The new contract ensures “safety guardrails” around AI, which includes “consent and disclosure requirements for AI digital replica use and the ability for performers to suspend consent for the generation of new material during a strike”.

Great to see. Now we’ll see if this actually ends all of the voice actor strikes in the industry. I know there were a bunch that started due to this strike but actually hinge on the company’s stance on allowing non-union members to remain non-union.

The era of financing gooner skins for your waifu has arrived

You’d still want induced flow for better heat transfer though

I’d say BotW has less complexity for sure. TotK adds in a fusion system to its core gameplay, not only for vehicles but for weapons and your shield.

I loved BotW’s story, atmosphere, combat… It just had an unmatched sense of wonder. TotK is great but didn’t recapture the magic to the same degree.

Rofl this is what I most disagreed with as well. 3DS certainly had some bangers, but I think many would list it among the weakest first-party lineups

We’ll have to see how Beast of Reincarnation turns out. Gamefreak’s other side games weren’t anything spectacular, except for Smart Ball.

https://youtu.be/H0r-Kap8kWI

Highly recommended. It’s unintrusive and fast, and you only have to check it now and then to switch up your activity. Every time I go for a run or get groceries, I look forward to what I’ve found in game :D

Hello fellow tiny indie enthusiast! Here are a few I hold dear:

Beyond All Reason - FOSS RTS game about robots destroying each other. Pick one of 3 factions and build up your army to crush the opposition. Great for multiplayer co-op or PvP, even has modes to face off against boss factions. Surprisingly robust and balanced.

PictoQuest - Picross is a pretty niche genre, but it’s a very rewarding puzzle system. This title combines the classic puzzles with real-time RPG combat, adding some frantic tension to the puzzle solving.

Smushi Come Home - Crazy cozy platformer about a mushroom dude trying to return to his family. If “Chill Vibes” was a game.

Aquaria - You’ve probably played this one; was a standout indie back in 2008, even getting a crossover in Super Meat Boy. It’s a Metroidvania with fantastic music, unique combat, and a heartfelt story. It perfected leitmotifs years before Undertale.

Miasmata - Survival horror game that focuses on plant sample gathering and cartography. Yes seriously, you literally have to triangulate your position with landmarks to fill out your map! It sounds like work, but it’s actually awesome to experience.

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor - 3D pixel sci-fi urban sim in which you play a street urchin dreaming of a better life. Its depiction of hope amidst abject poverty is heart wrenching, but the game is absolutely brimming with charm.

The Void - Otherworldly resource management sim from the studio behind Pathologic. You’re a soul in purgatory struggling to remain extant amidst a war between two factions. You have to travel between nodes to collect Color, which is the fuel of survival. Monstrous Brothers roam around stealing all of it they can, and helpless Sisters plead you to offer what you can, with the promise they can help you ascend.

Legend of Grimrock - Oldschool dungeoncrawler RPG. Pick a group of four prisoners chained together and traverse the prison dungeon of Grimrock. Classic hack and slash, sword and sorcery; comes with a map editor and has a lot of community maps.

Knytt Underground - Metroidvania minus the combat. It’s all about exploration, platforming, puzzle solving, and glorious aesthetic. You may have heard of Within A Deep Forest from the same dev.

Honorable mention: Dreamfall Chapters - Not as indie as the others, but not nearly as well known as it deserves. Adventure game set between two worlds - a dystopian fascist sci-fi and… a dystopian fascist fantasy. You swap between worlds discovering not only the secrets destroying these places, but also to learn about your own past. Actually the third title in the series, but acts as a standalone.

Haven’t actually played these two but from what I gather, they definitely fit the list!

Prey, System Shock 2, Outer Wilds, and Undertale are fully-realized microcosms where the primary game is unfolding the complex origami of the setting. All of them absolutely beautiful to experience.

Have you played Prey? Only other game to scratch that same itch for me.

Yeah I think it became such a meme partially because the comic itself was out of place in CAD, but mostly for Buckley’s reputation. Plenty of other serial webcomics had similar range of tone and style.

Yup. Fan projects and indie games can fill this niche. Pokemon is the most profitable media franchise EVER. They should be innovating and improving, not chasing nostalgia.

Big appreciation for Undertale, which has 3 major endings but hundreds of variations for each. It’s nice to have the game acknowledge what you did and give you resolution.

Cave Story really isn’t a metroidvania. The path splits at points, but there’s very little choice where to explore. It’s just a platformer action shooter.

My favorite metroidvania has to be Aquaria. Vibes of the game are on point. The story is great for a game in that genre, and the traversal and combat are unique and tons of fun. Soundtrack is phenomenal.

Check out Gato Roboto if you want a metroidvania similar to Cave Story!

Chiming in with why I love SV: While the game itself is a new thing (well 9 years old at this point), it really feels like a product of an earlier time. And not just the graphics, music, gameplay, and plot. It lacks all the dark pattern mechanics and monetization that’s nearly inescapable in modern games. It just feels good to play, but always feels good to put down.

I just find the game endlessly charming. Every time I pick it up it reminds me of my childhood playing SNES.

The team is 22 people… so that’s definitely not AAA

For all its shit with killing fan projects, tournaments, and frivolous lawsuits, this is actually a legitimate case.

Well we can’t say they didn’t try.

Huh, this is 100% free. Looks like it’s a smaller version of Lunacid (which is $14)

No seriously though, there’s a lot of places it looks like a personal art project. But the aesthetic is awesome and the setting looks interesting.

Yeah I’m just going to stick on Win 10 for a while. Apparently the enterprise version is getting support for longer so maybe I’ll see if I can get on that.

Yup. I want to play Prime 4 and DK Bananza at some point. I don’t need to play them day 1, but I’ll want to play them eventually. And I’ll want to play the inevitable Pikmin 5 and Smash Bros 6.

I think most people are more upset about Nintendo pushing an $80 price tag for first party games. TotK put a bad taste in a lot of peoples’ mouths, but it was both a technical marvel and highly anticipated. People were beyond hyped about the game years before we learned about the increased price.

Mario Kart World was announced out of the blue, and while it looks like a ton of fun, it’s not the same kind of ‘I would be disappointed if I didn’t play it before I died’ as TotK. So a further bump in price for it just feels awful.

Not always the case as with the swift price drop for the 3DS. Depends on what sales look like for the Switch 2. Maybe we’ll get an OLED version for $500 or something. But my gaming plate is pretty full, and I may just power through Prime 4 on Switch.

I can confirm

I’m personally very excited for Prime 4, DK Bananza, and Hyrule Warriors Imprisoning War, as well as F-Zero GX getting released from the vault. Maybe not hyped enough to pay day 1 prices though

It’s at least through this year with Prime 4 and Legends Z-A. I bet the price will make adoption slow and we’ll get major Switch 1 games through 2026.

Ah that’s a shame. The game looks nice, but there’s not that much going on, so you shouldn’t need an expensive rig to run it, so I imagine it’s a bit poorly optimized.

One day in and I’m loving it!

Counterpoint: Wanderstop just released and I’m going to enjoy it immensely. Stanley Parable/Beginner’s Guide + C418 music is tailor made for me.

Davey Wreden is just a powerful writer. Even his interview trailer for the game gave me pause.

I absolutely love how well Alta’s behaviors and animations convey her mood and motivations. Angrily running around swinging the tea basket is cathartic all in itself :D

Should really check that one out, I’ve always heard good things

Yup, we’ve played every Borderlands game, It Takes Two, Palworld, Rotwood, PlateUp, LEGO Harry Potter, Deep Rock Galactic, Outward, Stardew Valley, Cult of the Lamb, Sea of Thieves, Baldur’s Gate 3, Grounded, Don’t Starve Together… We also play other ‘competitive’ games co-op against bots, like in Beyond All Reason, Marvel Rivals, Overwatch, and Predecessor. I could go on but I could list games for a while. Definitely always looking for new ones though.

Hell yeah, my group has been playing that for a few months now. I should donate to the devs because it’s such a great free game.

Nifflas doesn’t get enough recognition! I’m surprised they went with Within A Deep Forest though, I would have thought Night Sky is his most recognizable game.

That being said, his older works like WADF and Saira are great.

Yup, it doesn’t make a difference if you pay for:

• a box containing random items (Overwatch 1)
• a key to open boxes you find for free (Guild Wars 2)
• an incubator to hatch an egg with a random creature (Pokemon GO)
• a wish to reward a random character but there’s a guarantee after 80 wishes to get one exact character (Genshin Impact)

Genshin is in year 5, so it’s still an impressive number. Plus they have 3 other live service games running concurrently (one released this past July)

MARIO PAINT 2 BAYBEEEE

At the same time, the Switch is such a solid console that a hardware upgrade with full backwards compatibility* is really the best case scenario. People have wanted a bigger screen, better chip, and better joysticks since launch, and now we’ll have them!

*the video says it’s not 100% compatible, but I’m assuming that’s for stuff like Labo and Ring Fit that need those exact joycon sizes/shapes.

It barely qualifies as a teaser, but I concede that.