Oh man. When I was in the Navy, I had the game boy advance. Advance wars had this sick turn based mode, where you could get your moves in, and then stick it in your pocket and wait to hand it off. We’d have four players playing games that might take all day, sometimes days. Just make your moves, stick it in your pocket, and whenever you find your shipmate, pass it along.
We did that at our lunch hour in high school. We had a super strategic friend that took the entire lunch hour. That pass-around mode was peak early 2000’s multiplayer.
How did the battery last that much? AFAIK the GBA didn’t have any sleep mechanics… Or was one pack of batteries able to hold 12-24 hrs running the game non stop?
I’m trying to recall. I know we always had a solid supply of rechargeables underway. I also distinctly remember that there is a kind of blanked out hand off screen between players because of fog if war. I don’t recall it having any kind of sleep function. But I know it could run for several hours no issue. I don’t recall having to mind the batteries in particular.
On top of that, I was always really impressed by the GBA’s battery life but maybe I’m just old.
Same, I just don’t remember ever bothering about the battery life (unless it turned red) but with that long gaming sessions it would be a concern for kid me probably.
While there’s nothing wrong with a game being declared complete and stopping updates, the way this went down doesn’t sit right. Evil Empire (the studio that split off from Motion Twin specifically to maintain Dead Cells) had longer-term plans and the resources to make them happen, but Motion Twin then ordered Evil Empire to stop development because they thought an actively developed Dead Cells would be a competitor to Windblown that they could preemptively kill off.
I get what you mean, but Dead Cells was already a completed roguelike on launch. The DLC’s add variety and additional story, but you can still get the full gameplay experience with just the base game.
It’s like saying you won’t support the Elden Ring because it has DLC.
Also, the Castlevania DLC is just fucking cool. The soundtrack for those levels alone are just -chef’s kiss-, and probably the closest we’ll get to a new 2D Castlevania 🥲
Yeah, it does, but what are you missing exactly? Can you not get to the final boss without the DLC? No, you can get to the boss no problem, and in fact going to DLC biomes sometimes means you can’t get to the final biome/boss. Is your playtime reduced to less chambers/run? Nope, the number of chambers and biome-bosses remain the same. Is the gameplay altered? Nope, all runes and weapons that you need to finish the game is there in the base game and unlockable.
I know, because I played the base game only until the Dead Cells Castlevania PS5 collection came out.
You’re being disingenuous in making it seem like they purposefully cut content and then added it back for $$$, when Evil Empire has been adding a lot of free updates to the base game since 2019.
I would doubt you'd hit a progression dead end in that game. you'd have to be god cracked at it and enjoy it enough to play that much and milk what's already there, and at that point you'd probably want to buy the DLC to extend the variety and experience, because it's that good to begin with.
I started playing this game before there was DLC. You know what? It was fucking fun.
Doors don't control my enjoyment. I played it at times without DLC installed. I can handle some inaccessible doors being around without letting it control my enjoyment.
Definitely not trying to do that. To speak on the idea of visible, inaccessible DLC in a game, it is bad, full stop. I think it's certainly cynical of the developers to put the doors there and not completely remove them unless you have the DLC installed.
Seeing those seams is something you can't help but notice, and it absolutely does impact your perception of the game to have them there. What I am saying is that Dead Cells is so thoroughly well made and considered that I was able to tell myself "these doors are locked until I beat the game on a certain boss cell and feel justified to pay for an 'expansion' and access new content".
I can live with that specifically because the doors are not necessary, you just can't enter them and take a different path, similar to other locked zone doors that are instead locked because of boss cell requirements. The maps are also consistently laid out in terms of direction to get to a certain zone entrance, so once I know it's there I can avoid that path in the future until I decide to stop playing or buy more content.
If Dead Cells were a lesser game I would be much less forgiving about it, and to be clear, again, the fact that you can see DLC doors for DLC you don't have is bad design, full stop. It's just that the game is so good overall, I think it'd be sad for someone to pass it up for that reason, or to think that they're not getting enough because of it. It's a shame, but the game's still awesome.
I don't think you're wrong to feel the way you do, but try not to sleep on the game because of it. Even without the paid DLC the base game and free updates have a lot of mileage.
You’re wrong, some of those doors were always there, the giant was there from the start, the big door he smashes was there since before the DLC released. You just didn’t knew that was a DLC because it hadn’t come out yet.
Dead cells is still a complete game, the DLCs just give you more of the same thing, you can still get hundreds of hours from the base game alone. By your standards no DLC could ever be made.
Very nice. This money will enable them to make it better. One day when I might start learning how to make games I hope that Godot will be one of the best choices out there.
I love what I’m seeing but I’m too blind to use a handheld. I’ve been gaming for 44 years and I’ll probably never get to experience it, at least not well. Still glad to see it though!
Jokes on all of you, it’s actually just a Steam branded digital picture frame that cycles through the cover art of games from your library that you’ve never played to constantly remind you of the money you waste.
Unity’s recent fuck up is a massive boon for them, I really hope they can capitalize on it. This is one of those moments that only happens once, if they push their development and marketing over the next 12 to 18 months they can snag a really significant share of the market and use it to vault themselves to the next go-to engine.
Honestly wild they would close Tango, of all developers, after they delivered maybe Xbox’s only coveted exclusive (though it has since gone multi-platform). Redfall and Starfield were both duds, and I’m not sure if Xbox has had any other exclusives at all (coveted or otherwise).
Having said that, it’s pretty bad that Xbox is closing these studios regardless of if they have put out a hit recently or not. As Arkane Lyon chief Dinga Bakaba points out:
You say we make you proud when we make a good game. Make us proud when times are tough. We know you can, we seen it before.
Microsoft certainly has the money that they don’t need to be making these cuts. This is clearly the result of Line-Go-Up syndrome, and will only hurt them in the long run.
PlayStation is already eating Xbox’s lunch since Xbox has no console selling exclusives. How are they going to make any good exclusives after cutting so much of their staff? (Also as a side note, I find it wild how much Microsoft spent on Bethesda just to cut so many of those studios.)
Overall, a cruel and short-sighted move from Microsoft.
Overall, a cruel and short-sighted move from Microsoft
That depends on who and how many they decide to merge into other developer teams and who is let go.
I mean, I doubt most MS higher-ups would know talent if you threw it at them. But whenever there’s big acquisitions, there’s gonna be some house cleaning. So who gets to stay (if they want to) is likely down to last things they have produced.
Redfalls team is done for sure. But Tango Works I don’t know… I can imagine overseas based companies are a more tricky beast to handle. So that’s probably down to some cost/benefit analysis if they go or stay.
which is wild, because there's clearly a lot of talent there that was just spunked up the wall trying to create a game that any idiot could see right from the outset was conceptually awful
There’s a statement on this ign article that says arkane Austin will have devs go to other studios, but nothing on the tango front. They’re just closing it.
(Also as a side note, I find it wild how much Microsoft spent on Bethesda just to cut so many of those studios.)
It’s easy to understand when you realize that purchase wasn’t about talent, it was about IP.
Now sure, closing these studios and preventing the development of new exclusives is leading to Sony eating their lunch now, but longer/very short term it leads to them developing exclusives with their IP at a cheaper cost. It’s just all about cost cutting to make pretty line go up.
Microsoft has certainly made games based off IP they owned without the original developers. But the only examples of that I can think of is Halo, which I don’t think was highly regarded.
Similarly (though not at Microsoft), when Shu Takumi took a break from the Ace Attorney franchise to do Ghost Trick, the quality of the franchise was widely regarded to have a dip as well (though now he has returned for the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles, the quality is considered to have returned). Ghost Trick was considered to be a very high quality game as well.
While IP is valuable; as an outsider to the industry, the skilled game devs seemed infinitely more bankable. I was certain that Microsoft wanted Bethesda for its quality devs, but clearly I was wrong.
You don’t sack the team responsible for your best regarded game in years, if you’re concerned with making good games.
You’re probably right. Microsoft is probably not worried about the quality. People will still buy their favorite IP, even with a notable quality dip
this is opening up patents, so yes, in a world like ours having something be patented, but royalty free and anyone can use is much better than the alternative. which is either one company owning it and licencing it. or a patent troll getting it and making it even worse.
the sarcasm in this case, is not warranted. this is a good thing.
That’s literally not a thing. Once something is publicly disclosed it can’t be patented (unless it is by the discloser during the one year grace period). You can’t take someone else’s invention and patent it. If someone does you can invalidate their patent without even a lawyer. If you want something you invent to be free for everyone the best thing you can do is get it out into the world and not patent it.
You’re not supposed to. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen.
Nobody wants to spend the court costs to get a patent troll stripped of their bad patent. And for a patent troll you’re going to need a lawyer, they’re going to fight tooth and nail to keep it since that’s their source of income.
Once again, this is not true. They do what is called a prior art search as part of issuing a patent. They look worldwide for anything that could be considered your invention before your filing date before issuing a patent. Even after a patent is issued, if prior art is presented to the patent office they can rescind the patent. It’s a form and like $100. You don’t need a lawyer to bring prior art to the patent office’s attention. The legal battle will be between the patent office and the patent troll if they are trying to contest the prior art.
What? There was no polio vaccine patent. The inventor literally did exactly what I suggested. He made his work freely available so that it could not be patented. Volvo made a business decision to make their patent freely usable and we are still talking about it. Their brand has been permanently associated with safety because of it.
Notice how they tried to patent it “to prevent companies from making unlicensed, low-quality versions of the vaccine. There is no sign that the foundation intended to profit from a patent on the polio vaccine.”
…leaving the idea unclaimed for someone else to patent instead? Strange take.
The patent system is far from perfect, but patents themselves are necessary. EA had an idea, they had the right to patent it. They had the right to keep the patent closed, instead they opted to open it.
Doesn’t “opening up patents” means that anyone can use the ideas behind the patent without charge? Which means that it’s actually not locked anymore, so yes it does help?
Oof. Wasn’t this the one that was going to have in-depth object customization? I was looking forward to it from a dollhouse-building perspective. Even if it wasn’t great, having some competition might convince EA to allocate more dev resources to the Sims, which has ruthlessly embraced the “minimum viable product” philosophy for a long time.
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