kozaru

@Bunkerneath exactly what I'm thinking. I invested so much into the games, there is no point in buying a new console (expensive or not) if I might lose access.

The console price itself doesn't seem that much of an issue compared to game prices. My games library cost far exceeds how much the Switch itself costs...

So tbh I'd rather have a more expensive console than the continuous Nintendo tax on games.

Clamoring that we want affordable console prices will make it less likely that game prices will drop.

New minifig moulds for Celeste and Sable; these sets seem way less overpriced than those released this month (especialy the set with KK). Quite a relief that Animal Crossing sets might keep being affordable.

And Celeste is one of my favourite characters!

So obsessed with Baba is You right now.... an amazing puzzle adventure with an extreme amount of charm.

I play baba anywhere, when I'm stuck on a puzzle I just remember it... basically playing baba in my dreams.

With the extreme amount of bugs at release, it was kind of hard to play. This update will give me some interest to pick it up again. Look forward to see what additions were made and most importantly hopefully it is finally playable.

Seeing that gigantic Mario set list, I imagine how large the Animal Crossing list could still grow. So many from the cast still missing, notably Brewster and Celeste.

And don't forget the large one shots, the NES, Question Block, Bowser. I still like the Animal Crossing lego the best, these encourage you to build your own world rather than exactly by the instructions.

Local multiplayer is already great, online seems like a cool addition.

With just 2 minifigs, this particular set is definitely overpriced. Even for a licensed set. Compare it with Kappn's Island Tour, for example, als with two (excellent) minifigs!

I'm more into the outdoor Animal Crossing LEGO than these houses at the moment.

The pokemon gallery carnage shows us why we can't have actual nice things...

I don't see actual ACNH merchandise in the gift shop picture here, though. That's for the better, I would say.

And you know what, for kids, they still appreciate a nice cardboard cut-out.

So, yes, the houses are weirdly small. There are upsides to it though: very accessible pricing for LEGO sets and improved play access.

It also makes it more accessible to make your own additions, without needing a ton of other legos.

If you look at other ranges, where you need to spend at least double for the sets with the nice minifigs, well.. this seems more flexible.

Absolutely overjoyed with these sets..!

I love the extensibility of this all. I can already imagine adding platforms from the Mario sets (which I obviously already own) and trying to build my own ACNH house there.

And that cute net of Bunnie's!!

@Olrun besides performance I had multiple weird other bugs, such as prisoners that kept walking around but keeping the prison occupied.

I also hope most is resolved, it could be really immersive.

I haven't rushed or time traveled, so this mode wouldn't add much for me as I have been pacing myself.

'Hardcore' seems a weird label therefore - as if there was any way to 'win' the game?

To play is to have fun. So I wish everyone a lot of fun now that this mode encourages you to play with a new perspective.

For a change, I'll be mainly going analog and play some board games. Just got the new Dune Imperium expansion so that will take some time to learn and play through.
Other than that I'm going casually through Lego Builder's Journey. It's very relaxing and a nice world.

Love the ridiculous floating Patrick!

Not sure whether to pick this up because of the gaming backlog. So I will watch out for the reviews on the gameplay.

Looks cool! Definitely love the half buried guardian blending in there and the plant growth.

With 3k pieces, this set would be really expensive though. So no problem for me that it won't get accepted. Rather would have some smaller cuter sets and let your imagination run with it. For example with Mario series, there is a good looking Yoshi and Mario house, a lot more afordable.

Nonetheless I can appreciate a nice design.

With Pokemon Legends Arceus and a surprise port of Nier Automata, I did have some nice highlights last year. Both immersive worlds with their own art style - which I prefer vastly over the realism as style that the games on more powerful consoles use.

Tbh I would also not like a great release every month, it just gives more fear of missing out and anxiety. Nintendo appeals to me for how polished and immersive its worlds are. Zelda BotW, Fire Emblem Three Houses, SSBU all have great replayability and 'better' graphics would hardly add to that.

Happy new year everyone! Hope you find pleasure in bith gaming as well as sharing experiences with loved ones.

Good to read a round of fixes is coming. The sheer amount of bugs just really are that bad, haven't been able to finish the game because of it. And then let's hope that the new content doesn't introduce more bugs!

At this point, we don't really need plans for a next entry. SSBU is a masterpiece. For current hardware, can we really imagine a better entry?Maybe when VR takes off or some other thing that really expands gaming. Any succesor without tech innovation would be renewal for the sake of it. (Although as a gaming fan, I am hoping for 2B to enter the roster, of course)

Enjoy your semi retirement Sakurai, we are enjoying your life's work!

Liked the idea, hated the switch controls. Everything is too small, you're zooming in all the time to actually read anything. And then getting the pointer on the right location with joysticks is very fiddly. Touch controls are a bit better, but all in all that took away the enjoyment for me.

After the previous article on the discontinued card game online service, I was reminded how I was not engaged with the game anymore so I sold it (the benefit of physical!)

Just some casual side quests in NieR: Automata here.

I totally forgot about the release of this free card game. I didn't understand what the relationship is with the main Kakarot game, so it hasn't compelled me to fire that up again.

Anyone thinks it's worth while?

I was a pc gamer, before I got the Switch. Since then, I hardly use my Steam library anymore. The Switch enables me to immerse in joyful and beautiful worlds, whether I am chilling at home or in a hurry at a go. The worlds of Zelda, Pokemon, ACNH are each one of a kind. By now my pc favourites have also been ported, including NieR Automata and Hollow Knight. And then, there are still many options left for me to explore, such as Persona 5, Xenoblade Chronicles.

With such game titles, you can see that I love a good art style over 'realistic' graphics. Immersion in a totally different world doesn't require it.

The only game that I still regularly play on PC is Divinity: Original Sin 2, because there is no cross-platform multiplayer and my friends don't have a switch. It is a bit of a hastle if I want to play this on tv with controller and no portable option.

Out of environmental concerns, the less hardware we need, the better. Even as an avid gamer, it is part of the calculation whether an extra console is worth it.

This looks amazing. The artstyle is what drew me to Borderlands 2, even though FPS is not my type of game at all. A story driven game based on a great comic? Hell yeah!

The video does make me nostalgic. I used to enjoy the sound of the slowly growing bustle in my encampment. And then to see the picture evolve of your new building.
Can't imagine it as a switch game though, for me this is tied to pc gaming.

The unfinished state of Pokemon Scarlet/Violet has inspired me to finally play the SwSh DLC. And then also some NieR:Automata, dive into the melancholic beauty of that world.

Recently double dipped the Switch version. This game is a real gem and so happy the port was done well.

As someone that grew up with Pokemon, this is a saddening video. I am finally an adult and I can buy whatever games I like. So like any Pokemon fan I wish to finally be able to banter around in the Pokemon world. And I am definitely not one to want the latest and greatest visuals (otherwise I would not be a Switch owner).

But this is so jarring, so distracting and pulling you out of the immersion. Happy with Arceus and will not be buying Scarlet/Violet. Perhaps this is the end of my Pokemon journey.

I don't interpret the comments that negative tbh. Is it whining if we just hoped to have the liveliness to continue somewhat longer? That the success of the game would have been able to finance some years of a small developer and item modeling team?

Personally I am grateful for the great times I spent in such a beautiful world. I'm just not so excited for new seasons and holidays, because they are the same now each year.

I had hoped for a bit longer for content updates. Even just small updates or events. Just so that indeed the years do differ from each other. Does this mean all the sale revenue just goes into shareholders accounts and not into more game development?

I still enjoy ACNH, so patches that keep the game secure and stable are good. But when the events like Halloween come around, it doesn't interest me at all anymore.

Happily returning to ACNH this weekend. And after the surprise drop of Shadows over Loathing on Steam, there will be hardly any time left for the Switch.

The background and brick/grass platforms seem a bit boring at first.. but then we get the view behind the scenes, and it's massively creative with the engineering of the moving parts. Nice build!

Love this art style, a great direction that Square Enix has taken and quite original in the gaming market. Hope the gameplay lives up to it for this game.

I have the normal sub as a family plan, mainly for online features in ACNH, Pokemon Sword and Smash Ultimate. Will get the plus for a year when I have the time to dive into the extra content of the ACNH DLC and some of the N64 games. I have been enjoying the NES and SNES library as a bonus to the online services, but to stay permanently subscribed for the N64 libraries doesn't make sense to me.

Having a great time with West of Loathing, a delightful funny game with stick figures. Picked it up on sale last week and it's lasting longer than I had expected.

Finally Phil the annoying peacock has left my island in ACNH. I will be spending the weekend island hopping, trying to encounter an octopus.

Disappointed that the dlc is not included and quite highly priced. The dlc adds extra tribes, that do have their own units and gameplay (penguins! scary cockroaches!).

I prefer to play this game with small or medium maps to have a casual conquest in a fun world.

Double dipping with the steam version is probably only worth it with a steep price cut at sale including the dlc.

This many years in, getting genuine stability updates is a great feature. A company gets no thanks from its users nor any extra sales, but it makes software run just those few extra years. Imagine that many libraries that underly the system will have gotten updates and older versions will not get security patches etc. If there is no continuous updates like this a system becomes vulnerable easily. Great that Nintendo invests in system stability over user visible quirks.

I am still enjoying Animal Crossing New Horizons; started a new island designer project, with a lot of hopping around shiny moss.

Also got pretty excited about Persona releasing for the switch - will be getting Persona 4 on PC though, because I don't feel like waiting for that release date .

A really fun and casual 4X game with a nice art style and varying gameplay through its different tribes. You get to play a full game in an evening, which is inconceivable with Civilization. Larger maps are a bit boring though, as you have so many units to move around. I played it both on mobile and on Steam, might get it for Switch for some casual couch sessions with pass & play.

This trailer made my decision not to get this game. I have played Sword and Arceus (and Red and Silver as a kid), and I hardly see anything to get excited about in the new game. The world setting seems bland, especially the red rocky part. There are hardly any interesting new mechanics. Picnic is what camping was. The dynamax was not interesting so I don't expect teratypes to do much for gameplay either. No indications of voice acting or anything else livening up the world.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy pokemon and am happy with the games I got. It's just clear that Scarlet/Violet will not add to the experience for me.

I really love Drum n Fun, but don't play it that often. It's so hyper!! But I want to try the drum kit too and they don't sell it separately here. I saw my game shop will sell one combined with the rythm festival though so I'm hesitating what to do... It's not cheap...
I do play with the donkey kongas sometimes, that is a lot of fun also.

The bugs are pretty bad, the worst one was when the game froze after winning a boss fight. Also the prisons are bugged, often in an incorrect state of occupied or not. The choppiness is often noticeable but not game breaking.
These bugs are at this moment too severe to justify the full price. I hope the patch releases very soon since the game is very promising nonetheless.

Hellblade really is something special, with the careful thought that went into the gameplay and audio. The game has opened up some conversations with people around me suffering from schizophrenia. It helped to ask about their experiences by showing them the game and asking what is the same and what is different. However, be sure that for people suffering from mental health problems, this game can be very intense. The game developers also warn their users about this.

Also I agree with the comments: games can help out your mental health through relaxation, and games can hinder your mental health as they can be used for escapism, inducing further depressed feelings. In the latter case, it helps to become more active and get out more. Sometimes it is difficult to know which you need, though.

Games about mental health are important to raise awareness among the general public and help someone feel understood.
I think Life Is Strange as a series is also about mental health in that sense.

I immediately opted out of auto renewal at the start of my year subscription. Then, after a year I didn't get a notification of it ending; it was just shut off. My family members were just confused what suddenly happened, not being able to connect.

Love the FFV chocobos!

This is amazing. You can buy a slow poke now in stead of a couch extension.

With Arceus out, I really want time to relax and enjoy exploring the Pokemon world. It is definitely too soon to get excited about any other release.

The other thing I agree with, is that the Pokemon textures look good! I love scrolling through the Pokedex in all Pokemon games and studying the models in there.

Who knows, half a year is still plenty of time to get enthusiastic.