BLUF: Agreed. Games don’t need realism to be fun. They need fun to be fun.

Aside from obvious genres like simulators, horror, or other niche games, graphics don’t, and shouldn’t be, the main focus of a game.

It could just be plain fun. I’d prefer games with a bunch of sandbox niche mechanics than seeing a tree in 4k upscale. Like Noita or Terraria.

Or a deep story. The original Talos Principle was alright on its graphics at the time, but it prioritized the story and puzzles. It was a fundamental game that shaped many of the philosophies I hold still today.

Graphics can be important, but I’d also prefer stylized over realistic any day. That’s why some of the older games still hold up today, graphically.

Wind Waker, the old 3d mario games, Bioshock, Oblivion (terrain, not people lol)

All had really really solid art. And it still looks good. Because it didn’t try to push the limits on making the game look real.

Back when Modern Warfare 2 released on the 360, I saw little dust clouds, and thought that it was the greatest game for realism ever at the time. The graphics were so good. Going back? Dogwater.

Foxhole. War 115.

Just wish I had a good team to play with.

More like, politically speaking, the bottle has been shaken. Others are far more likely to take action now.

My $460 power bill in texas agrees I hate it here but my entire support community is located here :(

Do you mean like an eye tracking system for headsets in wt? I’ve always just used vr if I wanted that capability.

Noita is a fantastic game.

The magic is that you have two major components. Wands and spells. After every level, you get an opportunity to tinker with the wands you’ve found by replacing spells you have on them with other wands to make something better.

It’s a roguelike, and has no real tutorial, but it’s definitely one of those niche games I’ve put serious time into.

Oh I get it. Standalone, it’s great. It’s just not what I thought it was. I bought it for one reason, was surprised that it wasn’t what I thought I’d be receiving as a consumer, reflecting, I’d definitely say it’s a good game.

Battle passes/ dailies / loot boxes aren’t really my thing either. I do love roguelikes and the idea of “runs” and it being a sandbox to play in to experiment with builds.

Noita, for example, is probably one of my favorite games of all time. (Also a game I recommend everyone to play and give a good college try.)

Hot take for me: I thought going into Inscryption was going to be a pure deck builder game with a goal of beating the first guy. Then I really enjoyed the deck building in the 2d zone, and wanted so much more of that, but after beating the game, it has next to no replay ability. It turns very ARG centric and to get the whole story required going outside of the game into the “real world” (internet) to learn the rest of the story. It never stuck with me, or striked me right. It felt like I was being led on and thrown into something I didn’t really care about.

I know that they added an infinite mode, but I think that’s just in the first zone, not all of them. .

In any case, the game was just ok, since it’s not the Slay the Spire esque card builder I thought it’d be.

I try, but of course life finds a way to rip whatever savings I’ve got slowly but surely.

Right??

Early Gen Z / very tail end of millennial here.

Got a job that pays ~80k (with promotion potential to 100k in a year) and I’m just… dumbfounded at how yall are making it. I didn’t grow up wealthy at all, and struggled with homelessness for a time, so I’m not new to the frugal game, but being able to put away only a hundred or two bucks a month after taxes is crazy with the hours and time I put into existing. I’d rather just not work at all if the end result is the same.

Doordash is a crux in my life and something I’ve definitely splurged on in the past, but groceries are just as expensive outside of rice beans and chicken. Baffling. :(

To some extent they likely do. Nobody truly knows their “proprietary engine” other than dedicated modders and bethesda staff.

There’s definitely a level of negotiation that goes on between Microsoft and bethesda, which, outside of their massive titles Skyrim and Fallout, has successful games published (not developed) by Bethesda, like Doom, Deathloop, Dishonored, among others. If Microsoft makes demands, they could backstab the devs of whatever game they make, just like they did to new vegas.

So yeah, I doubt they’d let it happen again.

As if they’d let that happen.

The last time they let another studio develop something, it blew expectations out of the water and as a result made their game built on their home engine look like hot dog water.

New vegas is by far the beat fallout game, if for no other reason, it’s an actual role playing game, and not an action adventure game.

Right?

Bethesda just released an expansion for fallout 76. It’s a game that I’m fairly fond of, considering the amount of dislike I have for fallout 4, it improved on it in every way from the worldbuilding to building to the story, I could go on, point is, I like it.

The new expansion, the first map expansion and like 20 major updates in.

The new map is quite a large region. You’d expect a few side quests to unlock these other locations. Maybe some hidden gems. Maybe some cool NPCs outside of the main “expansion” right?

Its literally: A main quest that’s short (beat it in like 3 hours on the first day it dropped)

A single side quest that’s more of an optional objective on the main quest

A single new event

A single new boss.

Four things they added. Two of which can only be done once (bad formula for a game designed around repeating similar tasks)

They’ve just straight up gotten bad. There’s no love in their products anymore. It’s all taking the easiest way out, lacking any amount of real creativity.

I just want them to migrate from their shitty proprietary engine, buckle down on a good story and prioritizing fun.

My entire extended friend group has refunded. It hurts em

Oracle of ages and seasons were me childhood.

Can’t hurt to sent a 20 second email

The OG paper Mario was good. It combined elements from various jrpgs and other Mario titles at the time like Mario Luigi Superstar Saga. When the sequel came out, it delivered on all the hype and beyond. It’s cheeky. Fun. And actually quite long. It expanded on the elements of turn based combat, made twists and generally improved on every single aspect of the original. Then the third game came out, it was mediocre and didn’t live up to any expectations.

This game is a remake of the second game, so it’s exciting to see that there’s still hope for the paper Mario side of Nintendo.

All this to say, thousand year door is a point of nostalgia for a lot of people born in the 90s and early 2000s

A lot of people are playing with their friends, not just alone