I don’t even know what the newest game I even own is… Helldivers 2? Except for Elden Ring and it’s DLC, I haven’t bought anything close to release for years. HD2 came out last year and I bought it last week.
I honestly don’t know why they don’t simply make those a subscription service at this point. They change nothing but the stats to try and reflect real life in most iterations. Sports games are the one type of game that because of how they already do them would be perfect for the love service bullshit, and yet, inexplicably, they are the one genre that has next to no live service games. I can literally only think of one of the FIFA games which is free 2 play and live service.
Starfield was just weird. Like, I expected the load screens and all the other GameBryo/Creation jank. But that’s not what made it disappointing. It was just… Boring. I couldn’t get immersed in the world because nothing about it was interesting once you scratched deeper than the surface. Even the twist ending/NG+ system which is actually kind of a neat idea wasn’t done well (like you might have to go through the entire, boring-ass game up to 7 times before you even see a difference).
I actually was thinking about this the other day with soulslikes as I make my way through Bloodborne. This is an entire genre that isn’t even new. They’re Metroidvanias (or whatever you would classify the OG Castlevania as other than just “side scrolling platformer”)! The only real difference is that you don’t get tools as like weapons/accessories to reach new areas, you just get a boring ass key that opens a door, you open a door from only one side, or a trigger automatically opens a new path when you defeat a boss. 🤣
IMO, “it’s this game, but with X” is innovation. It’s certainly more innovative than “it’s this game, again, with absolutely nothing new” like Ubisoft basically does with every sequel to every IP they handle.
TOTK makes BOTW look like a tech demo. I wasn’t very whelmed with BOTW, either, but I am glad I checked out TOTK because it is, IMO, the best exclusive on the system.
I haven’t seen an interactive event on Steam for, like, a decade. Unless they’re counting sales as interactive events. 🤔
They used to have, like, gamified events where you’re earning things (like maybe trading cards or badges or other Steam profile items) by playing a small little browser game inside the store page. Those were always fun.
I was actually surprised to see Ultima Online is still up and active recently. It must have a pretty decent sized population for EA not to shut down and repurpose the servers for Battlefield or something.
It wasn’t intended to be like it, but in a way it did have some of the same ideas. It did have the camp clearing parts with what was supposed to be a pretty sophisticated AI faction system. But the system never really worked as intended without mods, so the whole faction battle system just felt super scripted (like, nobody would come and take back control points after you capped them, even though they were supposed to until you completely destroyed the opposing faction). It’s even more fleshed out (and actually works) in Clear Sky. Which is why CS has been my favorite STALKER since it came out.