Oh I know, I’ve played it, I like it, but I’m a chronic shitpost enjoyer. I suppose you can’t beat the price, but I think I’d hesitate to call it a puzzle game, exactly?
Hacknet. You play as a novice hacker who investigates the disappearance of a character by hacking into other people’s computers to gather information.
The hacking mechanic is fairly realistic and requires you to use the terminal a lot, so it really makes you feel like a hacker. Pretty short and sweet game, and the soundtrack is pretty good as well
Oh, I really love Hacknet! Played the main game and the DLC. Discovered it one day while browsing Rémi Gallego’s (aka The Algorithm) discography, and found out that he did some tracks for the OST
I put about 30h into Valheim and this feels like it will play out a similar way. I’ll have a blast for a concentrated time, maybe play with a friend or two, then find something else. I thought the mishmash of realistic world and cute cartoony monsters would clash but it’s working for me. Just starting to see the loop of automation and what to look for in a second base. It has a charming amount of jank attached to it.
I spent most of my time yesterday rebuilding my base after one of those grass elephants attacked us for no obvious reason, then a bunch of WAY higher level Relaxasaurus raided alongside the elephant and burned my base down.
Oh, crazy on the raiding - I had a few low-level monsters raid, but fought them off pretty easily. Those monsters would kill me instantly. Not surprised if raid balancing is another bug, though.
I haven’t played it, and not trying to squash anyone’s fun, but this is what turns me off to the game entirely. Early Access often feels like a lazy way to get funding and get free QA testing. They get to make a game without really making any kind of solid commitment to the game or the community. Bugs? Who cares! It’s early access, so they can be forgiven!
And based on some of the images where it looks like they just dropped a generic Kalash model they bought from an asset store (for example), it’s a second red flag of possible laziness.
I hope this turns into something amazing for people who are enjoying it, but I’m going to wait to see where development goes before I give it real consideration.
Admittedly, I’m guilty of buying EA because there have been dry periods in the GameDev pipeline and I was desperate for something new, but I’m okay with it for smaller devs that don’t have the budget for the kind of QA that bigger devs do. That said, the fact that some of these games have been in EA for over a decade (putting aside whether or not they’re effectively a functional product at this point) is a pretty egregious abuse of the community goodwill, and bigger developers shouldn’t be using it at all because it’s encouraging the trend of pushing out buggy messes with 60GB day-1 patches that still don’t make a game playable.
I've got a feeling that the legal issues, even if they're in the clear, are going to pose a lot of problems for the longevity of the game. But, I'm really hopeful that this sparks inspiration for other devs to take on the monster collecting genre. Pokemon has dominated that space for so long that they practically define the genre at this point, so it'll be nice to see new monster collectors come out with their own unique styles.
So far Pocketpair has been VERY careful about actually infringing on copyright or trademarks. People smarter than I am are pretty certain that if Nintendo or the Pokemon Company could take legal action against the game as it is, they would have already. The important things to note are that you cannot copyright an art style and you cannot copyright or patent game mechanics. And even if things were touch and go, the gameplay loop of adding survival elements and an emphasis on cooperative guild base management is pretty transformative compared to Pokemon games. So as long as they avoid adding pals that are so close to their Pokemon counterparts that they don’t pass the squint test they will be alright.
While all of that appears to be true, that doesn't mean Nintendo/TPC aren't able to make this small studio's lives a nightmare if they wanted. I have a feeling that the level of scrutiny the studio will be under from now on is going to inhibit any real innovation, as they're already walking a very fine line as it is.
It's also worth noting that they're both Japanese companies, and Japan has different views on IP than the rest of the world. I don't really know enough to go into detail, but it's entirely possible something a company from the US could laugh off is enough to get action taken in Japan.
Agreed, all of the ‘drama’ surrounding this possible copyright case is largely created by youtubers and tiktokers for views.
That said, Nintendo WILL probably sue but as a formality to protect their brand, and will gracefully pay Pocket Pair’s legal fees as a cost of business once the court rules in Pocket Pair’s favor to keep their copyrights from lapsing to generic use. It’s not uncommon.
Not doing that is how Bayer lost the copyright for ‘Asprin’ in the U.S.
Now if a ton of people refer to Pals as Pokemon the same way people refer to all tissues as Kleenex, THEN they might legitimately run the risk of losing their copyright and will pursue aggressively but I don’t see that happening.
There is no legal issue, Nintendo is suing as a formality to protect their existing copyrights. They’ll be ruled against and shrug their shoulders and pay Pocket Pair’s legal fees because that is a much better business decision than risking losing their copyright to their existing creatures.
If they don’t aggressively protect their copyright, the JCO might just rule that they have become generic and common use like how Bayer lost the trademarked name ‘Asprin’ in the U.S. when it was considered common use and Bayer did not pursue it aggressively.
But that doesn’t make good youtube poop or memes so you probably think this is some kind of hotly contested hullabaloo because of where you are getting your info from.
GTA games are the epitome of shallowness, for me. The story is always so vague and not interesting, you never get attached to characters. Gameplay is a boring loop, but its strength has always been being some sort of theme park. But it’s 2024 and “hop onto a game just to go fast on car and shoot a couple of civilians”
Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Like Pokémon, nintendo developers know fans will buy new games regardless of how much new content there is to it. There is no legitimate reason for the game to be so close mechanically to its Gamecube entry, and I find it an insult to long time fans.
Hogwarts Legacy: To be fair it is a big Openworld but it doesn’t catch me. The Story is kind of lame the voice sounds a little bit too Much like a crappy TTS. I tried to finish it but I always stop after like 30minutes played.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt I dislike that the Openworld is like a movie. You don’t need to think where you want to go, you just follow the little dots on your minimap until your are there. Its so utterly boring. I love the souls franchise, you see an NPC, walk up to her talk to her and write the important things down on your Notepad. To be fair, Wircher 3 looks absolutely beautiful after the recent patch.
Edit: I really really dislike Fortnite. Its highly overrated and it isn’t even original.
you can disable all the guides in the Witcher and play it without any gps or handholding. Combine that with the highest difficulty where you actually have to prepare yourself with potions and you have a great experience.
I also couldn’t get into the witcher 3, I think it had been over hyped to me. I found the combat a bit clunky and the story didn’t grab me. I got as far as the undead foetus mission with the baron, and sort of never came back to it
A lot of games increase difficulty by just turning up HP and attack numbers, and part of the fun of souls games is that that's really not how they handled difficulty.
And I get that. My biggest issue is I know if I could just lower the difficulty I would love the game. Hell I feel I could probably get pretty good at it if I played it on a lower difficulty then switched to a higher one after getting everything down.
Combat that feels closer to Dark Souls than Zelda? Odd.
I’ll add in a genre rather than a game: Battle Royal games.
We used to play a variety of games. Halo, warcraft, Smite, League of Legends… Now I have no gaming friends left as they refuse to play anything other than Apex Legends or the latest greatest Call of Duty.
We used to play a variety of games. Halo, warcraft, Smite, League of Legends… Now I have no gaming friends left as they refuse to play anything other than Apex Legends or the latest greatest Call of Duty.
Try hunt showdown. It’s kind of an anti battle royal game and a smart person’s thinking shooter and not a twitch shooter. Civil war era so no spray and pray. 12 man servers instead of 100 so it’s more tactical and strategic with our randomly dying all the time. And it’s a carrot instead of a stick; no shrinking map to create a funnel of conflict, but hunting for a single boss on the map that you must kill and then attempt to extract with the trophy it drops best sound design I’ve experienced in a shooter.
Old games? Let me throw Final Fantasy Tactics in the mix. Easily my favorite game of all time and one of the only ones I consistently come back to, despite releasing in 1997.
If you’re not familiar, FFT is a turn-based tactics game which is very different from other mainline FF games in a lot of ways. The story is one of the best, if not the best, in the FF series. For gameplay, you recruit and manage soldiers which progress using a fairly in-depth job system which is also pretty easy to pick up.
I’m sure you could find a PSX emulator of the original but, honestly, I really recommend the updated War of the Lions edition they did for the PSP. It’s been ported to mobile and is actually a great port. My one tip for anyone who tries it is to make multiple save slots in case you find yourself overwhelmed in a story dungeon/encounter.
The tone, setting, story, art style has remained unmatched in my mind.
Tons have tried to replicate the tactics combat stuff and plenty have succeeded and improved or changed upon that formula, but I don’t think any of them have had that feel to it. Even the other FFT games.
I recently picked up Midnight Suns which, to be very clear is not FFT. However, I will say despite the kind of bad story and corny aspects of it, the actual turn based combat is excellent. I thought I would hate it being card-based but it really grew on me a lot. Definitely scratched the FFT itch.
Over the years, I’ve become one to keep my media use as legit as possible. No judgement on anyone who doesn’t, but for a variety of reasons I have chosen to.
For retro games, that means my process is:
Evercade - I’m a huge fan of the Evercade ecosystem and if a game is available there I will play it there first.
NSO - For games not available on Evercade, my next stop will be Switch Online.
Collections - If a game isn’t available on NSO, I’ll see if it’s available via a collection. Think Castlevania Collections, Arcade Archives, Namco Museums, etc. For these I’ll typically check reviews before picking it up and make sure the games play well as that’s not always a guarantee.
Unlicensed emulation - Only at that point will I fire up a game on my raspberry pi.
Though honestly I can’t really be bothered to tinker with shit as much anymore these days, so often (but not always) by the time I arrive at unlicensed emulation as the solution I’ll just decide to play something else instead.
Evercade - I’m a huge fan of the Evercade ecosystem and if a game is available there I will play it there first.
Heck yeah. The Evercade Library is so~ expansive, and the emulation is top-notch! Love that I can hook my Handheld to the VS as an additional controller, share the modules and savestates between the two consoles…
I use an MX and I have arthritis. It’s one of the few mice I can use for a long time without my hands hurting.
Also play borderlands, get weapon that shoots as fast as you can pull the trigger, set fire to scroll wheel and blast your way through hordes of enemies with free scroll lol.
The host club manager minigame in Yakuza 0 and Kiwami 2, I don’t even remember their rewards, just that they were very fun. Compared to the real state minigame in 0 that was so boring I only remember the prize at the end, at least it was worth it
spoilerYou got Kyriu’s original fighting style as a 4th one that breaks the game with a fanservice scene that references the cover art of the first game.
I loved that mini game , it had great gameplay and very short and sweet story . I would buy it in a heard beat if it was a standalone game with more in-depth mechanics.
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