Oh that’s absolutely why. If they dumped everything at once people would play what they wanted to play and drop the subscription. By doing this people come back.
If Nintendo doesn’t keep NSO as-is for their “Switch 2” people will be EXTREMELY pissed, but it’s Nintendo, they’re fine with that.
“It feels like there’s thousands of us competing for a handful of jobs,”
Isn’t that pretty much it? Everyone wants to make video games. All of the sudden everyone wants to invest in video game development because they realized there’s money in it. But video games are a big commitment for consumers (compared to most consumables), we literally only have so much time to dedicate them and there’s SO MANY GODDAMN GAMES. Like, an Eldritch horror inducing amount of video games if you have FOMO. And that’s still a drop in the ocean compared to all the people who want to make video games. Hundreds if not thousands of cool games go completely unnoticed by basically everyone every month, seemingly.
There’s a bizarre sort of supply / demand triangle going on.
The best way to learn about any complex system is to bite tiny chunks out of it and ignore the rest, even if you know stuff is interconnected. You’ll never learn everything at once, so don’t try. Eventually you get bored with the little bubble you’ve carved out for yourself so you move over and learn about some other bit. You don’t even need to care about whether you’ll understand everything eventually.
This was something I started wondering about when I was reading a thread about Star Citizen, and about how space combat flight games were much less-common than they had been at one point, how fans of the genre were hungry for new entrants....
Is it weird that I think of Halo 3: ODST as one of the real detective games? Not because it’s particularly dedicated to being that, but because the default ending of the game is that you don’t solve the mystery and leave unsatisfied. You’re just some grunt and what’s actually going on is above your paygrade. Learning the truth is a bit of a pain in this ass but it’s also basically half of the game’s story. I think it was a really ballsy move for what it’s worth.
Well, there’s another Quake 3 clone attempt every few years and every time no one cares. Diabotical made me especially sad because it shook the forumula up in some very smart ways and the Wipeout game mode needs to be stolen by pretty much everyone (and won’t be).
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about Immersive Sims because, like, in theory they’re a lot of people’s dream games, right? Yet their actual audiences are small. Part of that has to be down to setting, for the same reason Blade Runner was never big, but… that can’t be it, right?
And why did people start calling Tears of the Kingdom an Immersive Sim? Is… Are classic Roguelikes immersive sims? Is Dwarf Fortress an Immersive Sim? Obviously not, but the definition we’ve given ourselves is too broad and what we actually consider a “reall immersive sim” seems too limited.
…Also Goddamn how is ot that no one has managed to make something like Theif again outside of Gloomwood (which is admittedly rad as hell?) I only managed to play Theif recently and it’s still one of the best stealth games ever. Modern games need to learn how to leave the player alone for a while and let them cook.
You… you do realize MW5 is single-player and definitely not a “gatcha game” right? And has a pretty robust modding scene? And has a clan-based sequel coming up in a new engine?
Hmm… While it’s nothing like Outer Wilds and infamous for probably being the most obtuse video game ever created, I wonder if you’d like La Mulana? Metroidvania about being an archeologist where you sort of need to actually peice together the culture and history of the civilization you’re studying to move forward sometimes. It’s style of storytelling is closer to FromSoft (hence the obtuseness) but still.
I wanted to counter this but I can’t. Most of the mascot platformer-esque games now are imitating some other, older mascot platformer. A Hat In Time just doesn’t have any real gimmicks. IDK if Pumpkin Jack does (I really need to try it at some point). Maybe Froggun but I imagine it has even less of a story and it’s more of a puzzle game?
In case you’re out of the loop, the old Steam Deck had Philips screws that screwed into self-tapping plastic holes. This lead to occasional stripped threads and often stripped screwheads....
I mean… Phillips heads are hood for what they’re actually designed for, which is, uh, to strip really easily so they don’t get over-tightened. Which is irrelevant if your manufacturing is precise enough.
As title says, once Valve announced the OLED deck, I saw the refurbished originals go on a deep discount and figured it was time to buy in. So I ordered a refurb 512GB and I’m so excited for it to arrive! Been in a gaming rut for a long time now and, having never been a PC gamer, I’m look forward to checking out a bunch of...
– If you see a game on sale, it will be on sale again. Don’t get baited into buying something you won’t actually play for years.
– Please oh please learn to use the Deck’s quick menu performance options. When people complain about the Deck’s battery life, what they forget is that unlike a Nintendo Switch, it’ll just treat everything like it’s “docked” unless you tell it otherwise. It’ll munch through that battery as quick as you let it, so extending it is your responsibility. The easiest way to do that is to just set a power limit (even the max of 15 watts will help) if a game is running fine. A lot of basic 2d games get by just fine on 3 or 5. Half-rate shading is the other major option. Basically it’ll render some things at half of their normal resolution, sometimes it’s obvious, sometimes it isn’t noticable on the Deck’s screen. With 3D stuff, get the performance overlay up and start dropping the the wattage if the framerate is high enough, or the game’s video settings if it’s not. Ideally just drop both, that’s how you’ll really save the battery. I just drop a lot of games right to “low” settings unless it looks really awful and go from there.
– In a similar vein, framerate limits!! Console games are nearly always locked to 30 or 60 frames per second for all sorts of reasons. In the Deck’s case you’re again thinking about battery life. While you can sometimes argue for framerates higher than a screen’s refresh rate, on the Deck it’s not really justifiable, there’s no good reason to pass 60. Some games play just fine at 30 so lock it to 30 if you can tolerate it. Or, the Deck’s secret weapon… 40fps. Normally you’d never do that, because it doesn’t line up with the screen and things get weird, but the Deck’s screen can actually just drop to 40hz to compensate. Due to some odd math 40fps is actually much closer to 60 than 30 in practice while still saving a lot of battery life.
BUT… BUT BUT BUT, the Deck’s system-wide framerate limiter has problems. Input lag problems. Hopefully you don’t notice and don’t give a shit but if you do, oh god, so much input lag. Thankfully the vast majority of games have their own 60fps locks that don’t have this problem (to the same extent) but for the 40hz thing you need to just deal with it.
I haven’t built a gaming PC for over fifteen years; I defected to PlayStation in '08 when the constant upgrading got too expensive to really justify, but now I’m looking to come crawling back....
Well, for a practical example, my Ryzen 5 5600x and Radeon 6600xt combo is juuust out of the running for games coming out right now, I’d say. The VRAM limitations at 8GB are becoming apparent and there’s been a few instances where the 5600x struggles in games that hit CPUs hard. But I’d say that’s because there’s been an oddly big jump in system requirements, recently.
I’m this person and god do I wish I wasn’t, sometimes. So many games have been way less interesting than they could’ve been for me because for me, fun is learning to play the game well. I’m not sure what frustrates me more, the way people who don’t have that attitude say “I play games to have fun” as if I don’t, or me looking at the recent LoZ games as failures design-wise because they’re too easy to cheese.
I recently posted about finding time to game as a parent and the community has provided a bunch of good suggestions. Thank you! After reading all comments, I think it really boils down to accessibility of gaming for the occasional moments of free time that I do have in my busy schedule. The ability to pick something up easily,...
The Ally is what you’d want. Laptops aren’t really all that portable if portability is the goal. The Deck would be better from a “pick up and play” perspective but if you use Game Pass it’d be worth it to pick up the Ally instead, obviously.
I’ve been thinking about a taxonomy of Roguelikes that should help us speak more clearly about this genre - or group of genres - that we love. I’d rather do this than just call things “roguelites”, which basically doesn’t mean anything. So here we go!...
First thing’s first: Luciole is right. Making hardline categories doesn’t work and you’re better off coming up with properties games could have. But if we’re gonna go down this route:
Dwarf Fortress adventure mode is one among a few games (Stoneshard being another?) that go for… an open-world with fairly traditional rogueish mechanics?
Hardcore Diablo, alongside other ARPGs and stuff like Tales of Maj’Eyal and Rift Wizard, I’d call “skill rogues”? If we’re not gonna care whether they’re turn-based or not. Games where you have a bunch of skills to unlock with cooldowns and very little importance placed on map loot.
Calling everything that isn’t turn-based an “action rogue” seems wrong. Like, Barony? Sure it’s real-time, but it’s seriously the classic Roguelike experience, except in first-person and co-op now. It’s rad as hell.
Something you’re missing IMO is… sandbox-ness? Like the “skill rogues” don’t have a lot of systems that can interact in weird unexpected ways. Nethack is the quintessential systemic sandbox. More modern examples would include Spelunky and to a much greater extent Noita. There’s a lot of overlap with totally different genres here- Immersive sims inherit some of Nethack’s sauce, and so does Dwarf Fortress (as in Fortress Mode).
What the heck even are DoomRL and Jupiter Hell? They’re turn-based but built to almost feel like they’re not. I feel like they’re their own special thing in a way.
I wrote a pretty long comment elsewhere regarding Xenoblade 3, which is pretty much my favourite game of all time in 30+ years of gaming. I guess it would be a cool idea for others to do the same - but don’t just give a list, sell your favourite title to us!...
I just wish people weren’t so adamant about the whole “no spoilers” thing with it. It sort of soured my time with it when I finished the intro and was kinda just like… oh, it’s the Majora’s Mask thing. That’s the big mind-blowing twist people are talking about.
I guess what I’m saying is thanks for just talking about what actually makes it so unique / impressive.
I love obscure and overlooked games and want to share a bunch with all of you. Most “hidden gem” threads end up listing titles with thousands of reviews or that got some level of marketing. I aim to mostly avoid that. While you may see a few familiar games here, everything in the list below has under 1500 reviews on Steam...
Does Cogmind count? Because even when I see people discussing games like it, which are already pretty niche, it never comes up. That’s tragic, because oh my god, just read some of these articles. This developer is obsessive and even if you don’t get too deep into Cogmind it’s an incredible toy to just screw around with and just see what happens.
I am not a professional gamer nor do I have much time to invest into a game in one stretch. However I do enjoy the cumulative progress I make with each session I have with the games, specifically progress of acquiring loot, money, powers or in-game materials. Are there any games that try to match my interests?...
“I have looked into the genre of roguelikes, however the basic premise of these games are that they start all over again from each session, which is what I am trying to avoid.”
…Except this isn’t true of what we’d traditionally call rogue-lites, which is really most roguelikes these days. The vast, vast majority have a lot of meta progression systems to the point where people actually expect it these days.
Me and my buddy are using different system now. I’m in PC and he’s in PS5. We were playing Genshin and it started to be very boring. Do you guys know any games that support crossplay, free or paid, that are good....
It's a lot closer to a typical fighting game than Mordhau, TBH. Combat is more structured around "moves" that you have rather than being able to just drag a weapon around wherever.
Cogmind is legitimately the most underrated "real" roguelike around. Everyone knows about CDDA and Caves of Qud or whatever, I never see anyone talk about Cogmind. It's such a rabbit hole both gameplay and actually story-wise (because yeah, it actually has a story, despite being a traditional roguelike) that I can't help but wonder how the hell it's developer keeps going.
If I look at any one aspect of it closely I inevitably end up going "wait, what the hell?" because it goes farther than I expected. In-game computer terminals, the way word of your presence travels throughout the caverns you're in, each tile actually being a 3x3 space which affects how much "cover" you have... playing for quite a few hours before meeting other truly sentient robots and realizing that oh, there's, like, lore. A lot of it.
Cogmind is what I mentioned too, the developer is borderline obsessive and somehow it never gets the attention that other roguelikes get. I'm always shocked to see that it's still getting regular updates.
I have, in fact, talked to people who are insistent that any RPG made in Japan is a JRPG and any game not made in Japan isn't. They argued that Dark Souls is a JRPG. They were entirely serious.
Yep, what's promising about Veloren is I feel like everyone had a pretty cohesive idea of what Cube World was "going to be". It's pretty hard to disappoint a community when the developers are the community.
My first game was in the early beta when nighttime missions were legitimately dark as hell. I spawned knee-deep in the swamp. Crouchwalking around through a swamp where I couldn't see anything, hearing all sorts of weird shit everywhere and trying to avoid it like I was stuck in a horror game.
Realizing that someone was hiding in an outhouse, because I heard them breathing. Just to see if it would work, I stabbed them right through the wood with my bowie knife. Yep, it works.
Hawken was fun, but it was trapped in a weird position between a real "mecha game" and traditional arena shooter that didn't really satisfy either crowd.
...OK, as someone who's always wanted to push Dokapon Kingdom's gameplay into a genre of JRPG monopoly, but have always been baffled by how multiplayer is actually built in practice, this is cool as hell.
Switch Online Is Expanding The N64 Library With Rare's Jet Force Gemini (www.nintendolife.com)
The human cost of 2023's devastating game industry layoffs (www.polygon.com)
[Original article in the title has links with sources, text-only copied here]...
How are you all playing these insanely complex games?
Just some off the top of my head: Destiny, Deep Rock Galactic, Overwatch, and most recently Baldur’s Gate....
What game genre would you like to see more entrants in?
This was something I started wondering about when I was reading a thread about Star Citizen, and about how space combat flight games were much less-common than they had been at one point, how fans of the genre were hungry for new entrants....
Rant: Valve's new Steam Deck screws speak volumes about their ethos.
In case you’re out of the loop, the old Steam Deck had Philips screws that screwed into self-tapping plastic holes. This lead to occasional stripped threads and often stripped screwheads....
Bought my first Steam Deck after seeing the deep discounts on refurbs...what should i know as a first time Steam Deck/PC gamer?
As title says, once Valve announced the OLED deck, I saw the refurbished originals go on a deep discount and figured it was time to buy in. So I ordered a refurb 512GB and I’m so excited for it to arrive! Been in a gaming rut for a long time now and, having never been a PC gamer, I’m look forward to checking out a bunch of...
Please help me select parts for a "competent" gaming PC
I haven’t built a gaming PC for over fifteen years; I defected to PlayStation in '08 when the constant upgrading got too expensive to really justify, but now I’m looking to come crawling back....
Dev cancels Switch port of Wipeout-style racer blaming controversial Unity fees (www.eurogamer.net)
Pet peeve, games that won't let you save
I wish all games would just let you save whenever you want to! Why is using checkpoints and auto saves so common?...
Gaming laptop or handheld PC?
I recently posted about finding time to game as a parent and the community has provided a bunch of good suggestions. Thank you! After reading all comments, I think it really boils down to accessibility of gaming for the occasional moments of free time that I do have in my busy schedule. The ability to pick something up easily,...
A taxonomy of Roguelikes
I’ve been thinking about a taxonomy of Roguelikes that should help us speak more clearly about this genre - or group of genres - that we love. I’d rather do this than just call things “roguelites”, which basically doesn’t mean anything. So here we go!...
Got a game you feel passionate about? Sell it to us here!
I wrote a pretty long comment elsewhere regarding Xenoblade 3, which is pretty much my favourite game of all time in 30+ years of gaming. I guess it would be a cool idea for others to do the same - but don’t just give a list, sell your favourite title to us!...
Actual Hidden Gems on Steam
I love obscure and overlooked games and want to share a bunch with all of you. Most “hidden gem” threads end up listing titles with thousands of reviews or that got some level of marketing. I aim to mostly avoid that. While you may see a few familiar games here, everything in the list below has under 1500 reviews on Steam...
Recommendations for short session games with materialistic progress made with each session
I am not a professional gamer nor do I have much time to invest into a game in one stretch. However I do enjoy the cumulative progress I make with each session I have with the games, specifically progress of acquiring loot, money, powers or in-game materials. Are there any games that try to match my interests?...
BattleBit Remastered is dominating Steam because there's no catch: it's just a lot of game for $15 (www.pcgamer.com)
Crossplay games that are not f2p cashgrab
Me and my buddy are using different system now. I’m in PC and he’s in PS5. We were playing Genshin and it started to be very boring. Do you guys know any games that support crossplay, free or paid, that are good....
Roguelike recommendations?
Getting into DCSS a lot recently. Still just running Minotaur Berserker with the furthest I've made it being the 10th floor aha....
The ‘JRPG’ label has always been othering (www.polygon.com)
interesting article for consideration from Polygon writer Kazuma Hashimoto. here's the opening:...
Starfield’s 30fps frame rate is “a choice,” God of War dev says (www.pcgamesn.com)
Microsoft promises Starfield has "fewest bugs" of any Bethesda game (arstechnica.com)
Given I've been going through and playing my old Bethesda games recently, I'm gonna have to call shenanigans here. It's in their DNA at this point.
The best open-source games you know
For example veloren...
Starfield's already the top seller (beehaw.org)
Recommendations for games where the sound takes it to the next level?
Especially really good and satisfying gun sound effects.
Introducing Ambient 0.1 - Multiplayer First Engine (www.ambient.run)