I'm further behind in Ori but I'm enjoying it greatly. I'm not a big metroidvania aficionado, but I played and loved Hollow Knight despite it's difficulty (some of the bosses really tested my tolerance for punishment). I appreciate that Ori is (so far) a more accessible game.
I was persuaded to pick Elden Ring back up despite not really feeling a pull for it, but lo and behold once I was back in I fell in deep. I never actually finished the game with my first dex/bleed-based character, so I continued making my way through Crumbling Farum Azula. I've given Malekith a couple of attempts but I'm pretty burned out on bosses at the moment. I started up a new sorcery-based character and that's been the real joy. Magic really does make the game significantly easier, and part of me wishes I'd done my first playthrough this way. But I'd beaten Demon's Souls remake not too long before starting Elden Ring originally and wanted something different.
To fall back on when I get too frustrated, I've been playing 10tons's Undead Horde. Their game Dysmantle wound up being a major highlight the year that I played it (I really, really liked it), so I finally bought Undead Horde 1 and 2. It's not nearly as good as Dysmantle, but it's a really great, lightweight dungeon crawler. I like their vibe very much and am really looking forward to Dysplaced.
I also gave the Saints Row reboot a try since it was free a while back on PS+ and it's really, really (really) dumb. It's also kind of fun, a little at a time. Not sure it'll hold my interest all the way through but it's nice having an open world game that's just...easy to play and asks very little of the player.
Watcher Knights I think are near the top of my list. I just rewatched my recording of beating them and I was fumbling so badly lol. It's obvious I'm running with the "pure desperation" tactic rather a more skillful approach, but it finally managed to work out.
I was addicted to exploring that world but I am satisfied with the one playthrough I think.
They claim that entertainment companies exist "to provide that entertainment." Sure I think creative leads and the devs (especially in the games industry) are there to provide entertainment that they are passionate about. But idk if I can ever see a period where the publisher was in it for the art, despite what they may say.
I agree with you, except that up until the early-to-mid aughts, before Fortnight, and skinner box mobile games, and the promise of persistent revenue capitalizing on addictive tendencies and FOMO, publishers believed that the best path to profit was good games. Konami, to pick the (previously) worst example, published one of the weirdest, most cinematic, ambitious, influential games of all time with Metal Gear Solid. And then, eventually, they saw a straighter, shorter path to profit.
I am...way more personally upset about the Arkane closure than I usually get about these things. I have so much respect for what that studio created. This article is great though and gives the holistic perspective I've been looking for the past few days:
The point here, ultimately, is that this cycle has been repeating, and repeating, and repeating, and it does not show any sign of coming to an end. Xbox buys talent, mismanages it in search of impossible scale, and cuts it loose - be that the 20-year experts of Fable, or the battle-scarred makers of Dishonored, or the invigorating new generation behind Hi-Fi Rush. Xbox's leadership clearly knows it's a problem...they have to step behind this first, surface-level layer of justification for closing studios, and get to the real cause - not the decisions themselves, but the principles that inform them. The principles that say expertise, creativity and talent are less valuable than the cost to let them flourish.
There's a PlayStation community I was subscribed to whose main mod posted a gamergatey rant over the weekend with a number of factual inaccuracies. I wanted desperately to assume they were just benignly uninformed, but it didn't turn out that way.
I'm not interested in subscribing to a community at risk of being affected by that kind of toxicity, so I had to leave. Which is a bummer because I liked having PS-specific news in my feed.
When we were trying to book a hotel, my partner clicked on the top link of a Google search, which was of course a sponsored link and took her to some completely off-brand intermediary whose website was designed to mimic the appearance of the hotel's. She completed the booking there before ever realizing it wasn't the hotel itself, and when I quoted the same stay directly with the hotel it wound up being some $100-$200 cheaper.
I had to have a lengthy phone call with their customer support and exchange a few emails before they finally agreed to refund us. I suppose we're lucky they even had a reachable customer service, but I was and remain infuriated by the conditions that created the situation in the first place.
I finally tried out Hardspace Shipbreaker. I've played a few hours and just finished the reactor tutorial. So far it's that diamond in the rough I'm always looking for: an engaging but chill gameplay loop and enticing progression. Something I can turn on to relax and zone out with noncommitally, but that isn't just an objective-less sandbox ala No Man's Sky.
If anyone has recommendations for other games that fit the bill please let me know!
Exact same reaction. First person feels so inappropriate for this property that I immediately assumed comparisons to Uncharted and Tomb Raider must have been a, if not the, major contributing factor to going first person.
First person perspective blurs the line between player and character for a specific type of immersion (when done well). An Indiana Jones game should be all about playing as motherfucking Indiana Jones, no blurred lines necessary. His stature and costume is integral to the formula that makes him iconic, and without them, the gameplay segments of this trailer make it look like Far Cry: The 80s Adventure Serial.
I've said before that being a PS Plus subscriber has changed the types of games I play by making indie games more accessible to try, with low stakes. Prior, I usually reserved my funds for what I assumed was the biggest bang with AAA titles.
There's value there with having a library of games to just try out. That being said, the trajectory of subscription services generally and "digital ownership" (see Playstation's recent Discovery kerfuffle) is really concerning.
I think Ubisoft's mindset here is on the wrong track (surprise...). Luckily, as others have said, there's not a lot of temptation here for Ubisoft's modern library (Prince of Persia being an admitted exception).
You've seen everything Hellblade has to offer in the combat department. I enjoyed it personally; it's really slick in its simplicity, but you are right that it's not the main draw. Hellblade shines in its performances, journey, and presentation, like you said. Some of the set pieces are just striking in the best (and worst) ways.
It's a really effective and unique experience overall.
Alan Wake 2. I'll spare any commentary on all the things it does well and that make it a one of the most ambitiously distinctive (AAA) games...ever? because that's been well covered.
On the other hand, I am kinda surprised that the combat is as... deficient as it is. I never liked the combat experience in the first game. I don't like how the enemies were programmed to run off screen to the sides of view, because Alan isn't nimble enough to pivot direction sufficiently to track multiple enemies, and it just felt cheap and frustrating. Dodging is clunky too.
Control was the next Remedy game I played, and I thought the combat in that game was fantastic. The gunplay felt right, and the paranormal powers were weighty and responsive. Even the levitate power looks and feels fantastic; the animation is super cool and I love watching it.
So I had high hopes for Alan Wake 2, but the combat again feels too imprecise and unbalanced. Dodging is still clunky, projectiles clip through objects, etc.
Oh well. It's a bummer, but in a game like this it's well overshadowed by the strengths.
I'm really interested for this game to release. I expect it to be a critical failure and a commercial break-even, mostly due to Rocksteady's (as yet untarnished) pedigree and marketing.
But I also haven't ruled out that it will be a surprise hit. I didn't even realize this wasn't being fully marketed as a live-service game, and who knows, maybe all the hogwash in this article about the "trinity" of gameplay elements and sharing experiences with friends will actually work somehow.
But if it is all the worst things about the live service trend, I do hope it fails for the greater good, all due respect to the individuals who've done their best with it.
Mainly because of the hype/marketing, but I may be overestimating it. It's a good point that Avengers bombed, but I do think Rocksteady is a more competent developer than CD (I'm not personally a big fan of their Tomb Raider games).
I also just tend to think anything is possible until it isn't. It wouldn't be the first game to buck expectations if it somehow managed to be a hit.
Either way, the fact that this is the only game Rocksteady releases in nearly 10 years will be a deep source of bitterness.
Just started Alan Wake 2 myself yesterday. In the past couple months I played the original's remaster and then replayed Control (including the DLC).
This game's an absolute trip. I've said before that I wasn't terribly hooked by Alan Wake the first time I played it way back, but I fucking loved Control. The world building was fascinating, and there was some new, mind bending idea around every damn corner in the oldest house. But one of the best things it did was expand the world of Alan Wake in a way that benefited them both.
I'm only a few hours in but Remedy is so far promising to deliver on the best of both worlds with renewed vigor. I am hooked this time.
“Tracking protection” sounds more like “alternative tracking.”
Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative, just like its name implies, was designed to be an alternative to cookies that will allow advertisers to serve users ads while also protecting their privacy. It assigns users to groups according to their interests, based on their recent browsing activities, and advertisers can use that information to match them with relevant ads.
Lot of time, money, and effort toward a moderate improvement rather than just not perceiving users as products. But…improvement is improvement.
No argument here. There’s a global paradigm shift needed to break out of that mindset should it even be possible, but it still boggles my mind in the meantime the resources invested in sustaining this ecosystem.
Article seems pretty flawed. Relevance is a vague metric, and the author relies pretty heavily on data related to government site visitation, which seems subject to bias toward certain types of users....
This is a very good example of the skewing I imagined. If you’re unable or prohibited from using Firefox on work devices (as many environments restrict), all that workday traffic will be coming from “approved” browsers.
I don’t think so. The article claims Firefox lost some of its lead developers to Google when it started developing Chrome and then took a long time to regain its footing around 2017. That sounds about right to my recollection. I had admittedly switched to Chrome myself for a while (I’m not terribly tech-savvy, maybe a little more than average) but switched back to Firefox last year. I am still pretty deeply embedded in the Google ecosystem though in other ways.
Me? Not at all. I actually posted this out of concern because, as I’ve said elsewhere, I’m a Firefox user, and my layman’s impression was that its reputation has been improving over the past couple years. I assumed its user base was doing the same as people grew increasingly concerned with Google’s intentions.
Apparently ZDnet has some reputational issues itself I was unaware of.
I prefer CHEAP, ACIDIC coffee because I did the pourover too fast on mediocre store-bought grounds that are too fine, LOL.
😄. Get yourself a decent burr grinder, a French press, and some Aldi oat milk (if you don’t want black) and you can make as good a cup of coffee as you can get at the best coffee shops.
As a relatively elder millennial (1987), I’d concede the title of last true pre-internet generation to Gen X. My family got AOL dial-up when I was in 6th grade, which was a little behind the curve compared to my peers, but not much. So I certainly lived through a seminal transition period as the internet developed and became…what it is today.
But the hallmark experiences of the pre-internet times, payphones, paper maps, coordinating with others, I only did so in my limited capacity as a child. I had a cell phone by…10th grade, I could at least print out MapQuest directions, etc.
I remember a lot, but didn’t truly interact with most of it.
Haha yeah, when I say I had a cell phone, I mean that I was essentially reachable at all times. I didn’t start using text messaging regularly until like…2009, and didn’t use it for anything else until I got my first Droid a few years later.
Fair point though, my response was very American-centric.
I regret to admit I have never played any of their games despite having Desperados 3 on my list for a while. I feel some relief on their behalf though that their closure was evidently a deliberate choice rather than a market failure.
“Entertaining” and “high quality” are meaningfully distinct characteristics. Mortal Kombat came out in the same year as Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction, and Shawshank Redemption. Tomb Raider came out with Gladiator, Crouching Tiger, and Chocolat. Resident Evil was the same year as Fellowship of the Ring.
None of your examples compare, even for their time, with the higher echelons of what is considered (by general critical consensus rather than personal preference) artistic achievement in their medium. That’s what “good” means in the context of the article. That being said, the article points to the Mario movie as evidence of its claim, and my personal preference would consider that movie cheaply derivative (sprinkled with passion for its source material as it may be).
I think The Last of Us is the only truly new, groundbreaking achievement the article lists. And by groundbreaking, I mean it managed to both carve out a space artistically in the “prestige TV” category, while also breaking into the pop-culture zeitgeist, as the article notes.
You’re right that Arcane was amazing, but it mainly caught the attention of game and animation fans. The Last of Us may be the property that finally convinced studios to take video game adaptations seriously and stop giving them out to commercially promising but artistically bereft filmmakers like Paul Anderson.
Comcast said it “promptly patched and mitigated its systems,” it said it later discovered that prior to the repair operation, between Oct. 16 and Oct. 19, “there was unauthorized access to some of (its) internal systems that (it) concluded was a result of this vulnerability,”
Where “promptly” means at least 9 days later. I understand patching production systems isn’t just a point and click operation, but vulnerability and patch management is a competency that Comcast is responsible for. The fact that they’re not named as a defendant in the suit is really, really weird.
I finally picked up Subnautica Below Zero. For some reason I had it in my head that it was an expansion or 1.5 type release rather than a full sequel, so I had put it off longer than I would have otherwise.
I’ve played a handful of survival/crafting games since completing the first Subnautica a couple years ago, and nothing I’ve seen or played does what Subnautica does so well: the progression path is perfectly tuned and focused to keep you obtaining new things at just the right pace while enabling further and further exploration. There’s a really addictive feeling of empowerment that comes with each accomplishment, going from bare swimming to zooming with the seaglide, to building a better tank to stay underwater longer, to eventually having massive vehicles and scanning equipment and defensive weapons. Mix it all together with the excitement from finally reaching and exploring new spaces you could only glimpse before, finding new supplies and equipment, and it’s just an incredibly fun and rewarding time.
I think a common complaint with Below Zero was that it didn’t do enough differently, but that doesn’t bother me at all. I think the biggest problem I have with other survival/crafting games is that they all seem designed for perpetual play (e.g., No Man’s Sky). Both Subnautica games are single-player at their core, with the attendant intentional elegance, and Below Zero strikes that near-perfect balance as well as its predecessor (so far).
I think this is my reason. I like lithe, acrobatic archetypes and will, for instance, usually prefer playing stealthy character classes when given the option. Guy bodies in games are (or at least used to be) blocky rectangles; they look like walking refrigerators. Gals usually have a more dynamic and nimble appearance.
Two more relevant reasons: (1) traditinally, non-customizable main characters are predominately male, so when given a choice I’ll choose the less common option to mix it up and (2) I am a guy in real life and am bored enough of it that I feel incentivized to play the other side in game world.
I don’t understand what Bloober is doing to secure these partnerships. I enjoyed Observer for the visual spectacle, and I appreciated The Medium for what it was trying to do despite it feeling mechanically and thematically incomplete.
I’m not attached to Silent Hill so I’m not terribly invested in their remake, but figured it would be a fair proving ground for them to grow up from the ambitious-but-flawed style that has marked their other games. Maybe this deal is a sign that Skybound has already seem something they like?
Interesting that you call out story and visuals, I’d say those are the two elements that actually do rise above standard fare. Not necessarily the graphical fidelity (it’s great, but not ground breaking), but the art and production design, use of colors, they’re all magnificently cohesive and create some really stunning environments. Story’s more subjective but the performances were commendable, the theme of honor and victory was consistent and tragic, pacing was nicely balanced.
It’s the actual gameplay that I’d say was…fine. Combat is tight and varied, but eventually repetitive, and the open world loop is exhaustingly uninventive.
Finished Paradise Killer early last week. I liked it a lot, it got to be pretty addicting uncovering new pieces of the mystery. Whenever I had to put the game down, I’d come back to it thinking “Oh shit, I discovered x last time I played, can’t wait to see how that pans out.” The one negative thing I’ll say is that there’s not a lot of actual detective work on the player’s part. The actual mechanics of the game are pretty much just running back and forth over the island, talking to the same characters, and chasing collectibles. But I enjoyed the loop, so it worked out.
Started up Moonlighter for a low-commitment game. I’ve played about 10 hours and enjoyed it so far. It’s got a pretty well-balanced progression loop (explore the dungeon, sell your stuff, afford a small upgrade, get a little further in the dungeon, sell your stuff…) which is a big draw for me. Not sure it’ll keep my interest to the end but I’m fond of the time I’ve spent.
Spent some time with The Ascent, wish I liked it more than I did. I was looking for a good pick-up-and-play game, but the save mechanics in The Ascent are…not clear. If it supported a save anywhere/anytime feature I probably would have gone a lot further.
But never being quite certain where I’d pick back up killed my motivation to play too many times.
One of my favorite YouTube game critics explores every single Fallout game and their place within a collective idea of what the franchise has been and currently is.
Well, there’s an audience for it. I love long-form critiques, to the point where I’m generally less inclined to bother with anything less than around 45 minutes because it’s just not enough time to explore anything with the kind of depth that interests me the most (that’s a pretty loose rule though, some topics can be incredibly interesting but just don’t need a long-form analysis).
This essay actually covers about…9 games in the series I think? (1, 2, Tactics, Brotherhood of Steel, 3, New Vegas, a mobile game, 4, and 76). That includes all DLC as well, so it averages about 1-1.5 hours per game (variably, BoS and the mobile game both get significantly less time). And it is split into chapters with the YouTube feature.
I do know that’s still not appealing for everyone. I appreciate the top comment on the video: “Sweet baby Jesus.”
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 19th
Whatcha all playing!...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of May 12th
What are you all playing!...
Eurogamer: What is the point of Xbox? (Opinion) ( www.eurogamer.net )
The platform holder has repeated the same terrible mistakes for over a decade. The reason is simple: its priorities are back-to-front.
The return of Gamergate is smaller and sadder ( www.theverge.com )
Evidently on a posting tear today. What happens when you're stuck in a Dr.'s waiting room, I guess...
On DMA eve, Google whines, Apple sounds alarms, and TikTok wants out ( arstechnica.com )
As a general rule, when trillion-dollar companies don't like regulation, it simply means they're admitting the rules are good for their customers.
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of February 25th
Hey y'all, what have you been playing!...
Indiana Jones And The Great Circle is first-person, stealthy, and coming 2024 ( www.rockpapershotgun.com )
Trademark Tussle: Remedy Entertainment And Take Two Clash Over Logo ( respawnfirst.com )
Ubisoft Wants You To Be Comfortable Not Owning Your Games ( kotaku.com )
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 14th
What are you all playing?...
10 Days Into 2024 And 2300+ Video Game Layoffs Have Been Announced ( kotaku.com )
Mostly from Unity: 1800 through the end of March.
Suicide Squad Boss Downplays Live-Service Elements Of Obviously Live-Service Game ( kotaku.com )
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of January 7th
Happy new year!...
The fall of Firefox: Mozilla's once-popular web browser slides into irrelevance ( www.zdnet.com )
Article seems pretty flawed. Relevance is a vague metric, and the author relies pretty heavily on data related to government site visitation, which seems subject to bias toward certain types of users....
Starbucks accused of manipulating app payments for $900 million profit ( www.androidauthority.com )
Get ready to hear more about "pre-internet" times ( www.axios.com )
Sony fined €13.5m by French antitrust regulator ( www.gamesindustry.biz )
You probably don't need a VPN ( www.spacebar.news )
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 31st
Last post of 2023! What have you all been playing?...
Mimimi Games revived a genre, pushed it forward, and then shut down ( www.polygon.com )
I regret to admit I have never played any of their games despite having Desperados 3 on my list for a while. I feel some relief on their behalf though that their closure was evidently a deliberate choice rather than a market failure.
Video Game Movies And TV Shows Finally Got Good In 2023 ( www.gamespot.com )
Citrix faces class-action suit after 36 million users’ data exposed in Xfinity breach ( www.sun-sentinel.com )
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 24th
Merry Christmas!! 🎄 What have you all been playing!!
Male players: Why do you play female characters? ( kbin.social )
Got the idea of posting this when I watched this YouTube video that talks about reasons men love playing as girls....
Silent Hill 2 Remake developer teams up with The Walking Dead's Skybound Entertainment ( www.eurogamer.net )
All of Insomniac's upcoming titles have leaked ( www.resetera.com )
I believe Insomniac were hacked / ransomwared last week or something. Apparently here’s the leak of all their upcoming titles....
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 17th
What have you all been playing!...
Weekly “What are you playing” Thread || Week of December 10th
What have you all been playing!...
A Thorough (9.5 hours!) Look at Fallout from Noah Caldwell-Gervais ( youtu.be )
One of my favorite YouTube game critics explores every single Fallout game and their place within a collective idea of what the franchise has been and currently is.