HeroponRiki

Steins;Gate 0 is fantastic, but the anime for it is very well done and tells the same story, so honestly I find it a bit hard to recommend the visual novel since there is no player agency and the format doesn't really add anything. Same thing applies to the original Steins;Gate for that matter.

Assuming we're only counting full retail games, I think the very awful Switch port of Neverwinter Nights deserves mention. I guess the underlying game being good somewhat saves it but it's still one of the worst ports I've ever seen.

Kind of disappointing, but in my opinion the Xenoblade games are a massive improvement and this project getting canned likely paved the way for Xenoblade Definitive Edition, so I'm not too upset.

This game really makes you FEEL like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate is a Switch exclusive Monster Hunter game, and a damn good one at that for those looking for Monster Hunter on the Switch. It also goes on sale pretty frequently so subjecting yourself to a watered down, online only, poorly optimized, microtransaction riddled version of Monster Hunter is really not worth it.

Pretty good list honestly, better than I'd expect from a non-gaming magazine. If you replace Portal 2 and Disco Elysium with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Undertale, this serves as a pretty good cross-section of the different types of games people have been playing for the past decade.

@Passive_Mewtwo To be fair, I haven't played on showdown since the baton pass/Dugtrio bans, so I have no experience actually playing with them. But if Ditto transforming into dynamaxed pokemon or Gyarados specifically being overly good (I don't really understand this, does it get an OP gigantamax form or something?) are problems it makes more sense to suspect test those two pokemon, and not ban an entire mechanic. Back when Mega Evolutions were introduced, stuff like Mega Rayquaza and to a lesser extent Mega Kangaskhan were patently absurd, but they banned those pokemon, not the game mechanic itself. Dynamax has the same effect for all pokemon aside from a few gigantamax forms if I'm not mistaken- your example is actually kind of proving my point. Magikarp doesn't suddenly become good because it can dynamax; it doesn't upset the balance when it's something every pokemon can do. In edge cases like a broken Gigantamax form, you can ban that specific Gigantamax form.

Dynamax being powerful isn't a reason to ban it when it's a central mechanic. That's like banning super effective moves because they're too powerful. It's just part of the strategy when you want to drop that nuke and get those "free" kills. Which again, I haven't played in this meta but I very much doubt the kills are completely free. Your strategy for how to minimize the damage your opponent gets by using substitute/protect or switching into resistances or tanks is also part of the core game mechanics. It's different sure, previous pokemon games didn't require you to always have a plan ready if you suddenly need to stall for three turns, but it's not inherently bad.

Finally, as for Dugtrio being "OP" and not having counter-play... that's just flat out wrong. Items like Air Balloon or Shed Shell can be used for pokemon like Heatran that are especially vulnerable, you can use moves like baton pass (you know, if they hadn't banned that too) and U-turn, avoid using pokemon with low defense and speed that are weak to ground, or just accept the revenge kill and then gain initiative on your opponent the next turn when they have to switch out Dugtrio because it's weak as hell at everything except it's specific role. If, instead of banning all trapping abilities, they allowed them and let the meta evolve around them we could have had a very different and more interesting meta. It's very similar to Stealth Rock in Gen 4 where yes it's powerful but instead of banning it they let the meta evolve around setting up and dealing with entry hazards, and pokemon that were weak to stealth rock were just considered pokemon that couldn't keep up in the meta and ended up in lower tiers.

I understand banning things that are clearly problematic- obviously speed boost Blaziken and Mega Rayquaza are busted. But I gave up on Smogon back when they banned Dugtrio, a pokemon so blatantly not overpowered and only useful for a specific role that it came down more to them disliking its playstyle. Then they banned baton pass teams (in a ban with complex, specific rules no less which they previously said they were against), which again had plenty of counters and ways to play around, but went against their specific idea of how pokemon should be played. Smogon really irritates me. Dynamaxing doesn't really hurt or overcentralize the game balance since any pokemon can do it and it only lasts a limited time. It just goes against their specific idea of how the game should be played.

The most ironic thing is that dynamaxing provides an additional potential counter to Dugtrio's revenge killing and baton pass chains, and by extension revenge killing with trapping abilities or baton passing to a different pokemon could serve as ways to deal with dynamax. It would be much better to let the metagame evolve first before making snap decisions.

@JasmineDragon Yes, I think the game crashes more frequently if you play on Large or Huge Map settings so that may be why some people don't experience too many. For me it crashes consistently at a rate of around once every 5 hours if I try to play above standard size, and sometimes gets stuck at a point where a game will crash almost every turn or two forcing you to abandon the save.

Breath of the Wild, Super Smash Bros Ultimate, Xenoblade Chronicles, Xenoblade Chronicles X, Fire Emblem Three Houses and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are all strong contenders for me. It's hard to pick one... but thankfully I don't have to since I can just rate all of them a 10.

Wondering if the other random crashes that are prevalent in this game are resolved. My guess would be no.

The victory screen crash is indeed fixed now. Not sure if the other crashing issues are any better, but I'm too irritated with this game to put in another 20 hour run to test it right now. I think I need a long break from it.

I bought this because I was enjoying Baldur's Gate on the Switch. Was really disappointed at the poor porting job, especially since from playing it I can tell it's a fantastic game beneath all the mess. Here's hoping for patches like Pillars of Eternity got.

Seemed like a weird choice to me actually. Luigi's Mansion 3 is good, don't get me wrong, but Mario Maker 2 and Smash Ultimate seem like better games for playing with your family. Luigi's Mansion 3 is mostly singleplayer or 2 player, with some tacked on modes for more than that.

What happened to the live stream page?

@hitscan85 From what I've seen, no, but the PS4 and Xbox One version have their own SEPARATE flavor of game breaking bugs. If you can get this game on PC, get it, if you don't have a good PC, just don't bother.

They better unlock the rest of the characters before they roll it around to kids. They deserve better than just the starting roster.

The only ones that really interest me are One Strike and Wreckin Ball Adventure. Guess that means I can break the chain early.

As for the "declare war" workaround, I declared war on all other civs before the victory and it did nothing. That fix only works for crashes caused by AI behavior, not the victory condition crash (or the numerous random crashes that tend to happen on larger maps for that matter.)

@cyrus_zuo

That is not true. I've no doubt there are separate issues caused by loading an old save, but the victory crash is present in new games started after the update, and in fact only started appearing after the update.

These sound like really fun additions. Can't wait to mess around with them!

You're definitely gonna want Amped form. Gear Shift is one of the best set-up moves in the game while magnetic flux is useless because you'll want Punk Rock or Technician as your ability over Minus.

Would have liked to see Fire Emblem: Three Houses nominated for Game of the Year, but I guess it lacks the wide appeal of the other games. It's still Game of the Year in my heart.

I thought the trailer was pretty amusing. I mean it probably is a very basic, shallow game but as a cheap novelty that's not a bad thing.

I know people are saying the reviewer probably just doesn't know what they're talking about with regard to pacing issues but... I gotta agree that there's no way they can keep a game of high stakes werewolf interesting for 50 hours. That sounds seriously padded.

This list is nonsensical. Platinum near the top of the list while Diamond and Pearl are at the bottom, despite being basically the same game? Ultra Sun and Moon significantly lower than Sun and Moon, when it's an enhanced version of them? It's not even a difference in opinion, these rankings just don't make sense.

Anyone know if Jeritza has supports? I'm kinda disappointed about Anna not having any but Jeritza I'm genuinely curious to know more about.

Played all of these games. Azran Legacy is my personal favorite, largely because the Daily Puzzles are so fantastic that it came down to it and Miracle Mask. Unwound Future has the best story though.

Layton's Mystery Journey is bad, and unfortunately I don't think the series will ever be the same without Akira Tago.

Wait, The Witcher is based on a book?

Where's Luigi's Mansion 3?

But what does it do in the TCG?

I'm glad they're listening to criticism. It's already too late to fix Sword and Shield, but it could pave the way for Gen 9 being the best pokemon games yet.

I see people are finally getting around to playing the Blue Lions route.

Fatal Frame 5 had some of the best atmosphere I've ever seen in a horror game, but suffered from being too long and featuring excessive backtracking. I feel like a Fatal Frame 6 has great potential though.

Dorothea is only at the top spot because Gatekeeper isn't recruitable.

I fail to see the point of playing this game at all. It's significantly worse than Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in virtually every regard, including price if you actually want the full game with all of the characters and karts. The only justification for playing this game would be not having a Switch, a Wii U, or a 3DS for Mario Kart 7. Which, I guess is the point, to offer an inferior version of the product for "free" to get people interested in the good stuff, but still.

Already logged over 400 hours just in the vanilla game, so I'm hype for this!

So in other words, don't buy this under any circumstances.

The horrible frame rate put me off when playing the demo. The game is so choppy that it's near unplayable at points. The frame rate issues are even present in the trailers, so it clearly hasn't been fixed.

Can't wait to listen to the soundtrack for this game but never play it.

The game list for the SNES Classic was much better than this tbh. But at least it has the big three of Zelda, Mario and Metroid.

One of the only companies in the world with integrity

Isn't this just Mario Kart 8 but worse and with microtransactions?

I'm just glad to see a company actually using the right size game card instead of releasing a "physical" game you still have to download. Speaking of which, my Switch SD Card is already bursting at the seams so physical for me.

@joey302 What is this happy world you live in where you don't know what a loot box is? Can I come?

The gimmick of having to read aloud quickly while keeping an eye out for monsters actually sounds kind of neat, but the Switch version looks like a fairly generic FNAF clone without it...

I have played for over 80 hours and I didn't know the loading screen was a motion control minigame.

I don't see a game being too difficult as necessarily a bad thing since for some players that might be exactly what they want.

...I am not one of those players though so I think I'll stick to the more manageable puzzle games.

Sounds great but don't buy this day one. Trine games go on sale very frequently.

This could have been a neat concept as a Wii U game of all things honestly. One player has the gamepad and can see everything, guiding a blind player on the TV screen.