No idea, but regardless that is an Epic-problem and not a Remedy problem. Remedy only cares about whether or not they made a profit. Yes, perhaps sales figures on PC/EGS would be of concern to them if they were still partnered with Epic for future releases, but as they’ve already moved on to self publishing I don’t think they care anymore from where the money has come, as long as it is coming. And Alan Wake 2 has been profitable for over a year now.

Yes, though if I recall right even that game was a compromise of “Remedy wanted to make an actual sequel but Microsoft didn’t want to fund that so an Xbox Live Arcade low-budget thing was all they had to settle for”.

Alan Wake 1 was a commercial flop. Other publishers thought the IP was a one-way ticket to losses. The Epic deal wasn’t the first time Remedy tried making AW2, they tried to talk Microsoft into it at first but they refused to touch the IP which led to Quantum Break instead.

It’s not that publishers didn’t trust Remedy so much as they wanted them to do other IPs instead of wasting money on a passion project like Alan Wake.

That article is almost two years old. They broke even on AW2 around a year ago, and are now making profits. Would they have sold more if Epic would have magically agreed on both financing the whole game and not having it be an exclusive? Probably. But that wasn’t ever going to happen. Remedy got to make the game they wanted to make and didn’t even end up losing money on it, and from the way they talk about it they sound satisfied with that.

I guess hiring the guy Alpine fired because of this exact reason played out more or less as one would expect.

I mean, both statements in this “argument” are true. Alan Wake 2 would have sold more copies if it was also on Steam in its current form. But its current form wouldn’t exist without Epic, so the argument is kind of moot. No other publisher would touch the IP with a ten-foot pole and Remedy really wanted to make it. I’m not surprised Remedy have a positive opinion of Epic after they were willing to fund their super ambitious passion project.

Is it just last year’s livery again?

HP logo ruins everything, and the two on the rear wing almost look like eyes. The smiling face of HP basking in its investment, I guess.

I also kind of wish it had less black on it. Like, wouldn’t it look better as purely red and white? White rear and front wings, maybe?

The Microsoft logo ruins the color scheme, but otherwise I think it’s quite sleek.

I don’t know if it’s exactly what you’re looking for (and it might have a little too much gameplay) but I just finished the Banner Saga (first part of the trilogy) and it at least offers what you’re looking for in terms of choices mattering and branching storylines - especially going into game 2 and three apparently.

What mods did you go for? I should make another attempt to finish RDR2 at some point and diving into some more mods might inspire me to actually do so…

Actually kind of a relief to know I’m not weird. Well, I mean I’m also weird but that this particular thing was common.

I think an exception is okay every now and then, I personally just like this community the most so I also broke the rules last year and talked about playing Blue Prince and E33 on release last year. Sometimes you can’t actually wait to play a game, you know? I felt both of those merited it, especially Blue Prince as participating in the zeitgeist of that and being part of discovering the game at a point where the community hadn’t even discovered all the secrets yet was amazing.

But yes, in general this is for the more patient kind of gaming.

Let’s hope the upward trend continues. They still have yet to recapture the quality of Season 1, but I thought Season 7 last year was the best since then and largely inoffensive.

Plus the Singapore episode where they handed out burner phones and had a handful of drivers film their own footage was probably the single best episode of the whole show.

Not the most patient of gaming, but I don’t blame you as it looks drop dead gorgeous! I was also enticed when I saw it release but as always with the genre I have to hesitate a bit since I both such at and don’t particularly enjoy platforming and will easily get frustrated and not enjoy it if there is too much difficult precision platforming.

Will be interested to hear your thoughts on it regardless, I did still wishlist it purely because of the art.

F1 fans are not ready for Osama Lind Bladen.

I finished the Banner Saga. I really wish I enjoyed the combat in it, as I’m sadly probably not going to find it in me to finish the trilogy. Which is a huge shame, because the rest of the game I really loved. Art was beautiful, music gorgeous, world building interesting and the story and characters were well written. I really do recommend the game, especially if you can grab it on sale. I love a game that doesn’t shy away from tragedy, that allows characters to die and that lets your actions actually have consequences. The tone and style felt really distinctive and just… refreshing compared to a lot of recent RPGs I’ve played. It’s slow, melancholic and somber. I really liked it for that.

Next up I’m probably tackling The Last Express, a game I picked up on sale a while ago and have been really keen to experience ever since randomly stumbling upon a video essay about it some months back and stopping the video about 15 minutes in with the realization that this is a game I need to experience.

I hate to be negative but… it’s almost an achievement in itself to produce something this comparatively boring with such strong base materials. Their colour scheme is so strong, going with mainly a semi-glossy silver is great and the orange insides of the air intakes make it look rad from the front but…

Why did they stop there? Why is the overall pattern just like a “default livery pattern from Motorsport Manager”? Why doesn’t it follow the lines of the car?

It’s not by any means horrible, it just feels like it could have been an all-timer and ended up being just okay. Still very happy to not have the Stake monstrosities on the grid anymore.

Ooh, that looks cleeeean. I really dig that. The gazoo racing logo looks perfect on it too…

Having Disco Elysium on the same kind of niche list as an absolute obscurity like Nox just feels kind of weird to me.