Media Videogame Thread

[Cancel cult]

history of the mario and luigi series (a mario rpg series):
superstar saga: the first game in the series and a great game
partners in time: the community is very divided, some say its great, some say its trash
bowsers inside story: widely considered to be the best in the series
dream team: fine, but has some major flaws
paper jam: had so much potential, but ended up being just ok
superstar saga remake: a good remake of a good game, needed to port the game onto newer consoles
bowsers inside story remake: a fine remake of a good game, but completely unnecesary, as the base game and the remake were on the same console, ended up bankrupting the company that made it

history of the paper mario series (a mario rpg series) (sorry if i get anything wrong, i dont play those games):
paper mario: the first game in the series and a great game
the thousand year door: widely considered to be the best in the series
super paper mario: the community is very divided, some say its great, some say its trash
colour splash: sub-par
sticker star:bad
origami king:ok
the thousand year door remake:

 

[Mr. Uncompetitive]

history of the mario and luigi series (a mario rpg series):
superstar saga: the first game in the series and a great game
partners in time: the community is very divided, some say its great, some say its trash
bowsers inside story: widely considered to be the best in the series
dream team: fine, but has some major flaws
paper jam: had so much potential, but ended up being just ok
superstar saga remake: a good remake of a good game, needed to port the game onto newer consoles
bowsers inside story remake: a fine remake of a good game, but completely unnecesary, as the base game and the remake were on the same console, ended up bankrupting the company that made it

history of the paper mario series (a mario rpg series) (sorry if i get anything wrong, i dont play those games):
paper mario: the first game in the series and a great game
the thousand year door: widely considered to be the best in the series
super paper mario: the community is very divided, some say its great, some say its trash
colour splash: sub-par
sticker star:bad
origami king:ok
the thousand year door remake:

Paper Mario is made by Intelligent Systems, the guys who prioritize Fire Emblem (a series that is doing the best it ever has) over Paper Mario, are also putting out a WarioWare game very soon, and have also been supporting other Nintendo projects for 40 years. No shot putting out mediocre Paper Mario games will bankrupt them as easily as AlphaDream did

 

[Brown4Sides]

abtibe else excited for the nMario Bros Wonder?

A little late here, but I'm glad you brought this up, as I wanted to take a minute to talk about Super Mario Bros. Wonder. I genuinely think that this could be the Super Mario Odyssey of 2D Mario. The game is not out yet, but from what we've seen so far, they've done pretty much EVERYTHING right.

I am someone that enjoyed New Super Mario Bros. U, even though people complained that the series had stagnated. But even though I liked that game, I still appreciate the extra effort to make sure Super Mario Bros. Wonder has its own identity. It fixes pretty much every problem that people had with the New Super Mario Bros. series. New art style? Check! Original music? Check! New levels that are more than just grassland/desert/ice/beach/mountain/jungle/clouds/volcano? Check! Bowser doesn't kidnap the princess this time? Check! No Koopalings? Probably!

And there is so much more. They're even going the extra mile to ensure that the gameplay is unique with the addition of Wonder Effects. This was a great idea that really allows levels to branch out and do things we'd never see otherwise. I love the rainbow bubbles and moving pipes, for instance. If I had to nitpick, I don't like the transformation style Wonder Effects, particularly the Goomba transformation. IMO, if it could be an item in 3D World, then it has no business being a Wonder Effect.

I kinda like the talking flowers as well. For one, it's actual voice acting in a Mario game other than "Lets-a-go," which is crazy. It's entirely possible that I'll get sick of them, but the addition of commentary in levels is a really nice touch that gives levels even more personality.

I also love the addition of badges! Having extra unlockable trinkets is really cool. A part of me wants to say that the vine badge should've just been a power-up, but I can see why it wasn't as it allows you to stack the vine with existing power-ups.

That's another thing: Power-ups! I feel like 2D Mario should have way more power-ups than what they actually have. When I say power-up, I mean the kind you get after acquiring a Super Mushroom, one that grants you additional powers, and lasts until you take damage or die. In New Super Mario Bros. U, the only "true" power-ups in my eyes are the Fire Flower, Ice Flower, and Acorn. The Super Star is a temporary thing, the Mini Mushroom is more of a power-down than a power-up, and the P-Acorn is essentially a cheat that you use to skip levels. So far, Super Mario Bros. Wonder has 4: The Fire Flower, the Elephant Fruit, the Bubble Flower, and the Drill Mushroom. And you know what? I'll take it! 4 is still better than 3. I do hope the Ice Flower returns at least.

We gotta talk about Bowser too. Anything that's not just "the princess is kidnapped again" is appreciated, even if what we got isn't sophisticated in the slightest. It's a Mario platformer, it's never about the plot, so all I really care about is that it's different from time to time, not that it's complicated. He essentially turns into an airship! I really hope we actually get to fight him in airship form, that would be cool.

Speaking of which, one last thing I wanna touch on is something we don't know a lot about: The boss battles. There is still room for this to go badly, especially if the Koopalings come back, but there is no sign of them, and it looks like Wonder Effects will take place during boss fights, which is a step in the right direction. My guess is Kamek will take generic enemies and apply Wonder Effects to them, and those will be the boss battles.

Overall, looking like a very strong game, and potentially a nominee for Game of the Year, even if there's no chance it would beat Baldur's Gate 3 or Tears of the Kingdom. I'm still not sure if this thread is just referring games that are already out and not upcoming ones, apologies if I got that wrong.

 

[yureion]

been playing Chrono Trigger (never played before, just always missed it as a kid, finally got it for DS now) and preordered [obv dropped tonight] Infinity Strash: Dragon Quest The Adventure of Dai,
still got Sea of Stars and Baten Kaitos waiting (September was a decent month for RPGs), wanna cop Legend of Nayuto too.

 

[Cancel cult]

Speaking of which, one last thing I wanna touch on is something we don't know a lot about: The boss battles. There is still room for this to go badly, especially if the Koopalings come back, but there is no sign of them, and it looks like Wonder Effects will take place during boss fights, which is a step in the right direction. My guess is Kamek will take generic enemies and apply Wonder Effects to them, and those will be the boss battles.

I actually quite like the koopalings, but I also understand people wanting new bosses. It is totally possible for both to happen though. new wii had 2 fights with the koopalings for each world, so you could easily substitute one of them for a new boss. or you could add the koopalings as a boss rush near the end. or, you could have the koopalings fight alongside the new bosses. there are plenty of options.

 

[Mr. Uncompetitive]

Video Game Topster trend is doing the rounds on Twitter, you can make one here if you want https://topsters.org/

Here's mine. Most people are doing a 5x5 Top 25, but I found it impossible to fit everything I wanted to so I did a Top 30 and still struggled a bit xd

Honorable Mentions: Chrono Trigger, Kirby Canvas Curse, Elevator Action Returns, Shin Megami Tensei Synchronicity Prologue, Yu-Gi-Oh Master Duel, Fire Emblem Sacred Stones, Fire Emblem Awakening, Tech Romancer, p much every other Pokemon game lol (namely HGSS)

 

[bdt2002]

(Update: This post contains information about a hypothetical game that never existed. I give the moderators full permission to do whatever they want with this post if I was breaking any rules.)

Okay, here me out on this for a second: Mario Kart 7 Deluxe. Yes, you read that right. Not 8, but 7. And here's why I think this would have been a neat idea, even if this ends up feeling more like a joke post than anything.

This is the box art for Mario Kart 7 for the Nintendo 3DS. It's obviously a Nintendo 3DS game so it's obviously going to have the Nintendo 3DS label on it. Pretty common knowledge, so what's the problem here? The problem as I see it comes down to release dates of consoles and their respective games. People love to mention how it's been since 2014 that we've gotten a truly original main series Mario Kart installment, and while that's still true, I find it even funnier that you have to go back three more years to 2011 to find the last original main series Mario Kart installment for a handheld system. Largely on account of the Wii U console's financial failures, 2017 would end up giving us Mario Kart 8 Deluxe instead of a hypothetical Mario Kart 9, a game that's gained more attention in the past year and a half thanks to the Booster Course Pass DLC releasing a whole five years after the base game.

I continue to believe the Booster Course Pass releasing in 2022 (or heck, any Mario Kart stuff in general) specifically had significance since that was the year Super Mario Kart would have turned 30 years old. And while the more likely reason they made it was so they could more or less port Mario Kart Tour onto the Nintendo Switch, I think there was a different way Nintendo could have handled those retro courses while still allowing Tour to have its time in the spotlight. Nintendo 3DS fans might remember how there were technically two different 3DS systems, the original ones and the so-called "New" ones that had Amiibo support and a few other things. The thing was, "New" 3DS systems did actually have the ability to play a select few games that the base 3DS couldn't such as the worst version of Minecraft lmao, and while I understand "New Nintendo 3DS" specific games never really took off, I do think a sort of "Mario Kart 7 follow-up game" could have been one of the more successful ones. So essentially, instead of this:

Late 2011: Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
Mid-2014: Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)
Early 2017: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (Switch)
Late 2019: Mario Kart Tour (Mobile devices)
Early 2022: Booster Course Pass DLC (Switch)

We could have gotten something like this:

Late 2011: Mario Kart 7 (3DS)
Mid-2014: Mario Kart 8 (Wii U)
Note that the Wii U's own DLC still could have happened since different companies made 7 and 8 respectively
Most likely Early 2016: Mario Kart 7 Deluxe ("New" 3DS exclusive)
2019 through 2022: Mario Kart 9 & Mario Kart Tour, featuring 30th Anniversary themed DLC on Switch

It's not a perfect solution to some of Mario Kart's inconsistencies, and I understand 7 Deluxe technically wouldn't have fixed the whole "first original handheld game since 2011" factor, but I also don't see why many of the BCP courses couldn't have been in 7 Deluxe instead of 8 Deluxe and/or Tour. Base game 7's extreme lack of GBA courses (outside of GBA Bowser Castle 1) especially would have appreciated this change, while other courses people wanted in the BCP (such as DS Airship Fortress) were already in base game 7 anyways. In the long run, this means more people would have been more likely to get their favorite course(s) returning to the series, while Nintendo also would benefit from having been able to spend more time in 2019 and 2022 focusing on new, original Mario Kart content via both 9 and Tour while saving the massive 30th anniversary content for 2022 regardless of how they went about things. Heck, they could still include the Tour content in the 2022 DLC just like they did in real life.

 

[earl]

nintendo would literally collapse before they leave a console mario kart-less for 6 years

 

[ChaosNinjaGaming]

Me and my dad are pretty hyped for Mario Wonder. Me and him sometimes play some Mario together to some interesting results (such as accidentally screwing each other over). Wonder specifically looks like a good step in a new direction, with a lot more new things than the "New" games had.

 

[yureion]

i remember as a super small kid my parents got the house a snes, i think i got the bugs bunny bday game, forgot what my mom got, and my dad got super mario bros (the one with mario in the fire outfit on the cover).
i grew up more a wrestling game and rpg kid, it wasnt honestly till 3ds and switch (cus i honestly only had playstation 2/3 and gameboy adv sp till then) i really came back to mario myself.

side fun fact: my mom never really got into any video game i had as a kid but Sonic Pinball?? She LOVED it lmao.

 

[Cancel cult]

for those of you who think that the penguin is the worst mob in the mob vote, keep in mind that ice boating is one of the fastest ways to travel.

 

[Karxrida]

Just beat the final Career Mode map in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 Complete Edition. (Game was on sale a few weeks ago.) Full disclosure that I abused cheat codes, but my goal was largely to see every map I wasn't able to reach as a kid. I did beat some harder missions legit, at least.

While the game is fun, the UI has issues with small text/icons for modern displays (legit hurts my eyes) and a seeming lack of shortcut keys. Most annoyingly, Escape prompts if you want to close the game instead of opening a menu or backing out of other menus. I didn't mind the aged presentation that much considering it's a 6th gen 3D game on PC, but there were still minor graphical issues and occasional fps drops somehow.

Career mode was decently varied, but the Wild! expansion had missions that kill the pacing. The objectives that asked you to sell animals for a profit either require you to sit on your ass and wait for the critters to breed or slowly buy and resell animals after they get healthy enough. Both options are incredibly tedious and require little input compared to figuring out how to maximize ride profit. As an aside, the Wild! expansion feels kind of tertiary to the main point of the game (make a theme park), especially compared to Soaked and its water features being a more logical extension of the base package.

Overall a fun revisit of a childhood game, but Planet Coaster is apparently just better. I'd probably recommend that unless RTC3 is on sale.

 

[yureion]

totally forgot i owned the Ni No Kuni games and was like "I really think you're the next play" (gifts from my sister)

 

[Cancel cult]

i want getting over it with gordon ramsey, where instead of being met with motivational quotes when you fall, you are met with gordon ramsey swearing at you

 

[yureion]

recently got into the star ocean franchise a bit [ill be first to admit i stan square enix lmaooo] - still a newb to em but been really enjoying playing the first one on switch and setting up for the second one remake that just came out.

 

[Sugarbear]

Has anyone played Sea of Stars yet? Thinking of picking up the switch version as it’s had good reviews and I fancy a new rpg.

 

[yureion]

Has anyone played Sea of Stars yet? Thinking of picking up the switch version as it’s had good reviews and I fancy a new rpg.

only played a lil and got distracted cus life/fam happenings (loved it, will restart when i go back) i legit havent seen it get a bad review tbh i cant wait to fall back into it.
love the art and characters from the time i played, reminds me of younger me lowkey restarting FFX over and over so I dont beat it lol. *edit* i also got into blitzball hard on that game, always had a seperate save for my blitzballing lol

 

[Ironmage]

I got a weird train of thought about SMRPG: the story feels dated.

The entire setup is an invasion by more traditional weapons onto the Mario world, and the remake arguably goes further in that direction by having any members of the Smithy Gang exempt from the curtain call and post-game fights. At some level, it appears to be an attempt to keep the game form being "corrupted" by the trappings of its genre and Square's usual fare. The idea that Mario with a sword would lose the zany appeal of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Now I can't really blame Square for not anticipating the future. What happened afterwards blindsided pretty much everybody. But between the original SMRPG and its remake, we got a game that jumped straight to Peach with a shotgun that is, if anything, less sane than your average Mario game (Wonder is currently still an outlier itself). After which, it kind of feels like the entire framing of swords, etc. being incompatible with the charming nonsense of Mario falls apart.

Feel free to question my own sanity about this.

 

[yureion]

I got a weird train of thought about SMRPG: the story feels dated.

The entire setup is an invasion by more traditional weapons onto the Mario world, and the remake arguably goes further in that direction by having any members of the Smithy Gang exempt from the curtain call and post-game fights. At some level, it appears to be an attempt to keep the game form being "corrupted" by the trappings of its genre and Square's usual fare. The idea that Mario with a sword would lose the zany appeal of the Mushroom Kingdom.

Now I can't really blame Square for not anticipating the future. What happened afterwards blindsided pretty much everybody. But between the original SMRPG and its remake, we got a game that jumped straight to Peach with a shotgun that is, if anything, less sane than your average Mario game (Wonder is currently still an outlier itself). After which, it kind of feels like the entire framing of swords, etc. being incompatible with the charming nonsense of Mario falls apart.

Feel free to question my own sanity about this.

To be fair SMRPG is what I've been playing lately and been really enjoying it - never played it as a kid so I just wanted to see what all my friends glowed over for so long and while I'm not that deep right now I have kinda enjoyed it's simplicity. It being such a faithful remake is endearing to the nostalgia/memories of childhood. I think SMRPG and their games (much like the Rabbids ones) are their own lil realm, love or leave em. I personally have enjoyed both.
Also think it's awesome Square had a hand in it (a thing I never knew cus I mean... didn't even really think about the game outside casual glowing convo from friends cus I never played it - once the remake dropped I was like ooo here's my chance. I'm not mad taking it haha.

Feeling dated wise they clearly wanted to stay faithful and just refurbish the game a bit cosmetically, game is like 27 years old right? I'm sure when the game was made back then it was like "How much elements of the super deep RPG/etc system can we add while still having to factor in the mario-isms?" - Tera/Cloud/Squall/Zidane etc wasn't doing platform elements in final fantasy haha



Side unrelated to OG post note: When I do beat Super Mario RPG next game up is Dragon Warrior Monsters: The Dark Prince (really looking forward to that).
Dragon Quest is my favorite game series for one and I remember having that Dragon Quest Warrior Monsters game for gameboy back in the day and as much as it confused me a times I always came back like "I gotta figure this out cus I like the game so much" lol.

 

[ant4456]

Played Spider Man Miles Morales

Great game, 8/10. I know people are starting to say oh the series is "slop", but they're just really high quality games? Also, they are more gameplay focused than some like to suggest.

I don't like SMRPG. I think it's the weakest Mario RPG.

 

[Amaranth]

2023 is coming to an end and I am following up on past years (2020 2021 2022) with another Long Summary Post.

So, at the end of 2022, I felt like I hadn't played enough new games throughout the year. I definitely remedied that in 2023 by playing through 20 new games, which I'm very happy about.

It has also been a fantastic year for me as a creator/developer/whatever-term-you-want in videogaming: I've been hired to work as junior QA on actual, serious, actually-backed-by-some-kind-of-budget videogame Islands of Insight, which is fucking amazing and releasing February 2024, and I have made big strides on the passion project I am making with a friend, The Specter's Desire, which is now halfway through production and should finish up in 2024 as well.

Shilling aside; I have 20 whole games to talk about so let's get to it.
I am separating videogames with a very heavy focus on narrative and very light gameplay in a section of their own, since they are a bit different than the others. I will also be splitting the games in chunks to make this post less tall and more readable

Videogames I have played in 2023 (chronological order)

Games 1-5

The Looker is a short parody game of The Witness. It is very funny, and anyone who's fairly familiar with The Witness should give it a shot. Quality humor. 8.5/10

14 Minesweeper Variants takes the unfortunate title of game I least enjoyed this year. Which is a bit surprising, because I am a fiend of Minesweeper, but the full-black visual theme is very unstimulating, and in general the rate of tedium to enjoyable eureka moments was far too skewed in a bad way for my tastes. In general, I think Minesweeper is far more interesting as a test of pattern recognition than as a pure puzzling experience, and this game tries to make it a pure puzzling experience, and it doesn't really click with me. With all of that said, it's not a bad game; I think my preexisting relationship with Minesweeper has soured my ability to enjoy it. 6.5/10

Linelith is a short 3-hour ish puzzle experience and it is amazing. I don't think there's a lot to be said; if you enjoy puzzles in general, you should play this game. No excuses. Do it. It's just an afternoon and it will be a fucking awesome one I promise you. 9.5/10

Bug Fables: The Everlasting Sapling is a game heavily inspired by the classic Paper Mario games (64 and The Thousand Years Door). I don't think it reaches those heights, but it sure gets close. Bug Fables is a game that understands why the formula works; it doesn't change the formula and it does not need to, because the formula of 64 and TTYD is something very unique that has not been replicated successfully many times at all, so the game does not feel old. The most important quality of old Paper Mario games is their vibrancy, and Bug Fables is good at replicating it. It's colorful, it's full of details, it makes you excited every time you turn a new corner of the map. I don't think the execution is flawless and I don't think this game is better than TTYD, but if you've already turned TTYD front to back several times, then you should check this out. 8.5/10

Slay the Spire is a game I'd played before, quite a lot even, but I had hit a difficulty wall and dropped it for a long time, and I only came back to properly beat it on the hardest difficulties in 2023. Eternal classic of card game roguelikes, you know games are special when they spawn dozens of knockoffs. Monster Train imo was a really good take on the genre, but I'm still looking for the Spire-like that takes things to the next level. Until then, Spire remains king. 8.5/10

Games 6-10

TUNIC is certainly an interesting game. I am a complete sucker for conlang / language learning games and this scratched that itch some, but this is ultimately an isometric adventure/exploration game above all, with the language and the combat being big elements that play into it but neither being the true core focus. I think both of these aspects suffer from this; the blend is executed fairly well but they still end up fighting each other for space pretty often and neither is pulled off irresistibly well in the end. Still, this is a game with a ridiculous amount of good, original ideas, and it's worth playing for that alone. 8/10 but I think most people should try this out

Neon White is everything I ever wanted as a speedrunner and enjoyer of first person 3D environments. I dumped 330 hours into this game, it would be mildly concerning if it wasn't such a fucking blast. If you have the speedrunning bug in your brain in any shape or form, and you are prepared to have your soul sucked away for months by a new obsession, buy Neon White. 9.5/10

Potionomics is a couple of balance tweaks away from being completely awesome, but unfortunately it is far too easy to snowball out of control and then all tension is lost and you feel like you're wasting your time bc there's no challenge anymore. There is a lot to love, it's rather charming and the way it mixes its mechanics together is very original, but it's far too easy for balancing issues to sour your whole experience, so I cannot in good conscience give too good of a review. 7/10

Cassette Beasts is an interesting take on monster collecting. It gets a lot of things very right, and I won't go in depth because I think it's better for people to discover those things organically, but I think it suffers from the 'early Pokémon games' issue where optimizing your team is a bit of a pain. I don't think they necessarily intend for you to be able to optimize much, but that in itself is - for my preferences - a drawback. I also found the writing to be pretty whatever. If you don't mind these potential issues, and you're looking for a monster collector game, Cassette Beasts might be the game for you. 7.5/10

Inscryption... sigh. Inscryption, Inscryption, Inscryption. Why are you like this, Daniel Mullins? Why is your worldbuilding always so charming, but so violently incomeplete? Pony Island, then The Hex, then Inscryption, and inevitably I'm sure the upcoming Pony Island 2. An early game that draws me in and makes me ask dozens of questions, and a lategame where absolutely none of these questions are answered. It built up my expectations so much through the early-midgame, and let them down tremendously. It's undeniably a very cool game, but I cannot say I walked away from it feeling satisfied. Very frustrating. 7/10

Games 11-14

Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles is another Slay the Spire-like. It's very very cool but incidentally I've hit a similar kind of wall to when I played Slay the Spire for the first time years ago - simply put, I started losing a lot and it eventually drained my motivation. The game is great, and I'm sure - much like I did this year with Spire - at some point in the future I'll return to this game to properly play it to completion. Definitely solid value for money, and definitely one of the best Spirelikes I'm aware of. 8/10

Monster Sanctuary is probably the best monster collector I've ran into over the years other than Pokémon. Learning the combat systems and building good teams is both challenging and rewarding, and the game is complete with tough endgame challenges that really test your mettle. Every single monster has a niche, which is phenomenally impressive, and the fact that a relatively obscure game still has a small but active PvP community 3 years after release is a huge testament to how good of a job the developers did here. Very excited for their upcoming game Aethermancer, these guys know what they're doing. 9/10

The Talos Principle 2 I waited 8 years for this!!! Finally!!! Holy fuck yes!!! Absolutely mandatory experience for anyone who's happy to engage with moral dilemmas and philosophy-driven plots. It's also just mouth-agape levels of beautiful. I have a few nitpicks to make (the puzzles themselves aren't all that crazy) but the positives outweigh the negatives by such a ridiculous amount that I have to give this game an easy 10/10

Final Profit: A Shop RPG is a very charming game. It may be a bit jarring on the surface but once you click with the tone and the humor of this game it will take you for a ride. And it's not all laughs - it has one of the best implemented morality systems I've ever seen in any videogame, which is fucking absurd for a game that is self-published by a solo developer, and genuinely emotional moments in places. I'm not going to pretend like it isn't a bit rough around the edges - it is solo developed and self-published after all - but there is plenty to love here. 8.5/10

The Narrative-Heavy section

Games 15-20

Critters for Sale is a ridiculous, absurdist point and click / visual novel hybrid that somehow manages to keep a consistent tone as it takes you through vastly different moments in space and time. If you are willing to get a bit kooky and cryptic you should check this game out and let it take you for a ride. 8.5/10

Strange Horticulture is a game with a vaguely Papers Please-esque progression system, but instead of checking passports you run a herborist shop. It's fun, it has genuinely good plot and puzzles, but I have to say it didn't 'hit' me that hard and I feel like the game could have used more incisive writing to really make the consequences of your decisions stick on an emotional level. A decently good time, I'd give it a shot if you find it on sale and it sounds like your thing. 7.5/10

How Fish is Made is a celebration of the revolting and visceral, done tastefully. Bad enough to make you uncomfortable, but never resorting to outright shock value. It's a game that asks the big questions. It lasts 30 minutes but the things it evokes are so very powerful. 9.5/10

The Case of the Golden Idol is a point-and-click investigation type game. I gave it a shot due to positive reviews and comparisons to one of my favorite games ever (The Return of the Obra Dinn) despite not being impressed with the general presentation of this game. I maintain that I find the visual presentation here generally unappealing, but nonetheless it was a pretty good time solving mysteries, and a lot of cool stuff is pulled off here, though I won't share details for spoiler reasons. I think I have to set my bias against the artstyle aside and give this game an 8.5/10

IMMORTALITY, holy fuck. I think it ever so slightly suffers from being a touch too cryptic, but it's a very deep, mature, and powerful experience. Masterpiece. 9.5/10

The Forgotten City, is honestly looking back really enjoyable. There are some issues with the execution but when I think about it as a whole, this game is just cool as hell. Quite possibly my favorite entry in the 'time loop mystery solving' category yet, and that's a genre with fierce competition. I'm not really going to spoil anything - if the setting looks cool to you, and you generally enjoy investigation games, then you should definitely give this one a chance. 9/10

Boy this was a good year. Lots of hits. Thanks for reading any or maybe all of this.

Things I'm very excited to get around to in 2024:
(unreleased games)
Balatro
Hades II
Aethermancer
Windblown
The Rise of the Golden Idol
Read Only Memories: NEURODIVER
(games that are already released, just need to play em)
Pikmin 4
13 Sentinels
Not For Broadcast
The Roottrees Are Dead
Paquerette Down the Bunburrows
Chants of Sennaar
BOOK OF HOURS
Void Stranger

 

[Le'Depression]

ok so among a few games i got myself for christmas on steam one of them was hollow knight, i had played it before briefly on an uncles nintendo switch but all i ever did then was immediately fall into the well not having played through the tutorial and get absolutely screwed over in the forgotten crossroads

now that i'm playing it myself and i've actually taken the tutorial stuffs to heart i can say this videogame might be one of the ones i've been enjoying the most as of recent times!

progressing has been difficult and a little frustrating when coming across some enemies for the first time (e.g. the long guys with the shields found in the fungal wastes, i got jumped by 2 of them trying to mine geo >:c) but finally getting past them has been extremely satisfying as was being able to buy out the whole map shop after (or at least what i assume to be the early game version of it)

while the music in the forgotten crossroads and beyond always scares me into thinking immense danger is just around the corner at times it is among one of the best vg soundtracks i've heard this year

that is all i have to share for now

 

[yureion]

i got Lies of P for myself to play after i finish Super Mario RPG and I been really excited to dive in. Seems a "me game" lmao

 

[bdt2002]

I may have already posted about this once before so I apologize if that was the case, but either way I feel the need to bring this up. Has anyone else recently felt the urge to keep following what's going on in the gaming industry without actually playing the games themselves? I'm at a point in my life where some of the games I play I've only stayed interested in because I felt obligated to keep playing out of fear of disappointing my friends or family. This on its own wouldn't be anything new for me, but as a young adult I've also started experiencing a pretty bad case of what I call "price anxiety" that seems par for the course for people around my age. In spite of this, I found that I'm enjoying the idea branching out into newer games and/or series I've never played before. The question at this point becomes, how can someone in my shoes try and retain my interest while staying financially stable amongst rising price points for software and hardware and try and appreciate unfamiliar games while still enjoying my old favorites all at the same time?

For a long time I didn't really have an answer. And then I realized something. I, a younger individual who has no interest in blowing holes into my wallet, can still experience watching other people play and review whatever games I want without actually having to quote "waste" my limited time, money, and energy playing something that I'm not certain I'd enjoy as much as what I grew up playing. I've gone on record in my friend groups multiple times saying I have no interest in buying a new PS5, a new Xbox, or a new PC- but that doesn't mean I won't still enjoy watching them play on theirs. But what about, say, my Switch or my PS4? Or older systems, too? Same story, different hardware- I may hop on every now and then just because I'm that bored, but by and large, when Let's Plays, livestreams, et cetera are at my immediate disposal on my phone and my laptop anyways, it quickly becomes apparent to me that I can save myself a ton of time and money I would benefit more from placing towards starting the rest of my life as an adult.

I mean, just think about it. The combination of a single $60-$70 U.S.D game, the cost of online subscriptions that are becoming increasingly mandatory to have to enjoy games to the fullest, and any other supplies I may need (controllers, adapters, stuff like that), adds up faster than one would think. That list right there could probably help me towards other things that are more important for me right now, for the same amount of money. Groceries, gas for my car, bill payments I'll eventually need to make once I have a place of my own, stuff like that. What I want to know is if I'm the only one who feels like video games are feeling like an unnecessary burden. I worry that when my infant nephew is older and he inevitably wants to try video games for the first time, everything's going to just keep getting more expensive, larger, and longer. What I didn't expect is for me to have the same worries for myself that I also have for his own childhood.

 

[doipy hooves]

I may have already posted about this once before so I apologize if that was the case, but either way I feel the need to bring this up. Has anyone else recently felt the urge to keep following what's going on in the gaming industry without actually playing the games themselves? I'm at a point in my life where some of the games I play I've only stayed interested in because I felt obligated to keep playing out of fear of disappointing my friends or family. This on its own wouldn't be anything new for me, but as a young adult I've also started experiencing a pretty bad case of what I call "price anxiety" that seems par for the course for people around my age. In spite of this, I found that I'm enjoying the idea branching out into newer games and/or series I've never played before. The question at this point becomes, how can someone in my shoes try and retain my interest while staying financially stable amongst rising price points for software and hardware and try and appreciate unfamiliar games while still enjoying my old favorites all at the same time?

I think this is how lots of people experience games by watching playthroughs and there's nothing wrong with that. The jokes about fans talking about games they haven't played are pretty true to life though.
https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/huge-earthbound-fan-excited-play-first-time/