Yeah about a fourth of US dollars were printed last year and they keep printing which can lead to more inflation in the near future. Makes a lot of sense for MS to go on a buying spree. Discord is probably next. 

They still have like $100bn in cash left..

Marvelous is largely owned by tencent since 2020, that boat has sailed already. 

Focus Home Interactive doesn’t really own anything so they are worthless for Microsoft, my pipe dream would be Capcom but Sega would be more realistic.

Sounds like SOD3 is a 2023+ game.

As much as I want to play a AAA SoD I’m much more interested to see what Undead Labs are going to do outside of that IP, at least we are getting something new from Compulsion.

Both those studios have a lot to prove because they don’t have the history and experience of of the other XGS teams.

Agreed. I've been watching a few Minecraft videos lately of PC players using a shader pack called SEUS.
Lighting, rain and water look insanely good. Looks like absolute garbage on consoles in comparison.

Man I need to get back into SoD2. I beat the game once but it's gotten so many updates and free new content. I bought the Ultimate Edition and thoroughly enjoyed the game, never understood the hate it got but IIRC some people experienced some bad bugs that I was lucky enough to avoid.

Been playing Nier Automata for a few hours (~5h) now.

Sadly, I'm not fully convinced as I have plenty of points to complain about.
- The map is garbage. I constantly have to pause the game and check it to see what points of interest are in my vicinity. Also since it's very monochromatic, it's hard to find locations you have already been to. The mini map might be even worse. Points of interest on different altitudes seem to be a huge issue as well.
- Quick travel unlocks around 3 hours into the game even though the main quest requires backtracking before that. Weird design choice.
- Controls. There are so many buttons to press simultaneously in battle, my hands are aching after only a short while. LT for lock-on, holding RB for turret, pressing LB to unleash turret skill, constantly running with LS, attacking with X, Y and regularly jumping/dodging with A & RT.
- Camera. In some boss fights the camera changes position in the worst way - usually when you have to dodge bullets. The field of view in these scenes is terrible though. (Specifically talking about the opera boss fight early in the game).
- Combat. The fun of the combat is kinda ruined when you can only take around 4 or maybe 5 hits before you die. I'm continuously running or dodging away because I'm afraid to get hit. Then I'm just using the turrets to finish the enemies, even if it takes a little longer. When there are more enemies and you get close, it gets incredibly hard to see if one of them is attacking due to so many effects happening on screen. It's really a shame as the combat is really fluid and could be fun. Also the enemies (especially the bosses, obviously) are bullet sponges and therefore take too long to get killed. It doesn't make them more challenging, it just takes longer to kill them.
- world design: Plenty of invisible walls. So many ruined buildings that have broken windows/doorways that would be easily accessible but the game says nope. Additionally, there are sometimes walls and other obstacles which aren't tall enough and look like you could theoretically jump on or over, but the invisible wall prevents you from doing that. Same with gaps in trees etc.


So far I would give it a 7.5.

Yeah I would love graphics update for Minecraft. At least Caves & Cliffs should release in the summer! It'll be cool.