Holy shit: Microsoft pays $100 million for Shadow of the Tomb Raider for a Tabasco drenched dick full of criticism.

My new fave line.

That whole ordeal is part of the reason I'll never accept the criticism from certain groups who act as though they simply want MS to compete by behaving exactly as Sony has operated. 

Yep, these people angry at Xbox for acquiring Zenimax and Acti-Blizz, I'll guarantee you are pretty much the exact same people who acted like the sky was falling when Phil hatted Rise of the Tomb Raider. They claim Xbox needs to behave more like Sony does and only build studios from the ground up and timed hat games, but then they'll rage if Xbox starts timed hatting games again. Hypocrisy at it's finest.

Should add it to MM...It's a collaborative creation from a Level Artist at Gearbox and a 343 Multiplayer Level Designer, Lol.

CSG Game World and Mundfish are two teams to watch out for, I really hope that Stalker 2 and Atomic Heart deliver.

I'll never understand the whole "we won't moneyhat anymore big exclusives anymore" because *checks notes* ..... A few people who have never had any intention of buying an Xbox complained about them moneyhating that Uncharted knockoff? ..... Nhaa, that's to dumb to be true.

Finished off Dragon Age Absolution tonight.

The Good
-Good animation style
-Good action sequences
-Good voice acting
-Nice setup for the upcoming Dragon Age  Dreadwolf (4), giving us a taste of the Tevinter Imperium setting of Dragon Age 4, and seemingly revealing that a main NPC character from Dragon Age 2 will return in Dragon Age 4 (the show is set between Dragon Age Inquisition and Dragon Age 4)
-2 of the characters I like alot and I kind of hope they are companion options or at least main characters in Dragon Age 4. (The Qunari mage Qwydion, who serves as comic relief, and a Knight-Commander of the Templar Order in Tevinter, Tassia, who is a love interest for the villain of the first season, and who seems to want to rebuild Tevinter from within to get rid of the Caste System and stamp out the Venatori)


The Not So Good
- Storyline started strong but kind of fell apart towards the end, with a twist that was pretty dumb, and radical character changes.
-Many of the characters aren't particularly likeable, including the main character. The villain starts surprisingly likeable but devolves into a comic book baddy by the end.
-The short length of the season, 6 episodes, greatly impacted character development and made character changes seem to happen way too quickly. It also lead to one of the 3 romances feeling incredibly forced, while the other 2 felt greatly underdeveloped). Backstory is also missing for most of the main characters of the season except for Miriam, Rezarem, and Hira. Would have been nice to get some backstory for the others, for instance why isn't Qwydion's mouth sewn-shut, the Qunari do that to their mages, so why isn't she like that? Presumably she grew up outside of Qunari territory and was trained as a mage by Humans or Elves, but would be nice to know that for certain.

Overall score: 7/10

You may call it hats but most of them also want to work with Sony and not MS. An exclusivity deal makes sense and extra money.

No one says 'because I love Square enix games/Tomb Raider/Silent Hill I buy an Xbox...

MS tried in the 360 Era,   FFXI exlusive online only for 360 (well except if you had a PS3 with BC); Project Sylpheed exclusive to Xbox 360, Last Remnant exclusive...Infinite undiscovery exclusive....Star Ocean 6 months or more exclusive ...   MS is just not commited. If they were they would have opened more studios including in Japan instead of getting old ports of games whose sequel could be not on xbox and will only send some xbox gamers to PS5.

I am 50/50 about the ABK deal because MS just not deserves it. 

I can just bring up what has been said in this thread:

- Horrible marketing,  those exclusives on PS5 will do probably well thanks to marketing while Ms not even promotes their own first party games.

Attracting devs, all those contractors shit and the hiring freeze while Sony is still hiring while teams like 343 are begging for more people...

Phil may talk nice and be nice but in the end the PS gamers are happy while you just have to check this thread this is not the case with xbox gamers....

One person being unhappy doesn't mean we all are. Been a great year of games, I'm currently on my 27th game of the year, I'm perfectly happy :P

I think retroarch confuses me on Xbox Series S