I’ll controversially say that I really love the Steam controller. Not the steam deck (which is honestly my number 1 if we’re including handhelds) but the original controller intended for use with the steam link device.
It really just needs a right analog stick and it would be great. The lack of one takes it from 10/10 to like a 7/10. It’s so good otherwise, great weight and size, good design. Sensible layout and the big track pads work really well! It was clearly a prototype for how the Deck layout ended up, though I actually like the controller’s big circular pads more than the decks little square ones.
Eh, I might buy it on sale since I already have the other Castlevania collections on Switch. They’re convenient to play and I liked the portable games quite a bit. Ecclesia is probably my favorite in the series!
But yeah, also, emulating on Steamdeck would probably be better, but more work to set up and hunt down ROMs.
Speaking of Ecclasia, why did the DS have such great entries in several series? Days of Ruin is also my favorite Advance Wars game, and I feel like both were later games, darker in tone than previous, with actually good use of the touchscreen.
I started a replay of Legend of Mana a while back. I love that game so much, but I haven’t been keeping up with the new releases. I know they did a big remake of SD3 not too long ago, and now a big new game! Anyone playing it?personal thoughts?
And yet the Kex engine still doesn’t offer QoL improvements like multiple quick saves, auto saves, and control configuration is very limited, especially for mods/games that offer extra controls like jumping or inventories. No free mouse look or free aim.
Cross multi-player is neat but it was running kind of janky when I tried it. There’s also a pretty severe bug that enemies forget what state they were in after you load a save (they default back to idle). I don’t think that was an original bug, other ports (and pretty sure this one prior to this update) don’t have that bug.
I get that Doom at this point is more community platform than game, but other ports make clearer their intent at either upgrades-and-options (gzdoom) or attempting to stick close to the original (chocolate, eternity). I don’t think the Kex port makes clear it’s position on this. Controller support, cross-multiplayer, and some graphical options (like the weapon icons) make it seem like a QoL port but then things like no freelook make it seem like it wants to also be traditional.
Edit:
I feel like I’ve only talked about the engine a few times now. The new episode, Legacy of Rust, is excellent and a worthwhile addition to the core game. New enemies slot in well, new weapons are fun, and mainly the levels are just gorgeous and extremely hard. I muddled through episode 1 on UV but episode 2 stomped my face in right out of the gate. They weren’t playing on this one. Lots of nice touches too like brand new inter-mission screens, some new and expanded texture work, and the architecture is just really stunning. Some of meanest archvile placement since Plutonia as well. I really can’t recommend the new missions enough, though I might see if they’ll run in GZD, haha.
It never bothered me in Source games, but I don’t really care for it as a mechanic. Specifically in Half-Life, I don’t like how it overlaps with long jumping either. (Jump then crouch to crouch jump, crouch then jump to long jump.)
But I wouldn’t want it in other games because manteling is a superior mechanic. Mantelling is usually when you can hold down the jump key close to a ledge to grab it and pull yourself up, rather than jumping. In most games that have it, mantelling into a smaller space (a vent or pjpe) auto-crouches as you enter.
It allows for making longer jumps, exciting last moment saves, pulling yourself up into small spaces, simpler climbing mechanics, and more. It’s just a better, more intuitive mechanic that replaces long jumps and crouch jumps and requires no extra key presses.
The project lead, Eniko, was one of my first follows on Mastodon and still one of my favorite people to see post! Been looking forward to this release for a while!
It’s a ridiculous metric anyway. There are dozens of ancient MMOS that still manage to crawl along because a few hundred subscribers is enough to fund one or two developers in maintenance mode effectively forever. See also indie studios like Spiderweb Software who’ve been sustainably selling games to their fans for decades. See also indie roguelike devs who manage to make their one game a job by having a patreon and a few hundred fans. See also retrogaming. See also the boomer shooter renaissance.
Games on the whole have never been less dead, unless their studio intentionally smothers them by shutting down servers and locking off access.
I’ve been following an indie dev working on a Mario-3-ish-clone and nothing excites me more than that it seems like they brought Kuribos boot back. Why is that stupid fucking boot power up from one level in SMB3 still so beloved? I don’t know, but I feel it.
When i was browsing the Gemini web one time, I ran across someone who had uploaded the whole archive to Gopher! I love the idea of real cyber punks keeping these precious old text files alive in the backwater sub-webs.