World’s biggest Monster Hunter fan
I’ve recently been disabling minimaps in games that let me… hell of a good idea, makes the game way more immersive and fun to navigate.
That being said, it does require a certain mindset that using a minimap doesn’t. You need to be willing to take things slow, take in your surroundings, and really look. I recognize that most people don’t like going that slow and so minimaps are useful. I hope that they’ve taken that into consideration with this decision.
You aren’t wrong, they’re definitely significantly more clunky, but they also absolutely have their own charm to them. If you’re a fan of “older” game design they might really appeal to you. There’s a much greater focus on the out-of-hunt preparation phase, and while the lack of many QOL features might be frustrating to some players, to others it adds to the personality of the games. They’re definitely games worth trying if you’re interested in retro gaming, or in Monster Hunter history, and they’re all easily emulatable.
That being said though, most players should probably just stick to the newer games, it truly cannot be overstated how much of a leap World was for the franchise. The amount of quality of life features and gameplay improvements is staggering, and going backwards from that can be a bit jarring.
Monster Hunter. There’s tons of recurring stuff between games due to the nature of the series, but other than being able to go “hey, I recognize that from this other game!” there’s no reason to play the games in any particular order. I’d normally recommend World or Rise to new players, but with Wilds coming out in a month I’d say that’s the best option if you have the hardware for it. Wilds is a thematic sequel to World though, so starting with World before Wilds is something you might consider, though it’s not really necessary.
Oxygen Not Included - after binging ONI videos all month I finally decided to give actually playing the game a go. Turns out watching lots of high level gameplay does not make you a good player! The struggle is tons of fun though.
Stationeers - A second super complicated game, I just had to hop in and play with all the new robotic arms they just added! Or rather, I would if I could make a functioning station in the first place… Time to go refactor the atmospherics again!
Satisfactory - The hat trick for brain melting games this week, with the release of 1.0 I’ve started up a brand new world and I can’t wait to mess around with all the new toys we’ve got! Unfortunately I’ve been hit with a nasty post-release bug but hopefully they’ll fix it right away and I can continue my factory adventures!
Astro Bot - A game to help unwind after the stress of the other three games, I genuinely cannot comprehend the amount of heart that went into this game! I seriously find myself grinning from ear to ear every time I boot it up, and I’m always looking forward to my next chance to play!
Started up a new world after not playing since like… update 5 I think? Already having a blast with it, though I’ve ran into a bug where coal miners won’t take coal from belts unless you have coal in your inventory and I think I’m gonna have to shelve it until that’s fixed unfortunately…
All the new QoL features are amazing though, and I’m crazy excited to see all the new late game content and what insane production lines I’m gonna havr to think up!
I used to hate playstation controllers because they always felt really weird to hold. Even the PS4 controller was terrible for me. With the Dualsense PS5 controller though they just made it an xbox controller with playstation gimmicks and that was such a great move! It doesn’t look too ugly either, since it’s just the same basic shape as an xbox controller. It doesn’t have the nice weight that an xbox controller has and I definitely prefer the joystick layout on xbox, but the haptic triggers, the hd rumble, the trackpad, and the gyro sensor are all things I don’t think I can do without anymore!
I think it’s mostly nostalgia, and the fact that it was kind of the first iteration of the design all controllers use now. The 360 controller was good but it was really only the start. In my opinion each xbox controller has been a massive improvement over the last.
The series x controller is probably the most well refined controller I’ve used, and the only reason it’s not my pick for best controller is because I’m a sucker for all the fancy tricks of the dualsense.
I know the first game wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea but I loved it to bits! Seeing the little snippet of actual gameplay when the bridge was destroyed makes me think this will be just the first game but better, which is my favourite type of sequel, and I can’t wait! With MH Wilds and this 2025 is looking stacked already!
It really sucks that you bounced so hard. Some tips in case you ever do want to go back to it:
Enemies are puzzles too. Nearly every single enemy in the game has a specific trick to them that, once you get it down you can beat them much more easily. This includes bosses. Usually this is indicated by breaking the enemy.
Don’t worry about the races. I think I only ever won a single race in the entire game, and it has literally zero consequence other than a couple lines of dialog. It’s purely a feel good thing, and to connect you more with Emily through a friendly competition.
The story can feel a bit confusing and disconnected because there’s 2 stories happening at once: the crossworlds story and the actual story. The actual story only really starts to get serious towards the end, so until then just focus on enjoying the fake-mmo world!
If it’s not for you, it’s not for you and there’s nothing I can do about that, but I really want others to enjoy this game as much as I did because I do believe it’s something special.
Crosscode is one of my favourite games of all time. It’s an immensely charming action RPG heavily inspired by the 2D Zelda games. It has some absolutely insane combat and surprisingly challenging puzzles. The story is also very good and really touching at times. The devs spent 7 years making this game and I feel like it never got anywhere near the attention it deserved.
It’s just $20 on steam AND it has a free demo, so there’s no reason not to check it out!
The quote isn’t about which is more good, because yeah, obviously it would be better if no one was evil, but the quote is asking which is more praiseworthy. Do you think the person who naturally is a hero saving everyone they meet is more honourable, or is it the one who desires violence and destruction by nature and rejected that to choose to do good instead?
massively overpowered is the name of the website lol