The Interminable Gap

Sadly, I haven't been playing anything new--I'm waiting for the first paycheck of the new school year to materialize before I think about any new purchases.  It always feels like that first paycheck is soooo far off!  While I wait, I've been re-playing Two Point Campus for fun.  They've added a bunch of new items, so even though I've played through it a few times before there's still some new stuff to ogle.  A few pieces of news caught my eye this week, so that's what I'll write about.

Stray is such a great game.  I hope we get another.

1.) The entire staff of Annapurna Interactive (publishers of hit games like Stray and Outer Wilds) resigned this week (source).  It seems like no one really knows why although there seems to be some sort of dispute regarding the film division of the company and the gaming portion.  This is a shame because they've rolled out some great indies.  Apparently, some games that are already in production (like Control 2) won't be impacted.  I'm hoping that these folks make their own studio and continue to roll out more great titles.

2.) The PS5 Pro (the high tech version of the lame-o regular PS5) debuted this week with a $799 price tag and promises of 4k, 60FPS gameplay.  It seemed like people were pretty shocked at the high price.  For console gamers, sure, it's spendy.  As a PC gamer...that price doesn't seem so bad.  I guess if you have the money to spend and you want to stick with consoles...dish out that $799.  I'm not sure the uber-graphics horse race matters much to the vast majority of gamers though--according to this article, the best selling console is the Nintendo Switch (which has graphics equivalent to a PS3).  Many gamers are also perfectly content playing older games (like GTA V).

I'm going to keep it short this week because like System of a Down, I've been down with the sickness--I've managed to absorb enough new school year germs to achieve a nasty cold.  Anyone who works in education knows that it's inevitable that you'll get sick, but it came extra early for me this year.  I'm looking forward to a weekend of relaxation to hopefully get feeling better for work next week.