I 100% believe the claim that Microsoft executives mistakenly thought they've just nabbed the Donkey Kong IP by acquiring Rare. Definitely seems like something some c-suite ghouls who are totally out of touch with the games industry would believe.
Also, I'm not sure how much of Rare's downfall was due to Microsoft's mismanagement or their core talent leaving to form other studios. Maybe a bit of both.
To be fair, Age of Empires III was bad, and the last project Ensemble was working on before they got shuttered was a Halo MMO.
Also, Robot Entertainment (the studio that rose from the ashes of Ensemble) were the initial developers of Age of Empires Online, which was P2W slop that 90% of players couldn't run because Games For Windows LIVE was a buggy crock of shit. And since then they've released nothing but Orcs Must Die games.
Eighteen months ago, I was an advocate for Microsoft buying Activision Blizzard, because I didn't think anybody could have done a worse job than Bobby Kotick.
Phil Spencer has proven me wrong. This arsehole tried to shut down Tango Gameworks after they literally shadowdropped a critically acclaimed GOTY contender.
Ouch, Chávez Jr isn't having a good week. Imagine losing a boxing match to Jake Paul of all people, then getting deported.
Reminds me of this really annoying "I don't do politics" advert that was airing on British TV two decades ago. Like, I'm surprised the ad didn't end with a punch to the face.
What is Zidane gonna do? Walk up to their president and headbutt him?
I'm more shocked it hasn't already happened to Extinction Rebellion, Insulate Britain or Just Stop Oil.
But I guess blockading motorways and rocking up to art museums dressed like extras from a Wham music video and defacing paintings makes you less of a threat than wanting Netanyahu to stop his genocide of the Palestinian people.
United Kingdom (Bristol.)
Used to be pretty decent, but now the NHS is chronically overbooked and underfunded. Ambulances can take hours to come.
Only way to get a GP appointment is to literally call my practice at 8AM on the dot, wait in the queue and hope you're lucky to have your call answered before all the appointments are gone. There is no online booking system, and if you call at any other time, they won't be able to book you in advance unless you're willing to wait months.
My dad (80 years old) has had to go to hospital a few times in the past few years for various reasons, and the longest he's had to wait to be admitted into a ward was 13 hours. He had a hip replacement operation two years ago where he was on an 18 month waiting list.
If you want a suggestion for a bad movie, try watching FDR: American Badass Only managed to make it about half an hour in before we had to switch it off.
Don't let the trailer fool you. The actual film is dogshit.
I used to do a monthly one with two close friends of mine. Let's just call them Poppy and Sam (not their real names.)
Unfortunately, Sam pretty much disavowed our group last year. He had a falling-out with Poppy because she raised concerns about how he was spending his inheritance money. Sam had made some friends at his local pub and was buying them pints all the time. Apparently Poppy telling him that he can't buy friends struck a nerve with him and he very vocally excommunicated us. My reaction to being cut off was one of frustration and bewilderment.
For some very important context, Sam has physical and mental health struggles, which I won't go into. He had a particualrly bad month which broke him emotionally and decided there and then that he had no intentions of outliving his cats. That was three years prior to our falling-out.
Poppy did reach out to me two days ago and she wants to do another film night with me and reconnect like old times. We're gonna meet up on Friday.
I used to participate in r/theredpill. It's an ideology that got increasingly toxic over the years.
The part that truly made me ditch the manosphere was meeting a lady on a dating app who mentioned to me that RooshV was doing a rally near her town and that it had her fearing for her life. For the record, that was an incel/redpill influencer who was an advocate for legalizing spousal rape.
And that's pretty much what Palestine Action did.