Community Chronicle: 14/02/16

Valentine’s Day is a strange one, isn’t it? It’s so easily dismissed, very obviously highlighted and commercialised by companies, and yet it does hold a special place in people’s… hearts.

Whether you have big plans or ignoring it entirely, I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend.

The most recent round of investor calls and financials have been a rather revealing bunch, and Ubisoft took their turn in the spotlight to let slip how money is divided up whenever a game is sold, and just how much money Ubi take to the bank. Naturally, they make a fair bit more on digital sales than on retail.

Of course, everyone’s eager for a bargain, and Forrest_01 said , “I suspect only for those lazy people that can’t be arsed to make it to a shop (or place an order online), or people that just generally prefer games on their HDD [will buy online]. For those that are a bit more savvy with their money & shop around instead of going for instant gratification (which I think is more the majority rather than the minority), they lose out a bit.”

However, we’re also blinded by the naturally competitive state of the UK retail market. A heavily edited Gernboes wrote, “That may be true in the UK, but where I live, in Austria, and in many other countries the price drops in retail shops are much, much smaller or even non-existent. Here, you often have to pay full price a year after release or longer – some games just never get discounted – whereas in the PSN Store you can rely on almost all games being reduced 30-50% in the first half year.”

Andrewww added, “That’s why I usually order games from the UK, living in Switzerland, as they are much cheaper over there, even when postage fees are added. On top of that, I get the language version I prefer.”

Ubisoft also explained that the Assassin’s Creed series will be taking a break this year, something which was rumoured a little while ago. It’s unusual, considering that there is a film out this year, but it could be good for the series’ longevity and continued appeal to gamers.

Fragster immediately said, “Good. Syndicate was fun but the series needs to take a break.” While Avenger agreed, saying, “The game has good scale anyway, but with an extra year I reckon they can go even further and create something with a bit more pizazz to it.”

Starman opined that “They need to refocus the story to have some progression in the plot rather than disjointed stories.”

While in the minority, JR. wrote, “I’m a little bit disappointed by this news, to be honest. It just won’t be Christmas without Assassin’s Creed.”

And we’ll wrap things up with the eternally controversial Kanye West. Releasing the first footage of his game, Only One, which is based on his mother’s assent into heaven, it was met with as divided opinions as practically everything that he does.

SamBeThyName compared it to a poop on a poop with an empty cider can on top, which was a rather colourful comparison, while fillip2k was entirely sincere when he called it a “Game of the Year contender” and “possibly even the best game ever.”

JustTaylorNow was more sympathetic to the game, saying, “Good on him, trying to show his love of his mom through a game. Haters will hate. Yeezy season approaching.”

Youles finished Life Is Strange – and I listened to him doing so, as we were waiting for his copy of Dying Light to update itself – as well as getting very close to some of the easter eggs in the Black Ops III Awakening DLC, with a very nicely upgraded bow and arrow.

Tactical20 played through Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: Russia, finding it to be a much more pleasurable experience than Jim did in his review. Andrewww went back to the very first game in the AC series on Monday, determined to try and finish it, but found the nearly decade old game far too frustrating to carry on with, and gave up.

JustTaylorNow grabbed the platinum trophy for Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, which is presumably from the Nathan Drake Collection, while Pixel_nme picked up the platinum for Deadly Tower of Monsters.

Carrot381 dragged himself through the end of the main story of Tales of Zestiria, which was good but a bit laboured in his opinion.

DividSmythe and R1MJAW both finished Unravel this week, but Divid was the only one of the two to back it up with a platinum trophy, as he finished off Far Cry 4 (and just in time for Primal too!). Colmshan1990 also played one of this week’s most notable releases, and played through the “fantastic” Firewatch.

We’re nearly done, but you can head over to page two for the return of the Fastest Platinum boards. To finish off this page, we have the usual submission form for photos and accomplishments.