As someone who is curious about how they are going to explain the lore (in case you haven’t read the books: Ciri forswore magic after she had to draw power from fire in an emergency situation and that nearly escalated - also, you are missing out, the books are great), I feel offended by your statement.
I think it’s possible to have her somehow take back that magic in a desperate situation, or to have her go through the trial for some reason, too (she always was kind of interested, but Geralt didn’t allow it)
I mean Geralt died in the books and is somehow alive for the games. A lot of stuff can happen and be explained in a way that fits with the lore good enough to spin a story around it
I’m 100% for Ciri being the main character and I’m also complaining “what about the lore”. You can do both at the same time. There’s a vocal minority of people who’ll use the lore argument to be sexist assholes, but people who have actually read and understood the books can have some valid concerns (ie where and how did she go through the trials, why can she use magic again, where did she even find how to do the trials, and just… why? She didn’t need them and it’s a bit of a character regression. She was basically already a witcher by title.)
The way I understood it was that she did not loose her ability to use magic, but rather decided not to use it any more after what happened when she had to draw power from fire.
SpoilerShe also used magic to escape Bonhart/Skellen/Rience after Kenna’s attempt to read her mind unintentionally gave her a bit of magical power.
Even if it would be a bit disappointing, I think an explanation as simple as “she grew older, and had a lot more time to deal with the trauma of what happened in the desert” would be sufficient to explain why she is OK with using magic again.
Polybius is a fictitious 1981 arcade game from an urban legend. The legend describes the game as part of a government-run crowdsourced psychology experiment based in Portland, Oregon. Gameplay supposedly produced intense psychoactive and addictive effects in the player. These few publicly staged arcade machines were said to have been visited periodically by men in black for the purpose of data-mining the machines and analyzing these effects. Supposedly, all of these Polybius arcade machines then disappeared from the arcade market.
It’s a fun tale though, and there are some good articles and video essays on it.
I’m getting old … what does this mean and why is it objectionable? Google suggests it means they have strong character, which seems like a fair assessment.
I’ve long regarded it as a red flag, since the first people I encountered using it were alt-right dipshits. Subsequently it seems to have been adopted wholesale, and I get the impression that most people don’t see it as politically charged.
My man, that’s so not funky of you! If you skedaddle into this far out place called internet, you have to expect to come across new terms that are slammin and radical to some people. Instead of giving them hairy eyeballs and going “No can do”, how about you say “Word, brother”? Every generation invents its own gnarly slang and that’s pretty fly, actually. Like, what makes your slang groovy and theirs bogus?
To a zoomer, based is the opposite of cringe (I’m told). This is the first time I’ve seen it mentioned in regards to alt-right, that sounds like they happened to be alt-right zoomers.
No, it’s not the “opposite of cringe” and it’s not an alt-right dog whistle. It just means the person or group is willing to do the right thing, above politics or greed. It’s more comparable to Giga Chad, but it’s more accurate to say that Giga Chad when used in memes is the representation of a based individual.
Also, “alt-right” is a dog whistle for “white supremacist”, invented by a white supremacist to soften the language. Stop using it. Just call them white supremacists or fascists.
My understanding of “based” from years and years ago was that it was used as an exclamation when people essentially weren’t afraid to speak their minds even if they’re likely to get shit for said opinion.
That’s why it’s gotten associated with the alt-right because it was usually bigoted douchebags saying bigoted shit that other bigots would then respond “based” to. I feel like the terminology was associated with 4chan in its early usage and spread to reddit.
I believe your definition that is popular with Gen Z is a newer development.
What I understand this originates from is “not based on anything”, so essentially bucking the trend or the norm. Doing things not because something or someone told them.
It’s 4chan type of language, itself an alt-right cesspool.
Gotcha… From reading all the responses, it sounds like the word and meaning itself isn’t really objectionable, it’s more the people that use it. Which isn’t something a search engine tells you… 😅
Words have meaning, and that meaning is defined by common understanding. If a significant percentage of the population does not know what a word means, (and I mean a significant percentage not just some people) then it’s fair to say the word is essentially nonsense.
The problem is sometimes people pick a word and then decide on its meaning but then neglect to inform the rest of the human population - see Woke. That’s not how language works, it’s about mutual acceptance the particular sound or set of sounds means a particular idea or concept or thing. If that mutual acceptance is not there, then it is not a word.
There are many people who would disagree that that is its meaning, and that’s the problem. There is no completely defined meaning for these words, they mean different things to different people so when you say the word I don’t know what meaning is supposed to be interpreted.
That’s how literally all language change happens? People just start using words differently or use new words, it slowly spreads, until a majority is using it. You can either embrace it and be happy you get new tools to express yourself with, or reenact the “old man yells at clouds” meme and be grumpy. I know which one I’ll choose.
What you’re missing is that language is often used differently in subculture groups and other niches. Language frequently changes meaning depending on context, and that’s how it’s supposed to work.
Language never has been and never will be static. Shared slang is a very important part of signaling that you are part of an “in group”, and it will always change rapidly, compared to language in more common usage.
Related: trans-phobic signaling that “they/them” should be used exclusively singularly as a plural, despite its common use as a gender neutral pronoun for centuries.
Long before I had any knowledge of transgender or even transexuality, I knew to use they/them when gender was unknown. I agree that the "singular they" is long accepted, correct, common English.
It’s just slang that more-or-less means “confident”, originally coined by the rapper Lil B.
While it’s an interesting line of inquiry as to why internet culture may appropriate and adopt words like this, this comment is just giving off major “old man yells at cloud” energy.
Based is just a common word zoomers like me use. While your likely implication of it being some sort of dogwhistle or right wing term might have been correct like, half a decade ago, it doesn’t apply anymore. Everyone uses it between the age of 16-20.
this is your weekly reminder that c/gaming has Meme Mondays, and you are invited to share your favorite gaming memes on this day of the week! Let’s break up all the great discussion with a lil fun and humor!
I love this game (500 hours played), but I have to bring up a point of criticism…
One aspect which has not aged well IMHO is the “kindness coin” mechanic: The exchange of goods for the NPCs’ friendship and/or affection. You give the NPCs stuff, then you give them more stuff, then some more on top, then you get a cut scene and then you get back to giving them stuff until you trigger the next one.
Yes, the requests on the blackboard and the occasional personal quest mix up things a little bit, but overall the mechanic remains the same and for me over the years this has cheapened the interaction with the NPCs for me somewhat: They are mostly transactional and predictable to the point where you can calculate their outcome.
You have to give character A so-and-so many objects X to romance them. It takes so-and-so many days to do that.
Sure, the “kindness coins” mechanic was industry standard at the time, but I wish there were more variety in regards to the interactions with the NPCs, because they are amazingly written and I wish there was more to do with them besides giving them stuff over and over again.
I’m sure he’ll probably use a different mechanic for Haunted Chocolatier, probably too late to change it for Stardew Vallery, given it’s age and the existing complexity of the game.
The most famous one ATM is probably “Baldur’s Gate 3” which offers a wide variety of mechanics and stats to measure if an NPC member of the player’s party is romantically interested in the player character. Two examples given in the talk I linked are the VNs “Monster Prom” or “First Bite”.
Yes and no. Like in Stardew Valley, technically you can romance every NPC in your party, but in practice you have to meet certain criteria to do so and those differ from character to character. Of course, it is possible to “game” that system.
“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a flashlight.”
“Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the Leopard.
If New Horizons was your first animal crossing game and you were disappointed by the lack of personality that the villagers had, go play the original AC. Almost no customization options outside of your house interior, but the villagers have way, way, waaaay more personality. Not really surprising since, iirc the series was originally supposed to be focused on your interactions with the villagers.
Yep! I’m pretty sure I can remember Resetti in the original Gamecube version making me cry as a kid after getting yelled at for accidentally turning off the system without saving…
I also remember Phyllis, who basically hated your guts for interrupting her night shift.
And of course there’s the actual villagers of the town too, some of them were definitely a lot more… liberal… with you, personality wise!
Oh man, they get absolutely pissed if you hit them +3 times with an axe or net, which is way easier to do by accident than you’d want; if you hit a villager once, the game seems to assume that you want to hit them again, so attempting to interact just results in you pummeling/slashing the villager. I’ve had them tell me I don’t deserve friends, that I’m a freak, that I’m a horrible creature who shouldn’t be around people, etc…
Even if you don’t accidentally or intentionally piss them off, they can be very rude and condescending when you first start playing. They chill out after you start interacting with them (and you have to interact if you want them to treat you nicer), but it can take weeks for them to start doing that. That’s what I love about the GameCube animal crossing; the villagers aren’t tripping over themselves to make you happy. In New Horizons, villagers basically exist to make you happy and feel better about yourself; however, they make it very clear they don’t like you at first in the original.
(Also yes, you can hit villagers with an axe in the OG game and they have a slightly different reaction to it. It’s hard to do though and would seem like a bug if it weren’t for the fact that they react differently to it)
and the gyroids! and the NES emulators! There are additions to modern AC that really bring it up a notch (custom fashion, WAY more furniture items), but there really was a charm to the original that modern Nintendo would never bring back. They don’t want to scare kids with villagers that could be anything other than vaguely positive towards you, and they don’t want to give their back catalog away for “free”.
If New Horizons was your first animal crossing game and you were disappointed by the lack of personality that the villagers had, go play the original AC.
Is the original N64/GC the one where other villagers have the most personality? What are some other differences regarding NH, New Leaf and City Folk?
I haven’t played City Folk, Wild World or New Leaf, however my impression is that the GC/N64 version is the only one where the villagers can be actually hostile to you. One of the biggest differences aside from personality, is that you have very little freedom when it comes to village customization. You can basically plant or cut down trees or flowers, and that’s about it.
Note: there are like, 4 different versions of the OG animal crossing, the international GameCube release is the only one with an English translation.
no autosaves and Resetti will chew you out if you reset/quit without saving (New Horizons added autosaves and almost entirely removed Resetti).
time travelling back in time relative to your last save will also trigger Resetti.
playable NES games. They can be hard to find, but you can play them if you get any (iirc you can also transfer the roms to your GBA/GBA SP to play on-the-go)
home customization is still a thing in the original; however you only have a max of 3 rooms (2nd floor, 1st floor, basement). However, you can’t customize your basement floor or walls and the basement won’t count towards your HHA score.
no “cloud” storage, all storage is in furniture items, which have a max capacity of 3 non-furniture items (clothes, tickets, flooring and walls are fine, but not furniture). This is what the basement is for. (It’s actually kinda fascinating how furniture storage works, but I won’t get into that unless you’re interested)
maximum of 15 villagers instead of 10.
you can ask villagers if they have any chores for you; this is actually a great option and I’m annoyed they removed it because it means you don’t have to repeatedly spam villager dialog with the hope they’ll eventually give you a task.
there’s an island you can visit with another house which you can use as storage if you want. However, it’s a bit difficult to access on emulators because you can only get to it if you have a GBA connected, so you have to either emulate a connected GBA or use gecko/AR code to permanently enable Kapp’n.
no town hall
there are cops (they don’t really do anything except tell you if there are any free lost items in the lost-and-found or if there are any upcoming events).
Tom Nook is the only real vendor, as afaik Mable and Able only sell custom designs. Additionally, instead of Redd, it’s Tom Nook who occasionally sells artwork for the museum.
There are probably others I’m forgetting, but that’s kinda the main gist of it.
RGBY - You had to be there. By today's standards, these games are incredibly dated, to a point where it's hard to explain to anyone who didn't grow up on them why they were so magical. Despite feeling aged now, they honestly were ahead of their time in several ways, and there's a reason these games took off and became such a massive cultural phenomenon that dominated the late 90s.
GSC - In comparison, it's honestly surprising to me how well GSC still holds up after all these years. The sequel carries forward the magic of the first games, while polishing and improving the formula in every way. Being able to revisit Kanto for the postgame was the coolest thing ever, and it's sad that we'll never see anything like this again.
RSE - I will forever be a Hoenn hater. Coming off the heels of GSC, these games were just a massive step back in many ways. One region and 202 Pokemon. Weirdly unbalanced with the excessive amount of Water-types, and tedious amount of Surfing. Began the trend of Legendaries becoming more and more god-like, and forced in the story. Not a fan of the art style or trumpet-heavy OST either. Only good thing this game brought to the table was Abilities.
One thing I don't think a lot of people today remember is that this was Dexit before Dexit. When RS first launched, you only had 202 Pokemon in the Hoenn Dex, a step back from GSC's 251, and the missing 184 species were not mentioned or referenced at all. At the time, I thought that they had been retconned out! Eventually, linking to later gen III games would unlock the National Pokedex, but at launch no one knew that was going to be a thing. And it was still fairly wack how many games they spread it out over, gen III as a whole was a mess.
FRLG - RGBY minus the soul. It may be more modernized, but it just doesn't hit the same. I know this is very much a "you had to be there" take.
Colosseum - Painfully slow. Never finished it. Never played XD either.
DPPt - These games were just... bland. There's not much I can actively hate on as much as RSE beyond just how slow they were, but there's also not much that stands out either. I don't have much to say.
HGSS - IT'S PEAK. Does a much better job than FRLG of feeling faithful yet modern. And the sheer amount of bonus content they added in was incredible. By far the best game in the series, nothing else is even close.
BW - Gen V really had a hell of a vibe to it, this era felt like Game Freak really wanted to experiment and it paid off. I give this game a lot of credit for being the first and only entry to have a good plot. However I do feel that the gimmick of new species only wasn't so great, dragged down by the fact that half the Unova Dex is blatant copies of existing Gen I mons. Why bother doing that?
BW2 - However, this game's story was so bad that I stand by my conspiracy theory of it being a last-minute rewrite from a planned Gray. I wonder what that would've looked like. Other than that though, everything else about BW2 was quite strong.
XY - The jump to 3D was rough, but could've been a lot worse. These games honestly feel like an unfinished beta to me, there's a really good game in here somewhere but it's dragged down by performance woes and very very little content. With more time in the oven, I think Z could've been one of the best games in the series, but they never gave this game the Director's Cut it needed.
SM - Since XY's framerate was so troublesome, let's make it worse by adding more models onscreen! Also, let's drop XY's best feature, the Player Search System, in favor of doing almost nothing on the bottom screen! People really liked Megas, so let's replace those with attacks that just do big damage and call it a day! And let's really go way overboard with the cutscenes, tons of long tedious cutscenes! Most of all it was the framerate that really pissed me off. This was actually the first time I bothered finishing the Regional Dex, but I was too fed up with the framerate that I decided I would wait until the next generation on new hardware to try for National...
And so that ended up being the last game I played. Skipped USUM because I didn't want to deal with this engine any longer, and then SS... Seeing how they'd just been cutting more and more corners with each game, I simply saw Dexit as the last straw. Maybe I'd have been willing to accept it if they'd actually been bringing new things to the table to compensate, but they don't. I've come to terms with the fact that the Pokemon that I know and love, the Pokemon that I grew up on, the Pokemon that I named my account after, is dead to me.
Great writeup. In retrospect it’s absolutely insane how many series-defining features were introduced in Gen 2. That kind of generational leap is mindboggling.
I love your username btw, brings me back to the schoolyard, to Kangaskhans with Fly and rumours of finding Mew under the truck in Vermilion.
I agree with literally every point you’ve made (especially the ‘had to be there’ notes, it’s so hard trying to explain that) but one.
Here comes a billion words on how I love Sun and Moon. Feel free to skip them, I’m just trying to add to the conversation.
Sun and Moon is on my list of faves because of the slow island vibes, the sun and moon motif… Oh. Let me take a moment and say, as a grass type trainer, I have gotten absolutely effed with starter choices. I love plants, I love flowers, and… It’s insane how often the grass-type starter is the weakest in design. So let me say when Rowlet hit the scene, I fell in love. This precious little floof who turns his head all the way around to look at me in battle, and then turns into a moody teenager when he becomes Datrix (if you’re petting him after battle, and you touch the feather in front of his face he gets so MAD!), finally turning into the extremely badass Decidueye? Grass/Ghost? Hell. Yes. After watching water and fire get bangers of starters for ages, only occasionally getting a starter that felt like it was “good enough” rarely, finally getting my owl was like a sword-in-the-stone moment.
I hear you on Z-Moves but I do really love the idea of doing a little Hawaiian-style dance with your Pokemon to power them up. It feels more like I’m contributing than pointing a rock at something. I actually enjoy that some of the dances look really stupid because you have to ask yourself, “Do I want to look cool right now, or do I want to look a little silly and absolutely destroy my enemies?” There’s also something excellent in facing a friend in battle, and watching them choose to do a dumb pose with mounting horror. “Hahaha, Chris is doing a dance and the background is pink and oh god no he’s chosen to destroy me.”
Shouldn’t be very hard to figure out from looking at a list of Pokémon games. RGBY = Red, Green, Blue, Yellow; GSC = Gold, Silver, Crystal; RSE = Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald; DPPt = Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, etc. etc.
I really enjoyed the atmosphere and the world. However the difficulty made me drop the game at the half of it. Since I turned 40, I play games to relax not to rage on bosses. Therefore altogether, a bit of pity I couldn’t see the end.
Same. I enjoyed a lot of what I played but I don’t get on well with metroidvanias. So I only played a couple of hours before I either got lost or died too often to a boss.
I really love the difficulty in this game, but I get that that’s a matter of taste. Hollow Knight would definitely benefit from an “assist mode” like Celeste, or a “god mode” like Hades. I think the devs intended for the badges to be a way for players to fine-tune their difficulty and playstyle (kind of like how in Dark Souls, pyromancy is easy mode, at least early on). But often the best badges are hidden behind challenges, and even the best badges do not dramatically reduce the difficulty. So I totally empathize with your perspective.
For me it wasn't some boss or something. It was just some ridiculous precision platforming that couldn't get past. I'm 45. My reaction times aren't what they used to be. And the fact that you have to fight your shade every time made it just that much harder.
Ori and the Blind Forest also had some difficult precision platforming but the instant reload and no death penalty made it much easier to just try dozens of times until you get it.
this is where I think an assist mode would come into play. Personally, I think the difficulty and the limited checkpoints are important for the delicious tension of the game, so removing either aspect would ruin the game for me (and as I said elsewhere, this game is my favorite of all time). But if you could go into the settings, and flip on an assist mode that gave you checkpoints at the beginning of every room? I see no downside there, make the game more accessible for more people!
I also agree that the Shade is a flaw in the game design. Honestly the only clumsy design choice that I can think of in this game. I think Team Cherry wanted to do something similar to the Dark Souls bloodstain mechanic without completely copying it, but the shade ain’t it. If you like the difficulty of the game, the shade becomes a meaningless roadbump after the first few times, so it might as well be an automatic collection. If you are struggling with the difficulty of the game, the shade is just another hurdle to the game clicking for you. The shade has some lore significance, but I feel like they should have just made it an automatic collection without having to actually fight the shade.
Idk, I know I’m in the minority, but the stuff I don’t experience in a game is just as important as the stuff I do experience.
As someone who played WoW as a kid, the world always felt bigger and more memorable because there was stuff I wasn’t geared/skilled/determined/lucky/whatever enough to see. Then during WotLK they made a concerted effort to ensure everyone could see all the content. Suddenly the world felt small. Less like a world and more like a series of checkboxes that you tick off and say “done, onto the next game”.
I really appreciate when the creators say “not everyone will see everything, and that’s ok, that’s how we intended it”. Elden Ring is really good about this. I’m about to finish my first playthrough, I know ive missed a lot of stuff, but that’s OK, my playthrough was uniquely mine.
I have never been good at platforming, almost gave up on getting into the main city. Luckily my partner has the skills and patience to do those pure difficult platforming challenges for me, so I managed to complete the game. Same thing with Blasphemous actually. Gorgeous game, platforming way too difficult for me.
Even he couldn’t do white palace, and I doubt I’m good enough to beat the true final boss, so I never got the good ending.
I had the same problem with Dead Cells: I could finish the game once, but impossible to continue with the Boss Cells activated. Thankfully, they introduced an “Assist Mode” with a later patch and I managed to continue playing.
The vast majority of the game is optional so that you can get to the final boss and see an ending. I remember getting the normal ending and thinking “really? That fight was trivial”. Turns out the minimal play-through is tuned for a low skill level. The “true” ending is another story though.
I enjoy the flow of the new Doom Eternal, once you get the hang of it you can keep an infinite supply of health and ammo that only runs out when everything’s dead - and you end up taking on much more than you thought possible.
However the jaw-dropping, frightening game that Doom was in 1993 will never be recaptured. Yes, scary games existed. Yes, 3D FPS existed. But nothing came close to Doom, it was a graphical marvel. I’d show it to friends, grandparents, anyone who’d look and they’d all either be amazed or reach for the bible. Their idea of video games was mario, Doom broke brains.
Doom 2 is what I played most. At the time, playing over a local BBS with my 28k modem (the fastest available!), I could see that network play was the future of gaming.
That's interesting that they give you the full details like that. Most games will, at most, tell you "We took action against a player you reported", or something equally vague.
“We’ve reviewed your report of this very obvious sexually explicit spam bot and found that it does not violate community guidelines. We use a combination of technogies to identify potentially harmful content…”
i harp on it a lot, but Outer Wilds helps me a lot. It teaches the value of exploration, curiosity, friendship, compassion, and patience. it’s a deeply melancholic piece, which can be frustrating and obtuse at times, but just remembering it makes me happy. the soundtrack brings all the memories back every time.
It’s a great game but I wouldn’t call it uplifting at all. Some of the why is already in your comment. Some people may also get frustrated by being in a loop and having to start over time after time. Some of the puzzles aren’t easy, which again may add to the frustration.
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