Time-limited consumables as buffs can be a huge annoyance. In a ton of games I just end up stacking them, waiting for an opportunity where I need them, but usually when I need them, I don’t have the time to stop and use them. I keep ending those kind of games with an inventory full of potions.
I really like minor stat boosting items instead. So rather than giving me an inventory full of potions, give me three or four slots for items that can have a huge range of different bonuses and penalties, and they are pretty minor, but they’re permanent. That way I get to craft a build instead of just being annoyed
Don’t know, I really would like to love the game. Everytime a new update drops I try to pick up the game, but time and time again I struggle to find a game loop which really grabs my attention and keeps me playing. I either fall back into ressource grinding or trying to unlock all expedition rewards. Both getting repetitive and boring after some hours of playing. It’s really a shame as I love the aesthetic and somehow casual feel of the game.
If you guys have any recommendations how to make the game enjoyable again, please feel free to drop a comment, would love to hear from you how you play NMS.
That was my experience as well for the first couple of years. But with the drop of the update where you can build your own Corvette, I finally converted. Finally I could build my very own Serenity! Next step is to make my way as a smuggler across the universe!
Edit: this is built after another players YouTube-tutorial by the way.
That’s a sweet looking ship indeed! How was your experience collecting all the necessary ship parts to build this? Do you think it helped make it more enjoyable to follow a youtube guide?
Nowadays being over 30 and having a child I don’t find as much time playing games anymore. Which makes the grinding part of games so much less enjoying and worth while. So following a youtube tutorial sometimes helps me to get through the more grindier spects of a game if its not possible to circumnavigate them.
PS: Woulf you mind sharing the youtube tutorial you followed?
So, as I’m also an “older” gamer, it definitely helped with the time management 😉 How I did it was to first just look up which parts he used and try to find as many of them as possible, or otherwise trade for them in the Corvette parts shop. For some parts I also used alternatives until I had managed to collect all of the “original” parts. And when I had collected all the parts, I then followed the tutorial to do the actual build. And I enjoyed doing it this way 🙂
There are several different alternatives, but the youtube video I followed was this: youtu.be/WyxeEKAnlek
Hehe wonderful, thanks for going into a deeper explanation on how you did it! Definitely gonna give it a try the next time I decide to start up the game again 🚀
I would pay good money for a mod that has Jayne as a crewmember, and any time you ask him to do anything he just walks away murmuring “I’ll be in my bunk”.
I really would like to love the game. Everytime a new update drops I try to pick up the game
Are you me?
I have it installed right now, I logged in to play all this new, raved-over content and found myself on some planet with too much air-traffic making noise overhead, needing to collect minerals to power my ship, and a base with some minecraft-like chests of loot.
I know the game is vast and deep and full of surprises and such, but I have the hardest time connecting with it enough to feel like I want to explore several hundred hyper-colorful planets.
Who knows, in one way or the other we might be (hello parallel universe?!)
Haha yeah I played it back in the days before the game had a real multiplayer, where you only saw other players as floating lights. Back then the game had a more “lost in the stars” vibe, more so as the sphere was no multiplayer hub and no player made buildings you stumbled upon while exploring. To be fair it also felt somewhat more empty as well.
That may be it, I am expecting something more grand or epic or complicated to start uncovering, not really realizing that what I’m already doing is “it” and the rest is just exploring for the sake of exploring.
It’s fun for a while, but it’s a pretty shallow sandbox and after you’ve played in the sand for a bit, it’s all just sand.
If you’re not setting yourself a complex and/or grindy goal, like building a neat base, finding the perfect weapon or ship, filling out your reputations or lexicon, or learning all the crafting recipes to make the ultimate mcGuffin, then there is really not much to do. And, for me, once that goal is accomplished, I’m done for a while.
Each planet is just a collection of random tree/bush/rock/animal/color combinations that are mechanically identical (unless something’s changed. I haven’t played since they added VR). I’m also a gamer who likes mechanical complexity and interactions; I don’t tend to play a game for the actual ‘role playing’.
The hand-written “quests” were fun to do most of the time, but that content runs out quickly.
I have the same problems with Elite Dangerous (I have an explorer somewhere out a solid few hours away from civilized space) and unmodded Minecraft (I can only build so many houses/castles). I’ll pick all of these up every now and then, but the fun wears off more quickly each time.
I have high hopes that Light No Fire will learn the lessons from NMS and make a world that is both dynamic and interesting, but grounded enough in a single planet that it’s not such a slog to explore and it’s not just “Oh, neat, a green planet with blue worm aliens and purple trees, this is a color/creature combo I haven’t seen in hours.”
Also, imagine how nice it would be if they just drop it as a huge MMO and you just drop in somewhere and people start randomly finding each other and building communities. That would go so hard, and yet the studios capable of making that kind of experience are soooo scared of the 2% of players who will play that and whinge all over the forums that they’re “bored, lost and can’t find anyone.”
You hit the nail on the head with your explanation. And I fully agree, played alot of Elite Dangerous when it released but the game loop got boring really fast. I also don’t know how many times I’ve started a Minecraft server with friends, only for us to abandon it after playing on and off for a couple of days.
The same in NMS, tried to make the game more enjoyable by playing with friends, but just the same as with Minecraft. You really need to find or define your own goals you want to achieve. But nowadays with everyday life and a limited amount of time to spend gaming, I tend to gravitate more and more towards more linear/story based games and less sandboxy ones.
I feel like that has vastly deeper meaning than it was ever intended to. A philosopher or sociologist could probably write their masterwork with that title someday.
I personally prefer SMB3 because the controls feel tighter, where SMW sometimes feels “floaty”. But it’s a subtle difference. SMW gives you way more content, but not all of it is as good or as well-designed as the levels from SMB3 (though again, the difference is subtle.)
Mario Sunshine’s level design was not as well structured, but it had a lot of really interesting content. SMB3, SMW, and Mario 64 are my top 3 Mario games, but I can’t decide the order.
Sunshine was rushed and it shows. I played it contemporaneously but never got terribly far.
I played it a couple years ago all the way through when I got my Steam Deck and it had a ton of rough edges. It was a bit of a struggle to get through.
Yeah, Xbox controllers are pretty much standard. Comfortable, not overpriced, great compatibility with everything, no fuss. Newer ones, from the past several years now, will have Nintendo-style d pads, now that the patent has expired, and connect via bluetooth for wireless play or with a USB C cable to save on batteries. Speaking of batteries, it uses AAs, which means that you can actually swap them when they get low, as opposed to PlayStation controllers where batteries don’t last long and they aren’t really exposed for you to access them. I’m not going to tell you Xbox controllers are the be-all, end-all, but there’s a high chance it’s all you need.
EDIT: Even though I use Xbox controllers all the time, I forgot that the newest Xbox pads actually have d pads that are even better than Nintendo’s design. They look funky, but for my money, it’s the best d pad out there.
I tried out Linux a few months back, and one of the things I could never get working was my Bluetooth Xbox controller. The controller would just blink and never connect to the Bluetooth. Any idea what needs to be done to get it working? I was kind of annoyed that it didn’t just work since it’s such a popular controller.
Not me, sorry. On desktop Linux, I’m always wired, and the bluetooth always just worked when I needed it on Bazzite or Steam Deck, connecting via the controller setup in the Steam menu, but maybe someone else here will know.
For what it’s worth, this wired alternative is almost identical to an xbox one controller except for the rumble motor, which is markedly lower quality. If that doesn’t bother you, it’s also less than half the price, and works out of the box in all distros I’ve tried.
As a veteran of gaming on Linux for several years, I have to admit I keep a small collection of various usb bluetooth dongles, because honestly, built-in bluetooth support still remains questionable and unreliable in many cases, at least for me and the systems I use it on. I don’t necessarily blame Linux as much as I blame the manufacturers of the chips and devices, but unfortunately we have to live with the chaos that their reverse-engineered-firmware-reliant devices create. Any cheapass bluetooth dongle is probably fine, the cheaper and more ubiquitous it is, the more likely it uses the same shitty chinese chip that all the others use and that a bunch of someones already hammered out drivers for, but honestly even with multiple different models and brands it still seems like a crapshoot which one feels like working properly at any given time, but usually one or the other will work and get things to connect, and it’s usually perfectly reliable once all the drivers have loaded and it’s all paired up and things start working. The struggle is real, though.
Deep Rock Galactic. I was really excited to play it and I tried to like it. The colors and graphics were 10/10 awesome, I just found it to be extremely boring and repetitive.
For me, deep rock really shines when you’re playing the higher hazard levels. Seeing a wall of the cave move because it’s covered in enemies, and then hitting them with a fat boy gave me happy chemicals.
Man I LOVE drg. A good team on a call made this the most fun I’ve had playing in recent years. Unfortunately, the population is lower and one may have trouble finding new players. Veterans are usually happy to help, but you’d need a patient one.
In Wasteland 2 there is a museum of pre-war artifacts. One item is an undetonated nuclear bomb. If you monkey around with it you can find a big red button. It is obviously a terrible idea to push the button. If you still decide to push it you get a special game over screen.
But seriously, try it out. It’s a great game. You can play free for about 6mo before hitting the free wall, but you’ll probably pay for PRO soon enough.
I like the devs because they don’t do auto-renewals.
so i’ll admit it’s not the genre i’m typically listening to or playing in, but it was fun. without getting technical because i’m not sure how to communicate this technically, i enjoyed the energy coming off the music. i got pumped up. i liked it.
old blues (think big mama thornton and lead belly), mountain goats and “similar” indieish bands, some easier jazz, those tend to be my casual listening. i’m currently working through the collection of LPs i inherited which has a lot of Boz Scaggs and some original Beatles pressings and stuff like that, got this great classical collection of Soviet classical composers another close friend and former coworker gave to us when she heard we got a record player that she got from her mom that her mom got from a Beach Boy she was friends with I’ve been asked not to name and it’s an amazing collection.
My NEED TO LISTEN TO pile is taller than my NEED TO READ pile it’s a little embarrassing.
Man, you’re mean. You can’t recommend that without at least a warning of the box of tissues that you’ll need nearby. You’ll be responsible for water stains on desks everywhere.
For anyone else whose never heard of a playdate console before it appears the crank on the side is “used for gameplay in select titles” rather than, as I hoped, a way to power the device like those old timey radios.
Still looks great, good article and more power too them! (Tho not via crank)
Ahhh that’s annoying. The crank looks like it makes the whole unit much more awkward to hold, especially for larger hands. The fact that it’s just a control gimmick which doesn’t really add anything to classic Game Boy games makes it a hard pass for me.
The crank is the sole reason this thing exists. If you want an emulation handheld to play Gameboy games without a crank there are countless options out there.
It’s a tough sell then. I did a search in the article for the word crank and got a lot of matches but it was too long for me to read. I would have preferred some short video clips to demonstrate exactly how it works.
This article isn’t about the playdate, it’s an article about an emulation software someone wrote that runs on the playdates hardware, so you won’t get a detailed explanation about the playdate as a general device there.
The playdate is a novelty device that anyone can develop Minigames for which use the crank for their gameplay. It is several years old at this point. It’s also very expensive for what it is so if you’re not a fan of just having little novel devices with not much use there is no reason to buy one. It is indeed a tough sell for most people but they have their own demographic of enthusiasts.
I’m a little confused why you’d form a strong opinion on something you willfully refused to read. In fact, even my title for the article kinda gives it away. Or the screenshot.
The crank folds down into an extremely satisfying magnetic dock that it can sit in while not using it.
Also… These aren’t classic Gameboy games, they’re modern games made specifically for the device. The unique control mechanism is the niche, and it’s surprisingly fun to use. You just also CAN emulate Gameboy games on it. There’s people who have made e-readers for it too… Though… That’s where even i draw the line lol
Sounds like this isn’t your thing though, there are lots of Gameboy emulator powered handhelds if that’s all you’re looking for. If you want extremely unique gameplay by tons of small indie developers (including Lucas Pope of Papers Please), super easy to make games for (I’ve made 2 just for friends), really easy side loading, and something just fun to show people, it’s a super easy sell.
But in relation to my article, and their work on CrankBoy…you can watch how they added the crank to the fishing part of the original Link’s Awakening fishing section. This kind of thing is why I think Sodium and Stonerl are doing amazing work, because it’s so different!
Now I’m curious if one can pull that off with simple games if features like high refresh rate and wireless thrown off. Also, price. With that ‘Memory LCD’ of theirs, it costs $100 per unit as per their Twitter.
14 days standby clock, 8 hours active
That’s what PD team claims for 740 mAh battery, it is what cheap mp3 players now have\consume. If there is a space to optimize it further, we’d see even better numbers, but I’m not confident this crank or little solar panel on the surface (whole back panel?) could make it autonomous. Yet, the idea of a handheld that LOVES sunlight is tempting. And, also, the idea of games that are built around slow and infrequent refresh like those minigames on e-books.
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