No other game was more interesting and exciting when you found something new. Or solved a puzzle.
While on the surface it’s a simple Metroid style game, once you start noticing things it becomes so intriguing. I have a document on my iPad full of handwritten notes and maps. It felt so novel to return to a feeling of the late 80s where paper maps and notes were king.
While there were a lot of great games last year, I put so much more brainpower into Animal Well, and it felt so good to do so.
I heard one video essayist identify it as a “metroidbrainia” - a game where progression is gated not simply by items/keys, but by knowledge of systems, many of them hidden.
Animal well is great, but still has one massive problem; the keyboard controls can’t be rebound, which is an absolutely unforgivable miss in 2024. Beat the game but had to use a controller… I really don’t understand why he still hasn’t added this basic feature.
Quake was released in 1996 and if I recall correctly at the time the arrow keys were the standard but one famous Quake pro player used WASD and it helped launch it to today default.
My point is, I don’t think it was ever OK to not have customizable keyboard controls, and having it also give you permission no be perfect in your chosen default. I understand not including the option to have multiple keys assigned to the same control (although I don’t excuse it because it is not rocket science), but not have configurable controls at all? It was unforgivable in the 2000 and it is exponentially more unforgivable today.
Although somewhat unrelated, I thought this excerpt from the article was interesting and sad.
Asked in an interview if he regrets Balatro’s success, he replied: "Honestly, yeah. Don’t get me wrong - this has changed my life in a lot of amazing ways. I’m so grateful. But I do miss that time before. It was just a hobby that recharged my batteries. Sometimes I think, ‘Maybe I would’ve been happier if I had never released this game to the public.’
The guy has all the resources to rekindle that flame by organizing game jams for example. I am sure he‘ll think much more positively about the whole thing a couple years from now when he realized opportunities granted by his success. Either that or he’ll go down the Notch route but I don’t think he’ll be that kind of stupid rich.
Yeah, but his way to relax and get away from stress was to code. Organizing game jams is a whole other world of stress. The different level of stress is like that Mitchell Hedburg joke, “You’re a great chef! Can you farm?”
If you remain fixated on the idea that your way to relax is gone, you’ll never be able to find a new way. Life changes, for good and bad. It’s on us to make the best of it.
Don’t feel sad for them! They have now reached a point in life where they get to ask these kind of what if questions and no longer need to work. I love the game they built, and hopefully if they still feel down they have to time and resources now to seek help (i.e. therapy).
On one hand I‘m worried about possible game direction influence on FROM titles, on the other hand I’m hopeful that maybe we finally get competent Soulsborne PC ports if Sony acquires them even if only for upcoming titles
My money is on 3 months after the first release of a FROM title on PC, sony will come in and force them to create a sony account with crazy DRM to play it.
Then after the outrage from that, force it on all previous FROM titles.
I’ve worked closely with the people that do reverse engineering and such for FromSoft games and I can damn near guarantee that any PSN requirement would be ripped out pretty quickly. At worst they might tie it to online features. My real worry is exclusivity, timed or otherwise.
Sony: Thanks for letting us know! The next FromSoft game will have zero modding support. Make sure to login using your PSN account. Remember, we love you!
Oh, make no mistake; prior FS games have no modding support. In fact, they encrypt the all game files with RSA nowadays (which is awful for read speeds because RSA is slow but whatever). Current modding support is based off of a robust reverse engineering community that’s documented most of the file formats and a significant portion of the important code. And that’s while contending with Arxan which, while not as awful as Denuvo, still impedes RE. They’d basically have to implement something as draconian as Denuvo to make things more difficult than they are.
Honestly, I am probably in the minority, but I don’t understand the hate for console exclusivity. In today’s world there is almost no reason to stick with a console outside some small stuff like pick up and go and knowing a game will just work. I say let them hold rights to games if it gets people to invest in getting one. I am not really sure why this is such a negative thing for some. It’s also odd that Sony gets the biggest blame when you have Nintendo that has zero games playable on other platforms outside emulation. At least these days 8 months after release it gets a PC release as well.
No, it's really not. Especially since they already own 14% of FromSoftware directly. The only Sony bullshit is likely still going to be limited to any IP that Sony funds themselves.
It’s Kadokawa that forced Sony’s hands. Sony initially only wanted to acquire the anime and videogames assets. But Kadokawa told them that only acquisition offers for the entire company are accepted.
There are definitely some large chunks. But there have been no signs of any of those outlets caring enough to try to vote as a bloc.
There are definitely a lot of flaws in how the jury is selected and many (most?) of the judges past and present have pointed that out. Stuff like how they are fundamentally not qualified to judge fighting games as fighting games or the mess that is the “simulation and strategy” category or whatever they call “PC games” where people are somehow comparing MS Flight Sim to Farm Simulator to Satisfactory.
But for stuff like the major awards? It is a pretty diverse crowd and there is no indication that any group cares enough to rig the vote beyond group discords where people pester other games media folk because they want to play Helldivers again and their usual crew are busy.
I’ll also add on that, for its many many flaws, the keighleys is pretty good about being aware of this kind of thing based on a few outlets that talked about how they were judges in the past and then suddenly never mentioned it again after an acquisition or the loss of a core editor.
I’ll also add on that, for its many many flaws, the keighleys is pretty good about being aware of this kind of thing based on a few outlets that talked about how they were judges in the past and then suddenly never mentioned it again after an acquisition or the loss of a core editor.
Is that /s?
Because that last sentence really gives me pause for thought…
Haven’t really been following it all - after reading the article I think maybe its because Astro Bot had a larger audience because its generally more accessible?
I think you are right. Its why Fortnite usually wins in categories it is in, because at the end of the day it mostly comes down to a popularity contest.
I mean, I heard people I know in real life discrediting BMW even being nominated because “oh all the Chinese are voting for it.” I was like what, you think Chinese Gamers only count for 3/5ths of a Gamer?? I personally wouldn’t be surprised if this sentiment was shared with at least some of the judges.
I’m not saying BMW should have won, personally I liked it but it wasn’t perfect and I didn’t play Astro Bot. It’s just crazy to me that people are reacting like this over a video game just because it came from China. They’re not acting like that over Marvel Rivals, probably because they don’t know it’s from China yet, lol.
I haven’t played that Astrobot game (I don’t have a PS5) but I am not surprised with it being highly praised honestly.
Astrobot Rescue Mission was awesome, even forgetting about it being VR. It’s very fun and well designed, with new ideas all the way through, up there with Super Mario Galaxy to me. That team definitely knows their stuff.
Translation appears accurate, but misses the cultural element. In my admittedly limited experience, this is pretty par for the course for Chinese humor. Compared to Western humor, Chinese humor is more brash and abrasive, and almost boastful when viewed from an outside perspective. I can definitely envision someone receiving that sort of response as a joke (“What, you didn’t receive game of the year? Why did you even go?”). And it would certainly agree with my impression that he makes a lot of crude jokes on his social media that don’t translate well into English (see: the IGN article on how the developers are sexist). It can really be quite difficult for inexperienced people to determine what statements are humorous and what statements are earnest, since the difference is often really subtle, even when read in the original language.
I’m not necessarily defending him, since these sorts of jokes do have a nugget of honesty to them, but my read is that he plays them up for humor.
I am Chinese with a lot of Chinese family. This is not some unique and elevated humor that westerners do not understand. It is the same self deprecating humor that is increasingly prevalent in all cultures (that have been exposed to similar media…) combined with the equivalent of “ha ha, wouldn’t it be funny if we kissed .ha ha ha . What a joke. ha ha. But what if we did? Ha ha ha”.
Same with the truly disgusting misogynistic shit that asshole has said. It is a “joke” in the same way it was “just a joke” when people were testing the water on being magats.
The only thing that is “cultural” about this is the tendency for East Asians (but especially Chinese) to assume that everyone else is fucking stupid and that they just have to say it is a joke to ignore all consequences. And… that has been regularly demonstrated to be true so I guess the joke is on us?
Do I think he was tearing his shirt in agony and screaming in pain? No (although apparently Alannah Pearce and the people in her section saw him crying when he lost…). But there is very much the fundamental truth of “I deserved to win so this must be bullshit if I didn’t and I wasted my time by coming to an awards ceremony that doesn’t understand how amazing I am”.
Which… DOES have a lot of ties to East Asian culture (the idea that you are either best or worst) coupled with the fucked up number that the one child policy did on people.
So… while you are showing your ass and defending someone who said shit like
I want to expand my circle and hire more people, get licked until I can’t get an erection.
(Hint: that is where you claim everyone is racist and just misinterpreted him without providing any other defense)
do you want to further show your ass and say why it would matter where I was physically born while explaining your “You just don’t understand our humor” defense?
You are so sensitive to immediately tell someone to F off which screams American.
Lol, have you been to East Asia? Getting told to fuck off isn’t exactly a hard thing to provoke in Asia, it’s not something that only happens in America.
You claim yourself as Chinese which means you know best about all Chinese culture right? Which is such a common Chinese xenophobic tactic.
Almost as common as white people explaining Asian culture to Asians on this social media platform. I’ve been lectured to about my own culture by European and Americans who have never left their own countries.
But at the same time you’re so disconnected from your own culture you feel the need to share you and your own parents ethnicity
My dude… Your ethnicity doesn’t change just because your parents migrated to another location. The fact that you can’t recognize stripping someone’s ethnicity away from someone because they weren’t born in there families homeland is just another form of forced assimilation, and is incredibly racist.
mandarin in university level ABC
Again, utilizing an acronym to other delineate someone from their ethnic heritage is disgusting. Especially considering that I doubt you’ve ever had to deal with navigating the social stratification of being an immigrant.
Accosting a Chinese person for not being Chinese enough is just about the most 4d chess move of racism a white dude can pull off. Congrats.
But they did misinterpret it, did they not? Didn’t you say you were Chinese?
If so you should know that “getting licked” is the Chinese equivalent of “getting your ass kissed”. You wouldn’t be called sexist for saying you get your ass kissed.
eh I’m the same as you. even grew up in China for many years and the original comment could be true. who knows, but its getting weird coverage in both countries.
it’s also quite the stereotype (one especially held by western raised Asians) to believe all East Asians have asian elitism. most people I knew in China were insanely jealous of Americans and would give their life savings to send their kids to the US for education and a better life. the rich had the everyone is stupid mentality, but that’s true for rich people everywhere. one thing that is true and why I made the comment in parenthesis is that most Chinese people think Western raised Asian children are raised incorrectly and make that known to their family members in the West which comes off very elitist, but that’s also something shared between cultures around the world who have family members living in the US or equivalent.
no comment on the dudes other comments he’s made since I don’t know much about him, but to apply this to all East Asians especially the Chinese because of his one comment is pretty… yeah.
On the one hand, I can kinda get it. It must really suck to lose to a self-servicing corpo ad-a-palooza, even one as well crafted as Astrobot. It’s like losing a collectible contest to FunkoPops, just clear feelsbad.
On the other, fuck this guy for dragging nationalistic pride into a dumbass award ceremony. The Geoff-fest is always a stupid corporate cockgag that celebrates publisher money more than developers, taking it personally and trying to pretend like all of China was snubbed only serves to makes BMW look worse.
I don’t feel it was undeserved, it’s good that super productions lose to better crafted titles, maybe one day actual indie games will be on the contest for game of the gear
Game Awards lost any credibility at this point. Black Myth Wukong truly deserved the grand prize. I played the game and I believe it, both the concurrent steam players and sales numbers confirm it as well
Well is not a popularity contest, so sales number and number of players doesn’t count to the award, they won the player voice award that is a popularity contest.
Like any awards show, the awards are completely subjective anyway, so it's completely pointless to even care about them, it's not like an old gaming magazine's recommendations.
eurogamer.net
Aktywne