I started playing during the PS1 era when tank controls were the norm. I have no qualms with tank controls in other kind of games. To use your example, I genuinely think that REmake is a lot better with tank controls; modern controls conflict with fixed camera angles, because you may turn a corner and suddenly left becomes right, and the control scheme is clearly not designed with that in mind.
But in a platform game with very precise platforming sequences, tank controls and unresponsive camera were horrible. It made playing it frustrating to the point that, despite playing it a lot, I never actually finished the game, because I would always give up somewhere through the game. The farthest I went into Croc 2 was the fourth world (still don’t know how many there are), and iirc third world in Croc 1. As opposed to Spyro and Crash which I replayed dozens of times from beginning to end.
I won’t say that my experience is universal and I can definitely see people enjoying the control scheme, but I gave it a lot more than a fair shake and it never convinced me. I always had the impression that the game was fighting me and genuinely wanted me to fail.
I played the original countless of times as a kid! It was a great platformer hindered by the tank controls, which unfortunately led me to prefer Spyro. If there ever was a game in need of a remaster (as opposed to a remake), it’s this one. Update the controls, and the game itself is still a lot of fun.
Honestly, the true ending is nothing to write home about. Sea of Stars is probably one of my favourite JRPG ever, but the entire last arc and both endings were a huge letdown.
Because he is. The person he is speaking to is a Nazi. there are other Nazis behind him. They probably dug a hole a left him there to die or something (we lack context for the scene, but it’s believable). Full scene: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e17p2IVDUU
I burned myself out of many a game as a kid attempting (and usually succeeding at) 100% them, so I learned my lesson. Nowadays I just play for fun and maybe go after the platinum if I liked the game enough. My time has value and I’m not going to squander it to “look at the minimap, go to waypoint/marked location, collect random collectible, rinse and repeat for 10-15 hours”, nor am I spending dozens of hours grinding some random activity.
For example, I did almost 100% all Yakuza Kiwami. Did all side quests and enjoyed most of the random activities! Iirc those I had most trouble with were karaoke and billiards, but I still had tons of fun learning them and gradually getting better at them. But fuck me I’m NOT going to grind the coliseum for hours just to buy random weapons that I don’t need but are arbitrarily required for the 100% completion.
I’ve also learned not to rush it. I frequently replay games that I like, so if I miss an achievement, that’s fine. Maybe in five years I’ll pick the game up again and grab the random achievement I missed the first time around. There’s no need to sweat it, no need to read guides before/while playing the game and potentially spoiling me some major story events, and no need to immediately replay the game just to reach that random achievement.
That being said, the game I had the most fun with was CrossCode. Movement is fluid, combat is snappy, story and characters are fun and puzzles are actually challenging. It’s the most charming experience I’ve ever had playing a game, and it’s why it immediately jumped straight into my top favourite games ever. There is technically a “completionist list” within the game with some abdurd and missable requests, but it’s not required to 100% the game and it’s basically just a pile of challenges that you can tackle on if you feel like it. If you don’t, you can just play the story, do the side quests and collect all the treasures, which is a lot of fun. The platinum only requires you to beat the story iirc, so you don’t even need to do any of that; I did it because I liked the game and wanted to do it. Twice! I bought the game on PC and console and 100% it both times.
Most other games that I enjoy completing are platformers/collect-a-thons, such as Spyro, Crash (except Crash 1, never managed to finish it, but had tons of fun nevertheless), Ori, Celeste, PS1 Oddworld games, etc… and metroidvanias, if they are not overly long (basically every one I’ve played except for Hollow Knight).
The longest run I had was Final Fantasy XIII. I liked the game so much that I kept going back to it over the years, slowly chipping at the side content and grinding my way to max level. I got the platinum almost ten years after starting my save file, and I wouldn’t have enjoyed it nearly as much if I attempted to rush it all in one sitting.
The fact that MS spent an entire decade fumbling the ball, and when it finally got it right and released a game people actually liked, immediately shut down the studio and sold the IP, is still highly amusing to me.
You can’t convince me that it wasn’t an inside job from someone who either secretly works for the competition, or who actively hates MS and wants it to fail.
I found the puzzles refreshing in CrossCode. It was nice having a game that actually had the guts of challenging your wits, instead of spoiling all your fun with the characters telling the solution before you even manage to look at the damn puzzle. They were my favourite aspect of the game for sure.
A bit sad they decided to tone down on that aspect, but hopefully they’ll strike a balance that makes both of us happy.
Pollution and nuclear war destroyed the environment.
The economy is in shambles, big corporations rule over the world and exploit the powerless working class.
Crime has overtaken the country. It doesn’t matter who you are: you are either one of them, or on the receiving end.
Breathable air is a subscription service, and price hikes happen every other month to please shareholders.
Game devs are still releasing games for the PS4 and XOne consoles. Nobody has yet understood the purpose of the next gen consoles. Every other day, someone screams “but muh exclusives!” to the sky. But no one answers back. God remains silent.
Thing is, they don’t need to sell consoles anymore. They’re in the gamepass business now.
They need to sell consoles to sell GamePass to people. Nobody is going to play games on a Firestick. Same reason why nobody bought the mobile ports of Resident Evil. Those who play games, buy the hardware for it. Some go overboard with the high-end PC and some prefer to buy a cheaper console, but nobody is like “yeah I’ll play Elden Ring on my phone”. Gamers want the hardware, and casuals don’t buy gaming subscriptions. It’s a lost cause.
“MS doesn’t care about selling Xbox console” is a lie they have been pushing for a while now because their console sales have been tanking for that many years. They would LOVE to sell more consoles, they just can’t, so they attempt to spin the story a different way so that the shareholders are still happy. What, you want to know about sales? But who cares about sales, it’s all about engagement! Look at those big, happy numbers we are showing you!
Nobody enters a business with the idea that “whatever, even if we don’t sell enough, it’s fine, we still had a great time”. MS didn’t became the world’s biggest corporation by being lazy.
They currently have roughly 34 million subscribers (as of February, I’m guessing Activision Blizzard King is going to bump this number up further), let’s assume an average of $12 a month. That’s over $400 million coming in every month or 1.2 billion every quarter on the books. They don’t have to rely on a big game to have a good month.
That’s great until you consider the fact that GamePass doesn’t operate in a vacuum. To put games on their service, they have to pay developers. They then need to please shareholders who want subscribers and revenue to increase. The fact that they increased the price twice in a row and effectively doubled the price of GamePass overnight suggests that they are not pleased with the current revenue.
Heck, we don’t even know how many of those 34m subscribers are paying customers, and how many just got into GP by paying $1 or benefitting from some other deal. I was one of those 34m back in February, because I got a year for free with the Rewards program (back when it was still worth something; they axed that one as well, because of course). When they asked me to pay to renew it, I cancelled the subscription. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one.
You’re more valuable to them having the gamepass subscription and just playing on your phone over someone who buys a console and purchases 7 or 8 games a year.
Sure, but that’s the same as Don Mattrick asking customers to “stick to their X360”. The choice is not between buying games on XOne or subscribing to GamePass on your phone. The choice is between an Xbox, a PS5, a Switch or a PC. Two of those choices means that they have lost a customer (you can’t subscribe to GP on PS or Nintendo consoles), and I’d be curious to know how many people are subscribing for GP on PC instead of just buying games on Steam. You don’t need GP to play online on PC as you do on console, and the prices are cheap enough that you are probably saving money just buying those games instead of renting them.
And let’s not talk about how terrible the user experience is on their PC storefront compared to literally any other competing storefront - I’d rather buy a game on Epic than use their Xbox store, and that says a lot. I had a game on PC thanks to the Play Anywhere program (bought it on Xbox, got the PC version as well), but I had to buy it again on GoG to mod it because MS considers their game files more precious than the holy grail itself and wouldn’t let me go anywhere close to them, let alone touch them.
I feel the problem is not the industry but the fanbase. As of the last few years, it’s become pretty common to see videogames become target of hatred for “going woke”: H:FW’s Aloy’s “peach fuzz”, TLOU2’s Abby being too masculine, women not living to the average beauty standard, LGBT characters “shoved down people’s throats”, character editors decoupling gender and sex or using gender-neutral language, narrative being cringe because it targets millennials (as if older games didn’t target young audiences, too)… The industry is going forward, but I don’t think the fanbase is ready yet.
Sometimes I think the fanbase is regressing, even. I’ve seen people lamenting increased “politics” in their videogame, yet saying that MGS or FFVII or Bioshock are their favourite games. Gamers don’t even pay attention to what they consume, they merely parrot whatever their favourite influencer says. “Woke” is a meaningless term that gets thrown around whenever they don’t like something.