Thaliard

I actually kinda like it when it's done right, especially when a budget line re-run of a game has extra stuff. Beyond that, it shows a level of prestige and helps some great games stand out in a collection.

Ironically, it seems like it sucks because it gives the perception that a game is valued less; people don't seem to mind as much paying a premium for a collector's edition with alternative cover art or a steel book that doesn't fit in with the rest of their collection. Nobody may want to admit it, but nothing screams "I paid bottom dollar for this and played it way later than everyone else" than a budget banner. I think this has more to do with the stigma than it not fitting in with your collection.

Also, I've always loved the classy look of the Nintendo Selects collection. The glossy ribbon frame looks quite nice on Mario Galaxy and Twilight Princess.

Play what looks good to you. If that's the first game in the series, great. Start there. If you're interested in the new God of War, but feel bad starting on the 7th game in the series, screw the other games. Obviously they didn't have what it took to draw your attention when they came out, and you're probably going to burn out by the time you get to the game you actually want to play. Maybe by the time you finish the game you wanted to play, you'll be interested enough to want to explore those older titles.

I generally only preorder digital games so I can play them the moment they release. I seldom preorder physical games because midnight releases don't really happen anymore, so generally I'll only preorder physical special editions for games in series I love. If I don't preorder a game, I'm probably not going to pay full price for it. I view the extra $20 or more I spend on a new release as a tax for being part of the zeitgeist.

@Dizavid I'm certainly not meaning to imply they don't have good IPs. Castlevania hasn't had a decent game in years and the last one that received any kind of critical praise was one that Kojima touched, no matter how small his influence might've actually been.

@Giancarlothomaz Maybe, but it was doomed to die before it got off the ground. Konami and Kojima were inevitably going to have a falling out. MGSV/Fox Engine likely cost them a ton and I bet they didn't get a good enough return on their investment. Kojima was the only thing Konami had going for it, games-wise, and like many great artists, he was probably a pain in the butt for producers.

@nessisonett I'm with you. Didn't have nearly as hard of a time with him as I've heard from others, but definitely died 10+ times against him.

@TryToBeHopeful My bad. I'm not a lawyer. I got battery and assault mixed up, lol. He's being prosecuted on the words not the headlock, which seems far worse to me. No matter the semantics, it's a terrible thing for a father to do to their son.

@Haruki_NLI Well, by the letter of the law (at least in the US), any unwanted physical contact is considered assault, so technically there could be lawful assault (i.e. grabbing your kid to prevent harm) if the UK has the same definition.

@Ramen756 There are a lot of factors. The focus should be getting packets of data where they need to be consistently. Data centers need to be close to users. Code for streaming needs to be written efficiently. ISPs need to ensure data is getting routed efficiently and consistently. User's routers need to be configured correctly and with the right tech to ensure smooth communication. Any one of these things could make or break your experience.

EDIT: Personally, I think the Switch's wireless card just isn't up to snuff for game streaming as a solution to underpowered hardware. I have mostly great experiences streaming games on a variety of devices and services on my home internet setup.

Yeah, I don't think there was any question. It's definitely a full Switch port. It looks so good, I can see why the question is being raised, but Nintendo's always been pretty forward about cloud versions of games. I'm glad the Switch is still getting "impossible" ports.

Interesting. You can definitely hear the resemblance, but Megalovania is the better piece of music in my opinion. It's fun how a piece from a cult Japan-only RPG inspired such an ubiquitous song.

@Anti-Matter That's really great! Sounds like your students are lucky to have you. And I can see the appeal of playing Amiibo Festival in your style. Animal Crossing has a wonderful, peaceful aesthetic.

@Anti-Matter If those truly are your tastes and you're not just trolling, that's great. I love seeing someone live their truth. You've got some universally accepted great ones in there mixed in with some games I didn't know anyone liked.

I've always thought the most interesting conversation piece with games is regarding the games someone likes that nobody else does. For me, it's Contra: Rogue Corps, RE6, and Duke Nukem Forever to name a few. Nier used to be on that list, but people started seeing the light.

Tell me, what do you see in Amiibo Festival that the rest of us are blind to? What do you like about it? I'm genuinely curious; I want to see what you see.

I totally get not wanting to play F2P games, but they can be a nice thing to have on the market. It's cool that my kids will have a new thing to play around with and I don't have to spend a dime on a game that may or may not hold their interest long enough to justify a purchase.

It's also mind-blowing that they get a game for free that they could potentially spend hours and hours on. When I was their age, the cheapest video game experience I could have was playing the Pizza Hut PSX demo disc, playing Crash, MGS, or Tomb Raider demos, and wondering what the rest of those games were like. You better believe I would've grinded out for hours to get progress in those games.

The future of games may be dystopian in a lot of ways and it's way easier to be cynical as an adult, but it's not all bad. I've definitely spent far more money for far less gameplay on arcade games back in the day. The real villain is MTX in paid games; they took away my cheat codes and unlockables.

"The works of Lynch and Kaufman" and "linear, cinematic narrative" feels kinda contradictory. Their movies are all over the place for the most part. Game looks good, though.

Can't help but wonder if this has anything to do with the reception of the KH cloud demo.

@Faucet Underrated comment. This blows my mind. The game still looks great, too, as do all of the Wii U era Nintendo games. It goes to show how far strong art direction and intimately knowing the weaknesses and strengths of your hardware can take you.

Hell, Wind Waker HD looks phenomenal and they hardly touched it from the GC release.

@Meteoroid I agree that whichever you enjoy more is the one you should play with, but I remain unconvinced that anything other than tank controls is how they were intended to be played.

Static cameras or fixed dynamic cameras simply control more intuitively with tank controls. When the camera cuts suddenly, you have to change the movement direction immediately or you're going to walk back where you came from in many instances. Devil May Cry made it to where you keep moving forward no matter where your stick is pointed until you change your input direction, but this feels like a bandaid on a bigger problem and doesn't completely solve the problem in all circumstances. Silent Hill 2 on release offered both control methods (to my memory), but still defaults at tank controls because it just works better for what the developer intended.

Combat in survival horror games isn't particularly complex anyway, and with the addition of snap targeting and quick turning in RE:DC and beyond, it makes any fumbling much more manageable, if not non-existent.

These games were designed with tank controls in mind, first and foremost. Any modern control scheme option put in these games feel like an afterthought to me. That's just me, though, and I'm glad there are those options for people who can't stand the way original controls play. Everything's better when everyone is having a good time.

@Zebetite Lol, ironically, Corpse Party is one of the games I've struggled the most with because of the situations where you have to move quickly. Just goes to show, different strokes for different folks. I played it back on PSP, did they change the "run away" segments to be easier in subsequent releases?

@Meteoroid I respect your opinion, but I wholeheartedly disagree. The old tank controls work better with the static camera angles and wrestling with the controls during combat adds a level of tension that I adore. I get that it's a huge barrier for a ton of people, thus I'm glad that they added it so more people can enjoy a game I love, but in order to get what I believe to be the true RE experience, you gotta play with tank controls! I say this with the utmost love and respect to those who hate it.

@Zebetite That's a really fair point. I've never really looked at it like that before, but you're 100% right. Tension comes from the threat of death, not death itself, and if you can feel that threat with no death, then the game is doing its job. Thanks for helping me understand this mode a little better.

@mr_somewhere I think the big problem that people, including myself, generally have with shoehorned easy difficulties is it's kinda like watching a Scorsese movie with no swears or violence. It's part of the experience and if you can't handle it, then why even bother in the first place? There's plenty of other fantastic media out there that's uncompromised, absolutely worth your time, and designed more to your tastes. There's no one game out there that everyone must play or you're a terrible gamer.

However, I'm all for devs putting in low difficulties and accessibility features into games as long as the developer decides it's a way they want their game to be experienced. I have no problem with this bit of news; in fact, I'm happy this will make someone happy and the devs did it of their own free will. I'm just sick of people trying to coerce From into making an easy mode for Dark Souls. If they want to make one, they'll make one, but they're not awful for not including one.

Games are only grindy or repetitive if you don't enjoy the grind. If you don't like a game, don't play it. I'm glad the writer knows what they like and don't like. For me, I'd rather play GTA in its broken state than AC any day of the week. AC isn't bad. GTA isn't bad. Different strokes for different folks.

@thiz Well, I can say for certain that I hate the idea of devs changing their game because they feel pressured by the masses. I hated it when they changed the ending to ME3, even though I didn't like it, because the game was released as intended and it felt dishonest for them to change it after the fact. I hated that they added a save state to Returnal, even though I wouldn't have a prayer of a chance of playing it without one, because it wasn't what the developers intended when they released, otherwise it would've been there from the start.

@Meteoroid I totally agree with you on a personal level. In my mind, that wouldn't even be Resident Evil anymore, but we don't define what is fun for everyone. I hate playing RE with the tank controls off. I think it ruins the experience to play with modern 3D controls, but the devs put it in the game and people are happy with it, so I'm happy someone else gets to enjoy a game, even if me on my high horse feels like we're not playing the same game anymore.

@thiz I'm really not upset, I swear! I just find this discussion interesting. And honestly, I agree with you more than I don't. I truly don't see the appeal in playing a watered down version of a game. I think that anyone who would be interested playing the "Very Easy" version of this game would probably find better return for their time investment elsewhere, like any number of the point and click adventure horror games on PC. But if they're deadset on playing FF5, they should have at it.

I said earlier in the thread, devs are under no obligation to add these features into games and I stand by that. Games shouldn't necessarily be playable by everyone. If a dev thinks something like this ruins what their game is all about, I support their decision to not add it.

@thiz I mean, Frictional made SOMA and that game literally had a Story Mode option that allowed you to play the game with no encounters. If the dev wants to sacrifice part of their design so more people can enjoy other aspects of their game, that's their choice. There is more to a game than just its encounter design. Atmosphere and puzzles are a huge part of horror games.

@IAmGamer2022 I really don't understand this mindset. There are a lot of games and I avoid the games I don't like playing. Devs shouldn't have to consider making their game for everyone. It is nice whenever devs make lots of difficulty modes and accessibility features, but that decision is at the sole discretion of the developer and they are under no obligation to do so.

For example, I don't like RTS's but I can see how if they added a very easy mode where you have unlimited resources, it would ruin the developer's design and the game you would be playing wouldn't be what was intended anymore. So I don't play RTS's and that's fine.

This being said, I'm always glad to see more people of all skill and ability levels playing the games I enjoy and celebrate devs taking steps to get their games into more hands.

I'm just happy to have it playable on Switch, performance be damned. Good performance is obviously preferable, but I feel this way about the majority of Switch ports.

Giving the maximum benefit of the doubt, this port is from a mobile developer working on a hotly anticipated release for a huge number of platforms. Depending on the size of the team, it seems obvious that they bit off more than they can chew with the project. I feel bad for them. That being said, there's little excuse in releasing a game with "definitive" in the title in this state, let alone for $60. Hopefully, they're given the opportunity to learn from this and do better.

@Einherjar Agreed. So much of what makes Metroid great is the feeling of being isolated and in the unknown. The more they explain, the more disappointed we become; the answers will never be satisfying. Literally no one has seen the Star Wars movies and been satisfied by what's underneath Darth Vader's or Boba Fett's helmets.

I maybe wouldn't go as far as to say video games shouldn't be adapted into movies, but the question of if a game is right for the big screen should definitely be asked. It's never going to happen, though, because the vast majority of games aren't right for the medium and damn near 100% of these projects are greenlit because somebody sees dollar signs, not "this story needs to be told".

I say this as a big Metroid fan, but if you shine too much of a light on any one of Metroid's plot elements, it falls apart. Why would the Chozo make metroids a lifeform instead of a vaccine? Why is Samus as a lone person the only one qualified to go on these missions? She's a bounty hunter, but we never see her get paid or cut deals? A lot of the story elements work because we aren't meant to focus on the details and they motivate the gameplay, but the moment we flip that, it's all going to fall apart. That's why Other M is such a garbage fire; Other M isn't the problem, Metroid's story has always been vague and beside the point.

Ouch, I feel like this review is a little harsh. I personally enjoy it more than Back 4 Blood, but to each their own.

I would love a boss rush mode. Or some sort of rogue-like mode or randomizer. A big randomly generated area where an EMMI has free reign would be really cool. They could populate it with normal enemies and you could run around trying to find the mother brain thing so you could kill it.

Couldn't be more excited for this. The SMB Game and Watch being a dedicated device with no internet access did wonders for my mental health.

@fluggy I have to imagine that if this works its way to the Expansion Pack, the remaster is almost certainly going to hit Xbox.

@ShadJV Interesting. I've always gone on "the arcade method", where if I got 15 minutes for a quarter, I definitely got my money's worth. Even though Metroid isn't particularly long, I'm definitely gonna replay it over and over again, so it's worth it in my opinion.

@BulbasaurusRex My two favorite JRPGs are Final Fantasy I and Dragon Quest IX. Don't tell me a good story is one of the most essential bits. Granted, there are a lot of great stories in RPGs, but you can put a great story in any game. Catherine, a puzzle game, has one of the most mature and interesting stories I've ever experienced. RPGs are defined by playing a role and giving the player choices to define their character or characters.

@RudeAnimat0r Came here to say pretty much the same thing. It's a really interesting concept to boil down games to the most essential bits and focus on what makes a game worth playing. Obviously much flashier, but I feel like both Metroid Dread and Doom Eternal did a good job of returning video games to a time where they had a stronger focus on one well executed concept. I'm glad to see developers being riskier and stripping away more by essentially taking us back to before video games.

@Rosalinho When I was a kid, the big appeal of these games was being a rebellious teen and doing horrible things because it was silly, subversive, and no other game let you do stuff like this. It was a good outlet for being a s***head kid without actually doing anything wrong, not to mention there's a well designed game buried underneath all the controversy.

But yeah, as an adult with life experience, this type of game is a lot less appealing now.

My interest in these games revolves solely around the update to the controls. They're great games, but I'm not particularly interested in revisiting them except to see how they feel with an update, and that's not enough for me to buy. I feel like I'll play one for 5 minutes, say "Wow, this feels a lot better!", and never touch it again.

The games themselves suffer from that "you had to be there" factor. It's an amazing, influential trilogy, but so many games have copied, iterated, and improved on their gameplay that they simply don't hold up other than as an important piece of history. It's like the first Evil Dead movie; they're a victim of their own influence, outdated by their own success.

@OrangeSoda I'd be into a Clu Clu Land with swears and weiner jokes.

A game being short isn't a bad thing. If a game is short, I will almost certainly play it at least twice. There's something nice about a game you can knock out in an afternoon.

Crysis 3 has been my favorite since it released. I never particularly cared for Crysis 2, but going back and replaying has been awesome. Maybe I was too harsh on it at the time, but the game feels fresh in a way I wouldn't expect a 10 year old game to feel. It's honestly a better representation of what a next-gen shooter could be than its contemporaries. Why more games don't copy Crysis' approach to linear objectives in a sandbox level is a mystery to me.

The GameCube might be the most appealing design for any of their consoles, but the Panasonic Q looks like a piece of medical equipment. There's too much going on.

Makes me wonder what happened to the Nintendo/ResMed sleep health device they were collaborating on. Anyone know?

I can feel the wrist strain right now. GBC is uncomfortable enough without the extra weight at the top.

@Nalverus That's fair. Honestly, it's been a decade since I played either game, but I remember being incredibly happy with the pointer controls of Corruption and being rather disappointed with Echoes as a follow up to Prime. Echoes just felt like an expansion pack to Prime to me.

@Wavey84 Echoes is definitely the weakest in the trilogy. It's still a good game, but I wouldn't bend over backwards to find a copy and play it. If you have a copy that's easily accessible, you might as well give it a run through, though. It's worth your time, but maybe not your money.

@BlackenedHalo In my opinion (so take it with a grain of salt), elegant game design challenges the player to the highest degree without having to rely on outside resources for help. Having a player figuratively bash their head against a wall to solve a puzzle is discouraging and looking up a guide/asking for help makes the player feel dumb. It's not great.

The only exception to this is if the designer's intent is to frustrate and discourage the player in pursuit of theme (like Dark Souls) or make some sort of commentary on game development (like Suda51's games).