GameStop is the last vestige of brick and mortar electronic gaming stores. It is a business of acquisitions, claiming most other large competitors and merging them into the fold and is on every YouTube and blog’s “Top 10 Companies Soon to Pull a Blockbuster” for the last six months to a year or so. Are they right? Is GameStop about to go under? I honestly am not some kind of market wizard, I can’t say if their current plans will save them or not, but we can talk about what’s gotten them to this point, in context of video game sales (not the whole who bought who what when and where, lots of that is already out there). So this chart pretty much tells a very, very interesting story. The company went public in 2002 at around $10 USD a share. In 2002, we were still in the world of…
Modern day VR started back in 2013 with the Oculus Dev Kit 1 (Oculus DK1), which was then updated and re-released in 2014 to backers as the DK2. In 2014 the retail Oculus was released and the Vive and the “Windows Mixed Reality” headsets soon followed. Originally, headsets were plagued by slow refresh screens or a myriad of issues that caused motion sickness in games and skeptical developers who didn’t want to develop for a platform that required $399 or more for a user to play, plus have a beefy PC gaming rig on top of that. So where are we in 2020? Well, in sort of an interesting and weird spot. VR is more alive than ever before, with VR experiences in real life being the “new arcades” and consumer VR headsets reaching mass adoption, but it’s not exactly a success down the line. Consumer VR Headsets (Oculus &…
The year was circa 2002. Ragnarok Online was getting long in the tooth and I was invited into a mystical world that existed only until 2005, which was Dark Age of Camelot. The entire game itself was I would argue harder than Dark Souls. Soloing anything was next to near impossible and leveling required a group and lots of patience. FFXI, while not my cup of tea, was in many ways similar and players have similar opinions. The point of the game, the success, came from community. Building community with like minded players who wanted to sit and chat and play a video game together was your reward. It wasn’t power. It wasn’t fame. It wasn’t prize money. It was friendship, something we’ve long long lost in online gaming. To level, you would have to have a stereotypical archetype group of a tank, healer and DPS. The tank could only…
Game Truth isn’t going to do an end of the year list or end of decade list because they’re just bad and boring. Game of the Year I guess is an alright concept, but only if there is some kind of panel that’s voting on it and it’s not just a single writers trite opinion or based off of some kind data-set pulled off of Steam and even then I honestly don’t care. You shouldn’t care either. Game of the Year is the game you most enjoyed, not some poll or some writer telling you what it is. Likewise, these lists come year after year and are as infectious as those “Top 30 Things You Didn’t Know You Couldn’t Live Without” which are long lists of Amazon referral links designed to get you to buy something, no matter what and then cash in on your other purchases as well. So…
Over the recent holidays I enjoyed playing through and finishing Devil May Cry 5, which was a nice change from the previous Devil May Cry game that was a revamp of the series (DMC: Devil May Cry). The interesting thing about DMC5 though, both plot and stage wise, is that it felt like they had sort of wrote themselves in a corner. It felt just, sort of like, a roller coaster ride versus an actual sequel to the series. Nothing much was settled in the game outside of some larger plot points from DMC4 that weren’t fully resolved. What’s even odder about DMC5 is that to understand the character Nico you have to read the prequel novel which explains why she’s there and what she’s doing. You also kind of have to play DMC4 to know who Nero is and why losing his arm at the very very start of…
Time to farm loot boxes. You have until March 3 to open loot boxes and get a toy train, the first multi-hero mount. It’s a must have, although I’m not sure it’ll be in ranked play (we’ll see). There is no tips to farm, just open loot boxes. It’ll come sooner than later. It seems to have a reasonable drop rate, although as always, it can be harder for some over others. You can find more out about the event here: https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/heroes-of-the-storm/23227139/the-toys-are-back-in-town-heroes-of-the-storm-2019-winter-event-details That’s all there is! The Toy Train can be ridden by multiple players, so it’s a strong tool in maps where you want everyone to move together at the same time. Although, it makes being ganked as a team far more likely, it can help keep everyone together at the very start which is what matters in a lot of games. You’ve got three months or so to…
Black Desert Online is receiving a new class on January 22nd, which is a great time to start up a new character and work through some different trade skills. Starting Christmas Eve (December 24th) you can pre-register to get in line for the new class. The Guardian is a new melee class which should help add to the already impressive roster of available classes in the game. In other BDO news, a holiday event is going on right now that’s got some really awesome rewards for just logging in. If you haven’t logged in for awhile, do it now. If you want to start, now is the time with 60% off the game and these really awesome login rewards for the holiday. I’d suggest buying on Steam, versus directly through the site, so you can launch with Steam, but you do you. Finally, the succession event continues with two other…
PUMA has announced new gaming socks and shoes, with a ridiculous idea of somehow being better for gaming than a pair of Crocs. I don’t really care enough about the actual socks or shoes to delve too far into them. The socks have “different modes” for some reason which is just whatever and the shoes are whatever as well. I mean, I just don’t care a fool and their money, right? Created with console gamers in mind, the gaming sock is the first edition Active Gaming Footwear. Designed for indoor and in-arena use, it delivers seamless comfort, support and grip so gamers can adapt to different active gaming modes and game their best.PUMA’s Website (UK) What is interesting, when clicking the links on a few gaming sites is noticing that there are referrer links in play. While, not specifically big news to anyone, I find it absolutely hilarious and silly…
Production of the New Nintendo 3DS XL ended in the summer of 2019 and new stock of the device has dried up. The only device in limited production is the New Nintendo 2DS XL, which will continue for the time being, however, if you want the 3D enabled version now is the time to buy. The same if you want new stock of the 2DS version. The reason to buy now is that with production just having ended, we’re at the peak of functional devices in circulation. New stock is at unreasonable prices on resale sites, above the $199 original retail and sometimes even higher. Used devices are for sale at basement bargain prices, such as $89 during the GameStop holiday sale, making them at the lowest price you’ll see them – it’s only up from here. The longer we go from when production has ended, the more devices that…
I’m serious, the title says it all. Trying to come up with a gift for the holidays? Extra storage. Google One is an example, anyone who made a Gmail account in the early 2000s is likely running out of storage and a year ($20) is a massive boon for those who are having to debate deleting virtual history in exchange to continue receiving email. It also helps with any Android user, who then has a massive extra amount of space to back their phone up and other helpful things, like the ability to call Google for technical support. You can even share a family plan, which is another great way to help. Both Google and Apple allow that. There is Apple storage, it’s about the same dollarish a month. You save more buying a whole year and gifting storage is simple: Go into the Apple Store, choose what you want…