The Zeebo is a video game console that was released in 2009, primarily targeted at emerging markets. It’s price was 499 Brazilian Reals in Brazil and 2499 Mexican Pesos in Mexico, equaling to around 89 US Dollars.
It had remade versions of games from mobile phones and other consoles, such as FIFA 09, Resident Evil 4, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, etc. It also had several exclusive games, these being the Zeebo Extreme, Boomerang Sports and Zeebo Football Club franchises and the game “Un juego de huevos”, an action game based on the Mexican film “Una película de huevos”.
Preinstalled games were different in both Brazil and Mexico:
Mexico: Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D, Pac Mania, Tekken 2, Zenonia and Zeebo Family Pack
Brazil: FIFA 09, Need for Speed: Carbon Own the City and Brain Challenge
Some characteristics of the Zeebo included a 3G connectivity and low-cost gaming. When you bought the console you would get 1 hour of free Internet, and you would recharge by buying “Zeebocreditos” (that were used to buy games in the storefront as well)
The console had failed because of it’s limited game library, the competition, perception of quality (the console was made with bad quality materials, and the graphics were comparable to a PSX) and technological limitations.
The Zeebo flopped so bad, that on 2011, Zeebo announced they were going to cease all operations in Brazil and Mexico, and that the online storefront was going to shut down.
Buy one for the living room, oled or standard. Then, if requests / frustrations about playing asynchronously piles up. Consider buying another for the most invested of all. Take physical copies also. They’re easier to share.
I started with just one, and was buying digital games. I quickly found as each child gets to 6-7, they need their own switch. So I’m sitting at 4 right now, and agree hard on physical games.
I’ve recently noticed that the tactical shooter genre has kinda fallen out of favor. Games like ghost recon, socom navy seals etc. Aren’t being made anymore. I think it’s a shame that some genres go dormant for a while.
But more than that, I just want to see developers take more risks again. Indie games have been the exception here, but I remember there being so many unique games in the early 2000’s.
Ready or Not is a thing and quite popular, although I haven’t tried it myself. As far as I know, it’s the closest to the old SWAT games and not exactly a low-budget Indie title. Similarly, covering the military side of things, there’s Six Days in Fallujah, which is considerably more aggressive and action-heavy than the titles of old, but similarly punishing.
And, although not as thoroughly fleshed out as Ready or Not, and not multiplayer, Black One : Blood Brothers looks interesting enough to follow. It’s basically the bones of the first Ghost Recon with modern assets. I’ve not played it yet but it’s in my library.
I’ve played 8.2 hours of BO:BB according to Steam, and it feels much closer to the OG Ghost Recon ( +Desert Siege and Island Thunder)… BUT right now the AI is pretty mediocre (and often breaks entirely and enemies just sort of stand there), and the shooting doesn’t feel as good as Ready or Not.
Incursion: Red River is a singleplayer + co-op extraction shooter that feels very Ghost Recon.
First thing that comes to mind is Warframe. It’s a co-op third person looter-shooter, with full crossplay, so you can all party up across your platforms. It’s all very controller friendly, with lots of shotguns, SMGs, melee weapons and space magic that are all really forgiving of imprecise aim. It cares less about twitch reflexes and more about movement.
The scifi setting and “space ninja” aesthetic may or may not be to your taste, although I promise if you take the time really sink into the world it’s actually one of the most refreshingly different and unique scifi settings out there. There’s a lot of weirdness, but as you dig deeper into the story that weirdness all makes sense. And, like, it’s the good kind of weird if you get me? Stuff that makes you go “Holy fuck I want to know what the deal with that is!”
It does have a lot of MMO elements, so it can get grindy at times, but in my experience it’s a really solid game for hanging out and chilling on Discord together. Plus the game itself is free, with no paid DLC or add-ons, and for an adult with an income a few bucks here and there skips a LOT of grind, especially if you check out the third party market website where players will sell you a lot of the rare drops you’ll want for less than a dollar.
Added bonus, it’s made by the original developers of Unreal Tournament, Digital Extremes (there are actually a bunch of UT references squirelled away in the game).
Halo Infinite has free multiplayer that is cross-platform between PC and Xbox, and works on the Steam Deck. There are lots of competitive and co-op modes available, both in official playlists and community made Forge modes.
You can make private matches until you’re comfortable joining public ones.
The campaign is also online co-op, but must be paid for.
I lost interest when they became nothing but a shell for micro / macro transactions / "DLC". The base game is already very expensive, but no, here's some more overpriced cars and shit that you can't afford either while you chase the dream of owning a full game with a complete car park.
To your first bullet point, your own example of StarCraft. Rush strategies are usually so all-in that they win or lose in a couple of minutes. If they’re successfully defended, the defender now has such an advantage that the rusher can’t come back from it.
I actually don’t know of a game that’s ruined by an “aggression meta”. I don’t think I agree that it’s a problem. Neither rushing nor turtling is incentivized in StarCraft. The push and pull that the designers wanted from a given match is the optimal way to play, and you’ll find more success chasing that than either turtling or rushing.
I’m heavily invested in the fighting game scene, and the genre’s been getting more and more “aggression mechanics” for a long time now; some might call them “neutral skips”, skipping the part of the game where the two players try to approach each other. There’s a clear reason for why they do this: it’s way more fun to watch. Street Fighter V often devolved into two players left on their last pixel of health, since you can’t kill with chip damage (for the most part), so it was a boring situation of both players fishing for a last hit as the clock ticks down. Now, whether it’s Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, or Guilty Gear, you have a meter that you use on offense and defense. Being offensive rewards you with more and allows you to be more offensive, and being defensive will drain it. You can still have that moment from SFV that was supposed to be tense, but now it’s actually tense, because while that player is defending, the resource that prevents a checkmate situation is draining down, and when it’s empty, it’s basically game over.
Fighting games are a genre where it makes sense to push aggression meta. At times, people have wished that the genre allowed for more defensive counterattacking, but it’s not hard to predict how that would look in effect; two players both staring each other down waiting for the other to make a punishable move.
Basically, fighting games don’t have other mechanics outside of direct combat interactions that allow for fun decision-making. There’s fringe stuff like when someone has power-ups that don’t require landing hits (eg, Phoenix Wright in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3) but they don’t involve much decision-making.
I think the only time rush is an issue in games like Starcraft, thus making it an example, is at the low level of play where people don’t know how to react. So, once players get experience in the mechanics, it’s basically fixing itself. Other games can sometimes have that issue at all levels of play though.
There are tons of decisions to make at any given time in a fighting game outside of trying to be on offense. That’s why it’s more of a recent trend to add mechanics to incentivize aggression. And yes, the fact that rushes tend to only terrorize lower levels of play is why it’s more of a gimmick than a feature.
Still remember playing it back on ps2… Imo one of finest R* release and for open world genre.
But what elevates me most is the PC release with countless mods resulted off it. Did have good time playing SA-MP & MTA SA back in 2012-2015 on and off… Basically custom SA Multiplayer client that lets you connect to server and play with dozens or even hundreds of ppl within a server, met couple of friends and joined Clan that still connected to this day.
Also this game was the game that introduce me to game modding and also as game modder (made dozen of stuffs for SP and MP maps).
As an American, now living in Canada for the past 20 years, I am really not into the winter area in games I’m currently playing PoE Deadfire Breath of Winter and I want to go back to the beaches and kill stuff :D
I remember when Skyrim came out I was living in a drafty house with no heat in a snowy winter. I was wrapped in like 5 layers sitting at my PC going “Why couldn’t this have been in a desert” lol
Hahaha, I’m talking about an entirely different game. I read PoE and thought you meant Path of Exile. The main mechanic in the end game is running “maps” which are like dungeons with specific environments. Beach being available this league.
I definitely spent way more time on this than I should have. I had to dig out my N64 controller and take those pics myself. I knew the other image was from The Dutchy, but it took a while to find that image in particular.
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