This one is slightly less on target, but I’m really intrigued by a free demo I found this week called Exo Rally Championship. It’s a rally car game, but set in exotic little exoplanetary environments. The movement looks really interesting especially because you’re not just in a low-grav setting, you also have 360⁰ jets you can use to assist in steering or course-correction midair.
I have not checked, but I hope and trust there are difficulty options. It’s been a long time since I’ve been able to play MMX at or near the level in that video.
If this is going to be what Switch 2 offers, I’m fully out
Edit: I checked with a friend. Normal game cartridges are still a thing. One thing that makes them slightly better than digital downloads (albeit still imperfect) is that you can at least trade, sell, and buy them used. Not as good as physical media, but slightly better ownership rights than buying a digital copy.
Time to pass laws, this shit keeps happening. If you sold a game over $x that completely ceases to be playable within X years, you should be forced to open-source your code.
Won’t bother guessing at what the best numbers should be, hardly matters as I’m sure lobbyists would defang the whole thing as much as possible.
Great to see another update. One of my buddies is practically a game industry savant so I always feel a bit out of my depth with him. Reading this is my cheat sheet for talking points with him.
Who do you know of that talks about games as art? That’s more my focus, and the only one that really seems to tick that box for me is Noah Gervais - and he’s great, but I would love more variety if you know anyone doing pieces like that.
I’m not a big “power gamer” as I also game on my laptop mainly and it’s a bit less powerful than yours. My suggestions tend toward retro graphics and indie titles; I have a type.
In no particular order, I’m going to recommend Ruiner, Make Way, and Hyper Light Drifter. Ruiner and HLD both have incredibly intense atmospheres and stylized storytelling with an emphasis on action. Make Way is heaps of chaos, totally unrealistic, and the AI can be brutally hard, but it’s extremely simple and unless you crank down the difficulty to zero, it’s easy to find a flow state in the rapidly evolving mayhem.
Thanks for the newsletter! I am not good with fediverse how do I like and subscribe… Your talk of emulation on the deck awoke something in me. I checked and yes, it appears you can emulate 360 on it too.
I was interested in the rest, but this has driven every other thought out of my head. I don’t even know how to make breakfast in this state. I’m a wreck.