The timing of this move makes me want to never buy another game from Activision (or Microsoft, by extension). Just such a blatant exploitation of the community.
[alt text: a screenshot of a tweet from @KHframes on Twitter. The tweet is sharing an image with no text, and the image is a frame from a spinoff Kingdom Hearts game. The frame shows Sora talking to the Genie from Aladdin, and Sora is saying, “I wish this world had fewer problems!”]
[alt text: a screenshot of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The player is on the create-a-class screen, and a pop-up prompt says, “Are you sure you want to be a Crackhead?”.]
By tf2 are you referring to Team Fortress 2? I feel like every shooter these days is a class-based shooter, what sets tf2 apart from something like Overwatch?
xDefiant has a class with an invisibility skill (which lets one do plenty of shotgunning losers in the back)? Apex Legends has Mirage with various decoy and invisibility skills? idk, I don’t know every single one of these shooters, but I will grant you that the way the Spy works in TF2 is pretty unique.
the theory i hear a lot is that live service games are a big source of this sales slump. If you only play Fortnite, COD, and Madden, you haven’t had a reason to upgrade yet because those games play fine on the current consoles. Even Madden 25 is coming out on PS4 still. Word is that College Football 25 is actually giving the PS5 a decent sales bump, because it is (1) the first college football game to come out in a decade, and (2) the first EA football game that is exclusive to PS5 and Xbox Series consoles.
I’ve been watching Jeff Gerstmann work through and rank the NES library over the past year, and I agree with your sentiment. It seems like there are only like 10-20 NES games that actually hold up, and the rest of the library is either “good for the era” or absolute garbage.
The “floor” for how bad a bad game can be has gone up as the generations have gone on. There’s always a few stinkers, but most PS2 games are objectively better than like half of the NES library.
Like, half of the NES library is games riddled with bugs, or they are licensed games where the devs barely knew what they were doing so they just cranked out a piece of software that barely qualifies as a game. I’m not talking about the games that we remember. If you remember an NES game, even if you remember it as bad, I am 99% certain it isn’t one of the dogshit games I’m thinking of. I’m not talking about like, Excitebike or Bubble Bobble or whatever. Those are classics, even if they’ve aged poorly. I’m talkin games like, Fester’s Quest, or Mickey Mousecepade, or Jordan vs. Bird: One-on-One, or Time Lord. Games where just playing them feels bad.
It’s funny because a lot of the things that bug you are immersion features that gamers of 20 years ago would be blown away by, regardless of how badly they were implemented. Goes to show how spoiled we are for immersive games these days. But interestingly, it sounds like RDR2 was less immersive for you because of those additional immersion features, because it always had little hitches that completely shattered your immersion. I guess realism has an uncanny valley in games - a game with more simulated elements also needs a higher degree of polish on those elements, as the errors become more obvious the closer you get to reality.
[alt text: two screenshots from the Sims, which appear to recreate an infamous scene from the movie “The Room”. In the first frame, a Sim that looks like Tommy Wiseau is standing in front of a rooftop entryway and looking very angry. In the second panel, the camera has panned out, and “Tommy” is looking calmly at another...
[alt text: an image of Link and Zelda sitting on a couch, which looks like a screenshot from a Nintendo 64 game. Zelda is smoking a bong, and there’s text on screen that says “That’s good Deku Leaf”.]
Looks awesome! and the fact that the dev is starting from a place of having the pathfinding algorithm figured out is promising. Better to start there, rather than end up like Cities: Skylines with abysmal frame rates that even top-end hardware can’t keep up with.
I’m not sure how I feel about the artstyle yet. It certainly looks gorgeous in screenshots, but I wonder if it will be difficult to read when you are actually playing. Camera rotation will be the key for me, personally. If I can’t rotate the camera to get alternate views, that might be a dealbreaker.
I recently played through a demo for a game called Pinball Spire on steam, and it put me in the mood for playing pinball games. Unfortunately, and I don’t know if this is just due to me having bad google-foo, there don’t seem to be that many on Steam that catch my interest....
I just finished a long fever with Pokemon Pinball: Ruby and Sapphire. Trying to build your collection of Pokemon across sessions is so addicting. I couldn’t believe how good I was by the end. I highly recommend it, just use a GBA emulator.
big same. i don’t even know if i’d be here commenting on gaming forums if i hadn’t had Game Informer back in the day. Introduced me to the whole “scene” around gaming!
it’s great as a piece of historical intrigue, but as others have said here, some of it just does not hold up. Controls are a little clunky, and the story is fine but no longer nearly as interesting or surprising as it was back in 2008. Nowadays, you can’t go to Steam without tripping over 3 indie puzzle platformers with better controls and story. I think the puzzle design probably still holds up, but i haven’t played recently so i can’t say for sure.
i respect that, homie. Have you spent a lot of time with retro games? I think there might be a lot in that category that fit your wheelhouse, but I don’t want to start rattling them off if you don’t have an interest there.
For RPG, you could try something like Sea of Stars, Night in the Woods, or Transistor. For platformers, you could try out Celeste (with assist modes), Inside (from the Limbo people), Sonic Mania, A Hat in Time, or Pizza Tower. I could think of some bigger games as well, but not sure what kind of hardware you’re working with.
Modern Warfare Remastered climbs Steam charts as MW2 multiplayer mod prepares to launch [VGC] EDIT: C&D by Activision, so nvm i guess (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
AI is changing video games — and striking performers want their due [NPR] (www.npr.org) angielski
Developers reportedly told not to expect Switch 2 to launch before April 2025 [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Dark Souls 2 Lighting Engine Mod - Modernising And Enhancing An Overlooked Classic [Digital Foundry] (www.youtube.com) angielski
Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford teases Borderlands 4 [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
me too, Sora... (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: a screenshot of a tweet from @KHframes on Twitter. The tweet is sharing an image with no text, and the image is a frame from a spinoff Kingdom Hearts game. The frame shows Sora talking to the Genie from Aladdin, and Sora is saying, “I wish this world had fewer problems!”]
not everyone is cut out for this lifestyle (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: a screenshot of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. The player is on the create-a-class screen, and a pop-up prompt says, “Are you sure you want to be a Crackhead?”.]
Fallout London's volunteer modding team to launch as a new indie studio [Eurogamer] (www.eurogamer.net) angielski
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster will no longer grant ‘Erotica’ points for taking photos of women [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Personally I think they should’ve instead added erotica photos for all the NPCs to balance it out, but that’s just me 🤷
BlackHole: An Accessibility/Screenreader mod for Balatro (github.com) angielski
Max Payne 1 & 2 Remake is in full production, Control 2 is now in a playable state [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Does anyone here play tf2 or dark and darker? angielski
I am looking for people to play both games with. The games tend to be filled with lots of reactionaries so it can be hard to exist in them....
Game developers are still feeling the pull of last-generation consoles (www.gamedeveloper.com) angielski
‘Just a complete mess’: Initial impressions of the Borderlands movie are mostly negative [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Let's discuss: 8-bit Era Games (beehaw.org) angielski
The format of these posts is simple: let’s discuss a specific game or series!...
I uninstalled RDR2 out of frustation after 100+ hours angielski
This was a replay, the first time I played I loved the story....
Arkane founder says Prey and Dishonored fans ‘will be happy’ with his new game [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
oh hi mark (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: two screenshots from the Sims, which appear to recreate an infamous scene from the movie “The Room”. In the first frame, a Sim that looks like Tommy Wiseau is standing in front of a rooftop entryway and looking very angry. In the second panel, the camera has panned out, and “Tommy” is looking calmly at another...
Sony Santa Monica is making its first new IP in over 20 years (www.eurogamer.net)
Deku Leaf (beehaw.org) angielski
[alt text: an image of Link and Zelda sitting on a couch, which looks like a screenshot from a Nintendo 64 game. Zelda is smoking a bong, and there’s text on screen that says “That’s good Deku Leaf”.]
Metropolis 1998 lets you design every building in an isometric, pixel-art city (arstechnica.com) angielski
Avowed has been delayed until early 2025 [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Bungie veterans Luke Smith and Mark Noseworthy have reportedly left [VGC] (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
Know any good pinball video games? angielski
I recently played through a demo for a game called Pinball Spire on steam, and it put me in the mood for playing pinball games. Unfortunately, and I don’t know if this is just due to me having bad google-foo, there don’t seem to be that many on Steam that catch my interest....
GameStop Shuts Down Game Informer, The Longest-Running Gaming Magazine In The US (kotaku.com) angielski
Braid Anniversary Edition has ‘sold like dog sh*t’, creator Jonathan Blow says (www.videogameschronicle.com) angielski
A Complete History of Birdo’s Gender (www.thrillingtalesofoldvideogames.com) angielski
Maybe A Lousy Mobile Game Is The Perfect Game For The Olympics (aftermath.site) angielski