SnotFlickerman

SnotFlickerman, 9 miesięcy temu

Game Preservationists When a Game Sucks:

“Good I’m glad it’s gone.”

SnotFlickerman, 9 miesięcy temu

welp, glad I never bought Risk of Rain or Risk of Rain 2 then.

SnotFlickerman, 9 miesięcy temu

They did, indeed, come out on top.

https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/036/386/I'm_Playing_Both_Sides_Banner.jpg

SnotFlickerman, 9 miesięcy temu

Despite that, I’ve heard from friends there’s been some major changes since the sale… and they’re not good.

Not live service, but an update broke a lot of stuff and people aren’t too happy about it.

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu

I want to see an adaptation of Naked Lunch as a video game that starts out as a hard-boiled neo-noir detective game, becoming a surreal waking nightmare much like the book, and ending with becoming an endless randomly-generated flight from the cops as you evade pursuit for accidentally killing your wife during a game of William Tell.

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu

This guy "As a black man"ed the whole disabled gaming community what the fuck.

He lives up to his name, Craven, for deleting all his social media in response to this.

Anyone who gave this guy a fucking dime needs to sue the living shit out of him for fraudulently misrepresenting himself as getting money to these disabled women that never fucking existed and this fucking chode just pocketed all the fucking money.

What a giant piece of shit. I hope someone knocks him the fuck out and people just leave him out cold in the street because fuck him.

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu

Many of these are also compatible with Windows 10 and up.

While it totally kicks ass that they release these through their Xbox branding, but it’s weird that they don’t make a bigger deal how this also makes PC gaming more accessible as well.

Although to be fair, they may have better support for these controllers via the Xbox app/Microsoft Store, and maybe they don’t hype it as much because there isn’t great Steam support perhaps?

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu

Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu

I’m weird and I have a real soft spot for the original PlayStation 1 Final Fantasy Tactics as well. Both solid games, imho.

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu

I honestly only ever see people talking about FFTA, I almost never see people mention FFT for playstation.

Could just be me, but I don’t exactly run into lots of folks who are even aware it exists.

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu (edited 10 miesięcy temu)

I have never read much of game reviews and game news nor “top” listicles, so maybe that’s why I’m less aware of the critical acclaim.

EDIT: and to be clear, it’s nice to know my opinion is in good company and not weird.

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu

A lot of reasons to dislike Todd Howard, but fuck it, this is cute and wholesome.

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu

Oh man I remember the open-world obsession era. It’s still sort of with us, but a few companies are daring to stick with linear narratives that don’t allow as many branching paths, like Control or Alan Wake 2. Even non-linear narratives are being pulled off in non-open-world games like Baldur’s Gate 3.

SnotFlickerman, 10 miesięcy temu

Tav: Shouldn’t have wished to live in more interesting times.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu (edited 11 miesięcy temu)

Yeah this title wasn’t begging for a remaster.

It was interesting, at the time, but far more interesting, thoughtful, and artistic indie games have popped up since.

It’s artstyle isn’t as unique as it was on release, nor is the gameplay. It’s no small wonder it did not do well.

This guy must have been huffing his own farts thinking this was a good time and market to do it in.

It’s never been tougher for indie games, and people are outright bored by linear narratives. Braid is presented with events out-of-order but it still tells a linear story.

Much more complex narratives exist now, and Braid just can’t compete on that level.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

Tom Nook is a rotten bell-grubbing bastard.

But its a cute fun game. I only ever played the one on GameCube and a tiny bit of New Leaf. I liked finding old NES games on the GameCube one and playing them on the in-game NES.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

A man chooses.

A slave obeys.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

In other news, Microsoft shuts down Bethesda game studios…

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

I honestly felt it was weaker than both Bioshock and System Shock 2. It was stronger than Bioshock 2, but I mean… that doesn’t take a lot.

Both System Shock 2 and Bioshock built the game systems first and foremost to be fun and engaging, and then wrote an engaging story around those mechanics. Bioshock was literally taking dumbed down systems from System Shock 2 and rewriting a more engaging and thoughtful story around the familiar systems. Bioshock Infinite seemed much more like they had a story idea first and then tried to adapt Bioshock-esque gameplay hamfistedly stapled onto said story. The others feel like the gameplay came first, and the story evolved naturally to align with the gameplay.

Games like Neir Automata really show where a synthesis of game systems design and game story design are really important and become even more impactful to the story, and in this Bioshock Infinite failed in comparison to earlier installments in the series (and its spiritual predecessor, System Shock 2).

I feel like it’s hard to talk about Bioshock as a series at all without discussing System Shock 2, because that’s where Levine first pioneered his story with the engaging antagonist who speaks to you through a radio, and Bioshock is where he refined it into what comes close to literature. Bioshock Infinite marks a regression, more worried about the story that Levine wanted to tell than the gameplay to support it. Due to that the story falls flat, feels stilted, and Levine’s generic take of “everyone can be a bad guy” feels hollow, because it’s not backed up by compelling gameplay that supports it.

As McLuhan put it, “the medium is the message” and video games inherently work better through a synthesis of gameplay and story, without one dominating over the other. Games that lean too far in one direction or the other (Metal Gear Solid’s interminably long cut-scenes for instance) take you too far out of the gaming medium and too far into other, more detached mediums.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

I came back because I read a bunch about Levine’s new game, Judas… and it sounds like his approach to Judas is exactly what I’m asking for.

He talks about “narrative legos” a lot while developing this game, and I think that’s the kind of thing he really needed to implement to be able to tell the story he actually wanted to tell.

I found one interview (already forgot which one) where he described Bioshock Infinite’s linear story as holding him back, and that’s part of why it’s a weaker installment, because it can’t change the story in response to your actions. That’s clearly what Levine was trying to do with stuff like the choice of harvesting of the Little Sisters or not, or in Infinite, choosing to be a racist piece of shit or not. He was held back technologically, and I think the “narrative legos” idea is why Judas languished so long in development hell.

Here’s hoping Levine learned his lessons this time around.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

Disappointing that its a Fallout 2 mod and not a fix-up of the Van Buren codebase but I guess only the tech demo ever got leaked, not any full code.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

For Nintendo, the main purpose is to put a dent in piracy.

You can bet your ass anti-piracy measures will be the biggest upgrades made to the console.

Switch games were being emulated quickly after release and there’s a lot of PCs with the same form factor now that are technically beefy enough to emulate stuff. (*looks at SteamDeck)

This breaks the previous emulation cycle and gives them a chance to boost anti-piracy measures since they’re clearly not beefing up the Switch 2 to PC hardware standards.

The hardware will defnitely be emulatable on other systems, so they have to dump everything into anti-piracy measures.

I mean they don’t have to but this is Nintendo we are talking about here.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu (edited 11 miesięcy temu)

Super Mario Land also gave birth to Wario as an enemy and then eventually his own gameboy Spin-off Warioland (subheaded as ‘Super Mario Land 3’), which went on to have more installments than Super Mario Land itself!

Wario is one of Nintendo’s best characters and deeply underutilized (along with Waluigi).

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

This universe came about because they would design fun gameplay first and then write an absurd story around it.

The “reasons” for things were usually dictated by gameplay and the stories reflected that.

It’s why Katamari Damacy is one of my favorite games, because it took that notion and really ran with it. It’s story is as absurd and over-the-top as the gameplay of rolling up objects to make stars in the sky. The gameplay is absurd and not in any way reflective of any reality except the reality of the game world itself.

The Mario series has always kept that ethos as well. The stories have grown and changed as long as the Mario gameplay has, each a response to a new set of moves, and at one point the move from 2D to 3D, all of it forever changing the path forward and the details of the canon Mario universe.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

“Califooooooorniaaaaaaa.”

Also didn’t the girl go on to be the singer in Rilo Kiley?

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

crying baby island simulator

I understand the hate but that game was so damn good, if you could ignore the baby cries.

SnotFlickerman, 11 miesięcy temu

Official Microsoft controllers were absolute peak with the Xbox 360…

…but modern Microsoft Xbox controllers have absolute dogshit build quality. Just the worst, constantly breaking for no reason. I’m just done with Xbox controllers because old DualShock 4’s are cheap and quality.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

Soon:

https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/32d356e3-3d86-4f51-979b-73210e3d517f.png

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

I never asked for this.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

Top-tier writeup. The original will always hold a special place in my heart but Mankind Divided was an excellent modern interpretation of similar systems of gameplay.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

System Shock 2 is begging for a remake with actually functioning netcode for multiplayer way more than the original.

Bioshock would eventually iterate on this, but the RPG systems of System Shock 2 are so, so deep, and I always appreciated that you could still get attacked by enemies while trying to hack machines. It made doing things like hacking feel very dangerous. Bioshock literally pauses time for you it’s so weak by comparison.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

You know, you bring up a really good point, honestly.

My friend had a similar complaint about Baldurs Gate III.

“Why so much body horror and gore? When I was growing up and playing DnD, we were never exploring that kind of stuff. DnD can be so much more than just body horror and gore.” Not verbatim, but you get the idea.

As much as I love BG3, I don’t actually disagree with his sentiment at all.

There should be an opportunity for people to play similar style of games that aren’t so gory or depressing or both. Not every stealth game needs to be cyberpunk and depressing.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

Another series worthy of discussion!

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

but do you know about the 3 shells?

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

Tonight at 11, Japanese company centers japanese media in its media showcase.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/pictrs/image/f54bc1b4-5235-4d42-bf24-3d3d65ba4f22.jpeg

“Ramirez has caught the parking lot frog” sums it up so succinctly.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

After how expertly Fallout nailed its landing by using literal assets from the game for set design…

Yeah this is gonna flop hard.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu (edited rok temu)

This is one of those things where Valve actually actively sucks and is actively ignoring a growing problem because the old game just isn’t profitable anymore.

Expect this to get zero interest or time spent on it from Valve because they’re knee-deep in trying to release a Hero Shooter (rolls eyes).

I have a lot of respect for Valve, but situations like this really need to make people step back and question how much Valve care about the community that uses the Steam service, or do they really care more about how much money they make?

The fact that they keep creating micro-transactions for a game that’s been completely taken over by bots says “They don’t give a shit, they just want the money.”

Thanks for coming to my TED Talk. Let’s not let Valve get away with shit just because they’re “good guys” compared to other businesses.

Anti-consumer is anti-consumer is anti-consumer. Valve doesn’t get a pass for being Valve.

EDIT: To be clear, I understand that they aren’t required to keep supporting a nearly-two-decade-old game, but letting it become a place where outright abuse happens is a different story. If you can’t control the abuse and you don’t want to do anything about it: do the thing nobody will like but will solve the problem: kill the damn game already if you don’t want to support it. That’s what I expect to happen before they face this issue, they’ll shut down official servers and make the game unavailable before they try to solve the bot problem for a game so old. Valve has made it clear for years that they don’t listen to or give a flying fuck about the TF2 community.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

You know what they call bad writers?

Hacks.

So… this tracks.

Seriously, good writing doesn’t happen with “lifehacks,” that’s how you get worthless shit like Max Landis writing Bright. (Don’t you love white people trying to write about racism… without writing about racism? Just plop in any old fantasy race and it works, right? Right!?)

I recall almost two decades ago I got into it with a woman who was going to school at Digipen, and she told me what Digipen taught students about writing a game.

She said the point was to create the most everyman main character, so you could have the most customers identify with them, and be able to sell more units.

Which I basically said “They’re teaching you the worst writing techniques possible. Literature students would faint at this idea.”

She didn’t care, she claimed this was “good writing.”

No wonder so many games have such dogshit writing if this is how we’re teaching game writers to write for fucks sake. Pick up a god damned book and get thoughtful, people.

Like seriously, let’s get game adaptations of weird, interesting books like Steppenwolf or Naked Lunch.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

Also, the trailer refers to Hobbits as “creatures” instead of “people.”

What’s with a little fantasy dehumanization, eh, eh?

SnotFlickerman, rok temu (edited rok temu)

Mass Effect Andromeda is mostly hated, but hot damn, it’s disappointing that it was, because it brought back all the best aspects of the original Mass Effect and iterated upon them greatly. Open world planets to explore with a big, fun to drive vehicle.

I would say it’s main failing was the story and the companions, which was generally forgettable, but the world building was quite good and the environments were beautiful.

For all the failures of the facial animations and dead eyes upon release, the actual game itself is really beautiful when it comes to scenic vistas and so on. Part of the trouble is you spend a large mount of the early game stuck inside samey indoor environments with these dead eyed NPCs, so when it came out, the opening of the game gave people a bad view by focusing you on the games worst offenses right out of the gate. That’s a hard hill for a lot of people to climb over, understandably so.

I just think it was incredibly disappointing because it was in many ways a way stronger game (gameplay-wise and environment-wise) than Mass Effect 2/3. It was a huge step up in quality for the franchise, but because of a botched story and facial animations, it nearly killed the franchise entirely.

It was also one of those games that suffered from Gamergate bullshit. Complaints of Sarah Ryder not being attractive enough and complaints too many LGBT characters. I remember when I used to think EA was lying that they thought they won Worst Company from The Consumerist because they had anti-LGBT people doing write-in campaigns against them. I believe them now, even though it felt like they were hiding behind that at the time. Because those are bullshit complaints.

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Also, is it just me or did Baldur’s Gate 3 prove you could do a modern version of one of these games in the classic isometric overhead view style?

I’d love to see a Mass Effect style game in a modern isometric overhead view turn-based tactical combat type situation, like X-COM but more like an RPG than a tactical combat game with minor RPG elements.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

This just in: Shitty and unethical company known for shitty, unethical practices and absolutely bonkers PR statements like “AAAA games” unsurprisingly continues to be shitty and unethical company. There’s not more at 11 because that’s all there is to it.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

It’s impossible to hear this song and not see a punked the fuck out Johnny 5 saving the day.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

Steam suspicously absent from this conversation, but I’m willing to be patient and see.

It’s a positive attitude for Spencer to take, but would have to see it in practice to be able to make judgment on if he really stands behind those words or if he is simply making a strategic business decision whose real motives are simply masked by these words.

The latter is par for the course for corporations, so we don’t have a lot to lean on in favor of him truly holding these values, sadly. One can hope, however, that miracles can and do happen.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

Literally nobody asked for this.

It will likely bomb, especially if it’s as crammed with microtransactions as I fully expect it will be.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

Excellent breakdown. This almost definitely only applies to the Deluxe Edition that is a physical copy.

Steam explicitly doesn’t let you give your account away or sell it, likely because they service so many different companies, that it would be impossible to handle the licensing changeover for all your games. It’s still frustrating, but it also makes a little sense, considering each game is often owned by a series of different companies.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

Now Nintendo is going to start going after the smaller guys, who definitely can’t afford to fight.

The plus side is Ryujinx is Free Open Source Software so a million forks can begun being made right now. Yuzu had closed source aspects, which was its downfall in replication from this point forward. Ryujinx will likely have thousands of clone repositories made after today alone.

SnotFlickerman, rok temu

I’m interested in them mostly because my NES, SNES, Genesis and OG GameBoy all still work, and it would be nice to be able to still use my cartridges once they finally bite the dust. I got real lucky with the NES getting refurbished by Nintendo of America in the early 2000’s before they released the Wii and were still servicing all their old consoles.

So yeah, I’m curious about how functional they are, for sure.