Sony blindsided publishers and partners by killing PlayStation physical discs in secret.
“Despite our seemingly close working relationship with PlayStation we weren’t informed that this was happening,” says one executive at a major AAA publisher. “It’s only hitting us now that we may be out of jobs sooner rather than later.”
Related:
"PS5 Will Be My Last Console"
With the news that Xbox is also considering an all-digital Project Helix, the next console generation could mark a huge downturn in fortunes for game collectors, used game buyers and those connected to slow, capped or unreliable internet connections.
It's clear that there's a groundswell of support for discs amongst the enthusiasts in the Digital Foundry audience and elsewhere, but it will be an uphill battle to convince Sony and Microsoft to abandon their plans given the overarching consumer preference for digital purchases - said to be nearly 80 percent in 2025 according to a recent Guardian article.
Microsoft is selling off four Xbox studios as part of significant gaming cuts
"Microsoft is laying off 4,800 employees today, and more than 30 percent of the job losses are in the company’s Xbox division. Double Fine and Compulsion Games are going independent, and Microsoft is also selling Ninja Theory and Undead Labs."
PS5 fans flock to piracy as Sony plans to ditch physical games
"According to Google, as of this writing, searches for the terms 'PS5 jailbreak' have risen about 20% in the last 24 hours. Numerous videos focusing on the PS5 jailbreak scene or jailbreak tutorials have attracted comments from the past day referencing Sony's digital pivot."
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Developed/Published by: Undead Labs / Microsoft Studios
Released: 22/05/2018
Completed: 10/08/2020
Completion: Finished a campaign on the Providence Ridge map with the Builder legacy.
Trophies / Achievements: 720 / 2,200
I started playing this at the beginning of (the first) lockdown because at the beginning of (the first) lockdown while it wasn’t exactly a laugh I feel like we all reacted to everything with the equivalent of a nervous titter and playing State of Decay 2 was like, basically saying “ha ha what if society collapsed, better prepare” and then staring into the middle distance and *really considering it*.
I liked the original State of Decay but wasn’t crazy about it; there was something kind of repetitive about it, it wasn’t particularly narratively satisfying nor was it particularly great to actually play with a pretty arse interface, to be honest. That kind of “fine, but underwhelming” was probably why my write-up of it was so similarly blah? I’ll put it down to that.
State of Decay 2 makes a ton of improvements. While the attempt at a pre-written narrative in the main mode is honestly kind of embarrassing (the final few missions of the builder legacy are so unbelievably tossed off that they are truly unnecessary, and any attempt to thread anything through the game is badly paced at best) the UI improvements are massive, and what feels like a larger variety of weapons and encounters makes the day-to-day play far more compelling. Although I’m not sure why they removed the ability to send AI out on supply runs, and just like the original there will come a point where you’re like “fuck’s sake, more infestations? Right, let’s just finish this, I’m sick of it.”
That might make it sound like I wasn’t that big a fan of this (again) but State of Decay 2 really worked for me, with particularly enjoyable base construction doll-house fun and really compelling survivor levelling (being able to make stealth specialists, assault specialists, etc. is great fun). Plus I actually managed to generate a few compelling stories; I’m haunted by the sequence where my original pair of survivors, a boyfriend/girlfriend team, stumbled into a hostile situation with survivors leading to the girlfriend getting shot to bits and the boyfriend barely surviving. And after killing off the rest of the survivors he had to put down his own zombie girlfriend.
Then, a week or so later, having been totally miserable the whole time, he accompanied another survivor on a supply run and got ripped in half by a juggernaut zombie before my eyes.
I’m not joking when I say I was traumatised by it.Â
Will I ever play it again? Yes! I’m excited to play the Heartland expansion at some point in the future when I need the sort of weird kind of comfort food this is.
Final Thought: I remembered what game I thought State of Decay was. It’s Project Zomboid. That one is definitely in the “will never get to it” pile with Dwarf Fortress. I notice now Crusader Kings II fell off that list (it got replaced with Crusader Kings III).
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Quick scribble as I work in between pics.
Been playing State of Decay 2. I discovered I have somewhat of a vendetta against screamers. Stop creating infestations every two seconds; you fuckers!
With the New Year started one of my resolutions was to try my hand at reviewing games. The first game I played and finished was State of Decay: Year One Survival Edition on the Xbox One.
With State of Decay 2 on the horizon I thought I would visit the first game which I had never played before and see if it would be worth investing in. Here are my own thoughts on State of Decay.
The game starts with two characters, Marcus and Ed, who coming back home from a camping trip are attacked by what they think are crazy cannibals. We know them to be zombies. The two quickly find themselves adapting to the world around them and having other survivors join their group.
As more and more playable characters are introduced, the excellent RPG mechanics come to the forefront. The more time you spend with a character the better they get at skills such as cardio, fighting, shooting and wit. The game encourages you to switch between characters as your survivor will tire and get fatigued whilst they are out exploring the fictional Trumbull County, I actively had Jacob, Marcus, and Maya on rotation.
The games menu system was a bit overwhelming at first but once I got the hang of the controls the inventory system began to shine. Weapons are sorted into melee weapons and guns, which degrade overtime. Weapon fire also attracts “Zeds” so attaching a suppressor is a must. I had a few encounters where I forgot to attach a suppressor and attracted a horde to my location.Â
Vehicles are fun to drive and also double as a zombie killing machine. It is quite cathartic to run over zombie after zombie whilst driving to the next location. Vehicles range from small hatchbacks to sedans, and big 4 wheel drives. Two things about cars in State of Decay, The AI has no trouble getting in or out of the cars, and the cars you abandon don’t despawn. Many times I crashed into a car I had left in the middle of the road without much forethought.Â
The game also spans a massive area to explore and loot, 16 square km of which 8 is explorable. There are 3 major settlements throughout the game you can explore to your leisure, at the get go. Excluding the county fair, you need to progress further into the campaign to unlock this area.Â
However I felt that I had to micromanage my community and return every few minutes to either resolve a minor issue or to do a mission Lily was constantly bullying me into doing. I felt that I couldn’t really explore the world and go out and see what was to offer without feeling like any members of my group could die due to negligence.Â
The game also places a huge emphasis on permadeath and permanent consequences, if one of your character dies you lose them forever. All of my characters survived till the final mission so the constant pressure I felt at the start of the game was gone by the final moments of the game. I achieved this by regularly switching up survivors and not doing anything stupid such as taking on a dozen zombies with just one character.
Aside from a few technical issues such as characters and zombies clipping through the environment, and some frame rate issues, I enjoyed my time with State of decay. I felt the game could have been amazing with co-op, but the second game is rectifying this by adding it as a major feature.Â
State of Decay is a fun Zombie RPG, Its story is fun to play and makes you want to see it through to the end, apart from some minor issues, It’s an excellent game which I really enjoyed my time with. The game is up there with Left 4 Dead, Dead Rising 3, and Telltale’s The Walking Dead. For those who are interested in playing this series before the second comes out in June, I highly recommend playing it. Â
