Comments 917

Re: Stunning Zelda-Like 'Eastward' Plants New Farm-Sim DLC This Winter

Kang81

@Friendly

I couldn't stick with it, if I recall, I had about 3 combat experiences and perhaps the same amount of puzzle experiences in the entire first town before heading out do the next area.

I don't recall how long I played it for, but for how the game was advertised, yea, it is nothing like a top down Zelda. If anything, I'd call it a visual novel with a top down perspective for about 95% of all the time I spent in the starter town.

If the story was the slightest bit interesting I could have continued, but it wasn't. Eastward is a beautiful looking game, but that's about the only positive I can say about it. Such a disappointment. I'm just glad I borrowed it from my brother first and didn't end up buying it.

Re: Nintendo Direct June 2023 - Every Announcement And Game Reveal

Kang81

Luigi's Mansion 2? That's awesome!

Still no Twilight Princess or Wind Waker ports? Ugh

I guess I'll just go back to playing them on my Steam Deck then.

I'll probably give the Mario RPG remake a rental, shouldn't take long to beat.

I'll just play the MGS3 remake, it's the only one of the 3 I really enjoy. Unless they added Twin Snakes, but that'll never happen.

As for the rest...meh.

Bring on the Switch 2 already.

Re: Yep, There's A Metroidvania Inspired By 'A Christmas Carol' And It's Out In November

Kang81

I played the demo for it on my Steam Deck, it was a lot of fun. It was rather challenging as far as Metroidvania’s go that aren't aping the whole Souls-like designs.

The gameplay was smooth, visually it looked great, and while I'm not generally one to notice framerate drops unless they're pretty big, I don't recall experiencing anything like that. In fact, I dont recall even running into any bugs, although I could have just been lucky.

I'm looking forward to this since so many of the upcoming Metroidvania releases I've been watching are a long ways off, or still unknown. Too many if them have also been re ealed over time to be trying to incorporate the souls mechanics. Too many games in general are doing so.

I just watched a video by a YouTube creator I subscribe to, who focuses on indie game news, where the video talked solely about 22 upcoming Souls-like indie games. A good portion of them where metroidvanias too. That's far too many, in my opinion, espexially considering we've had about a half dozen Souls-like games more along the lines of a AA or AAA game released in the past year or two. As usually, everyone is following trends like crazy.

Far too many games are striving to be a Souls-like, Roguelike/Light, or Live Service game. It's akin to how every game supposedly needed a PvP multi-player mode tacked on during the Xbox 360 generation, or how so many games over the past decade are going for the open-world design, because it's popular.

Funny enough, an article I read the other day claims I sidereal information revealed that Microsoft wants the next Gears of War game to be open-world world because in their words..."it's what's popular these days." 🤦‍♂️

Re: Paper Mario-Inspired 'Born Of Bread' Demo Now Available On Switch eShop

Kang81

I played this on the Steam Deck about a month ago, and I really enjoyed.

I know Bug Fables gets all the talk of being the best Paper Mario style game in years, but from what I've played of Born of Bread, I feel it is closer to the feel of a Paper Mario than Bug Fables.

I'm really looking forward to its full release, and I hope the full game is as good as the demo.

Re: Round Up: The First Impressions Of Red Dead Redemption Are In (Switch)

Kang81

@Stamina_Wheel

The porting developers getting paid are not the problem, and nobody is saying they should not be paid. They are getting paid regardless of the the price Rockstar has chosen. They'd be paid if Rockstar charged $20 or $100.

The problem is Rockstar asking nearly the price of a modern day game for a straight port of a 13 year old game. Rockstar absolutely should be criticized for this.

The amount of work put into porting it is in no way comparable to the work put into creating it, which is just $10 shy of the asking price of the original in its Game of the Year edition.

If you or anybody else feels ok paying that price, by all means go ahead and buy it. But it just helps set a bad precedent for re-releasing games with little work done to improve them for full price, or darn close.

That doesn't mean the release will be or should be free of criticism for its absurd price. Especially when games are being released for almost the same price, but are in fact actual full on remakes, like Dead Space, all of the Resident Evil games, or Final Fantasy 7.

Red Dead Redemption is justifiably being criticized for what it is.

Re: Sea Of Stars 'Making Of' Documentary Is The Perfect Primer Ahead Of Release

Kang81

I'll watch this tonight. After completing the demo, I'm more excited than ever for this. I'm also getting a bit of a Golden Sun vibe from the exploring aspect of the game.

I'll probably play it on PS Plus. It's odd how both services are getting it day one.

I'd rather play it on Switch, as this is a type of game I'd prefer to play on a handheld, but I'm holding out hope it gets a physical edition on Switch before I buy it. Perhaps Limited run games will put out a physical copy in about 6 months.

Re: Takaya Imamura: F-Zero Hasn't Been Revived Because Mario Kart Is Nintendo's "Most Popular Racing Game"

Kang81

I'm not a huge F-Zero fan, nor racing games in general, but I don't buy it. How much of a "fortune" can it really take to make a game like F-Zero?

Surely not the $200 million plus Sony spends on masterpieces and technical marvels like TLoU part 2 and more so Horizon Forbidden West!

Besides, just with the earnings from the Super Mario Bros. Movie alone, Nintendo probably has enough of a fortune to make whatever they wanted, numerous times.

Its not like they ever lose money on console sales either, its always pure profit. Nintendo could also easily increase their already immense fortune by just bringing any number of it's older games to Switch, even with simple ports.

Now if it's more along the lines of making a new F-Zero just wouldn't sell well enough to recoup development costs or at least turn a big enough profit, then fine, but just say that. 🙄

Re: Talking Point: Is Super Mario Bros. Wonder Really A Departure From The 'New' Series?

Kang81

Sure there are some new powers and as usual new level design and polish, but this just looks like New Super Mario Bros. 6.

So no, this is not different enough.

In addition, Nintendo really needs to change the art style, it's long overdue. Mario Bros., Mario Bros. 2, Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World had drastic visual changes in addition to new mechanics that made each game look and feel fresh.

NSMB, NSMB Wii, NSMB2, NSMB U, New Super Luigi U, and even Mario Run all use the same visual style just with different levels of graphical fidelity. It's past time to use a new look.

This game is an easy pass. I'd rather have Mario Odyssey DLC.

Re: The Lara Croft Collection Will Finally Launch On Switch Later This Month

Kang81

@Spoony_Tech

Square Enix selling of both Crystal Dynamics and The Deus Ex developers along with their IP's to Embracer Group was great news for me.

Embracer Group, and it's subsidiary THQ Nordiq, have shown they're more than willing to bring back older games. Look at both Kingdom's of Amalur and the remake of Destroy All Humans. Not to forget its because of them that the Darksiders franchise still exists. I love the Darksiders franchise, I even tolerate Darksiders 3.

Re: The Mario Movie Physical Release Is Already Available (North America)

Kang81

Eh, I already have mine ordered. I can wait another week.

What's absurd is the digital version costs the same as a physical edition that comes with 2 physical copies AND the digital copy. 🤦‍♂️

It's been a couple years since I've actually bought a movie either physical or digital, but I thought digital was still cheaper than physical. Guess not.

Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Busier Hyrule Is Making Me Miss BOTW

Kang81

@piecez

No doubt, nothing is perfect, but as my brother and I were discussing recently, TotK is the first game in a long time to get us so absorbed in it. That alone is an accomplishment as so many games are losing appeal to me. I can't remember the last game I've completed outside of GoW: Ragnarök. It's rare I finish games now.

Nostalgia can really effect one's opinions, but as I've gotten older I look back at games I thought were perfect with a new perspective and realize how far from perfect they are.

I do appreciate how TotK has the 3 layers of Hyrule now. I do wish the sky was more filled and the underground was less repetitive though.

As for the temples/dungeons, this is an issue I have in general. I'm a major Tomb Raider fan and I feel the tombs in the reboot trilogy pale in comparison to the older games. It just seems like puzzle design is being streamlined into smaller and simpler designs and I'm not a big fan. Puzzle solving in games is one of my favorite types of gameplay, not enough games do it right let alone do it at all.

The shrines are definitely improved in TotK, but unfortunately so many can be cheesed. That or by building some monstrosity in the ones involving building.

I just suck at creative building, so when I see most people's solutions and how simple they were to my overly complicated work around I just face palm often. Haha

Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Busier Hyrule Is Making Me Miss BOTW

Kang81

@Astral-Grain

Yeah, I and don't say that to try to start arguments with people, I just think a lot of fans seem blind to just how similar BotW/TotK are to a typical Ubisoft format open-world game and they get defensive very quickly when mentioned.

I'm a lot older now, I criticize everything, even games I love. Nothing is perfect, and I even look back on games I thought were perfect when I was younger with a new outlook and see how far from perfect they actually are.

Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Busier Hyrule Is Making Me Miss BOTW

Kang81

@Aljebra

I hear you, I don't know the major age group of BotW/TotK players, but I've only got so much time to play games as an older.

I hear you on the Lynels. They wouldn't bother me so much if they didn't d3cimate my health so much with a single hit. They make it so your severely punished if you don't fight perfectly, or spam bomb arrows from above.

Gleeoks are actually easier than I had though. I watched a good tip on YouTube. Use an arrow with an enemy eye attached and it will instantly target and disable one of the heads. Do that 3 times and they're down. Run up, spam some damage, run away and repeat. I can down them before they usually have a chance to even get an attack off. They are supposedly suppose to rise up out of range to make that strategy different when they're almost out of health, but if your fast enough with the auto aiming arrows you can get them before they fly too high. Just be careful of your surroundings. I fell off the side of a cliff mid fight with the electric Gleeok and it peppered me constantly with electrical attacks even at the bottom of the mountain. I had to reload an auto save.

The eyeball arrows helped me with lynels early on where I could hit them as they where charging me and then mount them for attacks free of durability loss. I've noticed this doesn't work much anymore. The stronger variants seem to block or parry my arrows so now I've gone to bomb arrow spam. Thankful for the dupe glitch as I now have 400 bomb plants. 😈

I also agree with the entire guardian situation. Where are they, what happened to the remains? Hyrule is more populated, but not enough to clear the entire world of their existence.

Also, if another 100 years have past, why is anyone from the first game even alive let alone barely aged?? It feels like the last game has nothing to do with TotK. I feel BotW and TotK still don't handle story well.

Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Busier Hyrule Is Making Me Miss BOTW

Kang81

@Tarolusa

I can see this difference of opinion. There is something calming about BotW. However it grows stale and boring rather quick for me. If there was more to discover that didn't feel like a waste of time or result in a reward that I felt was useless I'd enjoy exploring more.

Another aspect is in BotW you had to painstakingly traverse Hyrule leaving one to experience more of the world in a way. In TotK, the travel abilities make it easier to bypass a lot of Hyrule.

I wouldn't want to go back to BotW traversal after TotK though. The ascend and recall abilities along with rocket shields, zonai springs devices, and sky tower/islands make traversal so much less of a chore than BotW.

Now i have legit options to continue where i was heading in the rain with the aforementioned options where in BotW i would have to either sit for 5-10 real world minutes to wait for the rain to subside (only to return within another short amount of time) or completely change where i was going. Sorry, I just spent 20 minutes climbing these mountains, I'm not changing direction and.doing it all over again because of this stupid rain mechanic.

Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Busier Hyrule Is Making Me Miss BOTW

Kang81

@piecez

People will always combine, but that's because a game can never please everyone and never will. I did not like BotW, it felt like a game with the Zelda name tacked on to sell it. TotK is vastly improved and feels more like what an open-world Zelda would be to me. Still doesn't excuse the lack of proper dungeons, the temples feel no different than the divine beasts to me, but at least they went back to unique Zelda style bosses instead of a slightly different Gannon fight each time.

TotK may be the greatest game you've ever played, and I do find it great, but as I've aged I've learned to criticize games I love as much as games I dislike. There is still a lot of criticisms I have with TotK, but its still a major improvement.

Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Busier Hyrule Is Making Me Miss BOTW

Kang81

@Brumblescope

I really want a different feel to the setting in the next game. The idea of a BotW/TotK game with the setting of Wind Waker sounds like a great place to take the next game.

I love how different games like Majora’s Mask, The Minish Cap, and Wind Waker make a Zelda game seem fresh with a different take on Hyrule or in MM's case, leaving Hyrule behind.

Re: Soapbox: Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom's Busier Hyrule Is Making Me Miss BOTW

Kang81

I'm the complete opposite. The barren feel of BotW is one of many reasons I disliked it. This is still Zelda, I don't want an empty world to explore, which much of BotW felt like. BotW to me was just a new open-world game with the Zelda name tacked on to help it sell. TotK feels more like an open-world Zelda game than BotW did.

For the most part, there was no reward for exploration other than chests with useless gear or a pittance of rupees/resources, and the highly repetitive shrines.

Everyone loves to complain about the Ubisoft open-world formula, but Botw (and TotK) are pretty much the same thing. You wander the world, run into the same handful of activities like shrines, caves, the same enemy encampments, and all for the same pitiful rewards of gear worse than you have or if lucky equal.

If it wasn't for the physics systems and abilities in BotW/TotK, there really isn't much difference between them and your typical Ubisoft formula open-world. The only other difference is that instead of the game marking every point of interest for you, you get to do so yourself. That's hardly a revolution of the open-world format. Of course BotW/TotK superfans will tear you to shreds for opinions like this.

So far I'm a tally enjoying TotK where as I didnt enjoy BotW and felt forced to play it to justify my purchase. TotK is a far superior game in my opinion.

Re: 'The Lara Croft Collection' For Switch Has Been Rated By The ESRB

Kang81

@Rykdrew

I've owned them for both the 360 and PS3 as well on PC for years now. I've tried all kinds of tweaking and even set everything on low but I still get major fps drops and stutters every few seconds. A shame, but with the Switch versions still seeming to have a release in sight I'll settle for having them on the Switch for portability. More so if they get an actual physical release.

Re: 'The Lara Croft Collection' For Switch Has Been Rated By The ESRB

Kang81

I've been waiting for these! I'm glad to see they're still releasing because I loved them back on the 360 and they're a perfect fit for a handheld

They don't run well on the Steam Deck, there are framerate stutters all over the place. Hopefully they do get a physical release and I hope they're not popular enough for scalpers to care about.

Re: Bowser Defends $70 Zelda Pricing, Nintendo Still "Very Bullish" About Switch

Kang81

@Emmerichcoal

All the more reason for the backlash in my opinion.

An across the board increase in pricing from Nintendo is one thing. Yet Nintendo is singling out the one game that most Nintendo fans are hyped for and the sequel to one of the most popular and successful (also overrated IMO) games of all time.

That's because they know it won't hurt the sales of the game. A lot of fans have been anticipating Pikmin 4, yet it releases after BotW2 and for the usual $60.

I'm ok with games raising in price to $70...for next gen games as the costs have increased to make them more than other games.

Switch games, no matter how good, are two generations behind and IMO do not justify the price increase. Switch 2 games with a standard $70 price tag, fine, but not Switch games when PC (most anyway), XB1, and PS4 games still use the $60 price point.

This is Nintendo raising the price because they know they'll get away with it. Nothing more, nothing less.

Re: Yes, Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Costs $70, Collector's Edition Announced

Kang81

@OctoKing

First off, dont take this as a slight against you, this is just my general opinion on the matter.

I've grown so tired of the inflation excuse to be honest. Companies are making record profits despite inflation while wages have been stagnant for decades. (In the US anyway)

I dont feel sorry one bit for multi-million or multi-billion dollar companies. They love to cry about lost profits and appeasing shareholders. If they're so worried about lost profits, they should be looking at their overpaid CEO's and the other top 1% of their respective companies first. Their salaries keep grossly increasing while the employees deal with more and more BS for stagnant pay or insufficient pay increases at best.

Unfortunately that's a fantasy world and not the real world we currently live in.

Re: Yes, Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Costs $70, Collector's Edition Announced

Kang81

I'm begrudgingly ok with the next gen tax bringing games up to $70. The Switch is far from next gen though so I'll just wait as usual for a retailer to have a discount on the game. Better yet, I'll just wait until I can find a used copy of the game.

Nintendo is the most anti-consumer company out of the big 3, and I have no intention of supporting them as they continually get worse.

Re: Nintendo Improves Switch eShop's Search Function With Small QoL Update

Kang81

@tee-cup

What are you talking about?

The eShop is perfectly fine! Who doesn't like their storefront experience to feel like your using America Online? Or having your scrolling experience freeze, the reset bringing you back to the start so you can spend another 20 minutes scrolling through 800 shovelware games on sale out of the 900 total games on sale? I sure do love it!

/sarcasm

Re: Nintendo Wins "Switch Joy-Con Drift" Class Action Lawsuit

Kang81

@Nancyboy

Exactly!

Gaming hardware and accessories have continually become more problematic over the years I take immaculate care of all of my belongings, especially electronics and my music equipment.

I went through 8 Xbox 360's! I only did that because I would buy the store warranties for $50 right from the start. Sadly I traded my original Xbox in to ease the original purchase price. Something I regret now.

I sent one console back to microsoft but it left me without a console for 3-4 weeks. Over the course of the 360's lifespan, I essentialy paid full price for another console just to avoid having to ship a console in for repair and play the waiting game. I just kept replacing the $50 warranty fee each time. It got to the point GameSop stopped offering warranties and I switched over to Best Buy.

I never once defended Microsoft during the catastrophic 360 era. Then I had the YLoD on my 60GB backwards compatible PS3. Then my Vita had a faulty SD card slot that mechanically failed to function just days after purchase.

Numerous Dualshock 4 controllers with faulty thumbsticks,where they failed to register clicks or just activated whenever they wanted. Even with the PS5, my Dualsense that came with the system had stick drift right out of the box and my spare controller's R2 button broke due to the weak springs Sony used. Which they quietly upgraded before it got out of hand. I tried the haptic triggers for less than 30 minutes before it broke.

Anyone coming to the defense of a company baffles me. Why?!? They do NOT care about us. 🙄🤦‍♂️