Didn’t they just have the news recently on how buying Activision Blizzard did not move the needle on Game Pass subscriptions?

Yea, if I recall correctly, the Yuzu team was sharing roms of latest Nintendo releases internally and Nintendo was able to prove it. At least Jeff Gerstman podcast suggested something to that accord when reporting on it.

Of course the companies pin the graphics as a culprit. Otherwise they would have to admit the mismanagement is the reason they burn through millions of dollars. Mismanagement brings with it another aspect the author did not mention: stress and burnout. Either working too hard, or spinning wheels doing nothing is pure poison to a creative person. Constant direction changes, lack of clear communication, never knowing whether you did well or are on the verge of being laid off - all these make people work harder but output less/worse quality assets.

It’s how all big tech companies work.

This was my top 5 of 2023 for sure. Wonderful experience. Certainly my favorite of the “learn a language” type games.

This was brutal to watch in an already grim reality of 2025, but an important one. This is not just a remote, 3rd world problem (as if that was an excuse) - this is how our AAA games are made.

Took me forever to see the glass with water. I thought it was a picture of some cardboard boxes or brutalist architecture.

The game looks OK, that quote though: pure gold

So glad Xbox players will be finally able to enjoy it! It took a while!

News news news, it may also be using a game controller to translate user input into character actions.

Here’s one face I wish I could block. Searching any video game topic on YouTube always pops his drama filled mug in the results.

It’s a pity SONY didn’t have any games to announce alongside the new console. There is nothing or there I feel like I need more power to play, and I already completed games they demoed, sometimes years ago.

Truly, a lineup worthy of all these Billions of dollars spent in acquisitions and thousands of lives fucked with layoffs.

It always looked good, just played poorly.

I totally expect this will be the last title before it gets closed.

Thanks! …and bummer. I’m not a fan of this iteration. Liked the crazy, almost photoreal style of earlier ones. The minimalist to-the-point aesthetic of 2020 one feels too utilitarian to me.

I don’t get it. Is it a new graphics update for the original game or for 1/3 of the original trilogy? Is it a new timesheet for current trackmania? Is it a new title?

I loved the original dessert, it was easily my favorite of the first environments.

Feels to me like some folks just want to give due warning to help others from throwing money away. I don’t think most are being negative for negativity’s sake - but I may just be too optimistic about the state of the discourse.

3D Grand Theft Auto games (GTA 3, 4, 5) Some video essay (I can’t recall which one) compared GTA’s attitude to that of the protagonist of “Catcher in the Rye”. Its comedy is very cynical, just pointing fingers at everything and saying “they are phony”, “they suck, don’t they” and “we are too cool to even admit we’re cool”. The tone always rubbed me the wrong way and felt like these white gangsta rappers - Vanilla Ice and the kind. Rampant fanboyism does not help, either. I dared critisize GTA6 trailer somewhere (by saying “this is not for me, I will pass”) to be downvoted to oblivion and I shit you not, receive threats in DMs.

No Man’s Sky When it came out, NMS was a broken, buggy mess of a game with inventory management as a central mechanic. Punch trees got replaced with laser plants, but it’s basically the same loop of gather, combine, refine, build better tools. After a decade, NMS is a game chock-full of various content, with inventory management as a central mechanic. Not for me.

Souls-likes and Metroidvanias I have plenty of rewarding challenges in my real live and consider myself lucky enough to have work that’s fulfilling and gratifying. I don’t seek validation in games - I seek relaxation and escapism. I play most games on easy and don’t feel like proving my skills in the game is the right use of my time. I can appreciate skilled players - often watching speedruns, 100% attempts or professional tournaments, but when it comes to playing - I rather pick fun, easy, light entertainment. (Death Stranding is one of my all-time favorites)

on a flip note, a game that everyone seems to hate and I quite enjoy is Forspoken Sure, the dialog is cringe and there’s way too much of the same barks repeating (I need to look through menus, I think they added some slider to adjust the rate if I recall), but the traversal is fun, I love the UI design (gold and purple), I think costumes are freaking fantastic and combat is easy enough (on easy) to happily zone out to and play an hour here or there.

That hall of fame Reddit thread where a guy announced he will try heroin just one time, then comes back to explain how the experience was and how he will try again. Over the course of many posts we see persons entire life unravel as other posters scream of the top of their lungs for him to stop.

Never figured if it was real or scripted, but hella effective.

Arkinsaw