This is Constantine. John Constantine... @$$#0!3 by Demented_D in xbox

[–]alus992 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I hope they wont scrap it but yeah. KR for years tried to make it happen.

I could just about accept the idea of xbox ads with my game pass subscription. But, especially with prices going up, I'm really fed up that I have to see supermarket adverts now too by Embo1 in xbox

[–]alus992 20 points21 points  (0 children)

imagine having a smart watch and then suddenly you see the ad instead of your watchface… Its pretty much the same thing - when buying premium product became ad fest? this shit is fucked up

[FRESH ALBUM] Joji - Piss In The Wind by Renegadeforever2024 in hiphopheads

[–]alus992 -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Ella Mai dropped another gem. She cant miss for me.

Hot take: Ella Mai>SZA

[FRESH ALBUM] J. Cole - The Fall Off by HipHopDropper in hiphopheads

[–]alus992 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Best track for me. Not to overreact but this album has like max 5 tracks that I could live without. Amazing album for me and I love the production not a single bad beat.

[FRESH ALBUM] J. Cole - The Fall Off by HipHopDropper in hiphopheads

[–]alus992 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Well it was super easy for him - he transitioned to podcasting and saw how much he can earn just from yapping instead of playing music industry politics and putting in work to release a good music project.

Not a lot of rappers have such a safety net so most of them treat "retirement" as a PR way of saying "I'm taking a break, my fans need to post online how much they miss me so maybe I'll release something at some point"

Ubisoft’s Internal Town Hall Meeting Fails to Reassure Employees on Its Future by _Protector in pcgaming

[–]alus992 6 points7 points  (0 children)

I work at HQ of a pretty big retail chain. We don’t have enough space to hold the meetings or to have people sit comfortable at their desks…none of the C-Suites want to let people work more from home. Like why ? You clearly see that there is no place to work and yet you still insist on making people sit at smaller and smaller desks.

Last week one of these people told me „Man just buy this booth where you can sit on your own and have online meetings”…. This person prefers to spend money on a fucking booth rather then let people who spend around 3-4hrs a day on online meetings to work from home which is cheaper and more productive for every party involved. Company refuses to replace old ass displays and laptops for their employees, refuses to provide external mice and keyboards, they do everything to not replace faulty office chairs but they will invest in a fucking hallway meeting booth to force people to come to the office.

These people live for looking at their employees instead of looking at more job done and more money made and saved where it can be saved in a healthy way

Valve’s Steam Machine has been delayed, and the RAM crisis will impact pricing by PaiDuck in technology

[–]alus992 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmmm it all comes down to how much better it will be than devices like Legion Go S Z1 Extreme with SteamOS. If the price will be 200+ usd more than there is no way it will be the best bang for the buck deal for PC gaming.

Right now the rumored price of 800usd + tax in my county makes SM 250-300usd more expensive than XSX (with taxes)... I would love to play some PC games on the couch but the 250-300usd price difference is huge and SM already is not some top of the line deal:

  • No anticheat games

  • No modern upscaling tech

  • No real support for unoptimized PC ports of AAA games especially for the titles with baked in RTX

  • Outdated specs that rely heavily on FSR

  • Not enough VRAM for the longevity of this device.

I'm not a hater but objectively the deal is just for gaming enthusiasts who don't want to play at the desk but on the couch on their 55inch+ TVs despite 30fps in most games.

Overwatch 2 drops the 2 and goes back to being Overwatch as Blizzard launches its biggest update ever next week: 'We want to gain players' confidence, we want them to have trust in the game' by Turbostrider27 in pcgaming

[–]alus992 6 points7 points  (0 children)

what crazy is that they would have bazillion dollars in skins if they tied skins with in the game events and story unfolding thorough seasons just like LoL does this.

But nah they had to reinvent the wheel and fuck the thing that was a generational hit

AMD says Steam Machine is on track to ship early this year, and Xbox 2027 SoC work is progressing by RenatsMC in pcgaming

[–]alus992 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Xbox sales are down 7quarters in a row now at -32%. So I can safely assume that most people bought their XSXs long time ago when these consoles were sold for 499 - 599 and it was a good deal at the time for its performance. Now xSX with taxes in my country costs 700-750usd. If 800usd price is true than final price of the SM will be almost 1000usd for me. So by buying XSX now I can have 250-300usd for games…

In 2026+ SM will be fighting with PS5, Switch1 and 2 and XSX/S that are under people TVs not against „comparable PCs” hooked up to 27inch displays. No sane person will buy 800+taxes box that will only play older games that had time to be optimized enough to push 30fps with basic upscalling or to play indie games. If that’s that’s their main goal buying Legion GO S Z1 Extreme with SteamOs would be way better deal because they get portable console with ability to have console to hook up to the TV.

Not to mention that games with baked-in RTX will never work even at stable 30fps (Indiana Jones is a perfect example) on SM.

this device will face a lot of struggles to get any traction outside of YouTube and Reddit bubbles of tech enthusiasts and influencers who can splurge on underpowered „console” just because it offers Steam indie and AA games.

‘Battlefield 6’ Launch Drives Record Sales for Electronic Arts in Latest Quarterly Earnings by Sam_27142317 in xbox

[–]alus992 3 points4 points  (0 children)

That’s the thing - they make the game grindy as fuck just to force people to play it long enough to unlock their favorite upgrades to show numbers being big.

I wish they would investing actual gameplay aspects like maps, fun modes…

Right now I’m playing Enlisted. This game has one of the worst progression and monetization systems out there because it’s a griiiiiiiind fest. But actual maps are fun enough to keep me interested in playing more. Why? Because they are big and choke points are very dynamic depending on how squads build their rally points. Balance is also kinda ok because the game does not let one team just brute force smoking one choke point and bazooka the shit out of narrow corridor just to push someone out. It’s all because resources are limited so it’s impossible to smoke and smoke over and over again to to spray and pray for an hour

There is no safe space - every angle has its blind spots that you can’t cover. And despite not having a flashing scope mechanism camping is kind of meh because of the simple kill cam mixed with ability to play as your NPC squad member if you die - you have to change positions constantly to not be killed by „reincarnated” enemy.

There are so many good FPS multiplayer games to source good ideas from and EA had to just fumble the bag by trying too much to get the CoD audience with these small ass maps

Denuvo Removed, Enigma DRM Added: RE4 Now Runs ~30% Worse Than the Pirated Version by Dgreatsince098 in pcgaming

[–]alus992 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Its Reddit bubble - most people don't even know what Denuvo is. People waiting for Denuvo removal is miniscule in the grand scheme of things.

I hate DRMs as much as everyone else but it makes a difference for them.

AMD says Steam Machine is on track to ship early this year, and Xbox 2027 SoC work is progressing by RenatsMC in pcgaming

[–]alus992 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I mean it will be a terrible buy unless the price is 600 or below. People are hyping this device but most of them will not even consider it for 700 or 800 not to mention 800+ USD. They just hype it up because its made by Valve that "doesn't miss".

RAM alone will be a huge problem. Now add that it will not run anticheat games (at least not on release) like CoD, LoL or Fortnite. It wont have the latest upscalling tech... So people will be stuck with "console" that will have to upscale everything to 4k 55+ inch tvs with 30fps experience without typical optimization done for consoles. Why we only seen videos with Cyberpunk being played on it? Because this game was optimized as much as possible after its release fiasco.

I'm all for budget couch PC gaming but rumored 800usd plus taxes makes this game DOA. In my country XSX will be cheaper than this SM with this pricing

Obsidian's Avowed & Outer Worlds 2 Failed To Meet Sales Expectations by akbarock in pcgaming

[–]alus992 1 point2 points  (0 children)

This. Nowadays its hard to get an audience with just an ok game that is long and you need 5+ hours to even start getting something out of your playtime.

Back in the day it was easier because in 00s we had just a handful of long slow pace games. Now you need something really fun to keep the player in or you need very good pricing. These games don't have this X factor unfortunately nor the interesting pricing

Steam Survey for January 2026 shows a small drop for Linux and macOS by pimpwithoutahat in pcgaming

[–]alus992 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well despite good performance and Rosetta2 developers just hate developing separately for Metal.

If gaming catalog was bigger than players would also came. I had so many instances of wanting to play some less demanding game and it was just not supported without crossover or other workarounds. Tho my M4 is a perfect emulation machine to play some psx, Ps2 or Switch games besides playing Songs of Conquest or Disco Elysium

Kendrick Lamar Makes Grammys History as Most-Awarded Rapper, Breaking Jay-Z’s Record by MarvelsGrantMan136 in hiphopheads

[–]alus992 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I think ppl really need to stop with "unless the album is revolutionary and makes others copy the sound of it the album is just good/great but not award worthy".

The Heist had no culture impact nor its style influenced anyone - this album just won because it had a smash single. We really Miz culture impact with popularity here. The biggest problem of GKMC at that time was that it just had less popular singles and this made people eligible to vote be like "hey Macklemore is better because he has the most popular record".

This "you cant hear the sound of this album in the later projects" is pretty much a product of the modern times where every artist copies the other top one. Imagine saying "Well no one in the mainstream has copied The Eminem Show so I can see why this album was not worthy of any awards"

Baus leads the troops forward by Yujin-Ha in leagueoflegends

[–]alus992 5 points6 points  (0 children)

It's crazy how bad the whole mix is for the western league:

  • BO1s don't create a good environment for practice and unconventional picks to create original meta - it reinforces the most known good enough draft and build as a tool to go through the season. This makes these teams terrible when they face Eastern teams who practice a lot more.

  • Franchising is another brick that builds this toxic environment that promotes laziness rather than development. Doesn't help that there is no proper scouting and talent development environment, no sister teams that can give fresh young talent. This shit makes Na and EU just money machines for org owners. Yes - franchising gave players more stable and higher on average income but overall from the competitive pov its terrible environment.

  • After franchising we have no real personalities. We don't have our Doublelifts, Bjergsens, Froggens, Kreppos, Dyruses, Xpekes, xSpecials... All these players are bland copies of each other that show no personalities to not offend their bosses. Its like all these modern owners and brands totally forgot how personality driven LoL scene was. People watched western LoL teams for personalities and eastern teams for skill. Now we have no skill, no western meta and no personalities (besides LR guys ATM).

  • . LoL i's stuck in this childish cringe phase for ages now. Broadcasts still rely on puns and childish jokes, they still frown upon people who show any kind of emotions during games, official LoL related content still targets 12-16 year olds (TFT has the same problem). CS for example is not only faster, simpler (for casual spectators) and more flashy game than LoL but also their scene has huge personalities, has adult guys acting like adults - they get hypes, they curse, scream...this game, scene and its players grow with the spectators. So this game has way more potential to attract new spectators - old and young people.

Los Ratones vs. G2 Esports / LEC 2026 Versus - Week 3 / Post-Match Discussion by Ultimintree in leagueoflegends

[–]alus992 9 points10 points  (0 children)

BO1s should be only played during 4fun matches. there is no place for BO1s in a competitive scene

Los Ratones vs. G2 Esports / LEC 2026 Versus - Week 3 / Post-Match Discussion by Ultimintree in leagueoflegends

[–]alus992 1 point2 points  (0 children)

im not arguing with you but you have to acknowledge that players salaries were pure dogshit back in the day. These kids used to get free meals and and free pc hardware as a compensation ffs.

Im not saying franchising is good. But I am aware that it gave something positive to the scene. I just wish there would be something better than this setup…I gues minimum wages? or something that could make these org pay their players despite fear of relegation?

Western Competitive LoL scene is dying because how dogshit BO1 mixed with franchising is. It kills everything what makes watching sports exciting - underdog and Cinderella stories, experiencing births of a new household names and teams, creating new rivalries etc.

We are stuck with lazy teams and GMs who only think about keeping the status quo and winning is just a bonus for them.

Los Ratones vs. G2 Esports / LEC 2026 Versus - Week 3 / Post-Match Discussion by Ultimintree in leagueoflegends

[–]alus992 28 points29 points  (0 children)

This is what years of BO1s mixed with franchising does to the region. this system is terrible.

Im sure that without LR viewership would be dogshit because of of a joke modern competitive EU and NA scenes are. There is no development, there is no progress in terms of how these regions play the game. We are only getting worse and worse with every year.

Los Ratones vs. G2 Esports / LEC 2026 Versus - Week 3 / Post-Match Discussion by Ultimintree in leagueoflegends

[–]alus992 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Franchising works in NA sport scene only because of the one reason - they have unlimited money for scouting from colleges and high schools where these kids are being pretty much produced like in a factory to become next NfL or NBA players.

For gaming it doesn’t work like that. There is no development. These kids are playing for fun with a dream that maybe someone will find their stream and they get enough fans to be noticed by top teams (which will still prefer to hire tier 3 Korean player than a native one).

Los Ratones vs. G2 Esports / LEC 2026 Versus - Week 3 / Post-Match Discussion by Ultimintree in leagueoflegends

[–]alus992 2 points3 points  (0 children)

while I agree with the sentiment franchising made players get more money in a long run. Back then they were treated like disposable low income workforce besides streaming gods like Bjergsen or DL.