On my seventh attempt, I walked into a store and was told yes when asking if there were any Switch 2s in stock. The young cashier adorably turned to his older coworker and unironically said “Wow, that’s four in one day! You weren’t kidding about these things.”
So anyways the past few days have been a blur of Mario Kart World. The new mechanics are a challenge to learn but they’re a challenge I’m delighted to have and make me feel incredible when I’m using them well, the soundtrack full of remixed classics on par with the best of Final Fantasy VII Remake’s that are just there to fill the empty space between the proper racetracks, and I was not prepared for HDR in the hands of Nintendo’s artists. This game is by far the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen on a screen and that was already true before I looked up how to use that shockingly unhelpful calibration tool the Switch 2 has and now it’s twice as beautiful on top of that.
The sole complaint I have about this game is that I’m not enjoying Waluigi’s new voice actor. I can’t hear the pain underlying the mania that Martinet understood was core to the otherwise ill defined character. His animations and his costumes are so fucking good, though, it’s hard to even care that his voice is downgraded.
Just finished Steamworld Dig 2 for the second time, 100%ing it. Love that game. Started Bloodstained. Its alright, but it gets a little grindy near the mid to late game. I installed a mod that increases drop chances by 10% additive. Makes it less grindy, so I’m enjoying that. Also playing bloons TD 6. For funsies.
SWD2 is so fun, just a nice, breezy lil metroidvania. Does the cool metroidvania thing where the endgame mobility upgrades make you feel like a ninja grappling all over the place.
I'd argue their timing was very fortunate since GTA 6 got pushed to next year. That game would've dominated the popularity votes on all the GOTY shows.
It’s definitely not decided yet. A breakout hit could still come out of nowhere, which seems to be happening more and more often lately, including Clair Obscur. There’s also still the likes of Donkey Kong Bananza, Mina the Hollower, and Hollow Knight: Silksong coming later this year, and those are just the ones on my radar that seem likely to review that well.
I have a very hard time seeing any of those competing with either Clair Obscur or Death Stranding 2, apart from maybe Silksong (if it actually ever does come out). But even then I’m not sold.
Mina the Hollower will probably duke it out with Blue Prince for the indie game of the year.
The OpenCritic score is a very reliable predictor for winning the Game Awards, which is itself mostly an aggregate of review outlets. Donkey Kong is the next game from (probably) the Mario Odyssey team, and Odyssey has a 97 on OpenCritic, with Bananza looking to have a lot of the same design ethos. If I were a betting man, I’d be putting my money on Bananza winning GOTY. The previous Hollow Knight and Shovel Knight both hover around 90, so it’s possible but not the most likely thing in the world that Silksong or Mina exceed 90 by a wide margin, but they’ve got a better shot than most.
FromSoft reported sales of Elden Ring increased by over 200% following its GOTY win, if I remember right. It definitely has an impact. I can’t imagine it’s irrelevant in terms of attracting or keeping talent either, and it probably would help maintaining creative integrity and sticking to your vision in talks with investors.
It’s interesting to note that the Game Awards started having a tangible effect on sales in the past handful of years. Games that used to come out in November now come out in October at the latest, because that’s the deadline for Game Awards nominations.
I’ve had similar but they were all Raising Canes menu items with matching picture. Canes Tenders, Canes Crinkle Fries, Canes Toast, Canes Sauce, Canes Coleslaw.
I am amazed at how well this game is reviewing. It felt like half the critics were dunking on Death Stranding 1 upon release, and then there was this slow reappraisal where a bunch of people changed their tune over the course of the past 5 years. Now DS2 (Seek King Vendrick?) comes out, and with just a little refinement, the critics are all singing its praises. Would the review scores be as high if the general public had not come around on DS1?
Enjoying KOTOR2 at the moment. A More Civilized Age (AKA my favorite podcast ever) is doing a playalong of the game right now, so that has been motivating me through all the clunky combat scenarios. I’m really loving the juicy dialogue and top-tier voice acting. The Exile is so much more interesting than any other protagonist i’ve ever seen in a BioWare game - I feel like I really have a lot of room to interpret what kind of grey Jedi i want to be. I am shocked that Obsidian (and notorious POS Chris Avellone) pumped out this much amazing writing in 10 months.
I never finished all the time trials in Mario Kart 8, and I don’t have the budget to grab a Switch 2, so i’ve been plugging away at those trials to satiate my hunger for MKWorld.
Only just started Pentiment. And by that I mean I got through the background selection, and I’m now trying to decide if I’m happy with my choices or want to go with something else. The game looks really good so far, I’ve heard good things and I’m excited to see how it plays out.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne