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 The evening Inbox discusses the benefits of a streaming video games console, as one reader wonders about No Man's Sky on Xbox One

 To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk    The human factor  I couldn't help agreeing with the reader writing in to say that Fallout 76 has potential disaster written all over it

I do say potential because I think there is a good chance it'll be good, but I also think imagining it's going to be super controversial is perfectly fair

 This mod for Fallout: New Vegas made me laugh as it's meant to simulate the Fallout 76 experience… by adding the sound of people screaming over their mics at each other for no reason

I think we all know exactly where this is coming from and shows that a lot of people have similar worries about the game without ever really seeing it in action

 I just feel the human factor is being forgotten in all this, and the reason we play a game like Fallout is because we know the computer isn't going to go off on one halfway through and start breaking the immersion

Multiplayer games like Fortnite and Destiny are great but then you don't have to speak to anyone and they rarely do anyway

Something like Fallout 76 just sounds like it's going to bring out the worst in everyone and I wonder how many people are really looking forward to it

Dettol PS: Also, doesn't its Christmas release date seem like a really bad idea?   Entry level  I can see their problem but I really hope Nintendo don't decide to make a sequel to the 3DS

It's not the hardware that's a problem it's the fact that they'd then have to start making games for it and surely they've learnt by now that they cannot keep two consoles going at a time all on their own

 They're just not a big enough company to do that and you can see how little time they've been able to spend making 3DS games recently and the Switch still hasn't seen any real boost from the extra focus

 I get that they need a cheap, entry level machine for kids but my feeling is that it's got to be something Android-based that can run their mobile games

I just don't see any other sensible option. Maybe combine it with the virtual console and make it a retro machine and then there'd be something to interest older games and give them a chance to play 'proper' games

 People saying they should make a Game Boy 2 or something are already good but who's going to make the games? Are you willing to have a quarter less Switch games, at least, a year just to have a new portable?Shugga   One day  I was out game shopping with my son at the weekend and as I do every time we do this I picked up a copy of The Witcher, read the back of it (for about the hundredth time), looked at the interesting artwork/graphics, argued with myself internally, and then put it back on the shelf and said maybe next time

 I don't know what it is about the game that stops me buying it because there's a part of me that thinks I might really like it but there's also a part of me that thinks I might not and keeps winning out (I think this may be something to do with the amount of time I expect to have to put in to complete it – just seems like too much life)

 Made me think there might be a Hot Topic in this, i.e. the game that's right at the top of your list to play but you just never get round to playing it for whatever reason

Fully expect to play The Witcher before I pop my clogs though.Chris in Belfast      E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro

co.uk    Life changer  I definitely believe gaming addiction is real. When I was 15 and 16 years old I was addicted to Championship Manager

I would sit in school and write down formations and possible signings rather than doing my schoolwork and unfortunately this coincided with me doing my GCSEs and it definitely contributed to me not doing as well as I could have

 It actually took quite an extreme moment for me to stop playing the game. I lost a cup final to a last minute goal and in my anger, I ripped the disc out of my PC and smashed it but it was in the end a good thing to do

I still play games quite a bit but none have taken over my life the way Championship Manager had done back then

Sam   Size issues  As a gamer who deals almost entirely in digitally-delivered PC games but disc-based console games I will say that if the consoles go digital-only I'm out

I recently got myself an Xbox One and two games: Dead Rising 4 and ReCore. The first thing I had to do when I put the disc in was download a 42GB patch

This took forever and didn't work the first time of asking.  Now, I'm on a fairly mediocre BT internet connection and the download still took hours, for only the patch

How on earth will people play download-only games if their Internet is the same or worse than mine? Even now, never mind the future, games companies must be losing out on revenue due to making some games digital-only? I did no market research so that might not be true

 I think a few things need to happen, one of those is making compression a lot better

Making a 20-60GB file a tenth the size to download would go a long way for people like me who don't play many multiplayer games so don't need a super-fast bells and whistles broadband, which probably represent a large majority of gamers

Of course the uncompressing end would need to be pretty hot too or you would still have to wait ages on the install to the console

Hopefully the 'middle out' algorithm works in real life (Silicon Valley joke).  Another thing is a new way of storing data on a console that can make a 500GB drive stretch the amount it can store, either that or sell the console day one with more storage removing the need for external drive

Bobwallett PS: anyone tried Zombie Night Terror? It's like Lemmings with zombies.     Waiting for the future  The benefits of streaming games to the customer are pretty clear and appealing

Games would run on vastly more powerful hardware than the average punter could afford, hardware you wouldn't need to replace or upgrade

You could also play your games across multiple devices, as long as it has a good enough Internet connection

 There's the rub though. As the failed OnLive and the laggy PS Now service show we are someway from having the Internet required to make streamed games an alternative that matches the fluidity of gaming on dedicated hardware

 But with the Goggle news and Microsoft clearly working Xbox towards a streaming service platform I can see streaming services coexisting with traditional ways of playing games until that unspecified future point comes when the Internet has a 1ms response time

Simundo Jones   1,962,000,000 to go  In response to Krakotow, a major benefit of not having a box under the TV is to open up the potential gaming market to millions of more people

 Phil Spencer said the plan is to get 2 billion people playing on Xbox. That can only realistically be done through a service like Game Pass that runs on phones, TVs, and computers with no further hardware required (other than a controller)

Jeff    Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here    The best Lara  Interesting Tomb Raider/Uncharted Reader's Feature at the weekend

Tomb Raider was one of the games that got me into gaming and Uncharted is my favourite series ever

 Totally agree with 'new' Lara's lack of personality. She's way too serious and I find Camilla Luddington's performance very lacking

She comes across as whiny to me most of the time! I always thought Crystal Dynamics' first three games (Legend, Anniversary, and Underworld) had the best Lara personality wise, which was largely due to Keely Hawes' performance

She delivered quips well, but also injected Lara with an edge of vulnerability as she looked for answers to what happened to her mother

 None of the supporting cast in Tomb Raider stand out to me in any way, they just come off as bland stereotypes

Sure, the cast of Uncharted could be called stereotypes as well (Sully is the best friend/father figure, Elena the plucky 'girl next door' love interest, etc

) but the way they are scripted and brought to life by the actors who mocap/voice them make them feel alive and give Uncharted so much heart

I have grown so very fond of Nate and his little family over the course of the series

 Personally though I always like a fight at the end of a game (Uncharted 4's was an epic sword fight against Rafe Adler on a burning pirate ship by the way!) as the feeling of defeating the bad guy gives me a sense of satisfaction and closure, but maybe that's just me!LastYearsModel   Inbox also-rans  Any news on how the Xbox One version of No Man's Sky is looking? I remember the original PlayStation 4 reviews being a rather mixed bag, but wondered if, after all the patches etc

, it might be worth a look?Kev    Crazy to see how well Crash Bandicoot is doing on all formats now

I'm not even going to bother to say the games aren't that good (they're not) but I am curious to see what the inevitable reboot is going to look like

Leopold   This week' Hot Topic  The subject for this weekend's Inbox was suggested by reader Puro, who asks what game did you have completely the wrong idea about until you played it properly?  Is there a game you assumed you wouldn't like, or was too similar to games you'd already played, which on further investigation you found was totally different to what you imagined? Had you already played the game a bit before you had your revelation or was it obvious from the moment you started?  Where did the wrong impression come from? Was it the marketing, reviews, or just what you assumed from word of mouth? How often are you surprised by a game in this way and how has it affected your subsequent play choices?  E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro

co.uk  

For more infomation >> Games Inbox: How much are you looking forward to Fallout 76? - Duration: 13:25.

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Bobby Bonilla Contract: How Many More Years Will the Mets Pay Him? | Heavy.com - Duration: 7:20.

Bobby Bonilla Contract: How Many More Years Will the Mets Pay Him? | Heavy.com

Bobby Bonilla with the New York Mets in 1999.

Bobby Bonilla, who retired from baseball in 2001, is paid $1.19 million by the New York Mets every year on July 1 as part of a deal the former slugger signed before the 2000 season.

The Mets wanted to get the aging Bonilla off their roster and did not want to pay the $5.9 million he was owned for the upcoming season, so they struck an unusual deal that called for million-dollar payouts every year for 25 years.

Bobby Bonilla's contract has become a social media sensation, with fans celebrating, "Bobby Bonilla Day," every year on July 1 when the Mets make the payout.

So how many more years will Bobby Bonilla Day be celebrated?.

As of 2018, the Mets have 17 payments left to make to Bonilla, who turned 55 in February, with the deal expiring in 2035.

At that point, New York will have paid Bonilla total of $29.8 million for the 2000 season, which he ended up spending with the Atlanta Braves.

According to ABC News, "Bonilla's agent, Dennis Gilbert, was an insurance agent at the same time he developed into a superagent (Gilbert's clients included Bonilla, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco and Danny Tartabull), so he was more uniquely prepared to understand annuity-type payouts than other agents.

Bonilla, a Bronx, New York native, began his professional baseball career in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and spent six seasons in the big leagues with Pittsburgh.

He was four-time All-Star in Pittsburgh before becoming a free agent in 1991.

In 1991, he signed a 5-year, $29 million contract with the Mets.

That deal, which is unrelated to the contract that the Mets are still paying him on, made him the highest player in baseball at that time, according to the New York Times.

He was traded by the Mets to Baltimore in 1995.

After playing with the Orioles, the Florida Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers, Bonilla returned to the Mets after a trade with Los Angeles.

According to Baseball Reference, Bonilla's contract at the time was one he had signed with the Marlins before the 1997 season.

Bonilla was 36 and still owed $5.9 million heading into the 2000 season.

The Mets decided to negotiate the unusual 25-year deal with his agent and released him in order to sign other players.

Bonilla signed with the Braves for $200,000, and then spent one more season in baseball, with the Cardinals, earning $900,000 before retiring.

While many have mocked the Mets for the lengthy deal, it has actually worked out well for the team, according to Business Insider's Cork Gaines.

"If Bonilla had accepted the $5.9 million in 2000 and invested the entire amount at 8% interest, the original investment would have grown to $104.1 million by 2035* (blue line in chart below).

If, instead, Bonilla took his annual payment and invested it with an 8% annual return, he would have $95.2 million by 2035," Gaines wrote in July 2015.

"In other words, Bonilla lost nearly $10 million in potential earnings by taking the payments instead of the lump sum.".

Meanwhile, Gaines wrote, "if (the Mets) invested the $5.9 million at 8% interest in 2000, that money would have grown to more than $14 million before they had to make a single payment to Bonilla.

That money would continue to draw interest even while they are making payments.

By 2035, the Mets would still have $8.9 million left over.".

But as Gaines points out, that assumes both Bonilla and the Mets would have wisely invested the money.

The Mets famously lost millions as victims of Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme, so that assumption might not be a good one.

According to ABC News, the Mets are also still paying another former player.

Pitcher Bret Saberhagen, who was represented by the same agent as Bonilla, will be paid $250,000 per year until 2029.

Another twist to the Bonilla contract story for Mets fans is that it helped the team acquire third baseman David Wright.

According to Metsmerized.com, New York was able to use the $5.9 million that came off their books ahead of the 2000 season to trade for pitcher Mike Hampton, who helped the Mets reach the World Series.

He became a free agent after that season and signed with the Colorado Rockies.

As a result, the Mets received a compensation pick in the 2001 draft, the 38th overall pick, which they used to draft Wright.

"So enjoy the well-deserved mockery, the memes, and the jokes the Mets will be the butt of today.

Bobby Bonilla Day will probably be the last day the Mets get this much attention for a while, but just know that not everything caused by Bonilla's deferment was awful," the Mets fan site writes.