Heya, I dig the walls of text sometimes! I also tend to bounce around a variety of games, so I like the idea of short notes about each. Until recently I was writing similar notes digitally as separate notepad files and littering them throughout my computer, but I’ve been trying to make a habit of using stuff like Zim or Joplin to keep them better organized. 😅

Also right there with you on covering weird jank and “subpar” games, so thanks for writing about them!

Hey yeah, appreciate the detail in how you go about it! I’m kinda surprised by the responses saying they don’t tend to write anything until further in and/or completion, but it’s reassuring in a way, as that’s been my approach too for some time.

I also dig that you try to engage with the “soul idea” as you call it of games. It resembles what I’ve read elsewhere of a reviewer trying to evaluate in part on whether a game achieved what it set out to do or not, which I thought was interesting.

Interesting approach, and I get it for those more involved or longer games, as some don’t even have all their systems in play till awhile into the game (which is worth noting in itself!).

Thanks for your perspective!

Oh yeah, and here’s to Outer Wilds! Absolutely a game for the ages!

arrested for photographing some abandoned urban environments 😅

honestly that doesn’t seem too much of a stretch

Game was Interior Worlds btw for any interested.

How does some of the Warframe community reconcile that kind of narrative with its whole business model?

I’m aware it’s generally considered among the “better ones”, but it still is what it is, a freemium game that by necessity has to push its business model on you since it doesn’t have an upfront cost.

I guess maybe it inadvertently adds to the atmosphere of being under the heel of capitalists?

@sugar_in_your_tea Tbh as someone that’s felt similarly (even to the ARPG point somewhat), I’d suggest dropping the bulk of RPGs.

Adventure games (see Wadjet Eye’s releases) & some visual novels provide plenty of story & striking art without the gameplay elements that you’ve found unappealing in RPGs.

This is coming from having tried multiple times over the years to give RPGs a fair shake. Some genres just don’t click barring a few exceptions.

@showerthoughts Thank goodness the metaverse never took off, but still gotta be on guard against moves towards that BS.

@Lowbird @Link To add to this, when Nintendo attacks emulators they even screw over folks that buy their games to show support and then play them via emulator for the benefits they provide over the original hardware.

Sure, that may be an exceedingly small number of folks, but I’ve personally done this with older titles simply ‘cause emulation provides so much more flexibility. I’d do similar with other platforms’ recent games if it was as viable (looking at you specific PS3/PS4 exclusives).

@Mars Tbh this is the risk with making games exclusive to any console (as well as any platform, speaking more broadly), or for any publisher.

The games industry across the board is largely terrible at preserving their past works, with it only recently becoming even of slight interest to any of them (e.g. Microsoft backwards compatibility). They’d rather old IP rot & be forgotten than risk releasing it & losing the slightest profit opportunity from a nostalgia cash-in.

@WorriedGnome @milkpiss @orbit Regarding the price, I wonder just *how* any business could effectively reduce costs without adding in bloatware or the like.

So far in the MR headset space the main ways have been to either just *eat* the cost (see: Meta/FB & Quest) or offer a lesser experience (see: Google’s foray into Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, etc.). The Quest has been making some headway, but it’s still been an uphill struggle even at its lower cost.

(sorry for notifs, testing federation)

@alyaza For sure, especially considering that I highly doubt Microsoft is unique in violating COPPA in this way.

PC Gamer’s off in its writing about online PC games only requiring an internet connection, as nearly all the online games I can think of today require some form of account, & you just know many children aren’t asking their parents to set up an account for every one of those games.

Then again, maybe I’ve missed other articles about similar violations.