TimeOmnivore

Pleasantly surprised at how they're monetizing this. I expected the free tier to have limitations on framerate/resolution/game availability or some other nonsense. Just limiting you to an hour at a time isn't so bad, especially since you should be able to just start another session once that hour expires - tedious, but not too bad. I also expected the premium tier pricing to be much higher, but it also seems surprisingly reasonable at $4.99/mo - for now at least, since it seems like it will go up after this first year. Maybe an issue with your ISP and/or how far you were away from one of their servers. I had no issues myself with just a ~30mbps connection at 1080p/60fps. At least all the important features are free, so people in the market for this sort of service can try it out themselves to see if their internet connection can handle it.

Before I got a decent computer at the end of last year, I used an old AMD APU from 2012 (A10-5800k) with GeForce NOW to play newer games that I otherwise wouldn't be able to and never had any issues. So long as the computer isn't a complete potato (it can play YouTube videos) and you have decent (and consistent) internet, everything works fine.

Really hate the change to thumbnail size on the homepage, so much more wasted space and needed scrolling. Someone posted a userscript to Reddit a few days ago - here - which makes thumbnails small again, thankfully.

Also, if Netflix were to start harassing me with text messages asking for me to input codes to keep watching a show or similar such nonsense, I would just cancel and find other ways of consuming the content I want.

This sounds like they're either pulling numbers out of their ass or assuming people who pirate and/or use their family/friends' accounts would pay for those services themselves, which is an idiotic assumption to make. Such a nonsensical claim.

I'm pretty sure GOG announced a while ago that they're working on GOG Galaxy 2.0, one of the features of which is to have all of your games across all launchers/platforms in one library.

Getting this error now when trying to sort Tech News.

Damn, I hope Ublock Origin gets updated for the new Chrome then. I use Firefox for everything else, but for some reason Twitch livestreams/VODs are unwatchable for me on FF; I need to use Chrome.

The teaser trailer gave me strong Twilight Princess vibes and reminds me of Majora's Mask in the sense that it seems like Nintendo are reusing assets from the previous game to reduce development time/costs and improve on a product that many people have lauded as being among the best Zelda games they've made. Given that TP and MM are my top two favorite Zelda titles, I'm really excited to see where this goes. BotW had several problems - notably rain, a lack of interesting dungeons, and items that felt too similar and boring (none of them felt truly unique, unlike in previous Zelda titles) - I hope Nintendo will vastly improve on these aspects for this sequel.

As someone who put over 100 hours in AC:Odyssey in the Project Stream beta for Stadia, I'm cautiously optimistic for future details regarding this service. For example, if you own the games on Uplay, Steam, etc., do you have to buy a different version for Stadia? How many quality games are going to be available for "free" as part of the subscription service? Are those games temporary, or do they stay available on the platform forever (or at least a significantly long time)? Is modding, or anything close to it, going to be possible? Will save games be transferable to PC? I think the answers to many of these questions will be the deciding factor as to how well this takes off, if at all. The subscription service almost definitely won't be something I see people keeping active indefinitely, but resubscribing off and on every once in a while to play a select few games is something I can see many people, possibly including myself, doing - particularly if you lack the hardware to run more demanding games yourself. At the end of the day, I welcome new services and options for people to play games on - so long as Stadia won't have any bullshit exclusive nonsense like PS4/Xbox/Nintendo, I hope it does well. Though if this means we get yet another player in the exclusivity market, I hope it dies.

One of my favorite games from the PS2, cautiously excited to see what this remake is going to be like and how good it will be compared to the original.

I still use iTunes version 10.7.0.21 with a dark theme skin, and will likely continue to use it for the foreseeable future - its lightweight, looks nice, and does everything I need it to do without any ads, delay, or wasted space. Newer versions are bloated hot garbage though, so I'm glad this supposed retirement may push more users towards a more friendly alternative, whether that be an older version of iTunes or another music player altogether.

I cannot imagine a situation in which anyone participates in or takes this law in any way seriously. People aren't gonna pay for porn, they sure as hell aren't gonna give their personal information to porn companies, and they sure as hell won't be going out in public to buy a so-called "porn pass". If the government does actually try to fine sites for not complying, those sites are far more likely to just ban the UK until the UK gets it shit together. Not to mention that if people aren't able to use the more popular porn sites, they'll just go find the smaller, less known sites - sites which will be far more likely to contain malware. And then there's the fact that even if people do participate in this nonsense, there's no way that the data involved will remain secure; if anything, it will be a prime target that bad actors would love to get their hands on. This just seems like a bad idea all around.

Is this related to that issue with the beams of light in DMC V, covering Trish/Lady's naked bodies, which were only present in the Western PS4 version? I will never understand these sorts of ridiculous censorship decisions - does Sony really think they're helping anyone here? If people want to see sexual content, there are only a million or so other places they can easily go to look at them. The only thing Sony's doing is telling the world that certain games - chosen on a purely subjective basis - will be objectively worse on their platform compared to others. Let the parents parent; if they don't want their kids looking at sexual imagery in video games, they can deal with that themselves - that's part of the reason game ratings even exist. Taking the step to block this stuff for everyone just insults regular adults who are fully capable at looking at naked CGI without harming themselves or anyone else.

Glad to see PS4 backwards compatibility is a likely feature. I haven't had a PlayStation since the PS2, so this new console being backwards compatible will give me the opportunity to play some of those exclusives I've missed out on - even more so if we get PS3 backwards compatibility as well (unlikely). If it looks like there will be a strong lineup of PS5(?) exclusives coming whenever this thing launches, I may once again buy a console for the first time in quite a long time. Though I would prefer if exclusives were a thing of the past and Sony/Microsoft/Nintendo just competed on hardware and features, that's probably not going to happen anytime soon, so I'll take what I can get. Very unlikely to happen, but kb/m support would be phenomenal as well, and would likely push me to instantly buy this console on release, since I'd no longer hate myself for trying to aim with analog controls.

So... TL:DR: There's going to be significantly less content available in South Africa (assuming this law, unchanged, in actually enforced)? There's no way in hell the vast majority of content "distributors" will go through these hoops, so they'll just block all of their content in South Africa. It would be too much of a legal mess otherwise. Sucks (slightly more than usual) for the people who live there.

Really looking forward to this. I have a shit PC, so being able to stream games that I would otherwise be completely unable to play would be great until I can actually afford to build a decent gaming PC. I put 100 hours in AC:Odyssey via Google's Project Stream, the beta to this service, and it worked great - I only had issues maybe 2-3 times total across all 100 hours of playtime, input lag was unnoticeable, and framerates were a consistent 30 at 1080p with ~25mbps (I've heard it goes to 60fps at higher internet speeds, but I can't confirm that), although there were some artifacting at times when my internet decided to shit the bed. The compression looks a bit like YouTube's, so if you're using an inconsistent internet connection, it would likely feel like you're playing a YouTube video - but when my internet decided to stay consistent, it looked wonderful and I didn't notice any artifacting at all. Overall, I think this service will be a great alternative for those that can't afford a decent gaming rig/console - though of course pricing will be the deciding factor here on whether this might become the Netflix of gaming or become a complete bust. After all, if it's too expensive, it would just make more sense to save up to buy your own hardware/games.

They haven't started giving people free copies yet, this is just them confirming that they are indeed still working on the save game migration process and will give further updates on/by Feb. 25th.

Whether you have the rights to something or not is irrelevant to piracy. People want the highest quality content available in the most convenient way possible. If they can't get that high quality content easily going the legal route, then they turn to piracy. They don't stop to think about whether they have the right to that content. If a company bans people from the platform who try to make it even more convenient (such as by blocking ads), then they encourage those spurned users to just pirate the content, as they're not likely to suddenly pay for a service that kicked them off the platform.

Far fewer problems with compatibility. My sister wanted me to back-up all of her photos from her iPhone to her laptop - iOS makes this such an insane hassle due to Apple wanting to keep everything within their ecosystem; with Android, if I want to back up photos or whatever else, I can simply go to the folder they're in and copy and paste them to whatever other device I want to store them on - no hassle. Apple's implementation of many features that most people wouldn't think take that much effort are suddenly far too convoluted and take far longer to sort out than they should, and even when (if) you do get your issue sorted out, there's usually some obnoxious caveat that makes everything needlessly frustrating. Larger selection of apps. I don't have to rely on the Google Play Store to get apps I need/want on my phone. Don't want to deal with ads on YouTube for free? Just download a third-party app. Wan't to play games that fans created a mobile port for? No problem, and in all of my searching for mobile ports of games, I have yet to come across any iOS option. Basically, Apple likes to have everything deeply ingrained into their own ecosystem - which I'm sure works great when you have everything together and only use (and pay a fuckton more for) their products - but I strongly prefer the usability, compatibility, and openness that Android provides.

I hope browser/desktop is one of those platforms this much needed feature comes to. Having to refresh the page 20-30 times to make Twitter stop skipping over several hours of tweets is ridiculously annoying.

Cautiously looking forward to Sony's next console if it is indeed backwards compatible with the PS4. I would prefer if they would just stop locking games behind hardware, but that's unlikely to happen any time soon. Given that the only Sony consoles I've owned were the PS1 and PS2, it would be nice to be able to play PS4 games (and maybe PS3 remasters?) on updated hardware that would hopefully run the games better as well as whatever new games are on the horizon that will also be locked to Sony's hardware.

To be fair, that only applies if you're completely shit with money and lack any capability to think long-term to any degree. You'd have to be a pretty big fucking idiot to do the things you described and spend so far above your means if you won (the equivalent of) the lottery that you go bankrupt. I, personally, would love enough money to be set for life without needing to waste time working instead of doing things I find actual value and fulfillment in.

If they don't have any official means of distribution themselves, then yes, it absolutely should be fair game. If you don't offer people the means to obtain your product, you shouldn't have the right to complain when other people offer that means instead. At best, they should have the right to shut down those other means when they come out with an official distribution platform - but they shouldn't be able to collect on bullshit 'damages' for the time period in which the only method of obtaining their content was through illegitimate means.

True, but we don't have any such system now. As such, Nintendo being able to take legal action against someone for making a product that is no longer reasonably available available again isn't justifiable. If Nintendo created such a system wherein the consumer had the option of obtaining all of their products legally, I'd be okay with them taking down someone distributing that content unofficially. If the consumer has no method, aside from piracy, to obtain content, then the companies who own said content shouldn't be able to do anything, as they've afforded the consumer no other choice. Nintendo could easily create their own, official emulation+ROM storefront today and give consumers the ability to play and enjoy all of their old games today. But they don't, and that's entirely their fault, so they shouldn't be able to punish someone who does it for them. This entire situation is a problem of Nintendo's own making. When there are gaps in the market, people will rush to fill those gaps.