Is this the much talked about Steam integration? I’d doubt it (what manufacturer will let you use their service to give money to another platform?!), but…I do hope I am wrong!
It’s not just a throwaway line. It’s something they’ve been building up to in their public statements for a while now. The direction the wind is blowing in a lot of countries right now is that of breaking down walled gardens, often times via legislation. Not only is this a matter of them accepting this as an inevitability, but none of their own walled gardens are responsible for their own success. Yes, they’ve got a Windows Store, but it doesn’t make the kind of money that Apple’s does. Their competitive advantage is that they can say, “look how nice and open we are,” while Sony goes about business as usual. Meanwhile, in a world where the next Xbox is expected to just be a PC, they can legally play the Windows version of God of War on a machine called “Xbox”, and there’s nothing Sony can do to stop it. All of that exclusivity money they spent is worthless. And the appeal to an Xbox is that it plays all of those games and is a cheap entry point for Game Pass. The part of this most recent PR statement that throws me for a loop is how they’re getting the full backward compatibility with old Xbox games, because that’s the only piece of evidence that points to them making a traditional console and not a Windows PC in disguise.
As for what I’ve been playing, I made good progress in a number of games lately. I finally hit the turn in Devil May Cry 4. Even knowing roughly what it would be through cultural osmosis, it’s every bit as disappointing to get to the halfway point of the game and realize they’re just going to make you go through the exact same levels as the first half of the game but backwards. It’s sort of like making New Game + mandatory in order to see the ending.
I also played a number of quests in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, and it looks like I’m at about the halfway point in the main story. The biggest problem with the game so far has been anything relating to its stealth systems, as they don’t give you much to go on, and the punishment is severe, but the story is pulling me along, and I finally leveled my way out of most of the game’s tedium.
And here or there, I’ve been playing some more missions in Borderlands 3. The upgrade in game feel is hard to overstate. The writing’s not great, but it’s not so unbearable like its reputation would lead me to believe. The skill trees are much better, the shooting feels much better, the quality of life is vastly improved; all keeping me pumped for the fourth game in a few months. The DRM situation isn’t my favorite, but I’ll deal with it.
EDIT: Breaking GOG news, Perfect Dark: Devil May Cry 1-4 are now available via GOG’s Good Old Games program. Of course they did this as I’m nearing the end of my journey through this series, but combined with Breath of Fire IV, Dino Crisis, and Resident Evil showing up on the service lately, I take this to mean they’ve got a good partnership with Capcom right now. I emulated DMC1-3 when I played through those lately, because I heard there were weird artifacts when playing the Steam versions through Proton, but maybe the fixed up GOG versions fare better.
Never really agreed with the Metroidvania label, same with Skul: The Hero Slayer. You unlock different biomes (and side rooms), but the items to do so are more like keys. Just my thoughts on that.
I like the feeling of getting stronger and coming back to previously inaccessible places. Pretty much only play games on Steam.
I’m surprised I haven’t seen anyone mention Hollow Knight yet. I won’t claim it on my list since I haven’t finished it yet, but it seems to be popular.
Hmm… metroidvanias never really stick the landing for me, but I had fun playing through SotN back in the day, and I'll shout out a couple of modern ones with fun combat: F.I.S.T: Forged in Shadow Torch and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
Do soulslikes count? They’re basically the same, except you don’t unlock new paths by gaining new abilities. You just beat up optional bosses and, maybe, need to find keys.
If you like space dogfighter sims, try Chorus. You can score it super cheap on sales and I think it’s a solid 6/10. Combat is fun and it’s nice to look at. Unfortunately the story has terrible pacing and kinda doesn’t make sense at times. Also, the missions get kinda repetitive. These two things really held it back for me, otherwise it’s a fairly good game.
Another, if you like top down shooters, is Subterrain. Doesn’t always go on sale, but when it does it’s dirt cheap because it’s like 10 years old at this point. It’s got some weird survival mechanics that I think are kinda pointless, but the gameplay and story were enough to keep me mildly entertained. I’d call this a “potato chip” type game. Not particularly good, but somehow kind of satisfying if you don’t think too much about it. Definitely a 6/10.
On another note, what’s y’all’s stance on the association that 5/10 = bad? I feel like it’s because people equate it to being 50% and associate that with bad due to school grades. I see it as an average score and when I give something a 5 or 6, that means I’m neutral to slightly positive feeling about it.
I don’t think a 5/10 game is necessarily bad, but it needs to have some kind of - I dont know, character? Niche appeal? - to shine for the players who are going to like it.
I’ll throw out Krater as an example. It’s not great, but it has a unique setting, great atmosphere, and some interesting ideas driving it. I kinda love it for its eccentricities in spite of the overall experience being a bit meh.
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