themightyant

Great to see Unpacking on there!

Graphics don't make a good game, but man does this LOOK bad. It's like a mish-mash between a mobile game and PS2 textures aiming for BOTW. Hopefully the all important gameplay is great.

@UltimateOtaku91 The line between Indie, AA or AAA is blurring.
Is a game still strictly 'Independent' if it has massive funding from a third party?

e.g. Kena (which is a wonderful, if slightly flawed, game) had a core team of 15 employees but hundreds more were outsourced for art and animation etc. funded by Sony.

These awards seem to keep things level by taking the spirit of Independence into account.

I’d love A FF6 or Chrono Trigger remake in this style

1. Chrono Trigger
2. Final Fantasy 6
3. Xenoblade Chronicles
4. Dragon Quest XI S
5. Final Fantasy 7
Can't go wrong with any of those

I have nightmares that start "hhhhellllo there lovely peeeeple"

@SwitchVogel Loop hero is free on the Epic game store today

Time enjoyed is not time wasted and all... but this seems a little extreme.

Still i've spent much longer playing video games and have nothing but happy, and a few sad, memories to show for it

It looks lovely. Will take a closer look. Awful name though!

Didn't they say that in 2020 and 2021?

Great to see Yuji not being down about Balan and instead throwing himself into something new and learning. Winning mentality. Massive respect!

@koffing When you didn't know you NEEDED something!!!
Wanna go into business? How long before Nintendo lawyers up?

5. There was very little that interested me this year and 2021 has mostly seen my Switch gather dust.

@nessisonett My head played the classic chest opening sound.

Rest in peace Legend. Gave so much joy to so many.

The real problem with the eshop is discovery. This doesn't really help at all.

No, not on their own. We’ve already had Nintendo exclusives on their own with the Wii U… it doesn’t end well.

But I assume they won’t be alone and will continue to get excellent third party support in which case they will continue to be strong

Of course it ******* should. If they had a launched a half competent and complete service to begin with this wouldn't even be as much of an issue. But as it stands we have half a service and how long until we get a full one. 2 years?

I've not played tri-force heroes or any of the four swords games. Played all the others. Worst, by a distance, were oracle or ages/seasons.

Almost regret selling my Wavebird, it was the best. But I was hardly using it at the time and sold it for £90 cash boxed. That and my Zelda Wii U basically paid for my Switch. Was a worthwhile trade.

@nkarafo Agreed but could do with a sequel too.

@SilentHunter382 That’s much better, it accurately describes the issue for SOME players. But let’s also not forget only a small number of players are as sensitive to these issues. The vast majority just get on with it and play. Every GTA has had an unstable frame rate yet millions play happily. Blissful ignorance

Though DF and others are so inconsistent. They rave about Retro games and yet didn’t call Ocarina (20fps, 17fps on PAL) or Goldeneye (10-15fps) “unplayable” back in the day.

@SalvorHardin FromSoftware games are a perfect example that validates my point though. I’ve played them all, and platinumed most of them when it’s not a needless grind. Calling them “unplayable” because they have uneven frame pacing is the sort of hyperbole that is unhelpful. Call it what it is.

I’ve become used to 60fps recently but can readjust quite quickly back to 30fps. However I struggle going back to below that.

However good games are still good games even with bad framerates. Digital Foundry, who I’m a fan of generally, and others use terms like “unplayable” when a game has an inconsistent frame rate. It’s total hyperbolic BS.

@Meteoroid Consoles are significantly more expensive in Greece compared to average wages. A mate of mine out there had a PS5 ordered and had to wait over 6 months for it to be delivered. They'd also taken his cash. He could have cancelled and asked for a refund but likely would have had to wait even longer.

Cheaper AND extended warranty... things must be rough!

Would prefer more luminaries from WITHIN the gaming space than these celebrities. I don't think they ever add anything. Financially we're the largest entertainment industry. Why does Geoff feel we need to keep validating ourselves with celebrities from other fields?

Do the Oscars or Grammy's get Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima or Todd Howard to present Best Director or Album awards? No. Why do we need Christoper Nolan or Simu Liu? What message does that send out?

Would also prefer more of a celebration of video game music, musicians and composers over getting in band's he likes.

I appreciate the one man army that Geoff is and everything he has done for gaming, yet I think we need to back our industry more.

Just buy a DS lite (or 2/3DS) if you don’t already have one.

Such a good game! DQ XI S reinvigorated my love of JRPGs that I thought was gone a decade hence. Hearing that wonderful music makes me want to play again.

Honestly I think so many kickstarters just think "We'll add a comic/case/keychain/collectible that will be easy!" but each one of those things requires a lot of work setting up manufacturing, supply etc. all at a reasonable cost. When you're business is video games these are each all new skills and business relationships to foster.

Artistry >>> Graphical fidelity. Botw's graphics age well like Wind Waker.

However they don't have to be mutually exclusive and it would be nice to see a little more of the later in the next hardware!

It looks lovely. Hopefully they stick the landing and there is a little more depth than shown. Looking forward to reviews.

@Kevember it’s no longer a billion dollar company, the last few years, and a few scandals (mouldy baby wipes and not as natural as they say), mean it’s worth less than half of what it was when it first floated.

Though I agree she’s been successful outside acting, though in truth It’s always difficult to know how much celebrities ACTUALLY have to do with the business side of companies like this. Are they just the figurehead that brings in the public or do they have a hand in actually running things. Usually there’s a business brain or two behind the scenes pulling all the strings, it’s mutually beneficial for all.

Regardless Honest Co. has been on a pretty solid downward trend for a while now.

So according to the documentation it's cheaper to kill or maim him by about $40,000,000?

@westman98 I've not played them all but probably not hugely. Though most of them likely did more to innovative their formula than FH5 did over FH4. Which for all it's wonder feels almost identical to the last entry, it's a wonderful game but very iterative.

It takes two in particular is a marvel. The number of brilliant gameplay mechanics that are used once and then you're onto a new one is staggering, must have taken a lot of dev time.

But as I said it wasn't just innovation. Release timing was unfortunate for this particular award as votes likely would been in to be tallied last week, the week it launched.

Ultimately it doesn't matter. You don't need someone else to validate your choices, there's always going to be personal favourites that don't make it.

@Madao Cyberpunk released 10 December 2020. Not September. It's definitely in the right awards, whether it should be there is subjective.

@Entrr_username It's rare that a game not released in the year (usually early nov - early nov) gets a nomination. But in a few cases like Among us the game only gains enough popularity to be noticed so that it is nominated.

@westman98 I get what you are saying about genre but Forza has a couple of other things going against it.

1) Release timing. It came out last week, the jury won't have had much time to play it all before votes were cast
2) Innovation. As good as FH5 is, and it's very very good, it also very familiar to anyone who played FH4 or before. Critics typically prefer risks and innovation for GOTY.

It's not alone. Half Life Alyx missed out on a nod despite scoring even higher than FH5 last year. It joins a long list like Disco Elysium, SSMBU and many others that have scored 90+ and missed out. There's only 6 slots at the end of the day

Regardless it's nominated for 3 awards, which is better than most!

Thanks for the heads up and interview.

@Stocksy "I will always choose a lazy person to do a difficult job because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it." - Bill Gates (probably not) lol

I don't disagree that devs, or anyone, will find shortcuts to do things, that is working smarter not harder and sensible in most things in life. It's a positive trait. But it's knowing specifically when you can cut corners that is important.

I don't think that is the same as being lazy, which is indolence and sloth and a negative trait. There's a difference between the two.

@Stocksy True. It will be interesting to see if these files are in any of the other versions. If not then it would have been quite deliberate on the part of the developer to include them and not the 'lazy' approach everyone is immediately gravitating towards. But gamers seemingly have to have their pound of flesh...

@BongoBongo Personally i'm happy all the music files are included, makes them much easier to patch back in on PC!

Cute commercial. Love NPH. From Doogie, to Barney to Olaf and many in between.

@Bunkerneath Yes to Starship Troopers great movie!

I don't even play Fortnite but that's pretty dope and will pull in a different crowd. Fortnite really is on another level! Even SSMB impressive roster can't compete with the insane and diverse number of cross-overs.

I was convinced this was bog roll in the picture... bit bummed it isn't

You can send her to my house anytime @KateGray but i'd rather not be uncivil just to make it happen 🤣

@NatiaAdamo "Tencent literally called September 28th 2020 (The launch day for Genshin) "The Darkest day in Video Game History" I know you said put tin foil hat on but do you have a source for that? I googled it and got this comments section lol

I see that MiHoYo has now allowed Genshin on the Tencent store. It seems Tencent were basically salty at the success of a (relatively) young upstart and how MiHoYo initially snubbed the major game publishing channels like Yingyongbao (Tencent), Oppo, Xiaomi etc. making those companies miss out on their 30% cut!

So much BS in the comments calling dev's LAZY for not doing a native Switch port. Met many dev's, not one that's lazy yet, though i'm sure they exist.

The reality is making a Switch port takes a lot more time and money. ESPECIALLY when the target platforms are now next gen consoles and higher end-PC's.

Switch, while a wonderful console, is antiquated in terms of hardware by comparison. You'll see more of this over the next year+ and it has nothing to do with 'LAZY' devs but everything to do with time, money and sensible cost-benefit analysis.

HYPED! In the UK these weren't that big at all. But a mate of mine's parents handled some of the marketing for Force Five (yes it sounds improbable but it's true, lol). I loved it and was my introduction to anime. So he'd always give me Force Five VHS tapes that included this Starvengers, Danguard Ace etc. Happy memories!

Interesting. I like some of these but prefer some of the originals.

E.g. Spiral Mountain was more unique, with that twang
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPUn5biib1c

I played this hard when it came out, but fell off quite quickly. It did push me into other forms of exercise though. So absolutely a win.

Having fallen off those in recent months perhaps it's time to return to Ring Fit!