One of the 6 characters in Xenoblade 3’s main cast is black. He’s quite interesting too, this game has pretty good character writing IMO. They’re not the usual stereotypical JRPG character types.
Once during a long train trip I beat the Metroid Prime three times in a row in Metroid Prime Pinball, and at that point I told myself “OK, this game will never end, drain all remaining balls and do something else”.
Really depends. Orchestral pieces can fit certain games, or certain parts of a game. A set soundtrack with a few variations for changes of pace can work if it’s a good fit for the game in general.
If it’s a constant wall of music that’s not really well integrated, sure it can be a bit annoying, even if the music itself would be very good in isolation.
But on the contrary some games have adaptive music, and interestingly it’s a bit more like John Williams’ view on movie soundtracks : it’s made to adapt to what’s happening in real time. When it’s done right it’s everything but boring.
I think music has a very important place in games, and the thing about music in The Elder Scrolls is that it’s always been an afterthought.
I mean, sure, Jeremy Soule composed some great tracks (though really, they were always a bit repetitive, and it only got worse since Oblivion). But no effort was made at all to get them to fit the game.
Of course it’s not an easy task with the open-world design. But already in Morrowind, after a while the soundtrack was getting on my nerves. It was always there, with that overwhelming orchestration blaring when nothing much happened in game, or that melancholic theme starting in the middle of a gruesome underground dungeon. Everywhere sounds the same, until one enemy spots you and then it abruptly stops for another overused track. No matter if it’s a greater Daedra or a freaking mudcrab.
That theme, you know the one because it’s become the Elder Scrolls theme, from Morrowind’s title screen to Oblivion’s to The DragonBorn Comes, I used to like it. Except after a few dozen hours being used without rhyme or reason in Morrowind, I already couldn’t stand it anymore.
Biotech is the best one till now, because it adds a framework on essential stuff that lots of mods can easily build on.
I know there were mods adding kids before, I tried them, some were good but all had some kind of clunkyness and big compatibility issues.
And xeno genetics may be a bit less powerful than the Humanoid Alien Race mod in what can actually be done, but again, a great base for inter-compatible stuff. And since they’re modified human pawns and not other beings you get easy hybrids and crazy mad science stuff around it.
Yes, I think you are talking about Vanilla Psycasts Expanded. Not a fan of all VE, they tend to clutter menus too much IMO, but this one is very good and makes psycasts quite a bit better.
It even got extended in other mods for extra psycast paths, Alpha Animals adds a tab with 4 new ones for example.
The only price that exists is the one they offer for it. If you think it’s too expensive for what is offered, congratulations, you know how to spend money. For any kind of product whatsoever.
I certainly think Super Mario Odyssey or Super Mario Bros Wonder were worth their price tag, because they’re great. And that’s completely subjective.
You either think it’s worth it and buy it, or you don’t. They’re selling games, not food and water. And you’ve got a freaking galaxy of other games to choose from.
It shouldn’t matter at all to you though. And it sounds absolutely ridiculous when you’re shouting your outrage at people who do buy some of their products.
I bought that not long ago, after it being on my radar for a while.
It’s not for everyone, you have to be okay with the changes of pace and the weird half-platform fighter/half narrative farming sim structure. You can’t really choose one aspect, both are needed.
But for those who like games with mixed gameplay and finding out stuff progressively, it’s fun. A bit repetitive sometimes, especially if you’re not sure how to progress efficiently and start trying to grind (happened to me a bit).
World is an interesting parallel universe mythical Japan with likable characters, and the English localization is pretty good.
Under the name Motus, it aired in France without interruption from 1990 to 2019.
There were a few specific rule changes, after a while they started using 6- then 7- to 10-letter words (makes sense, since words tend to be longer in French and 5-letter words were a bit too limiting).
On the subject of game shows with adaptations that last a lot longer in other countries, Don’t Forget The Lyrics! still exists in France (“N’oubliez pas les paroles!”), is still quite popular and still airing every day on a major station. With occasional prime events, usually with champions or celebrities playing for charity.
If what I saw on wikipedia is correct, the original US show only lasted from 2007 to 2011.
Interestingly the formula of the French version has changed quite a bit from the original too.
Except they’re not just saying “we don’t like this” and moving on. They’re using dogwhistles (“woke” is only the first one) and 4-chan level type of slurs in their cries of conspiracy. It’s a thinly disguised hate club, games are only an excuse.
They tried to progressively hide it from their group’s front page, editing its language several times, but it was still there in the discussions in and around the group.
My favorite games are Omori, Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds. I cried for hours at the end of those games, and I think the common point in them is high-quality emotional writing and stellar OST (music really affect me) and my attachment to the characters....
It’s a long game, but Xenoblade Chronicles 3 messed me up in all the right ways. Especially if music moves you, I recommend it. Mostly standalone too, if you didn’t play the other 2 main games.
Not sure what part exactly was spoiled to you, but I’d be surprised if it can ruin the emotional impact.
There is one twist I will not reveal that I can see might take a bit out of it, but I am not sure how you’d encounter such a specific story beat in isolation. Not convinced even that would completely spoil it too.
You know, Baldur’s Gate 1 was on 5 CD-ROM, 6 with the extension.
Of course it was mostly because it was a mess of mostly uncompressed graphics and audio, but still.
If I remember correctly the backgrounds were just fully drawn as huge bitmaps. Several of them for each area too, because they used separate bitmaps to represent collisions too.
On PC Lands of Lore 2 was on 4 discs, about at the same time (1997).
It was a big game, but of course lots of video and fully voice acted dialogue mostly explained the need for all those.
Most of the human/human-shaped characters were actors in FMW, often directly green-screened over the 3D environment. It was quite a surprise, I had never seen live action FMV used in a “real” game that’s not some sort of point and click.
Which video games have been trapped on a hardware platform (console/handheld/headset/etc.) that you wish would be ported well?
I was reading about Oculus accounts that haven't been assimilated into Meta accounts being erased, & it got me thinking about games trapped on hardware platforms again. What are some of the games you wish would have good ports across different hardware?
I’ve never played it, but I am curious about it : I wonder why SEGA never ported Jet Set Radio Future on any other platform. It never left the original xBox.
It’s a bit weird because SEGA is usually not against getting a few quick bucks from the old catalogue. The first Jet Set Radio, along with a couple other Dreamcast games, has a PC version, and it’s at least playable, if not absolutely perfect.
Especially since DS, 3DS and Wii U gamepad had resistive screens. They could use a thin bit of plastic as a stylus and you could get very precise instantly with it.
Capacitive is nowhere near as convenient for (most) game interfaces. Fingers are inaccurate as fuck and get in the way of the screen, big round styluses are only marginally better, and even those clear-disc capacitive stylus things don’t work as well and are still usually quite a bit thicker than the DS bit of plastic.
With the Switch screen being capacitive too, I’ve tried using a capacitive stylus to design Super Mario Maker courses. It’s just not the same, it was a lot easier on the Wii U screen. On the Switch I have to go back and correct stuff constantly, and pointing in particular doesn’t always register immediately.
They worked on the writing of quite a few famous things, and surprisingly, they made one niche full game themselves that I have played, one of the playdate’s initial games.
Yeah, that curator’s crusade against them doesn’t smell too good, very gamergate-y. That said the call to flag the curator en masse could get them in trouble. Probably not the right solution.
I’ve seen their discussion board. So yeah, intent counts too, and I’d advise anyone who may want to join/use that group to carefully consider why it was made.
They’re terrible people because they use transphobic slurs out of nowhere and label anything they don’t like “woke”. Only took reading a dozen messages to get to that point. Also, welcome to the block list.
That definition is not just loose, it’s missing all of its screws completely at that point. Gambling is also assuming you’re putting something of actual value at stake. Nobody would use gambling for a bit of randomness in a game with no stake.
Are you gambling with yourself in a game of solitaire? Or if you hope the Pac-Man ghost will go left instead of right at the end of the corridor? In isolation, obviously not. I’m assuming you’re playing to have fun, and “losing time” or reaching a game over state earlier will not have a significant impact on anything.
However, if you’d bet $10 with someone that you’d win those games, yeah, it becomes gambling.
Aaaand that’s why microtransactions blur the line so much and gacha/loot boxes should be considered gambling adjacent. Not just any incursion of randomness.
This is GREAT news. This means they can focus on making great original games and not be dragged into working on call of duty. Please just give me a new Spyro.
Not from US or UK, but all game magazines I can remember from the 90s and early 00s had that kind of snarky tone in some way really. They loved taunting their readers, and some even trash talked a lot.
In several of those, there was a specific character whose whole job was to answer reader’s mail in the most antagonistic way possible. Of course part of the game was readers expecting to be treated like shit, and writing in an exaggerated need rage and aggressive tone themselves.
I’ve started reading Ernest Cline’s Armada (he’s the author of Ready Player One) to follow a “book club” podcast kind of things made by RiffTrax people (very late to the bandwagon, those episodes are a few years old). Obviously treated with a very “so bad it’s good” and “how the hell did that book even happen” kind of tone.
One detail that had me smile a bit around the beginning : the (fictional) best videogame ever, a space combat simulation called Armada, is the unholy brainchild of a whole lot of people, including, you guessed it, Chris Roberts.
Yeah, good luck with that.
Bonus : that book is supposed to take place in 2018. They talk about Star Citizen like it’s a thing of the past.
(Oh, about the other names thrown in there : Richard Garriot, Fromsoft’s Miyazaki and… Shigeru Fucking Miyamoto, for a gritty military-style space shooter. Not sure if he was there for his experience directing Star Fox or for his 00’s personal works, like Doshin the Giant, Pikmin or Wii Music. Who knows.)
Toddlers were missing too at launch (sims went directly from baby to kid). That and pools at least got corrected in time with updates.
It also got rid of 3’s full town simulation to have only very small neighbourhoods load at one time. Admittedly, this was a performance hog in 3 and created quite a few problems. But that also felt a lot more “alive”. It’s not like 4 is that much less broken than 3.
And then there is a huge problem with 4 compared to previous entries IMO. The game is boring. The new mood mechanic at least is an interesting evolution, but beyond that it always feels like nothing is happening if you don’t provoke it in some way.
The most I’ve played TS3 was quite heavily modded. Sure a lot of the mods were to fix stuff that didn’t work, because those games are a mess… But quite a bit added new stuff too. And of course custom content (which Sims modders tend to separate from “actual” mods with gameplay changes) has been thriving well before TS4.
As for Elder Scrolls, sure the mod offer got bigger with each new entry, but it was already quite big even for Morrowind. It was the first modding community I got involved with, at a time when “modding” wasn’t even something I was familiar with. It was just that easy to encounter all that stuff already.
So I like to use Xbox controllers (doesn’t matter if it’s first- or third-party) because I like the layout, it’s just comfortable to me. However I’ve noticed that on all my controllers in the past few years, the left thumb stick will start to “give out” over the course of a couple months. For instance I’ll be...
I can confirm in the case of switch joy-cons, sticks (and also rails, another weak part of those) can be replaced without any kind of soldering. It’s all ribbon cables.
I’ve wanted a more recent take on the Movies for a while actually. I love the concept of it, the weird mix of management game and making your own ridiculous movie clips, but it has glitches and annoying limitations on modern hardware (not least of which, low resolution with no wide screen aspect ratio).
I haven’t tried this, so can’t really compare it myself, but if we are comparing this to Splatoon (which seems reasonable in terms of appeal if not completely in terms of gameplay), I can already see a difference, and in my opinion a huge problem.
Microtransactions. Very bad case of them according to lots of reviews.
There have been 4 paid DLCs, Castlevania is just the latest.
However, I agree it’s been all worth it until now. Every new area feels like a new experience with cool new gimmicks, gameplay has been refined with stuff like the backpack, we got cool free indie crossover stuff…
And Return to Castlevania has more love for the series in it than anything Konami has done in the last 15 years (which is not saying much, fuck Konami).
I’m okay with the next DLC being the last. The game has had a fantastic life, and I wouldn’t want it to go past the creators’ motivation and start becoming bland. Excited to see what Motion Twin and Evil Empire have in store now (though Motion Twin’s situation seems a bit complex).
Motion Twin is an interesting studio. They have a completely horizontal structure, they keep their studio small (10 people at most) on purpose and they’re more like a partnership of independent developers agreeing on common projects.
Most of them also seem to prefer switching to completely something else once they consider a game is done. Dead Cells is a special case because after a year part of MT wanted to keep working on it, so they created their own, more traditional studio Evil Empire and hired people just for that.
But then, things at MT apparently didn’t go too well. They spent months vetoing everything because no game concept seemed good enough for everyone to agree on it. The lead dev on Dead Cells tried to push them to at least try something, it didn’t go well and they pushed him out instead.
Looks like there has been quite a bit of turnover on the studio since Dead Cells, and very little news, and since we’re talking about a studio of 8-10 people, it’s a bit worrying.
So, a long time ago I got Little Big Adventure 2 a.k.a. Twinsen’s Odyssey.
This game has a “behaviour” feature that lets you switch between 4 modes : normal, stealthy, athletic and agressive. This has an impact on how the main character Twinsen moves and acts : normal walks and interacts, stealthy sneaks around, athletic runs and jumps, aggressive lets you punch stuff.
Note that all of those except athletic are unbearably slow, and the game requires quite a bit of jumping, so I quickly considered athletic the default one, only switching for something else briefly when I needed to do something specific.
In this game you get your second and last weapon, a sword, quite far into the game. It does a lot of damage, and it’s required to beat some enemies. But every time I’d try to use it, Twinsen would do a ridiculous backflip first, then do a jumping attack forward. It was very hard to hit a moving enemy that way, it required a lot of space and since I could barely control that move (tank controls by the way), there was a huge risk I’d get hit in the process.
I lost many times against a huge boss that was only vulnerable to the sword, eventually beat him with great difficulty and after that went through the rest of the game still trying to get the most out of that ridiculous weapon.
It took me another playthrough to understand that the way Twinsen used the sword depended on his behaviour. Only athletic did that double jump first, agressive in particular just let you hack stuff up immediately.
Probably something on the Amstrad CPC computer, and I couldn’t tell which game specifically.
I had the Donkey Kong arcade port on it, ironically better than the NES one because it had the full 4 levels instead of just 3.
Other game of note was Jet Set Willy. Despite the simplistic style that game was creepy as hell to me. The intro music was a pretty good 8-bit rendition of the Moonlight Sonata. Not sure how much of this is due to the game, but that music still kind of gives me the creeps.
Then on that computers I had lots of forgettable games, often in compilations. And a few bad ports (Salamander a.k.a Life Force), okay ones (Contra) and a very late addition of Lemmings, probably the best game I had on it yet not the best version of the game by far.
I got a NES as a secondary gaming platform at some point. Super Mario Bros 1 and 3 were not the first games I played, but after playing so many crappy platform games on the CPC they definitely had a huge impact on what I still consider good game design now.
Maya is a genius compared to Pearl. Poor girl was introduced as a little kid and they decided she’d stay a toddler in a grown-up body for the rest her life.
The Megami Tensei series, along with a lot of its spin-offs, is very far from Pokémon’s style and themes, came before it, and clearly a (very dark) monster collection RPG.
One game that I only tried recently and that I wasn’t even aware was in this genre is Ni no kuni. Its monster collecting aspect only really begins a few hours in, but when it comes into play it becomes a major element of the game. Very cute and charming RPG.
There’s a Dragon Quest Monsters series, Yo-Kai Watch, and a lot of other ones I am aware of but didn’t try. Pokémon doesn’t really exist in a vacuum, it’s just by far the most successful.
Okay let me start with two heavy hitters right from the get go and don’t forget these are only personal oppinions and I absolute understand if you like those games. Good for you!...
And that’s weird, I really love the series as a whole. OoT feels way too bland to me and… I don’t know, I can’t stand its characters, its boring empty environments (plain, ranch and lake for example), its overwhelmingly grey colour palette.
Majora’s Mask’s one of my favourites though. But yeah, I’d rather replay a Link to the Past or any of the other 3D games over OoT.
I suspect Metroid Prime works for you because movement is quite slow. Samus feels like a tank compared to Gordon Freeman.
I love the Prime trilogy, but when I returned to it while doing a Metroid binge of sort, and I was kind of trying to do decent times, I was surprised how much slower-paced they feel compared to the 2D games. Even jumps feel floaty (probably for the better, it’s hard to judge jumps correctly in first person).
Are game studios suddenly abandoning Black developers? (www.gamedeveloper.com)
15 billion score in Pokemon Pinball + Caanoo (files.catbox.moe)
Patch Notes for Tomb Raider I-III Remastered (www.tombraider.com)
New Rimworld DLC: Anomaly (twitter.com)
RimWorld - Anomaly (DLC) Store page is up (store.steampowered.com)
Final Fantasy music legend Nobuo Uematsu thinks modern ‘movie-like’ game music is uninteresting | VGC (www.videogameschronicle.com)
Legendary video game music composer Nobuo Uematsu says he doesn’t think some modern video game soundtracks are as interesting as those in older games.
Tynan Sylvester teases new Rimworld DLC (twitter.com)
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/582aca38-13c0-4f7a-9a90-d8bbaf6fbb18.png
MAR10 Day 2024 - Nintendo (www.youtube.com)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door releases 5.23.2024...
Sakuna: Of Rice And Ruin Sells 1.5 Million Worldwide (noisypixel.net)
NYTimes Files Copyright Takedown Against Hundreds of Wordle Clones (www.404media.co)
How A Small Video Game Narrative Studio Wound Up At The Heart Of A Massive, Anti-Woke Conspiracy Theory - Aftermath (aftermath.site)
Sweet Baby Inc doesn’t even remotely do what many think it does, but on the modern internet, that doesn’t matter
Looking for emotional game recommendations
My favorite games are Omori, Disco Elysium and Outer Wilds. I cried for hours at the end of those games, and I think the common point in them is high-quality emotional writing and stellar OST (music really affect me) and my attachment to the characters....
Diablo IV unleashes the Gauntlet, its first PvE competitive game mode, today (massivelyop.com)
The Xbox retail version of Baldur’s Gate 3 will indeed have 4 discs, since we’re 500mb over the limit for 3. Only option would have been to cut some content out but that didn’t make sense... (twitter.com)
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/2b95358f-b4da-4c36-aa2c-7f272e20c631.png
Sweet Baby employees incite harassment campaign against Steam curator (archive.ph)
DL: nichegamer.com/sweet-baby-employees-incite-harass…
Balatro removed from sale temporarily due to age rating changing from 3+ to 18+ without warning. (twitter.com)
https://sh.itjust.works/pictrs/image/1430539e-bd87-4b2b-b421-fd3d4cbabf17.png
Crash Bandicoot 4, Spyro Reignited Trilogy Dev Toys For Bob Is Splitting From Activision (www.gameinformer.com)
This is GREAT news. This means they can focus on making great original games and not be dragged into working on call of duty. Please just give me a new Spyro.
EA is laying off 5% of it's workforce. (www.ea.com)
The game magazine that spent two years taunting a Final Fantasy VIII hater (ff8isthe.best)
I really like this new blog. Reminds me of ukresistance.
Bliss Hamlet - Arid shrubland peninsula - 11 colonists - 15 years (media.rimworld.gallery)
Star Citizen followers uncover additional layoffs at CIG that reference relocation and restructuring (massivelyop.com)
Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons Remake isn't just needless, it's as creatively bankrupt as a remake can get (www.pcgamer.com)
The Sims 5 Pre-Release PC Build Has Been Leaked Online (www.dsogaming.com)
How Do You Deal With Thumb Stick Drift? (lemmy.world)
So I like to use Xbox controllers (doesn’t matter if it’s first- or third-party) because I like the layout, it’s just comfortable to me. However I’ve noticed that on all my controllers in the past few years, the left thumb stick will start to “give out” over the course of a couple months. For instance I’ll be...
10 Steam Next Fest Games You Should Try (iamcoboney.medium.com)
Foamstars | Review Thread
Game Information...
Dead Cells - A super-late (we know) update on Dead Cells - Steam News (store.steampowered.com)
What's your big "Oh, THAT'S how I do that" moment?
I remembered a good brainfart of mine and wondered if anyone else had one to share....
First game you played
Title says it all, what was the first game you remember playing and had fond memories of?...
NieR 3 Already Exists, But Not For Long (kotaku.com)
cross-posted from: lemmy.ca/post/14353775
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 28th
What are you all playing! I’ve been playing a lot of lies of p and have been dipping my toes back into binding of Isaac!
Looking for retro game recommendations
I’m looking for recommendations for games to get for my retroid picket 3. I like platfirmers, metroidvania, turn based games and driving games....
Palworld dev’s take on Hollow Knight finally has a Steam demo (www.pcgamesn.com)
Which games do you dislike, but the rest of the world loves them?
Okay let me start with two heavy hitters right from the get go and don’t forget these are only personal oppinions and I absolute understand if you like those games. Good for you!...