thingsiplay

For a long time, I have this idea how Microsoft should structure and price the Game Pass. I am thinking of making it modular with a cheap entry price, and then having basically DLCs to enable certain services. This would also allow Microsoft to add in new services without restructuring everything again or screwing up the names.

The below list is just an idea how it could be structure and priced, I'm not saying this has to be exactly like that. What do you think?

***
Base
***

  $7,99 Game Pass
      (pc and console, includes console multiplayer,
      50+ games dynamic library)

***
DLCs
***

+ $4,99 Plus Expansion
        (full set 500+ games, including EA Play and Ubisoft+)

+ $9,99 Day 1 Ultimate 
        (including all first party games except Call of Duty,
        plus day 1 premium games from third parties,
        additional benefits, perks and rewards)

+ $1,99 Cloud Streaming S
        (for supported titles of all your own games,
        plus all Game Pass games)

+ $3,99 Cloud Streaming X
        (like S but higher quality streaming, shorter wait times)

A "new" prototype of the game Punch-Out!! on NES was been found and archived. It's one of the most unique prototypes found ever given its a game from Nintendo. There are placeholder stuff everywhere, its unfinished and has no audio. Playable on any NES / Famicom emulator.

Download playable Rom: https://tcrf.net/images/a/a0/Punch-Out_%28Prototype%29.zip

Learn more about all the differences at: https://tcrf.net/Proto:Mike_Tyson's_Punch-Out!!

And the already linked post video from The Video Game History Foundation: This Punch-Out!! Prototype is Unlike Anything We've Seen Before

Important note: Rename the Rom to "Punch-Out!! (Proto).nes", the way No-Intro group does. Why? Because not following that naming scheme is a crime. (Just a joke, do whatever you want.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zLAu1Cy9_SQ

As usual, Sumoning Salt has a massive video documentation about a games world record achievements. Its a long video, but very well narrated and put together. I personally recommend watching the video at 1.4x playback speed, if not at least 1.25 times. The video opens with Mark Cerny, the head of Playstation, being the first who did a speedrun on the game Spyro.

There are no timestamps at the moment. If they are added to the video, then I will update this post with the timestamps for listing purposes (if I notice them later).

There are two new entries for most popular operating systems listed for Linux Only. This coinsides with the 5% breakthrough of total Steam population (finally). But I wonder if this is an error (or April Fool's Day joke?). The two entries are just named 64 bit and 0 64 bit and its puzzling, as they have a huge percentage.

Does anyone have a clue what this is or could be?

FINAL FANTASY VII - 2013 Edition owners can redeem the new version at no extra cost.

The world has fallen under the dominion of the Shinra Electric Power Company, a sinister corporation that has monopolized the planet's very life force as Mako energy. In the urban megalopolis of Midgar, an anti-Shinra rebel group calling themselves Avalanche have stepped up their campaign of resistance. Cloud Strife, a former member of Shinra's elite SOLDIER unit now turned mercenary, lends his aid to the rebels, unaware that he will be drawn into an epic battle for the fate of the planet, while having to come to terms with his own lost past. This new release is an upgraded version of FINAL FANTASY VII – 2013 Edition with additional features (there are no changes or additions to the story).

...

• 2017 - LawBreakers by Boss Key Productions, Nexon
• 2018 - Metal Gear Survive by Konami Digital Entertainment, Konami
• 2018 - Artifact by Valve
• 2019 - Crackdown 3 by Sumo Digital, Microsoft Studios
• 2020 - Cruicible by Relentless Studios, Amazon Game Studios
• 2020 - Hyper Scape by Ubisoft Montreal, Ubisoft
• 2020 - Marvel's Avengers by Crystal Dynamics, Square Enix
• 2021 - Grand Theft Auto The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition by Grove Street Games, Rockstar Games
• 2022 - Babylon's Fall by PlatinumGames, Square Enix
• 2023 - Redfall by Arkane Austin, Bethesda Softworks
• 2023 - The Day Before by Fntastic, Mytona
• 2024 - Skull and Bones by Ubisoft Singapore, Ubisoft
• 2024 - Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League by Rocksteady Studios, Warner Bros. Games
• 2024 - Concord by Firewalk Studios, Sony Interactive Entertainment
• 2025 - MindsEye by Build a Rocket Boy, IO Interactive Partners
• 2026 - Highguard by Wildlight Entertainment

What constitutes to a game to be a big failure? There is no strict answer to this, as we can look it from mulitple perspectives. There is this overhyped expectation vs reality failure, promises not being fullfilled. But are these games really a failure? I mean Anthem sold more than 5 million units. Fallout 76 and No Mans' Sky was a failure on launch, but they redeamed and are successfull now. Similarly Battlefield 2042 and Call of Duty Black Ops 7 are failure compared to the previous entries in the series, but are still one of the top selling and played games of the year. For some Halo Infinite would be a failure, but I don't think it's that bad to be on this list. It's just disappointing like the newest Call of Duty entry. Also there are failures, which I personally do not see it as such, but they are failures from development cost. Shenmue on the original Dreamcast is cited often as such.

I thought it might be interesting to check all the version differences of Final Fantasy 7, as SquareEnix announced a new version is coming to Steam. I speculate it will be based on the Switch release from 2019. I found the following Wiki article to be interesting and want to share:

https://finalfantasy.fandom.com/wiki/Final_Fantasy_VII_version_differences

The following is a list of version differences between releases of the original Final Fantasy VII. The versions primarily covered are of the original PlayStation release, and the PC port which it is based on, as they are the two significant releases for the game. Re-releases are based on either of these two platforms. The original PlayStation version also details differences between the Japanese release and the International version, which includes the changes made for the rest of the world.

Contents

    1 PlayStation
    2 NTSC and PAL version
        2.1 Midgar
        2.2 Chocobo Farm
        2.3 Junon
        2.4 Corel Region
        2.5 Gold Saucer
        2.6 Nibelheim
        2.7 Temple of the Ancients
        2.8 Forgotten Capital
        2.9 Gaea's Cliff
        2.10 Whirlwind Maze
    3 International
    4 PC (1998 version)
    5 PlayStation Network
    6 PC (2012 version)
    7 Mobile
    8 Eighth generation and later of video game consoles
        8.1 PlayStation 4
        8.2 Xbox One and Xbox on PC
        8.3 Nintendo Switch
            8.3.1 Patches
    9 PlayStation Classic
    10 Citations
    11 External links

Am I the only one who thinks that Nvidia is analyzing the gameplay footage you play, to feed their Ai tools? And you login with your account in their cloud, in example your Steam account. They have access to everything theoretically. The Ai can analyze everything...

I was about to try the free tier to play games that do not work on Linux. Streaming could be a way to at least play some of the games I could not otherwise. The cool thing is, I have full access to my Steam library and do not need to buy games for this service. But I really dislike the idea that Nvidia could use all of the information to feed their Ai.