“I shall call him Stitch Face”
Charlie Nash is back and I’m not sure if he’s better than ever with that face. The game does does look superb though. I may pre-order for the beta code but I don’t know if I’ll keep my pre-order. Especially not for $74.99.
Upcoming new releases listed at $74.99
It seemed like it was just yesterday that we saw Canadian video game prices rise from $59.99 to $69.99.
It was actually just little over a year ago.
I’m still not used to seeing $69.99 MSRP and retailers and/or publishers have already raised prices by another $5. It matches the exchange rate but it’s still an unattractive proposition and will undoubtedly affect the buying habits of most consumers. I am very curious how these price hikes have affected the new generation console adoption rates. Imagine having to pay $74.99 for The Order: 1886? Imagine paying $499.99 for a PlayStation 4?
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Sony raise the MSRP of the PlayStation 4. They did it once already.
For myself? It’ll just mean longer waiting times for games to get to my price point. On the plus side, it gives us all more reasons to delve into our backlogs.
Virtual Reality
These are the questions that I ask myself before I buy anything:
- What are the additional costs?
- Does it integrate well with my current flow?
- If not, Is it worth the hassle?
- If it’s expensive, will I be able to enjoy it for years to come?
- How quickly will it be dated?
Most of these are giant question marks and I don’t see myself finding convincing answers for them any time soon. I hope the upcoming VR extravaganza at next week’s GDC will yield more concrete information but I’m not getting my hopes up whatsoever.
It’s difficult for me to get excited for virtual reality because it goes against the way I play games. I’m not against the idea of total immersive view of a virtual world but to me, it’s like a racing wheel, a DDR pad or a fighting stick; it’s appealing for only certain genres. I can see myself wanting to use this in a game like MechWarrior: Online but how often do I play that these days?
For now, I’m treating it like an arcade machine. I’m sure it’s amazing and fun but I don’t want to actually own one just yet.
Random Thought of the Week
If you’ve ever wondered how player ratings are calculated in sports titles, read this excellent piece by FiveThirtyEight Sports
There are games on Linux but the selection available is paltry compared to Windows. And the reasons why the selection is so limited is due to lack of middleware support and the dominance of DirectX.