Conscript requires a lot of time set aside to play it in order to make any progress, so instead, lately I’ve been playing Divinity: Original Sin. I had put it down toward the end of act 2, and it took a good deal of looking at a walkthrough to figure out how to progress from where I left off, since the quest log only helps so much, but I wrapped up act 2 and got to act 3. As combat-heavy as this game is, I do really enjoy the cut of Larian’s jib, even when it’s not as good as Baldur’s Gate 3.

I also picked up Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics, or the MvC Collection for short. I never had a Dreamcast back in the day, and I had probably only played a couple of hours of these games in arcades or via emulators in my entire life, so I never got to dig into these games before. I put together a ratio team using Justin Wong’s 2024 ratio list of Dhalsim/Juggernaut/Thanos and even won some matches online with it, so that felt good. For a high-tier team, I do want to avoid as many of the mainstay characters as possible, not just because I’m not a rushdown player but also because it’s more interesting to see anyone other than Magneto, Storm, and Sentinel on screen, so I might run Dhalsim/Dr. Doom/Cable. I don’t imagine I’ll stick with MvC2 for too long, since Skullgirls is, in my opinion, just a better MvC2, but it’s fun seeing what I might have been playing if I had a Dreamcast in the early 00s instead of a Gamecube, especially with the next fighting collection on the way too. I also tried out X-Men: Children of the Atom in this collection, and boy can I not figure out how to stop the CPU-controlled Colossus. That dude expertly dodges my ice beams, seemingly can’t be stopped once his armor is up, and will air grab me the second I try to super jump out of the corner.

Well, sure, but in a few years’ time, the definition of what a console is might change.

It’s a popularity contest in either case, so the winners will hardly change.

Out themselves with regards to what? For a game to win GOTY at the Keighleys, the best way to stand a chance is to be a game that the most reviewers played, and they’re all going to cover the next Assassin’s Creed.

That last game didn’t break 80 on metacritic. This second one would be quite the unlikely game of the year contender.

EDIT: Also just remembered that game doesn’t come out until 2025.

There’s always Titan Quest.

I didn’t once call it one, and since this is where you’re headed with this conversation, I think we’re done here.

Go check out how the rest of the market is working out right now. Helldivers is only as successful as it is because it had a PC version that outsold its console counterpart several times over. Square Enix took a beating on timed exclusivity and won’t be going forward with it. Take a look around: who else is postponing their PC version and saying they want to continue to do so? Who else is postponing their PC version without Sony greasing the wheels in the first place? It kind of doesn’t matter if it’s harder to make a good PC version; the economical thing to do is to prioritize it, unless you’re the exception to the rule like Grand Theft Auto that can get people to buy it twice.

You have your reasons for choosing to play on console, but that’s not really relevant to this discussion. For any publisher other than Rockstar, you’re shooting yourself in the foot by not releasing on PC at the same time, and even Rockstar might not be immune to some foot-shooting this time around. It’s just too much money left on the table. It would be like if a third party decided to launch on Xbox but not PlayStation; PlayStation is just too big of a market of potential players to ignore. PC is larger still.

You wouldn’t put out console first and PC later, if you were any other company, because then your marketing spend has to be split between two dates, and PC players won’t put as much value on playing the game so far after launch, so you can’t command as high of a price out of them. For instance, I’ll buy Final Fantasy and Horizon games but definitely not at full price; if I have to dodge spoilers during GOTY season until it comes out for my platform, I’m no longer willing to spend as much when it’s finally made available for me.

Being fair, there’s no other possible reason you wouldn’t launch on PC these days than trying to get two sales out of the same customer.

I hit chapter 3 of 6 in Conscript. So far, it’s been an enjoyable Resident Evil-esque experience, but chapter 3 has some issues with the environment design. Most notably, there are some puddles you can walk over and others you can’t, and the difference between the two is subtle and frustrating. I also think there’s something lost from the brilliance of Resident Evil 1 when Conscript’s environment is so much bigger. How you manage your resources is very important, and it’s more intuitive how you want to do that when you’re retreading a small space than a larger one. I’d still recommend this one so far, but I had to mention those caveats.

Since Conscript requires a dedicated hour or two set aside to make any progress, I’ve been getting back to Divinity: Original Sin a bit lately. The last time I played this was months ago, so I had to look up a walkthrough to continue making progress and pick up where I left off, but the game is still good.

I beat Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, and I’d say it is largely an improvement over the previous game with one exception. There’s approximately one point per level where there’s just an arena of enemies surrounding you, and I don’t think the game is well built for it, given how fast they chew through your health and your inability to dodge hitscan weapons. I’m very much looking forward to Indiana Jones now that I’ve finished this one.

The IPs were already sat on when Embracer bought them, largely. No one was making Outcast, Alone in the Dark, or Destroy All Human games when Embracer bought them. They might be well known IP by the standards of 20 years ago, but now they’re vintage and at bargain prices.

I’d say PS1. PS2 was a weird radiator. PS3 was a George Foreman grill. PS4 was somewhere between an eraser and someone about to lose a game of Jenga. PS5 is that ridiculous popped collar.

They’re just trying to do the double dipping strategy that worked so well for them for GTA V, and possibly RDR2. The big thing that’s changed even since RDR2 came out though is that PC is now the largest platform for this type of game. Some percentage of people will go buy a PS5 to play this game as soon as possible, but I’ll bet more people will be patient for a PC version this time around. Of course, with a 2026 release date, the next Xbox might be launched or imminent by the time the console version comes out, and that next Xbox might basically just be a dressed up PC.

I can promise you that they do. Often times you can’t solve certain problems without introducing others though.

At the very least, there’s Rare Replay and Halo 5. Plus this was like the very end of the era where some third parties didn’t make PC ports, so I’m sure there are some stragglers there.

Honestly, I’m hurting more for a PvP shooter with LAN, so it’s a pleasant surprise to see the LAN tag here. If it’s got a campaign, that’s just a bonus for me, but I’d certainly like to see one.

That’s possible, but the benefit of the doubt that I’ll give them here is that they’re testing the multiplayer portion of the game right now, so if that’s all that’s in the executable that they’re distributing in beta tests, they can’t say that it’s got it a feature that they don’t have yet.

The Steam description says “single-player and multiplayer”.

With Green Hawk Platoon, we set out to create an FPS that feels larger than life, designed for both single player enthusiasts and competitive multiplayer fans.