That’s another great example.

The concept is really cool, and I hope to see some more interesting attempts to incorporate more of that adaptive kind of dialogue and gameplay, but its not going to be easy to figure out how to make it work.

It’s not that the dialogue doesn’t sound right, it’s that the dialogue is disconnected from the game.

A great example was someone did this with Skyrim a while back. In the dialogue they convinced the NPC to join their party. But there isn’t any code logic to allow that, so the NPC is talking like they joined the person’s party, but the gameplay itself doesn’t support it.

Now for animal crossing you could make it work a bit easier cause the character can’t directly interact with the NPCs, but then again it also makes the endless dialogue less impactful.

The biggest issue I have with all of these is that the dialogue is never connected to the actual actions of the npcs.

Its easy to have an npc say something, but tying it to gameplay mechanics isn’t. So we end up with people asking for this in new games, but all you get is conversations disconnected from the gameplay. I’m sure there is someway to make it feel more “right”, but we’re a farcry away from making true open world games like this.

Given I think BOTW was just fine, I’m a little worried about Metroid 4.

I’m not sure if it’s worse that it’s releasing on the switch and not just the switch 2.

It really shows they held back on 3D All-Stars just so they could re-release Mario Galaxy 2 now.

Not actual cash, but they require in game currency.

Given that baltoro, monster train, and now silk song have been my most played games recently, you might be on to something.

I thought most equivelant gpus to the ps5 start around $200 on their own.

Baba is you is one of the best puzzle games I’ve ever played

Shapez is a great factory/automation game. Maybe better on a computer, but still good on the phone.

There are also a lot of good boardgames with android apps: Star Realms, Dominon (expensive), Splendor, etc.

I’ve played it on mobile and it plays really well. I used touch controls, so not sure if controllers are supported, but honestly I think touch is better for a game like this.

While it got a lot of flack, I thought the smaller contained worlds of Outer Worlds can be a better in between. Open spaces to explore and run into things accidentally, but constrained enough that the world and plot can still flourish.

I thought the world and travel mechanics were fun, and the leveling system was cool (basically get better skills by using other skills).

Overall though, it falls into the trap of most open world games. Big, beautiful, and boring.

But I also don’t care for BOTW and TOTK over more traditional Zeldas, so maybe I’m just anti open world games.

You can have mysteries where progress and knowledge aren’t tied to each other. For example in Professor Layton games, there is an overarching “mystery”, but it’s a linear game you progress by solving effectively random (and mostly disconnected) puzzles.

I thought it did a good job at capturing the Star Wars feel, but yeah it feels like every open world game. Lots of fetch quests and running around in a massive world where every encounter/quest/battle feels the same as the last.

It may just be me, but most open world games suffer from trying to be too large. Although I think BOTW and TOTK are some of the weakest Zelda games, so maybe my opinions on open world games aren’t popular.

I appreciate you adding your review!

Seems like you and I had similar opinions. I don’t have the dlc, but ended up reading up on it. It seems like they were good additions to the game, but I didn’t feel strongly enough to go back and get them.

If you liked the fishing theme with some plot, Dave the Diver has some parallels. I think the gameplay loop is a bit better, but it goes more for goofy/zany rather than Lovecraftian.

I didn’t even know it had a mobile release (it’s slow paced enough I could see that working okay)!

I was actually able to finish it over the weekend and overall I think I’d give it a 6-7/10:

• Gameplay: Solid. The mechanics are fun, but don’t really evolve beyond the first couple hours of gameplay
• Graphics: Great. The open sea is both inviting and omnionous, while the characters and fish all have a nice flair to them
• Story: Okay. The story being revealed in messages and encounters is fun, but the stakes never really seem to change, and I think if the world got pulled more into your descent it would make it more impactful.

If that’s your kind of game, Unfinished Swan is another thats more plot based, but still has some fun puzzles. Doesn’t get mentioned as frequently so usually one people haven’t seen/played before.

Antichamber is another that feels similar. Although Antichamber doesn’t really have a plot.

Yeah, I finished the game wishing it would be a higher recommendation, but it just falls short on a lot of things. I don’t mind the price I paid for it, but it’s a hard sell even at $29.99 (summer sale price).

The top things to me were setting, animation (feels like clay/stop motion in a cool way), and setting. But the fighting is only okay (never really evolves beyond button smashing and dodging), the story doesn’t really build on itself, and the platforming is generic and linear.

It also doesn’t help this is an Xbox studios game, since it seems like a bit more time/money would have gone far for this game.

I just finished South of Midnight , it’s a mediocre action game with a decent story, but pretty good music specifically written for the game. It kinda feels like Alice Madness Returns meets Disney’s Princess and the Frog (without the frog changing).

Just started up on Dredge and having some fun with it so far.

So I ended up reading up on the original comics because I knew they were a bit darker than the cartoons. It seems shredder is only in volume 1 of 4. In it he’s basically a New York Yakuza boss that kills splinters master. So splinter trains the turtles to kill shredder. After that he does get resurrected once, but after that he stays dead.

Volume 2 cover a full on battle with DARPA (for experimenting on aliens and turtles), Volume 3 has a possible daughter of shredder trying to get revenge, but volume 4 retcons volume 3 and focuses on a future where aliens come to earth and the turtles can roam the streets as “aliens” (which isn’t that weird for the series as aliens first appear in volume 1).

So, yeah, it gets kinda weird.

The wording is a little weird, but it’s about Capcom finances. They make more selling games on steam than selling on the Playstation. So steam/pc is a bigger market than Playstation consoles for Capcom.

You’d probably be better served by a retro handheld. A lot of them run android so you can play android games, but the built in controllers make emulating actually enjoyable.

Major issue is that the ones cheaper than a switch struggle with 3D games.

If you have the money, steamdeck is definitely one of the best bang for buck, but it’ll probably be more expensive than a switch (unless you can find a deal on a used/refurbished one).

There is also dead cells, slay the spire, monster train, disable immortal, etc.

However, those are also all playable on switch too. Technically you can emulate the switch on android, but I think this brings up the biggest flaw in gaming on android; you’re either emulating or streaming for most good games.

I mean, there is literally only Mario Kart World right now. Donkey Kong is coming soon, and then Metroid Prime 4. But that’s not a lot to be missing out on for the time being.

Yeah, I’ve primarily gotten graphic novels/manga/ebook bundles as of late from them. Most game bundles have maybe one interesting game and just isn’t worth all the extra cruft.

It makes me wonder if this will bring more people back to consoles. The library may be more limiting, but when a console costs less than just a gpu, itll be more tempting.

I didn’t know this one wasn’t well received until just now. To me it’s one of the few good 3D sonics. The plot, stage design, intersecting stories with varied play styles. All of that made it feel like playing in a full world.

That being said, I’m hit or miss on sonic in general, so maybe I like it for not being a traditional sonic game.

Personally the movement mechanics and the tropical overworld were amazing in this game.

While the water jetpack may seem like a gimmick, I thought it really changed the platforming in a good way.

Additionally, I’m a sucker for a good overworld and the amount of things you can unlock or discover in delphino plaza turns it into its own sort of level.

There is definitely some jank and padding (blue coins) in the game, but it holds up better than Mario 64 in my opinion (just due to the camera issues IN Mario 64).

Lil Gator is also a great game!!

Edit: There is a “sequel” dlc being released soonish - https://store.steampowered.com/app/3205060/Lil_Gator_Game_In_the_Dark/

Yeah, combat is it’s weakest point. I’m sorry that held the game back from you, because the overall “puzzle” of the world/game is very rewarding.

Maybe it’s not a bad tutorial, but it is long and slow.

Ah my bad, that’s definitely a good point.

My opinion is that in the game you should have collected rooms over time, but be able to build the house with whatever tiles you have.

This would still require multiple playthroughs, as you need to rebuild the house for different puzzles, but also removes some of the RNG by tying it to finding new rooms rather than at every door.

I’m not sure if I agree on the “full price” comment, it’s not much different in quality than Myst or Outer Wilds.

Outside of that I agree, the real deciding factor is how much RNG annoys you. I loved the puzzles and gameplay, but gave up after the “first” ending because there were a ton of puzzles I knew how to solve, but couldn’t get back to or get the right resources for them. Some might argue the RNG is part of the puzzle, but for me it felt more punishing than it should be.

I love rougelites/likes, but for me the issue was the RNG. When you have the knowledge to solve a puzzle, but can’t get the resources or rooms to line up right it just feels stupid.

The game wouldnt be half the length if I could just define the layout myself each day.

I’m pretty sure they meant Outer Wilds, which is one of my top games of all time.

It’s a 3v3 tag team game and they only showed 6 characters?

It is a hard game, but hopefully the new settings help. Also, I didn’t find it too hard to farm resources to level up. Compared to dark souls I think it’s a bit more forgiving.

Yeah, but my point is that it’s apparent from scene 1 when “Simon” wakes up the first time. Just cause he doesn’t get it doesn’t mean the player doesn’t have to deal with the same concept getting rehashed over and over.

There was no build up of the concept or iteration on the idea. It’s just the same arc from the first 10-15 minutes of the gameplay playing out again and again. Except they swap it up at the end to try to make it hit harder, but to me it just felt played out.

I get why people like it, but it just didn’t have the pay off for me.