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Elden Ring, Lords of the Fallen (the new one – I strangely enjoyed the original enough to beat it, but this one just didn’t captivate me).
I also left Lies of P near the end, because I found a boss too exhausting to keep trying, and life got in the way at some point. Might pick it up again, eventually? Not too sure.
I played and loved Dark Souls 1 and 2, Bloodborne, Sekiro (particularly Sekiro), so it’s not that the genre doesn’t interest me. There’s just something about the above implementations (and DS3, but I did finish that one) that didn’t really captivate me the same way.
B²G3 romances seem shallow and kind of transactional because it is a mix of characters who don’t know each other having a whirlwind romance in a relatively short period of time.
Add the sense of “we don’t know how much longer we have” and the general dramatisation of High Fantasy and you have one hell of an intense honeymoon phase.
After that, the game doesn’t really cover how your relationship plays out, aside from that short party epilogue. Sure, your shared experience may make for a strong start, but the arguments, the differences, the difficulties adjusting to one another while also grappling with the trauma of what you went through and the challenge of finding your place in this new world… there’s a lot left open that just doesn’t fit in this game’s frame.
It would also accommodate some Aces I know that just find the concept unappealing at best and repulsive at worst. Having to click through scenes you don’t wanna see to get to the good stuff is just annoying, and the impression that your relationship is only “complete” once you do the deed obviously also isn’t great.
Conversely, decoupling sex from romance could help destigmatise it, particularly in monoamorous games. You don’t need to be fully committed to someone to do the special thing with them (though obviously cheating when you are committed is a bad thing). People who do it more casually aren’t being irreverent about something sacred. There needs to be consent, there needs to be trust, maybe make the player “earn it” in some way, but normalise the notion that it’s a thing people can do.
Either way: make it an option, not an obligation.
But also, what’s wrong with having any of those things?
Nothing. I’d take more good games instead of fewer hyperrealistic ones, if I had to choose, but those features themselves aren’t anything bad.
The compulsion that every game has to have them, that’s what’s annoying, particularly when it comes at the price of putting developers under pressure.
I’d argue it’s better to have those things with less developer crunch.
If we are to have them at all, yes, less crunch is better.
We don’t need children to form “attachments” to video game franchises. That just breeds loyalty to corporations.
The loyalty to corporations is a bad thing, absolutely, but I can also see how forming attachments can be nice. I very much enjoy my attachments to various movie or game franchises.
The shitty part is that these franchises are linked to corporations. I like Star Wars, but fuck Disney.
We need games that are developed with love and care by developers who treat their employees and customers humanely. Whatever that looks like, we want that.
Absolutely. Grand games should get the time and care they warrant. Commercial pressure is poisoning game development and has been for way too long already.
Did my upgrade two years ago, didn’t get “top of the line” equipment because monetary constraints. I’ve got a 5600X, 32GB RAM and a GeForce 3060 with 12GB VRAM, so that shouldn’t be too bad?