Microsoft’s first-party sports games, which surpassed Sony’s back then.
@peteskerritt.com The power of ChrAIst compels you to use the app, for He is God here.
@peteskerritt.com By the way, this has remained one of my favorite SNL sketches over the decades.
@peteskerritt.com Then we wait to see if/when the video game industry can hold up or if it tanks as the economy continues to hurtle toward disaster not seen in decades. Video games are no longer as protected from bad economies as they once were, especially with prices soaring on both company and consumer sides.
@peteskerritt.com Brand loyalists will still stick with their companies of choice. PS6 will be just fine, and Xbox fans will sell their blood/organs to afford that $1100+ new machine. Nintendo loyalists will ride Switch 2 and wait for Nintendo’s next thing.
But non-loyalists/more general players have a new option.
@peteskerritt.com So, being on my way out, I look at the Steam thing in the middle. Consoles are more like PCs now than ever before and I think more players are coming around to playing on PC as opposed to a console and its walled garden.
It could push publishers to back PC more seriously than they have before.
@peteskerritt.com If I was 20 years younger, maybe I’d stick around. But between the direction video games have been going in (which I don’t like) and having more games to play than tone to play them… there’s no reason to commit hundreds (or even thousands) of dollars to a new hardware platform.
@peteskerritt.com Seriously. This is the animated show, but in video game form. It looks really good.
@peteskerritt.com The first “world” is done. I’m having a good time, in spite of the game’s imperfections. The difficulty for some of the objectives may be trying for some, but with a bit of persistence, you can do it.
Headless Chicken really nails the atmosphere. If you’re a Rudolph fan, this is worth a go.