Zyph

@LEGEND_MARIOID Crysis 2 and 3 are 30% off if you have Crysis 1 already but not sure until when. I bought them but I think it's still more expensive than if you waited and just bought the trilogy. So overall I basically spent around $70 for the whole trilogy. Sucks they didn't align the individual pricing discount to the trilogy which is just $50.

I would have bought the trilogy on PC but for the sake of consistency with my library for the remasters I chose Switch. Maybe if they announce a 4th game I might choose PC this time.

@MichaelP Each game is sold separately for the physical version. For digital you can buy the trilogy or separately.

I'm still bitter that the mainline Persona series still won't come to Ninty hardware even though I still play them on PS. The waiting game continues, I guess. Though I'm thankful that the SMT series is still exclusive to Nintendo to even things out a bit.

Been a fan of Gemdrops-produced games lately especially their contribution to recent JRPGs. I'm always interested what a small indie studio could do so I'll keep an eye out for this. I'm also pretty excited for their next game Cogen which I believe is their first original IP if I'm not mistaken.

Pretty sure the OLED launch had something to do with it. Still very impressive considering the long streak.
Regarding sales, if anything, units sold is more important versus dollars earned. You need dem install base to be viable.

@Patendo I did and that's how I assumed it was. If not, my bad. I also added some things in my post.

@Patendo @andykara2003 No one is saying that. In a perfect world of course we don't want any "oppression" or "mismanagement" in the workplace. The point is we don't know the full picture. Were the disgruntled employees have solid basis for their claims? Or are these all just something they casually want to do to attract attention since they didn't particularly enjoy their stay in the company?

It's very easy to side with the "accused" even without knowing the full story.

The bottom line is, no company is perfect and you'll never find it. But if you can make a difference in the workplace for the betterment of the employees — awesome. I would do that if I could. But the article is not about poor management [full stop] in general, it's about Mercury Steam being accused of poor management. We are going a bit out of topic.

Is this topic really bad as it looks? Oh of course, no doubt. But it doesn't take away the fact that yes, Mercury Steam need to get their sh*t together, if all of this is true. And also the fact that there were employees/developers who actually did hard work on the game and deserves to be commended. You don't want to buy the game? That's perfectly fine; that's your prerogative and doesn't even warrant an argument IMHO. If you think that's the right thing to do then go for it. Don't let people tell you otherwise.

@HotGoomba I wouldn't bother. She already admitted playing games via "other means"

Dread is an amazing game though I'm really curious on what was the actual situation of the Dread team within the studio. We still don't know the full story. We still haven't heard Mercury's side. At the end of the day we only have these "former" employees' words.
Why would a good game be a result of a "mis-managed" team?
Why are we just knowing about this now after Dread released? Too many questions.

I'm not siding with the studio; just saying we still don't know the full story to draw concrete, logical [and non-rash] conclusions. Comments need to chill.

For most games 'convenience and mood' sounds about right for me. Though most of the time I just dock my Switch and play on my monitor while resting my feet on a stool. But since I have an OLED now I'm more inclined to play handheld while lying on bed or the couch. I also only use headphones when there are people around or if I'm outside. I mostly use speakers since I don't want to get into the habit of always wearing something in/over my ears for long periods (for hygienic reasons).

Also, I almost always play docked with a Pro Controller when playing games using Gyro. Handheld gyro gameplay is difficult for me so games like Splatoon, and some FPS games I just straight up dock the thing.

@Liam_Doolan 👍

Although better change the one on your FB page as well

Best cross-over game of 2021

@ZER0AO Thanks for sharing. Great points!

@The-Chosen-one Same boat. Well said!

@PBandSmelly The game card ran out of memory for additional names for the credits....jk

@nhSnork If policies don't exist, then the bad employees could (and yes they have) exploit the good will of 'good' companies. If said policies, for whatever reason, doesn't fit your ethos then do something about it. The fact remains not all rules are bad even if they appear to be at face value.

@CharlieGirl "I won't be changing my moral compass" that makes you human so do what you have to do.

@CharlieGirl Not really. No matter how "bad" those policies sound, they exist for a reason. Let's say you "contributed" to a project but in reality you were just lazing around and always do your tasks last minute. There are a lot of scenarios like that in my experiences.

We always need to understand the reasoning behind these decisions and not just because it sounded wrong. Who knows, Mercury Steam might have gotten a bite in the back with a similar case back then, hence the policy.

But hey, whatever works for you.

"Why?"

In my experience as a developer (diff industry), as also with game development in general anything can change in just a few months to a few years. Those 8 months you worked on the game could've been replaced by other things like spec changes and such.

Their policy has merit to a degree even with other companies not necessarily in game development. But IMO still give credit where credit's due especially if those few months of work somehow still translated to the final product no matter how small.

@SwitchVogel Thanks!

@The-Chosen-one No prob! 👍

@The-Chosen-one As far as I know, the only outlet that actually says the game will support both English and Japanese voices is Play-Asia's page for the game. But that's for the Japanese copy of the game. So I'm not so sure if the EU or NA copy will have dual audio as well. Maybe @SwitchVogel can confirm?

EDIT:
It seems Kotaku's review of the game stated that it will have both voices. "The game also includes Japanese and English voice-overs."

I'm genuinely excited for the game and waiting for the physical copy in November. I like weird classic RPGs.

Currently the only thing I'm personally disliking about the game is the English voice acting based on early gameplay footage I watched online. I'm not sure whether to fault the actors or the voice director but the acting is so passive and emotionless. It's like they're just directly reading off a script. That said I haven't listened to the JP voice actors yet but I have high hopes.

Future kid somewhere: " Hey isn't that the guy from the cloud games thingy?"

I jest...

@Williamfuchs420 Maybe they checked the survey results and saw the people who are willing to buy again even without cross save was much higher than the people who would buy again but only with said feature.

Basically it's us players versus their money and effort. They're probably looking at Steam Deck and saying "hey that's coming out. let's scrap the cross save idea and just focus on selling our PC version". lol

@Joeynator3000 I think it's not a matter of 'same cases'. Rather, I think it comes down to willingness to actually do it and of course cost implications for them. They did it with 3G/3U with the 3DS and Wii U so it's a matter of are they willing to do it again.

Looking at the PC trailer they're trying so hard to market the beefy features and they're confident people will be enticed and Switch owners would actually buy the game again; thinking implementing these features is just a waste of time and money.

I'm guessing the feature wasn't in their dev roadmap to begin with and they'd probably prefer to spend the remaining time making Sunbreak and the next MH installment. For what it's worth, they're actually banking on Steam Deck to do well so they have no cause for concern for potential double-dippers to not buy in the end. They're probably thinking "why should we put cross saves when there's literally a portable system that can play our PC version? We'll get money from that instead!" It all boils down to $$$.

So my incentive to double-dip is gone. Not a deal breaker for me and the Switch version runs perfectly fine. Looking forward to another 300+ hours on the OLED.

@Noid To be fair, Suda did ask for permission.

Anything else, this is just a 'Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl' or 'Brawlhalla' situation. As long as it's not their IP then they won't really do anything.

Now that's cool of them. Now I'm itching to play it more now.

@Nicolai Indeed. Still waiting for my copy to arrive and I saw this.
Although it's just an ability/powerup I would've preferred the article title to be a bit discreet since the game just came out.

Just tried it on the OG Switch just beside the notch. Yes it's a bit hard but you just need to push your nail down and the flap will open by itself. You don't need to have a long fingernail; you just need to have a fingernail

@napabar Most of the leads that worked on all three are gone now though. That's what I'm worried about. But I'm not saying the current team is not competent and I'm sure they'll do fine and of course some of the old devs are still there.

"...but the Metroid team, a mix of old and new developers now, have shown that they know how to do it best."

This sets the bar pretty high. Now I'm worried the current team at Retro won't be up to snuff with Prime 4. I hope they can deliver a brilliant first-person Metroid game.

Even though I dock my Switch majority of the time, I still find value in the better (and larger) screen if I ever feel like playing laid down on the sofa or bed. Like the 3DS to 3DS XL that for me was significant even without any upgrades internally. My old Switch is dying anyway so this is a good opportunity for me.

Super hyped! Oh my goodness...

I'm a fan of Cloud. But not this cloud.

Square Enix being lazy again, I suppose. And nope, I won't be getting the cloud versions. I'll get them on Steam instead once they're on sale.

Typical Square Enix

I'm using a chrome extension to block/filter anything "Metroid" on YouTube and muted the same on Twitter. Downside is that you can't really block video thumbnails that has Metroid in it. Hoping I won't see any spoilers in the remaining days.

@Anti-Matter Uhh yeah nah it's cheating. But yeah sure go on.

Nobody will be satisfied whoever the fighter may be. So my hype level for this is so low.

I'm guessing he/she host treasure islands so those numbers make sense. Basically they just leave the game on for players to visit the island and you can pick-up anything on the ground and leave. The only time the host closes the game is either when playing a different game or the island is already empty and he/she plans to re-stock.

@Williamfuchs420 I thought about this. But I already have a beefy gaming PC and of course a Switch so money-wise getting a Steam Deck is impractical IMO. Although I would recommend anyone to get a Steam Deck if they don't have a gaming PC in the first place and they fancy playing handheld.

Providing the option for cross-progression will incentivize Switch owners to double-dip. At least Capcom is thinking about it.

Personally I'd still stick to Switch since a portable Monster Hunter for me is still the way to go (dock it whenever I do voice chat with friends) and I'll forego all those PC bells and whistles for it. At 30fps it already runs very smooth.

White burns my eyes.... 😎

@Ulysses True! Even when it was "just" an increase in screen size it was enough for me to upgrade. Going back to the smaller screen was so weird. I enjoyed playing MH3 and 4 too because of the bigger screen.

@Nintendo4Sonic If you're in doubt you probably should just cancel it. You'll only regret it if in the end you're not satisfied with the purchase unless you can sell it easily to anyone. And there's always another chance again to buy one in the future anyway as long as there is consistent stock.

Can't wait to get my hands on one! And the timing is perfect since I'll be giving my sister my old one so she could have a second ACNH island to drop stuff on and I'll just be leaving that one in the living room for anyone to use. I mostly play docked but I don't really mind playing handheld every now and then so for me the upgrade has value. Even when I upgraded from the OG 3DS to the XL that was at least at that time was a significant upgrade from the tiny screen. Re-playing Octopath and Bravely Default II with that screen will be dope!

IMO, assuming you have the budget for it, if you think you can find value in an upgrade then go for it regardless if you play handheld or docked. It's really whatever works for you.

@Kiwi_Unlimited I did mean the crossing sea since we can assume Rondine came to Kamura on a trade ship, if we are to assume the new locale is the Kingdom that she was talking about.

I enjoyed the swimming mechanic to an extent though I do think the fights are anti-climatic and a bit stressful at times. I'm indifferent tbh.

@Silly_G They actually did with the physical versions when Iceborne came out and I'm guessing they'll do the same with Sunbreak. Digital buyers need only buy the Iceborne content. I believe the DLC is cheaper if you buy both the base game and the expansion, but obviously it's only good value for first time World buyers.

It's understandable to only want the Ultimate version since you buy once and you get the whole package. This has been the case pre-World for the west. Ever since World we get the same release schedule as Japan. Basically you can always holdout for the Ultimate version if you can wait a year.

But yeah I'm guessing the content itself won't cost $60 if you'll buy it as DLC but still too steep for people who already bought the base game.

@kobashi100 No they didn't.
"...gave the IP back...". It's co-ownership. There was nothing to give back.

The agreement was if Platinum wants to release the game multi-platform, they would fund it themselves.

I really hope she (we) can actually free roam with her demons. Maybe ride Gamorrah.