Yep, I’ve been holding off on it for awhile because of this. It feels like it’s maybe never going to happen at this point.
Yep, I’ve been holding off on it for awhile because of this. It feels like it’s maybe never going to happen at this point.
I believe South Park: Fractured but Whole
It’s a novel hybrid of two genres, so the recommendations are all going to be split between them. The best (western) turn based tactics game is likely XCOM 2: War of the Chosen. The best deckbuilder card game is likely Slay the Spire.
If you want a tactics game that retains the social/character aspects, you’re looking for Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but that’s on the switch.
I should put “accessibility” in sarcastic quotation marks. Here, it doesn’t mean adding options or features to assist someone with different handicaps or needs. It means making the game so easy that anyone, even a toddler or game journalist, can finish it without having to learn from mistakes or think about what they’re doing.
Particularly with regard to excessive guidance. Varying degrees of “mobile game that makes you click exactly what it says for 30 minutes to prove you played the tutorial.” Those games may be the worst offenders, but less-dramatic hand holding happens in console and PC games too.
People are going to be pedantic about this one, because it’s not ALL games, but what you’re seeing is real. Game design, especially corporate design, has changed to accomplish two things:
Games are designed to be playable by as many people as possible for as long as possible. Some would say this is just Western AAA games, but lots of anime games have been doing this nonsense for decades - games with 10 hours of baby’s first JRPG tutorial and 80 hours of grinding and filler. Many of them critically acclaimed games that fans would flog me for if I actually named one of them.
There are indie games that help you escape this, but many take that accessibility-first approach that requires everything to be very structured and corral you toward the right direction.
Again, I think people are going to be dismissive, but you’re right. It’s a tough world out there for someone who just wants to play a game and not be suckered into a live service engagement trap, or ladder system that hides your real MMR to keep you grinding up an imaginary points system. It’s not like the old days when you can just pick something popular, you have to discriminate and carefully judge what you buy now.
All the usual problems you expect with lists like these.
Arkham City was for a long while considered the best, but age has arguably been kinder to Asylum (thanks to storytelling) and Knight (thanks to streamlining/modernization).
I don’t think there is any question on how to answer the literal post, though. If you could only get one of them, it’s Asylum.
Also, I would not recommend binging these games unless you are REALLY feeling it when you finish Asylum. The chief complaint about them was always that they did not change the formula around enough between games. I have to think playing them back to back exacerbates that.
I have a cool idea to prevent hardcore disconnect deaths: Let people play single player games offline.
MetalFX upscaling is a nice gesture, but turned out to be a lousy performance-quality tradeoff comparable to FSR 1.0. Apple Arcade had some nice gems like fantasian, but also ended up a recycling bin for failed f2p games. We can only assume the monkey’s paw will curl some way or other for this, too. Apple’s attempts to get gamers to buy their stuff is always a little half-assed.
Seconding slipways. It is peerless.
My experience on PS5 with my wife has been beyond exceptional. Best local coop I have seen in a terribly long time, basically since the end of that bygone era.
These responses do not leave me with the same impression as the article’s author. Both parties maintain professionalism, but they also both dodged the direct question of why Evening Star isn’t making a sonic game right now. I still think there is bad blood, and history makes me wonder if it was Iizuka wanting to seize more creative control than Whitehead’s team was willing to give.