Withywarlock

I would've thought the same over a decade ago. I hated A Hero's Tail, but I came to love it because its technically competent, has a good sense of humour, knows its design philosophy and executes it well. It's not the Spyro game we're used to which made for a jarring experience ("so when do I get into a portal to a new level? What do you mean portals exist only for Sgt. Byrd? HE does the Speedways?!"), but it's still a good game at its core. As for Attack of the Rhynocs (or Spyro: Adventure as it's called here, not to be confused with Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure), I didn't particularly like it but I can't say I hated it. I do however dislike Spyro: Season of Ice, the sequel to Season of Flame, because it was another isometric game that didn't do much to improve on the formula. Amazingly I still liked Spyro: Fusion on GBA. Well, liked it slightly more than Season of Ice, in as much as I like flushing my own head down the toilet once more than I would twice. Nobody can blame you for picking those games. My least favourite entries have to be the Legend of Spyro trilogy which rebooted the series. I'm not a fan of that PS2 platform game combat that everyone raved about, and the story was just too much. Its only real feat was hiring as many celebrities for voices as they did, and in terms of celebrity voices Tom Kenny (Spyro's voice in 2, 3, and Enter the Dragonfly) and Jess Harnell (voice actor of Crash Bandicoot, and main antagonist Red in A Hero's Tail) were the best the series have ever had, and only really needed.

The presentation is a lot better than it was before where we were just seeing the open world(?) bits, with an aesthetic similar to Sonic Boom (only now with graphical fidelity that doesn't match a baked potato). There's still the piss poorly placed assets that have no artistic cohesion, and then there's the unclear enemy designs and what appears to be a forgettable antagonist or whatever that ghostly figure is supposed to be. I'm guessing this is going to be one of The Bad Ones. I want to play this one but it doesn't tickle my pickle. Throwing lots of punches from a distance and a green level is the only appeal to me right now. Agreed, although I'd be fine with speeding into and jumping on enemies if I knew how effective that was. I've never fully understood how the games' hitboxes work, and it's something Super Lucky's Tale felt it had to be add to their game. I don't blame you. I really don't know what it is about this one that makes me want to play it, other than I simply do, but I can totally see why others would want to give this one a miss.

Never really liked hype, if I'm totally honest with you. I have fond memories of staying up until after midnight for MMORPG expansion launches, like Mists of Pandaria for World of Warcraft, but that's about it. The most I'm interested in is the trainwrecks that come afterwards, although I'm not as smug about it as I used to be because that isn't helpful to anyone, least of all those ripped off because they rode said hype train.

Given gaming chairs are little better than rejected race-car chairs, this is agonisingly ironic. I reckon it won't be long before the Solus GT is renamed to the Hubris GT. Thanks for sharing this article all the same, I needed this little injection of bizarreness into my day.

I never knew this existed, but I say it's pretty good for those already on Prime. It beats the Hell out of whatever Humble Monthly's been since February '22. I'm not a Prime user yet but there's that much good stuff bundled with it each month I might have to become one very soon.

Now that's a damn fine choice. I'd say it'd be too much like Arkham but it's not like WB had that problem given Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor and Mad Max released not long after one-another. Arkham combat leapfrog.

Golfing games aren't really my thing, but seeing Limmy playing them makes me want to try them. Might be worth me starting with this one when it comes out, especially if it's the "role playing" game the Xbox store page tells me it is. 🤣 I have to say I love the cover art; makes a nice change from the dreary box art I've seen of late. Regarding it not being ruined by microtransactions, it's 2K who have been known to fill NBA with bloated microtransactional content. It must be difficult to ruin a golfing game with such things, surely? I won't hold my breath waiting to find out...

I'd love to see Fatshark do a Blade game with Vermintide-like combat, and it'd work better as the single-player game I've always wanted to see them do rather than the cooperative horde stuff they're renowned for. I don't play many Ubisoft games these days so I'm not sure why they'd be a suitable pick. Assassin's Creed's combat I guess...? Blade can do better than that. Who would you want to see do a Blade game, @Kane99? This article's piqued my interest in who would do a good job of adapting it to vidya.

The secrecy about it, and indeed most of the industry in 2022, is the most worrying part for me. As Jim Stephanie Sterling said years ago, "Don't just sit on your secret eggs like some sort of mystery chicken. You're not a mystery chicken. You're not the NSA. You're not spies. You're f**king makers and providers of video games." Honestly I just want to know if the D20 system for combat. It's doubtful and quite frankly it doesn't guarantee them my purchase, as if that's anything of importance. The less I know the less optimistic I am, and I'm not sure I'd feel much better knowing the full history of the game's progress. It's a remake of an existing game based on a property everybody knows. Why is this game's development so closely guarded, again?

I forgot to mention, I had to see an optician for that in both my eyelids around March this year. Fortunately they couldn't find anything wrong, but that doesn't mean that everyone who has such twitches or spasms should ignore it.

Some tough competition there for the Cuphead show on Netflix! /s I'm not really into the Game Awards but I'd be interested in seeing who wins this category for the first time. Thanks for sharing this one, Kane.

My bad. 😅 Reboot, reimagining, remake, it wasn't going to get much better than this. I think being a technical trainwreck is the only thing that makes this particular instalment noteworthy, otherwise it would've been an average entry to the series at best. I think it worked once. My suspension of disbelief over Mr. Sunshine's disembodied head still being alive in Saints Row 2 was acceptable. Saints Row 3 & 4 were just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what stuck, most of it did not because it was tied to the core of Saints Row. This game seems to suffer the same problems but is further held back by awful writing (save for "stop blocking me, I gotta take a shit"), outdated and mostly unironic jokes, and again the technical errors. All Saints Row 2022 achieves is rebooting the same formula as expected, which doesn't play to the later SR games' strengths as there was always something bigger (and on a few occasions better) than the last. A reboot of the original game's more (but obviously not entirely) down-to-Earth tone would've been far more interesting, if not as pulse-pounding (which I'd prefer because this game just looks like sensory Hell like RAGE 2 was.) I don't mean to have a go at you personally with this, I'm just pining for the days when GTA had a serious competitor after the PS2 open world craze with True Crime and so forth. It's not really fair of me to bash Saints Row for being what Saints Row has been since its third (second?) instalment.

It's a ridiculously high price tag, but the cost to make something that looks like the below image can't come cheap. It is made with businesses in mind rather than households; obviously anyone who can spend $35k on a personal VR set up probably earns that money back quickly.

Thanks for sharing that. I didn't watch GManLives before, but I think he does a good job of explaining and evidencing his claims. Based on the video I see this a lot like how Back 4 Blood was received when Crowbcat compared it to Left 4 Dead. At first I was thinking it's not like older Saints Row games were masterpieces and Volition are God's gift to the industry, but when GManLives started showing footage it did make me realise how much fun I could have with those older games rather than the amount I could have with this... when it's in the bargain bin... and if I've no other games to achievement farm. I wasn't excited for a Saints Row remaster especially after whatever Agents of Mayhem ended up being, but now I'm certain that the series has had its time, glaring - and hopefully soon to be fixed - technical errors aside. Like Crackdown it was one-and-done. The stakes cannot be higher, the goofiness cannot plumb lower depths, and they've got to learn to share the particle effects with everyone else.

Favourite: Obisidian Entertainment. I'd like to say Insomniac but due to sexual misconduct allegations I'd feel uneasy choosing them. Obsidian Entertainment at least decided to remove Chris Avellone for his many allegations (among other disagreements with upper management). They don't make technically competent games, but they at least make games I enjoy. Least Favourite: Blizzard Entertainment. The few decent people there aren't able to execute their passion and interest in creating good video games, and the rest are either raking cash in from cynical practices, treating their fellows inappropriately, or both. It's absolutely worse under Activision's reign, who should be held accountable, but I can't imagine Blizzard being the jewel of the industry for long if they weren't acquired. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and all that. Can you elaborate on your choices, @NightmareFarm? I'm only familiar with Naughty Dog, and I think they make quite good games even if they're not my cup of tea.

I can't believe I hadn't thought of this one. It's the primary reason why one of my favourite games of all time Tombi! (AKA Tomba!) didn't sell all that well: it didn't have a distributor. This was a game by Tokuro Fujiwara of Capcom fame, creating his own studio named Whoopee Camp, so this wasn't some two-bit bootleg operation selling PS Value Series games. It wasn't until after traversing the red tape between Sony and other rights holders that it eventually got re-released on Playstation Network, finally receiving the justice it long deserved. Given how over 80% of games are now purchased digitally, it'd be even harder for an indie title to stand out with physical copies. Back in ye olden dayes of 1997 the Platinum/Essentials/Greatest Hits label was released: a game had to have sold 400,000 copies to have been redistributed with this label. Tombi! didn't get a Platinum label. In the present day however Starbound has sold over 1,000,000 copies. Guilty Gear Strive has sold over 1M copies. Spiritfarer sold over 1M copies. The Forest sold over 5.3M copies. I'm sure I needn't go on. Brick and mortar stores are getting shut down left, right and centre, and what few are still around are more multimedia merch stores. Like I love HMV as it is now, but the percentage of physical discs and the return of vinyls is still dwarfed by the number of shirts, plushies and posters you can buy. While this thread does focus on the consumer side of things, it's good to think on how the creators of those games reach us to play them.

Let's not encourage a flame war. Neither parties particularly want to argue, and that's for the best. ~ What more games can we talk about? I'm trying not to just list anthropomorphic characters because that's too easy. We can go through animal mascots all day long, and I don't consider many mentions here - even if they are fine games in their own right - to be "like Stray." What are some games where one simulates an animal, even to a comical extent such as Dog's Life or Goat Simulator, or to fantastical sense of Okami? One game that comes to mind is Mort the Chicken on Playstation One, a game where you go around floating islands freeing chicks from the wrath of alien gelatanous cubes. But it has the feel of being a chicken I guess...?

I'm not familiar with how proper artificial intelligence is being done behind the scenes of games, or software in general, but my guess would be that the bigger companies are waiting to see its practical applications before they fully invest money and time into it. There's a lot of procedurally generated crap out there, and while from a technological standpoint it might be marvellous, it doesn't look all that impressive from a consumer's perspective. Who wants to be the dev known as the first one to make NPCs less socially competent than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion through the power of AI, for instance? Leave that to the indies. ...and so they did, bringing us projects like AI Dungeon. It's text-based so it doesn't require that much horsepower, and it's come a long way from older AI storytelling devices which quickly forget your inputs, meaning progress is more akin to a treadmill than a road that has the possibility of a satisfying end. Despite journalists' claims of it potentially replacing Dungeon Masters for Dungeons & Dragons or other roleplaying games, it's just not clever enough to create that cohesive an experience. In my current playthrough of AI Dungeon, I am fighting the game about putting a wizard's staff down, and picking it(s shards) up again, for instance. Talk about railroading! 😅 I wholeheartedly believe that it will be good enough to go beyond text-based adventures: as you go on to say, it may well suit dialogue (which has been done with NFTs, with a lot of voice actors claiming they have not given consent to their voices being used for AI purposes), cities, and I particularly like the idea of enemies using tactics learned from playtesters and responding to the current player's ideas the longer they play. It's just a matter of when. That's a really good question, and I wish I could give you a better answer than the one I will. I hope others here can take the time to give their own perspectives, because it deserves to be discussed. My answer would be that it saves developers work. Need the art, mesh, lighting, particle effects, animation, programming and sounds to be designed for a city? Get the AI to do it, let them work on something else. Need authors, screenplay writers, storyboards, voice actors, directors, recording equipment? No need, get the AI to do it. I don't think it'll replace jobs, at least not immediately, because AI can and will go wrong and someone's got to come in and apply percussive maintenance (read: slapping it on the head like it's an old TV). The automation may help with game development... or it may just be in addition to the condition game developers are already working under.

I do. Much like Skylanders and co. they were played through a devices connected via USB, and they'd have mini-games and some overarching story. Each Funkey came with their own world and minigames I believe. I bought a load (all sealed) for £15, but it wasn't really worth it as the software to play it requires some reverse engineering to get going. Correct. I struggle to find any earlier examples of Toys to Life as we know them quite like U.B Funkeys. Until proven otherwise I say they're the first, and the Toys to Life genre enjoyed a nice holiday before Skylanders came along.

Ah OK. I think the build quality of Amiibo are exceptionally good so having them as nick nacks is nice, but I wouldn't pay the retail price just to buy a few in-game items with them.

SplitGate, or more specifically one mode in SplitGate: Flying Splitball. My mate and I currently have a win streak of... 12 games, I want to say? And even though it's on the casual queue SplitGate has a very sweaty playerbase; the times we're both able to play at are where the die-hard premades lurk. How about you @StaceyPowers? Any games you'd say "GG EZ" to on stage with a trophy in hand?

This is really it. There's very few esports players I've seen who are noticeably obese, likely because in order to have that sharper mind one can't rely solely on that Monster Energy sponsership. It requires plentiful exercise, good diet and remaining hydrated. Most sporting injuries come about in physically intensive activity, especially in contact sports. Esports players may be physically fit, but their training regimen isn't going to put them at long-term health risks like a rugby player might be, a game in which great body mass (and the issues that come with it) is required to play effectively. The only risks I can see are developing eye-strain for using a screen for so long, as well as repetitive strain injuries in the wrist onwards, but I reckon esports players are expected to take breaks between matches or tag each other out so they can take microbreaks. The UK's Health & Safety Executive page has some interesting ideas on what breaks should be taken and when in regards to visual display unit (VDU) work, and that could just as easily apply to games.

Given nurses in the UK make on average ~£34k a year for a significantly more stressful job, requires greater physical activity, and is - let's be honest - significantly more important... no, esports players are not underpaid by any stretch of the imagination. But what can really be done about it, if anything needs to be done about it? A lot of esports money will be generated from sponserships and advertising deals; the amount of teams kitted out in jerseys with Monster logos ironed on is innumerable, so it's got to go somewhere. Viewership and ticket prices will also generate their salary, with people paying to fill up seats at stadiums or with virtual/digital tickets. Merch in games being sold based on the teams playing the game from Overwatch to SplitGate will, again, get them a healthy cut and go towards hiring the venue to play. The only way I could see esports players being underpaid was if they couldn't afford to do their jobs, but if they can't afford to play video games on $75k per annum, what are they doing wrong?

I'm not familiar with Amiibo, so you'll have to tell me what the Amiibo added to the experience. Were they worth it?

I don't entirely disagree, but I think we're understating just how good and smooth Nintendo's first party games run. You'll not play a recent Mario game that ever dips under 60FPS and looks awful. I'd even go as far as to say Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS surpassed the GameCube's graphical fidelity. I won't go into every point I made in this post but I'm happy to discuss this further if anything new comes up! It's just a guess but probably heating issues. The Switch has already had a number of cases of overheating even before the UK's 2022 heatwave when Steam Deck buyers also received warnings about the system shutting down in high temperatures. Simply put, the more powerful hardware the more power needs to be drawn upon and that generates a lot of heat. In a system the size of the Switch with a single (but apparently very good) fan, it's going to struggle. Fortunately there are third party cooling solutions should that be a problem, but if it does get to the stage where it's a problem, contact the manufacturer and get it repaired (Nintendo are pretty good for free replacements). Other than that, my guess would be cost efficiency. The better the hardware the greater the cost for the end user, and given we've not got a Switch Pro yet it might be a sign that Nintendo don't see value in it. I'm sure there is value in a more powerful Nintendo console, but how many people will put their money where their mouth is and buy this more powerful console hybrid if it comes into fruition? And will it be enough to catch up to their competitors?