Had a friend unironically trying to convince me that Palworld is evil because it brainwashes people into liking human enslavement and shooting at civilians.
His favourite game is Pokémon, a game where you bond with your fire lizard by pitting it against other animals in a government-sanctioned tournament.
Of course he’s also one of those people who spends hours lamenting the state of current Pokémon games, while also buying both versions of each game at day 1.
It’s a bit strange that only one has a fixed release date despite all of them supposedly releasing this year, with the biggest offender being Indiana Jones that only has a generic “2024” release date. That being said, they all showed glimpses of gameplay and different environments, suggesting there’s at least a good chunk of the game already built. I could definitively see Indiana Jones being postponed, though (not a prediction, just saying that I wouldn’t be surprised if it happened).
Avowed seems ok. I’m not a fun of first-person fantasy games (I like looking at my character performing sick moves in cool armour), but they certainly know what they are doing and the gameplay looks fun and snappy. Unfortunately, apart from the combat system and one limited character interaction, they didn’t show too much of the gameplay to give me an idea of what the moment-to-moment gameplay will be, so I’ll suspend my judgement on this one for the moment while I keep waiting for more info.
Senua’s really good, but I never had any doubt about this one. It looked good when they first showed it a few years back, and it somehow looks ever better every time, despite this being the third or fourth trailer I’ve seen in as many years. It gives me the impression they really care about crafting as much a polished game as they can. I’m very optimistic about this one.
I love that they spent half the time dedicated to Secret of Mana talking about the cute critters. I loved every second of it, I’m a sucker for cute animals lol. Unfortunately I always find action JRPGs to be hit and miss: sometimes the game drags just too much and the gameplay ends up boring me before I finish the game. I’m not talking about this game in particular, it’s just a generic statement on the genre, and it’s just a “me” thing, feel free to disagree. Anyway, I’ll keep my eyes on this.
I always love strategy games, so I’m curious about Ara History Untold, which I hadn’t heard before today. I’m not going to lie, I was not entirely impressed, but it got me curious.
About Indiana Jones, I’m already looking forward to playing it, no doubt! I hope the focus will be on puzzles and exploration, as they promised, instead of combat, but I am hopeful they’ll do a decent job.
1:22 - Obsidian Entertainment, Avowed. Release date: Fall 2024.
They show the game’s world, the combat system, and touch a bit on the quest system and dialogue options.
9:22 - Ninja Theory, Senua’s Saga Hellblade II. Release date: May 21, 2024.
They talk about the story and theme of the game, show some cutscenes, and touch a bit on the combat system. They also delve into the sound design, and some behind-the-scenes about the setting and motion capture.
They talk about the combat system, monster design, and show a glimpse of the mount travelling across the open world. The final segment is dedicated to the soundtrack, and how it changes to fit the moment-to-moment gameplay.
25:12 - Oxide, Ara History Untold. Release date: Fall 2024.
They talk about wanting to revolutionize the genre. They show procedurally generated biomes, and mention the attention to detail that went into crafting different cultures and societies from all around the world. The system is deep, requiring the player to explore and make choices that will change the society and the world around them to achieve different win conditions. No mention of Xbox, so I guess it’s still a PC-only release, at least for now.
33:10 - Machine Games, Indiana Jones and the great circle. Release date: 2024.
Hey, look, Todd Howard makes an appearance. There’s some cutscenes, but they show gameplay as well. It’s a first person adventure game set between Raiders of the lost ark and The last crusade. Dr. Jones is shown exploring ancient ruins, vast deserts, snowy mountains and the Vatican, following the trails of a man who stole a relic from the Marshall College and fighting some nazis along the way. But they also talk about the puzzles, which will take centre stage. Seems cool. The last bit is about the behind-the-scenes of the animators and composers, and they also talk about the other characters that will be part of the story.
Their games were rough around the edges but sure as hell showed a lot of passion. The lore and attention to detail that went into their worlds were unparalleled, especially in the open world genre where lots of content is just generic copy-pasted fetch quests or mindlessly following the Ubisoft formula.
PGR3, a Xbox360 racing game, contains Geometry Wars 1 and 2 as mini games. YT Link
Celeste contains the entirety of Celeste Classic (PICO-8) as an easter egg in one of its levels. YT Link
Xenogears, a PS1 JRPG game, contains a battle arena minigame, and I spent a few hours on that as a kid. YT Link
Machinarium’s Gomoku/5 in a row minigame is so much fun, I played it with my friends at school when we didn’t want to listen to our teacher :) By the way, I really recommend Machinarium to every fan of old school point-and-click games.
Mistwalker is the company founded by Sakaguchi, the creator of Final Fantasy. It should come to no surprise that the game is really evocative of many early FF titles.
I played Lost Odyssey and very much liked it, but it’s not Square.
It was made by Mistwalker with MS backing, after Sakaguchi left Square.
Actually, re-reading my list, I noticed that I mentioned Resonance of Fate, which wasn’t Square, either! It was published by Sega. The other titles should be correct.
First of all, I don’t see how a series where each and every entry is unique and has nothing to do with the previous ones (apart from a few recurring names) could be “well past done”. They don’t even share the same gameplay or combat system.
And also, Square has “tried something new” pretty much all the time. Triangle Strategy, Live a Live, Nier, Kingdom Hearts, Star Ocean, SaGa, Mana series (with an upcoming title next year), Dragon Quest, Octopath Traveler… I’m just listing a few, but I could go on. It’s not even a thing they suddenly decided to do. Even a few gens back, I remember playing Star Ocean, Last Remnant, Resonance of Fate and other lesser known titles. If you want to go back to the PS1 days, Vagrant Story and Threads of Fate come to mind, but there are surely a lot more I’m currently forgetting. EDIT: Xenogears too! I don’t know how I could forget that one.
I have heard very good things about it, but I can’t talk for myself, as I haven’t played it. My only recommendation is to stay away from the console versions of the game, as I tried it on Xbox One and it was unplayable (heard the same about the PS4 port, too). Maybe it’s better on next gen, but I wouldn’t risk it.
Two things worth mentioning:
The remake only has one character, the Haruspex. If you want to play as the Bachelor or the Changeling, you’ll need to grab the original game.
There are difficulty settings in the remake. I would leave them as default, as I think the difficulty of the game, and the conflicting decisions you’ll need to undertake because of it, is an integral part of the experience. That being said, if you really like the game and want to see it through, you can tweak the difficulty a bit, and accessibility is always a plus in my book.
Again, this is just hearsay as I haven’t played it, but from what I’ve gathered, Pathologic 2 is more a retelling than a faithful remake. Same setting and same ending, but a different road, so to speak. You could play either one and then move on to the other if you like it.
The obvious answer is Pathologic. You play as one of three possible characters in a black plague-infested town in the russian steppe, trying to help people and survive.
As days go by, the situation worsens and, in order to survive, you are forced to make very hard decisions. Can you spare the food for the others? Will you rob someone of their medicines? Will you risk going to the most dangerous parts of the city, where the stench of infection permeates the air?
Making it to the end of a day is a genuine accomplishment in this game, considering all the work you have to do to stay alive, and that the game really doesn’t care if you live or die. It won’t hold your hand to make sure you get through to the end; it’s entirely possible to make it through 10 days and then back yourself into a corner where you have absolutely no hope of survival, short of loading a save from a few (in-game) days ago. Or perhaps to save yourself the agony of replaying several hours of the game, you end up in terrifying, desperate scenarios where you have to sell your only weapon for a few scraps of bread, or murder a child for the medicine he’s carrying while you’re about to die from infection. That’s true horror right there.
It’s not an easy game and it’s not a good game, even. It’s old and dated and janky, but it’s also full of charm and personality. I wouldn’t say it’s a game meant to be played, as much as it is an experience worth going through. You won’t have fun playing the game. Even if you can overlook its pain points, it’s an objectively oppressive game that will make you feel miserable from beginning to end, and increasingly so. I wouldn’t say it’s for everyone, and I don’t mean that in an elitist way. Some people simply won’t stand this much bleakness during the time they are supposedly spending to find entertainment.
I can relate to that. These days I find myself gravitating more towards calm/introspective games that let me sit back, explore at my own pace and relax.
Wish you a good day, and I hope you are enjoying the holidays :)