What game are you playing?

[TedEH]

Maybe Pokemon is the exception, but you could argue that it's a Gamefreak / Pokemon Company thing and not Nintendo's fault.

 

[Alberto7]

Maybe Pokemon is the exception, but you could argue that it's a Gamefreak / Pokemon Company thing and not Nintendo's fault.

Yeah you're correct. At this point I barely even relate the two together. And even then, the disastrous releases for Pokemon have only been on the last generation or two (Arceus and the newest two, right?).

 

[TedEH]

I mean, I've thought the modern Pokemon games have been pretty disastrous since Sword + Shield, and at best the generations before that were bordering on boring derivatives of the classics, but that was an unpopular opinion at the time.

 

[wankerness]

So I guess BotW2 keeping breakable weapons is confirmed - but with the addition that you can combine them with random stuff to strengthen them. I like this idea. I have a strong suspicion that this will scare off the people who didn't like the breakable weapons in the first one.

I'm going to play the game regardless, but I am skeptical that this will work as the super early-game video describes. Like, maybe it resets the durability for whatever weapon you make to 100, but unless the weapons you make are like, the original durability of both the weapons you merged COMBINED, or you can just infinitely keep adding "components" to a weapon to keep resetting its durability even if they're branches, I don't see this as solving anything related to the late-game combat being a huge weapon drain that results in farming being necessary. Well, it does solve the early/mid-game problem of having TOO MANY weapons for sure, where the enemies still are the regular variants with tiny amounts of HP so your inventory is always full of weapons since you don't use up way more of them than you gain from say, clearing out a camp.

 

[wankerness]

I mean, I've thought the modern Pokemon games have been pretty disastrous since Sword + Shield, and at best the generations before that were bordering on boring derivatives of the classics, but that was an unpopular opinion at the time.

I don't think Pokemon games have been polished or anywhere close to Nintendo's standards for probably 20+ years. Some are still fun, but they're a wreck and they're always rushed out the door and they're as full of filler releases as the Call of Duty franchise. I definitely have noticed in recent years that anyone talking about Nintendo's track record is careful to be like "JUST REMEMBER THEY DON'T MAKE POKEMON, THAT'S GAMEFREAK!!!" as a disclaimer.

 

[Nicki]

So I guess BotW2 keeping breakable weapons is confirmed - but with the addition that you can combine them with random stuff to strengthen them. I like this idea. I have a strong suspicion that this will scare off the people who didn't like the breakable weapons in the first one.

Yep. I'mma skip that one. It was a deal breaker for me.

 

[TedEH]

I don't think Pokemon games have been polished or anywhere close to Nintendo's standards for probably 20+ years.

I think it's only an unpopular take in some circles - I know just as many people who were perfectly satisfied with Sword/Shield as were very disappointed with them.

They sit in kind of a weird place, IMO, where I'm sure some fans just want the fanservice and nostalgia, and I can understand any established IP being risk averse, but that pattern has gone on for so long that even suckers for nostalgia are finding the whole design really stale (which is the camp I should be in, 'cause I played the bajeeezuz out of Blue + Silver).

I can just imagine if Nintendo decided to go hard on it's next console, make something beefier than the current gen consoles, and we get the Ultimate Pokemon Game that looks fantastic, goes open world properly, revises the battle mechanics so that it's not the same 20+ year old mechanics, etc.

It'll never happen, I'm sure, but it would be something. But why do that when your current offerings already print money.

 

[wankerness]

I think it's only an unpopular take in some circles - I know just as many people who were perfectly satisfied with Sword/Shield as were very disappointed with them.

They sit in kind of a weird place, IMO, where I'm sure some fans just want the fanservice and nostalgia, and I can understand any established IP being risk averse, but that pattern has gone on for so long that even suckers for nostalgia are finding the whole design really stale (which is the camp I should be in, 'cause I played the bajeeezuz out of Blue + Silver).

I can just imagine if Nintendo decided to go hard on it's next console, make something beefier than the current gen consoles, and we get the Ultimate Pokemon Game that looks fantastic, goes open world properly, revises the battle mechanics so that it's not the same 20+ year old mechanics, etc.

It'll never happen, I'm sure, but it would be something. But why do that when your current offerings already print money.

From what little I pay attention to, this is specifically a game freak problem. They got really lazy with just developing for handhelds and when they finally had to switch over (HA) to attempting to do something more modern feeling on the Switch with Arceus and whatever the newer ones are called they just did not know what they were doing. They applied the same work schedule to doing something they had no experience with, and obviously the results speak for themselves - it's amateur hour. What needs to happen is they need to stop pumping out games for a couple years, get developers who are actually familiar with developing modern, non-mobile games, and then maybe we'd actually get something good. Unlikely to ever happen as Gamefreak has basically the exact opposite business model from Nintendo (it's very much the EA/Activision shooter/sports game model).

 

[TedEH]

It's weird to me that going from mobile to Switch would be as big a challenge as going from mobile to a bigger console - Switch and mobile have a good deal in common, and mobile games usually mean working within tight constraints. Which makes it all the more disappointing, I guess.

 

[Ralyks]

89 hours later, I finally finished Persona 3 Portable.
Ok... As much as I bitched about it, Persona 3 is a damn good RPG that, yes the story is really slow to start, but once it gets going, it's REALLY good. My gripe, as I've said many times, is the Portable version doing the whole graphic novel thing and none of the 3D models or anime cutscenes. It honestly sucks not being able to see a lot of parts play out and instead you just read them. Watching the same scenes from P3FES on YouTube, as well as discovering the movie is on YouTube, confirms this. I see a lot of people say Portable is their favorite version. I'm thinking I should have booted up FES on my PS3.
So yeah, is it a good RPG? Absolutely. But if you're going to play it, think about which version. FES has models, cutscenes, and "The Answer" epilogue (although I've heard VERY mixed things about that), but you can't cobtr your party members (although there are mods out there to change that). Portable has the choice male or female with the story playing out different enough to actually be noticable, and you can control your party in combat.
Or you could be like me and wish they waiting to make a version that just combines the good aspects of both. Oh well, maybe with the rumored remake.
I'm definitely gonna jump to Persona 4 Golden because I at least know it's great from playing it on Vita, but miiiight wait a little bit after this experience. I may also do NG+ for P3P as the FemMC, but if I do, it's only because I'm a trophy whore.

Anyway, got Tetris Effect Connected for PS5, and this game is such a great way to chill out. Visually stunning, awesome music, and a really creative take on Tetris (plus regular ass Tetris for those who just want to a game of regular ass Tetris).

 

[StevenC]

I would once again like to chime in that the weapon damage is not a big deal in BotW and never at any point did I run out of weapons, especially not in the late game.

I don't think Pokemon games have been polished or anywhere close to Nintendo's standards for probably 20+ years. Some are still fun, but they're a wreck and they're always rushed out the door and they're as full of filler releases as the Call of Duty franchise. I definitely have noticed in recent years that anyone talking about Nintendo's track record is careful to be like "JUST REMEMBER THEY DON'T MAKE POKEMON, THAT'S GAMEFREAK!!!" as a disclaimer.

Black and White 2 came out 11 years ago and is arguably the series peak. I personally loved XY/ORAS but lots of people didn't like the art style, though I think it'd be hard to complain about the quality of those games being out of step with Nintendo games. SuMo was when the games started to be panned more broadly by the community, and those games do run like crap (especially on original 3DS), but I enjoyed the adventure. Everything since then has had much more glaring flaws.

 

[Naxxpipe]

Purchased and started playing Disco Elysium the other day, and what a ride this is. I am enjoying the whole RPG/Point-and-click adventure mix with skill checks. Also really enjoying the internal dialogue based on your skills, which probably gives it quite nice replayability.

Having fun so far, but only 10 hours in, with no idea how long it is.

 

[fabronaut]

that reminds me that I got Disco Elysium on sale a few months back and haven't got around to playing it yet, whoops. (although that holds true for probably 70% of the games I own anyway...)

lately I've been playing Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, which I think I got free on the EA platform via Twitch [Amazon] Prime? I'm really impressed with the pacing of the game, how smoothly the mechanics are integrated, the character writing, and as I get older / lazier... the quality of life options.

being able to turn off quick time events and make it a simple button press is a godsend, as is being able to toggle the difficulty down when I don't feel like replaying an extended section for the tenth time in a row because I missed the last dodge / strike on a boss. if I want to get my ass handed to me, I'll play a Souls game instead. (I've never quite finished the ones I've started, due to being distractable or having life intervene and my attention bounce somewhere else, but I am continually amazed at how good they are.)

the best Star Wars media (books, games, whatever) play with the extended universe, and the less directly tied to the movies' events, the better the games tend to be. I'd put it somewhere in my top 5 Star Wars games. I certainly haven't played all of them, but for reference, that would be Tie Fighter (the old DOS combat sim -- haven't played all the newer space combat titles), Knights of the Old Republic, Dark Forces II (does that still hold up?), and maybe a tossup for something like Battlefront II that never personally owned.

they had it on sale for something crazy like $5 the other day on Steam. damn thing wouldn't launch since I already had it on EA Play though and it kept erroring out? so I refunded it and went with what it turned out I already have. I really wish they'd stop adding stupid DRM hooks to games that are already tied to a distribution platform... or at the very least, remove the more invasive DRM a few months after release when it's no longer helping the bottom line anyhow. it doesn't make sense to cause problems for your paying customers -_-

 

[Alberto7]

I mean, I've thought the modern Pokemon games have been pretty disastrous since Sword + Shield, and at best the generations before that were bordering on boring derivatives of the classics, but that was an unpopular opinion at the time.

To be fair, as much as I appreciate Pokemon, I only ever played gen 1 and gen 2, then jumped back on gen 6, and never really touched it again after that. It kinda lost its charm and added way too much complexity for me to care. All the new weird abilities, types, and Pokemon variants diluted the franchise. All I know about it is what I occasionally read online. I wasn't aware that since Sword/Shield it's been that bad.

I would once again like to chime in that the weapon damage is not a big deal in BotW and never at any point did I run out of weapons, especially not in the late game.

Weapon durability itself was never an issue for me either. I guess I see where people come from, but weapons are pretty easy to come by, especially once you kind of learn the map and what sorts of enemies/weapons you can find where. Any time I found a weapon I just checked to see if it was stronger than what I had. If not, leave it, if yes, then replace the weakest weapon in my posession with it. And sometimes I just like Windcleavers because they are badass and I don't care that they aren't super strong.

I'd say the only thing that actually makes it annoying are the random weapon modifiers, which may make me hesitate to use my 100+ attack Lynel Sword or my 5x Lynel Bow because it maaay take me a long time to find a new one if they break. I don't like gambling.

 

[SalsaWood]

I've played all the main series Pokemon games. Scarlet and Violet run like shit. Constant frame drops to 5 FPS, weird bugs, and occasional crashing. I'm enjoying it so far all the same, but the cracks are definitely there functionally speaking. They have all kind of had little bugs here and there, but the new title is pretty bad in that regard.

Zelda TOTK having breakable weapons isn't an automatic deal breaker, but it really depends on the repair and reinforcement mechanics. I preordered it already and I have to say that I'm much less enthusiastic about the game now that info has been released, but we will see how it goes.

 

[TheBlackBard]

My biggest issue with weapon durability in BOTW, and the only complaint I have is that sometimes I would get a really cool looking weapon and then it's gone, but mechanically, weapon degradation is NOT an issue.

Also Disco Elysium is IMO, not only a great entry into CRPG's but a fantastic game all on its own if you decide to never pick up a CRPG again. Just my two cents.

Been playing the RE4 REmake and while I was in the camp that it doesn't really need a full on remake, I'm impressed, nonetheless. I don't know why RE3 had to be such a turd when they did justice to 1, 2, and 4, but here we are I guess. Also, if we could just shift some attention over to a Dino Crisis remake, that would be cool. RE's gotten plenty of attention in this department.

 

[Mathemagician]

I need to set up steam on my MacBook and see what works. It’s an m1 though and from what I’ve seen the answer might be “even less than you’d think” due to the architecture change…

Edit: Also I’ve been slow in new Pokémon games after trying sword years ago. Looks like I should hold off until there are patches/revisions.

 

[TedEH]

I would have thought an M1 would be pretty capable, depending on what your expectations are.

 

[SalsaWood]

I have an M1 mac as well, last time I looked on Steam the biggest problem was no way of just filtering what did work with M1 specifically.

 

[wankerness]

Macs are kind of terrible with games cause of the lack of a graphics card. I have an expensive macbook pro from 2020 and it can't even run Dark Souls Remastered at more than literally 5 FPS at 1920x1080. I think about the only games I could get to run on it smoothly were Quake and Doom.

It is an intel one (hence the playing windows games), but I can't imagine the M1 makes THAT big of a difference.