I wonder if it would be cheaper to build my own table. I don’t care about the graphics or sounds as much as playing a good pinball table. Physically, and not via a game even if it’s a good simulation.
I sometimes feel like the only American that liked Bubsy. The biggest complaint I hear about it is that the jumping if super floaty; but that’s it’s strength! Once you get the rhythm of the game down, you’re basically Tribes style skiing through the levels. It’s awesome.
It could be the sudden and unexpected success of Hollow Knight paralyzing them the way that happened with Valhiem. Not that it’s necessarily a fault of the devs; you hit a huge success like that, there is now a weight on your shoulder to always be that good.
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.