Ashtear

@Ashtear@lemmy.zip

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Sid Meier’s Civilization VI: Platinum Edition is free to claim on Epic⁩ ⁨⁨19⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago⁩:

  Worth it just to get your socks blown off by the opening theme, if nothing else.

  It’s not the best Civ has ever been, but RomanHoliday’s AI rework seemed to mostly resolve the biggest problem I had with it, which was the AI falling apart by the Renaissance.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Pop it in your calendars⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Everyone seems to be more interested in the latest techbro feud so I wanted to highlight what he said about Unknown Worlds staff not being given specifics on what their compensation will be. The statement was quite nebulous on that.

  No problem going into detail about the previous execs though!

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  Fire Emblem Engage, having more fun with it than I thought I would. After Three Houses, I’d kinda written off Fire Emblem as not for me but only a couple hours in I’m already having fun messing around with character builds.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Founder of Arkane Studios: "I think Gamepass is an unsustainable model that has been increasingly damaging the industry for a decade"; impacts sales⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:

  That’s the thing, for the big publishers, the end user (consumer) is only part of the puzzle. Investors and business partners (such as licensees) are more important, and have been for years. They bring in the wealth.

  End users are neither organized nor informed enough to have a seat at the table. The masses will gravitate towards their big properties and marketing will be shaped to that effect. Acquire said big properties if you don’t have them, and make sure all the potential investors know you did.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam now generates three times more revenue for Capcom than PlayStation⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Damn, you must have a beefy rig. Even setting aside the weird texture issues, FPS was all over the place for me. Knew it was a hard pass pretty quick.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam now generates three times more revenue for Capcom than PlayStation⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Still amazed how well Wilds sold after that dumpster fire of a demo.

  I’d also recommend they open up the co-op more, but common sense multiplayer seems a bridge too far 🙄

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rare's Everwild canceled amid layoffs at Xbox Game Studios⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I don’t think we get granular info on this stuff, all we know is this latest round of cuts involves sales too as they are moving to outsource some of that work. And that Microsoft’s total head count has been mostly level since they added a ton of people with acquisitions and hires in 2022.

  Clearly, Xbox has seen a lot of cuts though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨‘There Isn’t Much Sway Held by Past Success’: Baldur’s Gate 3 actors reveal it hasn’t boosted their careers⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Hard to talk about it without getting into spoilers, but Gustave (Cox’s role) was very much a leading face of the game in marketing, and I strongly suspect that was solely because they thought the game would sell better with a male lead.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A Bubble Bobble roguelike? Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons announced for PS5, Switch, and PC⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s exactly because the arcade version was amazing that I can’t, lol.

  Sometimes I’m ok with visual updates (and I don’t even mind the look of Bubble Bobble 4 Friends much), but something’s just off here. Bub’s just too upright/tall? for one thing.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨A Bubble Bobble roguelike? Bubble Bobble Sugar Dungeons announced for PS5, Switch, and PC⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Roguelite gameplay is a natural fit here but I just can’t with this art style. 😔

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Expanse: Osiris Reborn Will Take Cues From Mass Effect, Souls Games and More⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  New engine, new gameplay style, new [licensed] IP. Lots of variables. Owlcat’s exploded in size recently but I can’t quite tell yet if this is their big swing like BG3 was for Larian.

  I’m also confident the writing will be competent, and Ty and Daniel have have a good track record of being available to assist on adaptations. I just hope I like the player characters more this time around. I didn’t quite click with anyone in the Pathfinder games (haven’t tried Rogue Trader yet).

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Square Enix acknowledges Expedition 33 success as inspiration for next Final Fantasy as turn-based is still beloved by gamers⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Once bitten, twice shy. They’ve had really mixed results doing this with the brand in the past, and their current corporate strategy suggests it’s not happening again anytime soon.

  I think the Bravely series is the closest to that we’ll be in these times, although it’s not even clear at this point if that series is continuing or not.

• The Expanse: Osiris Reborn Will Take Cues From Mass Effect, Souls Games and Morewww.cnet.com ↗
  Submitted ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩ to ⁨games@lemmy.world⁩ | ⁨19⁩ ⁨comments⁩
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Square Enix acknowledges Expedition 33 success as inspiration for next Final Fantasy as turn-based is still beloved by gamers⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Final Fantasy X was also the first pure turn-based game in the mainline series since 1990.

  I keep hearing people cite Final Fantasy nostalgia with Expedition 33, but pure turn-based combat with realistic graphics happened exactly once in all of Final Fantasy. I don’t get it. It’s much more of a thing in the rest of the genre, including SQEX’s other properties.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Square Enix acknowledges Expedition 33 success as inspiration for next Final Fantasy as turn-based is still beloved by gamers⁩ ⁨⁨3⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  The writing was already on the wall following the massive successes of Persona 5 and Honkai Star Rail. Expedition 33 had its moment in the zeitgeist, but at this time it’s not clear it will be the massive revenue generator those games are. And that’s the goal for mainline FF.

  That said, SQEX has been very internally-driven for a while now, and their major teams get more excited about developing games with action elements. I’d be very surprised if FF17 returned to turn-based for that reason alone.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New report suggests third-party Switch 2 game sales are "below estimates"⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  conventional wisdom does not apply

  All the more reason why it’s far too early to draw any conclusions.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨New report suggests third-party Switch 2 game sales are "below estimates"⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  It’s too early to draw any conclusions. Take it from Mat Piscatella, who’s forgotten more about video game market research than I ever learned myself.

  Hardware launches are not like game releases, anyway. It’s the establishment of a new product market, and early game releases on consoles have an ebb and flow to them that later blockbusters do not. It’s about building growth, not first-week sales.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Nexus Mods Sale Sparks Concern in Modding Community⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Ouch. Even selling it to Fandom would have been better than this.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Does Super Metroid get any better?⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  You’re not going to find more text/explicit plot than you have already. That said, there is good environmental storytelling in the last zone of the game. The next zone for you (Wrecked Ship) might have a little more for you to chew on. I’d say get through that zone and then see how you feel about it. If you like it, the ending will probably feel rewarding.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨First/notable 3D games where you could dive below water (and walk on land)⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Half-Life 2 always stands out in my mind for this due to it being such a physics playground.

  I usually hate water areas in games, though 😂 Especially the Zelda ones.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Gachapwned: How gacha MMOs drown us in progression and randomness | Massively Overpowered⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  There’s almost no multiplayer in Honkai Star Rail, though, much less anything approaching what an MMO does. It has asynchronous character sharing and chat. That’s literally all the player interaction there is in the core game. Every now and then there’s an event where you can go head-to-head in simple games like match 3.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Steam Next Fest has started once again. What good demos have you found?⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I tried a bunch of these today and yesterday.

  In the “Shut Up and Take My Money” tier:

  • Bits & Bops - Sure, it’s a total Rhythm Heaven clone but, hey, why mess with a winning formula? Still, I worry about devs borrowing this heavily from Nintendo titles these days 😬
  • Dispatch - I only needed 10 minutes with this to know I’m sold. The animation is gorgeous and it has a hell of a cast. Between this and Expedition 33, how are new studios getting these people!?
  • Mina the Hollower - Shovel Knight’s the best retro game I’ve seen and I didn’t need to see much of Mina to know that Yacht Club delivered again. It’s got a Zelda vibe (the jump especially feels just like it did in Link’s Awakening) along with all that other 8-bit-with-present-day-game-design goodness. I also cut this one short so I can enjoy it in full later. Day 1 for me.

  Pretty good but a couple hiccups:

  • Forestrike - Hey, PlayStation gamepad glyphs! Always appreciated. Outstanding atmosphere in general. The pixel graphics are interesting; the character design reminds me of old Sierra games. I wonder if at some point during dev they considered just not going roguelite. There’s real storytelling talent here and I think a linear game with increasing complexity might have been even better (and helped to not undercut the narrative as roguelite progression tends to do).
  • inKonbini - Pretty short demo, but the gameplay seems it’d be good and vibe is cozy. Really strange that only the written Japanese is gibberish. It seems too elaborate to be placeholder text, so I wonder what the story there is? It takes me out of the life sim aspect of this a bit.

  Not for me:

  • BALL X PIT - The gameplay pacing on this is unfortunate, with the roguelite elements stopping the action too much. Kept wanting to get into a flow state and was constantly interrupted.
  • Bloodgrounds - All the other demos I played came ready with story and this one feels underbaked in that department. What I played of the demo was almost all gameplay. Didn’t see much that really sets it apart from the pack.
  • Dice Gambit - I don’t think this strategy game gets the basics down well enough to add on the dice layer. Feels like one move should be guaranteed regardless of rolls (and lack of move undo is unfortunate also). The art style also isn’t for me.
• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Xbox dumped a mountain of trailers on us⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Aphelion: I’ve been kinda out on Don’t Nod but the trailer tells me they at least still know how to pick licensed music.

  Beast of Reincarnation: Didn’t know Game Freak had this in them. Still wouldn’t recommend going anywhere near their stuff without seeing reviews first.

  The Blood of Dawnwalker: This is my dark horse pick coming out of this week’s showcases. Yeah, it’s a Witcher clone from CD Projekt devs, but it only needs to capture some of the Witcher magic to be great. The publisher is curious, though. This has to be Bamco’s biggest swing with a Western studio yet, right?

  Persona 4 Revival: Little more than a title card reveal. Honestly, the timeline for this one works for me. No way it comes out this year, and I’m still relatively fresh off Metaphor. Good name, too. “Revival” is a very TV-coded hype term.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Persona 4 Revival - Teaser Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  They improved the handcrafted dungeon stuff in P3R, so I think it’ll probably still be better, but definitely not P5 level.

  This seems a long way out though.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Persona 4 Revival - Teaser Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  “Teaser” is certainly accurate. This was little more than a title card. So much for this coming out this year.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Persona 4 Revival - Teaser Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I wouldn’t expect dungeon overhauls. It will most likely still be procedurally generated like P3R was.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨The Expanse: Osiris Reborn Announcement Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Would never have guessed Owlcat’s new game would be in The Expanse universe, or that it would be an action RPG, for that matter.

  I’m a huge fan of The Expanse so I’m going to check it out regardless, but I don’t know how this is gonna go.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨MIO: Memories In Orbit Gameplay Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  Played through the demo for this and thought it wasn’t bad. The tutorial sections are highlights, which I think is smart design for a metroidvania. Enjoyed this overall more than Nine Sols, which I didn’t seem to like anywhere near as much as seemingly everyone did.

  Biggest negative is that it uses Hollow Knight’s map system, which was easily my least favorite part of that game.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Chronicles: Medieval - Announcement Trailer⁩ ⁨⁨5⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago⁩:

  I’m interested and I’ll keep an eye out for gameplay on this, but holy hell is this name bad.

• ⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What are you all looking forward to at Summer Games Fest?⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:

  Fortunately, Silksong’s never missed a release window before.