Yeah, I got it mostly for the campaign, hoping for more Baldur’s Gate. It was so disappointing.
The story was uninspired, but most of all solo gameplay was so boring. One character, one NPC companion and you couldn’t control them in any way, starting at low level, all of that made your strategic choices practically inexistent.
And then the engine breaking everywhere causing it to rewind your action after 5 seconds because it suddenly remembered “hey, you were not supposed to be able to go there, we’ve put a bunch of knee-high crates to block that 5 meter wide empty hallway!”
I’ve not played Forbidden West, but I’ve played all of Zero Dawn. I’ll just say, as much as I like the game (I do, quite a bit), it’s bad at being open-world.
Most narrow paths are only related to quests, and if you try exploring them before you need to go there the game punishes you by making it a chore to go and to leave for no gain. Also, the terrible message “you’re out of bound, turn back now or we reset to your last save” is one of the worst failure at world design ever. It pops up constantly if you’re just trying to explore.
And yes, I tried playing HUD-free for a bit (I had a great experience doing that on Breath of the Wild). As you said it’s almost impossible, the environment, while looking good, is way too messy to spot the small details you’re supposed to… Unless you turn on the magic compass and GPS.
In other games, paths and important items are highlighted with lighting and clear and functional visual cues. Beside the infamous yellow paint, HZD does almost none of that efficiently.
It had a few graphical upgrades through the huge content updates it got year after year.
Now there is more biome diversity, more decorative flora, better underground environments, more creature types…
If anything, they tried so much to populate it that sometimes I feel it’s lacking some truly desolate environments. “Empty” planets are uncommon, and even those are mostly cluttered with weird stuff and “anomalous” living things.
Yah, I haven’t tried latest update yet. Problem with NMS is that it’s a bit daunting diving into it again and again, I don’t like returning to month-old saves and starting from the beginning takes ages. Especially that with all the content updates, you get a dozen simultaneous quests jumping at you at first occasion.
I’m still doing expeditions, and that in itself is already a ridiculous commitment IMO. I wish we could just do them at our own pace, the time limit is baffling. I noticed that last expedition literally 2 days before it ended, I got everything, but it was a freaking race to get there.
[alt text: a two frame comic, made entirely with sprites from the Pokemon games. The top panel shows the three legendary beasts Entei, Suicune, and Raikou looking at the legendary bird Ho-Oh. Ho-Oh is saying, “I will bring you back to life,” while the beasts are responding “thank you, Master”. The bottom panel shows the...
This really does not sound healthy. The game is released, for a certain amount of money. If people don’t like what they get for their money, they simply should not buy it....
If someone complains about buying a finished game and not getting more of it later, they’re idiots and there’s nothing you can do but ignore them.
Publishers that do ultra-early access/roadmaps/live services with promises of content/bug fixes/trust me we’re making the rest of the game later, are clearly to blame for the mess too. They’re the ones poisoning the well.
But plenty of games release in a final state and that’s okay. They have to be firm about it though.
I don’t know what kind of funny or what style of review you’re looking for, but there’s Matt McMuscles, who does “What Happened” and “The worst fighting game”.
What happened is not technically always about bad games, but about troubled development in general. Most of them do end up rather disastrous or at least disappointing and are known for it though.
The worst fighting game, however, exclusively reviews bad games, since, well, he’s looking for the worst one.
I didn’t know he did that, just checked… And yeah, the voice and tone are very recognizable but it’s also a bit funny that his character is a skeleton there too.
Single joycon is barely usable, but the Wiimote was terrible for sideways holding.
Its shape was clearly never intended for it, and the d-pad was absolutely awful, one of the worst I’ve used.
The d-pad worked as buttons (which was how most games used it, in vertical mode), but for movement it was very stiff and almost impossible to get diagonals. For a console that featured virtual console heavily and needed a lot of classic controls, that was very bad design.
Some of the stores became Micromania-Zing (owned by gamestop) which amazingly enough still exists.
Yeah, those have been primarily funko pop stores for years too. Their new games are like 20% more expensive than everyone else, and their second hand games priced like everyone else’s new.
Game doesn’t exist anymore where I live, but the last thing I bought from a similar store (down to overpriced games and being mostly about merch) was a 8bitdo controller several years ago. I was there, price was not excessive, and it was slightly more convenient than having one delivered.
Beyond that… I went a couple times just to pick up a free event pokémon on 3DS, and nothing else, and I think the last actual game I got from them must have been Order of Ecclesia on the DS.
Until they give a “better” reason, I am going to assume the one they hinted at is true, and Microsoft just decided that it was worthless because it wasn’t “Mikami’s studio” anymore. Honestly, I already suspected it.
In which case, fuck them. These games were not made by one person, a studio is bigger than its director. And the rest of them didn’t get even one chance to prove themselves.
Truly shows how little they value the people who make their games.
I did see a few low-poly, very PS1 or N64-looking indies recently, even going as far as mimicking the weird texture wobbling from the PS1.
But Penny’s big breakaway is not really low-poly, or something that looks like 5th gen/PS1. Not graphically anyway.
Though it’s mechanically rather retro, with the focus on move combos, scoring and speedrunning. It’s almost more of a linear kind of skate or jet set radio-like game than a platformer.
Yeah, I suspect the last minute trailer request too. I am a huge fan of the Metroid Prime trilogy (hunters doesn’t count), and that trailer did practically nothing for me.
Woo, slight remix of the space pirate theme, scanning a dead pirate, and morph balling through a conduit. And three seconds of Sylux, again, because we’re supposed to care about that character for some reason.
It failed completely at being a Metroid game. It’s obvious the single-player “story” was just hastily hacked together from the multiplayer mode.
Maps were linear, without any kind of secrets or exploration. They were mostly boring corridors between multiplayer arenas for fights against bots.
The only abilities were different coloured guns, and while the MP trilogy gives the four beams specific properties to interact with the environment, I can’t remember what most Hunters guns were supposed to do beside opening corresponding doors.
There were three boring and mostly static bosses in the whole game, two of them copy pasted once to make it last a bit longer.
I don’t even think its controls or arena map design felt like Metroid Prime. The very limited Metroid Prime 2 multiplayer felt more like “competitive Metroid Prime”. It was more fun to me anyway, not that I’d buy a Metroid game for multiplayer.
It was hinted that guy would return in MP3’s ending, and apparently in Federation Force too (I haven’t played that one, but of course the reveal has been floating around).
Sure, it was still kind of hidden, but for those who recognized him at all, chances are they’d knew that too.
The trailer certainly failed at making his apparition exciting in any case.
I am sure there are people with good memories of it as an arena shooter, but I had little interest in that. And as a Metroid, it sucked (…sorry)
I remember trying the First Hunt demo, that was a demo cartridge from the beginning of the DS and was supposed to be a short teaser for what Hunters would be. Back then I thought, yeah, with a game around it, it could be great.
Turns out the actual Hunters was absolutely nothing like that, and focused only on multiplayer. The only reason they tacked a half-assed single-player mode on it is so it could be sold to people who wanted an actual Metroid game. I’d respect the game more if they didn’t try to sell it as more than it really was.
Sure it’s profitable, but it’s also (correctly) seen as a manipulative, and some companies have stopped using those.
As I said Nintendo and Xbox store used to do that, but they transitioned to prices in real money quite some time ago, and if they got a wallet, they let you fill it with the exact amount of what you’re buying. Same with PS store, most PC game stores, even freaking playdate catalogue and itch.io where the average payment must be like $3.
I expect that from shitty mobile games, because I know mobile gaming monetization is fucked forever, but I didn’t know major publishers still used that garbage unemptiable wallet strategy.
“The closure of any team is hard obviously on the individuals there, hard on the team,” Spencer said. "I haven’t been talking publicly about this, because right now is the time for us to focus on the team and the individuals. It’s obviously a decision that’s very hard on them, and I want to make sure through severance...
A simulation sandbox game that seems like it’s got potential. I hope it’s got more of an objective than something like Dwarf Fortress with tons of ways to get there, personally.
The way I understand their description, they really want emergent stories rather than any written plot, so I wouldn’t expect any kind of specific objectives from it.
Interesting, but as any procedural game, it will be a difficult balance between believable, consistent simulation and unexpected stuff keeping things exciting.
They’re talking about giving away their account. They don’t care about what happens to it, except maybe in the sense they’d prefer someone who wouldn’t waste it.
This is what bothered me in the original discussion, making it seem like being in STEM somehow doesn’t prepare you at all for critical thinking in general. On the contrary, I believe too there are people who develop it in part because of the S in there. It’s not necessary, but it’s an important tool.
Hopefully people don’t need a college degree in literature to understand basic subtext. We ask kindergarteners to do that with Dr Seuss.
Paraphrasing : those expectations are not too high, they’re the direct result of the games’ budget.
Yeah, okay, let’s admit that for a second. It’s not like they have no control over the scale and budget of their own games. Seems to me this still counts as unrealistic expectations…
Foamstars was a new IP, so they didn’t count on brand name to carry this one.
Unless they thought “Square Enix” would be enough to hype it, and yeah, for a game that far away from their usual, that would be completely disconnected from reality.
Go to Platform B and tell them : see, I bought Game already, let me play it here too.
Platform B : “who are you and why should I care?”
Proving your digital ownership never was the problem. The problem is those platforms are different companies and have no reason to honor a purchase from somewhere else.
That “Atari” was already Infogrames buying itself a new name in the early 00s. It had already changed hands a number of times since 70s/80s Atari, and had basically nothing to do with it anymore.
Waiting for this on the Switch. The slight reduction on early antes should help for going further more consistently. With some decks my runs are often cut short by a bad draw before I had a chance to get good combos.
I’ve kind of drifted away from Steam around the Greenlight/Direct debacle, when it quickly went from too tightly curated to an unexplorable paradise for thousands of fake games. Steam is not the inescapable monopoly this weird editorial makes it to be.
Nowadays, I need a good reason to buy on Steam, like decent workshop integration. And even then, I don’t even have to buy on Steam to have that. I bought Rimworld and Dwarf Fortress DRM-free from Ludeon’s site and itch.io and that included Steam key activations too.
Centralised library may have been an argument once, but it has not been for a long time. Stuff like Playnite obfuscates all that launcher explosion crap.
Honestly, it’s been a very long time since I last used start/windows menu as a… menu I guess. I don’t think I’ve tried to explore it since early XP. Back then I’d even try to organise it a bit by categories and such.
Now I have way too many games to make it readable, with a lot of these not currently installed but available. The only way I’m using the windows menu is with the search bar.
Having a dedicated game library (with everything in it) makes sense to me.
Long-time casual player of the 8 and 16-bit Compile games (mostly through emulation), I’m not even sure I’ve ever seen a SEGA-developped Puyo for any platform in retail before Puyo Puyo Tetris. Seems like they barely existed at all where I live.
So I’m not sure Puyo Puyo Tetris is to blame for the state of the game, at least it made a lot of people aware that the game exists. Though I can’t say I’m a big fan of its aesthetics or writing…
Nowadays whenever I want to play some quick Puyo I just play Tsu on switch online SNES.
“OMG, those nerds have had 20 full seconds to talk? WRAP IT UP”
(for those who don’t know Game Awards really did this. The few acceptance speeches that were there were very short, and winners were all told to “WRAP IT UP” via teleprompter and cut with music. 11 minutes of them talking in total, for a 3-hour-long show)
So we finally know what the mysterious Triple-i Initiative thing is! It’s a big gaming showcase full of announcements and new footage for upcoming games centred around triple-i games and studios (big indies)....
“Since using letters seems to be the trend in the industry, we figured that adding a couple of i’s to indie was a fair way to describe this new format. Also, triple-i just sounds cool”
They’re a bit late on the trend though, according to Microsoft and Ubisoft it’s all about Quadruple A now.
Was it Good? - Neverwinter Nights (www.youtube.com) angielski
Coming back to a western open world game H:FW after Elden Ring is a massive whiplash angielski
First hour of the game I googled “Aloy Talks too much”...
Day 4 of posting a Daily Screenshot from the games I’ve been playing until I forget to post Screenshots (lemmy.world) angielski
Today’s game is No Man’s Sky
Danganronpa creator left Spike Chunsoft so that he could do unlimited overtime work and take on risks without fearing bankruptcy (automaton-media.com) angielski
it's hard out here for a dragon-plesiosaur-bird (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: a two frame comic, made entirely with sprites from the Pokemon games. The top panel shows the three legendary beasts Entei, Suicune, and Raikou looking at the legendary bird Ho-Oh. Ho-Oh is saying, “I will bring you back to life,” while the beasts are responding “thank you, Master”. The bottom panel shows the...
Devs should not be "forced to run on a treadmill until their mental or physical health breaks", says publisher of Manor Lords, citing how gamers seem to be trained to expect endless content work now (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
This really does not sound healthy. The game is released, for a certain amount of money. If people don’t like what they get for their money, they simply should not buy it....
Funny bad games reviews angielski
I really love watching funny bad game review videos (e.g. Civvie) and was wondering what other similar content creators you could recommend.
I asked what your fave controllers are, now. What is the worst controller you have used?
So. I have 2 I hate....
Sci-fi racing platformer Distance gets a surprise update with Steam Deck improvements (www.gamingonlinux.com) angielski
UK Retailer GAME To End All In-Store Video Game Sales (www.gfinityesports.com) angielski
Xbox executives just cannot give a straight answer to questions about Tango Gameworks (www.pcgamer.com)
Indie games using retro graphics angielski
Two examples of this are :...
The BIG List of Video Game Randomizers (now open source) (video-game-randomizers.github.io) angielski
SmashManiac originally ran the site but recently converted it into an open source project. Here’s the announcement...
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond – Announcement Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
Bethesda Is Charging $7 For A New Starfield Mission, And Players Are Upset (www.gamespot.com) angielski
Moonring on Steam (free beer alert) (store.steampowered.com) angielski
“A dark-fantasy, turn-based, retro-fusion of classic turn-based RPGs and roguelikes, all presented with a unique neon aesthetic.”
Xbox Boss Phil Spencer Addresses Studio Closures (www.ign.com)
“The closure of any team is hard obviously on the individuals there, hard on the team,” Spencer said. "I haven’t been talking publicly about this, because right now is the time for us to focus on the team and the individuals. It’s obviously a decision that’s very hard on them, and I want to make sure through severance...
Streets of Fortuna- Announcement Trailer (www.youtube.com) angielski
A simulation sandbox game that seems like it’s got potential. I hope it’s got more of an objective than something like Dwarf Fortress with tons of ways to get there, personally.
The Star Fox-style roguelite whose dev refused to use AI voices to cut costs is adding an entire "anti-capitalist revenge" campaign about a cat-girl destroying AI (lemmy.today) angielski
Since the Link isn’t working for some:...
Is it possible to safely "give away" a Steam account to a stranger? angielski
I’m pretty sure I’m done with Steam gaming, haven’t launched a game in almost a year, and generally want to move away from DRM....
11 years after launch, 49M people still use their PS4s, matching the PS5 (arstechnica.com) angielski
Why People Don’t Catch The Politics In Their Favorite Games (aftermath.site) angielski
Former Square Enix exec on why Final Fantasy sales don’t meet expectations and chances of recouping insane AAA budgets (gameworldobserver.com) angielski
18+ Hidden in the Mountains Base - 20 years - Wealth over 9.5m - 40 Colonists - Arid Shrubland - 300X300 (media.rimworld.gallery) koreański
Netris is an open-source cloud gaming platform with Stadia-like features using Proton (www.gamingonlinux.com) angielski
Marvels Rivals requires creators to sign a contract that removes your right to give a negative review in order to access the playtest (files.catbox.moe) angielski
On today’s episode of “This shouldn’t be legal”…...
Atari Revives Infogrames As A Publishing Label (atari.com) angielski
Balatro - Patch 1.0.1f (store.steampowered.com) angielski
Steam is a ticking time bomb (www.spacebar.news) angielski
Sega is killing Puyo Puyo (www.youtube.com) angielski
https://medium.com/@MegaMissingno/puyo-puyo-tetris-ruined-puyo-puyo-4ac9acde1ee7
The developers of Dead Cells, Darkest Dungeon and Slay The Spire are launching their own "triple-I" Game Awards (www.rockpapershotgun.com) angielski
The Triple-i Initiative gaming showcase is coming April 10th (www.gamingonlinux.com) angielski
So we finally know what the mysterious Triple-i Initiative thing is! It’s a big gaming showcase full of announcements and new footage for upcoming games centred around triple-i games and studios (big indies)....
TIL you can remove tags such as horror from itch.io using ?exclude=tg.horror in the url. (itch.io) angielski
Its a query parameter. Completely changes the site.