Same, all the Star Wars slop Disney has churned out has completely washed any lingering magic out of the fabric of the franchise for me. I don’t even feel the desire to watch supposedly good Star Wars products like Andor these days.

The best parts of Elden Ring were the parts where it stopped being Elden Ring. The legacy dungeons are where the game shines, and especially Stormveil is fantastic . Whenever I think of Elden Ring I think “God I wish the whole game was like Stormveil.”

I don’t think it’s the most beautiful game ever, and I don’t think it’s the best game ever either. It’s a very good game, a worthwhile experience (though just once - I don’t really feel a desire to go back) and I think it deserves it’s GOTY. We shouldn’t overhype it though.

Here is where I was surprised. My second case the game makes me choose. Between placing Blame, Ascend or Descend the spirit and its most loved one. That shapes the game for you each case choice matters in the end.

What I want to know is: are the choices actually interesting, though? For so many games with choices like this they aren’t really choices. It’s just “do the right thing and get the good ending or don’t and get the bad ending”.

Then be that poster yourself, I guess? There’s not much that can be done about this, this is just sort of how human beings work. Most people are going to be silent consumers and lurkers.

Also why are 60% of all autism posts by you?

Only 60% of posts by one individual actually means the community is active and thriving. Are you familiar with the 90-9-1 rule? Lemmy is still small enough that most communities that are any activity at all are being carried by a single individual.

Can’t wait for the next serving of incomprehensible nonsense from the Nomura-Najima dream team…

Same. I haven’t been let down by it yet, so hearing an AI review surge makes me very sad.

I thought he beat cancer and was back to acting? He couldn’t do Sam Fisher in his prime anymore, but maybe an old Sam on his last legs? Though I guess the clock is ticking even for that.

They are also extremely good at re-using assets.

(…) or the long-expected Dark Souls 3 remaster.

…heh? I mean I’ll take it but, DS3 doesn’t really need a remaster does it? Still looks great, still plays great… why? A Dark Souls 1 full remake on the other hand would be very interesting. Keep the level design, fresh coat of paint, revamp and modernize the bosses and go back and re-do some of the trash endgame areas that they just threw together on a time crunch like Demon Ruins/Lost Izalith. That would be an interesting project.

Though if we disregard the F-games apparently being Dark Souls or Armoured Core traditionally I will dream about this upcoming title being a new Tenchu game.

Give us one last proper Splinter Cell send-off while Michael Ironside is still alive, you cowards. A “final job” with a retiring Sam Fisher would be an amazing setup for a game. Not that I trust Ubisoft to pull it off, mind. But we can dream.

Absolutely, just keep in mind one thing: try to find Let’s Players who take things slow and pay attention to the story. It makes a huge difference.

Oh, is it iOS only?

That’s the best thing to do with Clair Obscur. Don’t even watch a trailer, just play it. I bought it full price, but liked it so much I subsequently upgraded to the Deluxe Edition just because I wanted to support the devs.

Skald was a really great, concise experience that really worked for me. If you like a bit of Cthulu-esque cosmic horror you’ll enjoy the world building I think. I finished it in about 20h I think, and it was very nicely paced. No filler or grinding, just a flowing story. Definitely an indie positive surprise hit.

There are tons more indie darlings though depending on what genre you’re looking for. Tactical Breach Wizards, Vampire Survivors and Balatro are just a couple that are all very different from the ones I already listed.

Same. I’m also interested

you get lemmy, mastodon, bluesky, threads all together

Wait, I’ve been waiting for an app like this. How does it support threaded link aggregation like Lemmy? Can you browse communities and feeds as you would any other Lemmy app, or does it display all scuffed like if you try to follow Lemmy communities on Mastodon/Misskey?

It’s not really the same, but it can be enjoyable in its own way. I watch a lot of Let’s Plays, but I tend to do so mostly for games I’ve already played myself, substituting it for a second playthrough. You can watch it mostly in the background - or skip through the filler - and still get another’s perspective on the best bits.

It’s also perfectly valid to watch playthroughs for games you are interested in experiencing but would not enjoy yourself. Very difficult games like Hollow Knight are a common example for this. It will give you an approximation without driving you to frustration - or getting stuck and unable to finish.

It’s never going to be the same though since the interactive element will be missing, and that aspect is the defining feature of games as an artform.

This is my favourite part of archaeology. It’s so easy to think of past humans as these abstract, serious and very different beings simply because we view them through the lens of what materials have survived. Which tends to be more serious in nature.

So every time we get reminded that actually no, we haven’t changed for thousands of years and people have always been people it makes me smile.

It is an interesting question. My first thought is that it stems from horses having a close working relationship with humans, which might interfere with the idea of viewing them as food. Same thing as with dogs, right? But the Mongols were maybe the prominent horse culture and I’m pretty sure I’ve read they ate horsemeat as part of their diet. So I don’t know that my theory holds.

What type of game are you looking for?

Just yesterday I played through GRIS, which was an absolutely amazing experience (though short). An interactive artwork of a journey through grief. Definitely recommend it as a short in-between game. The same developers released Neva last year, which was also very well reviewed.

Before that I played Mandragora: Whispers of the Witch Tree, which is a Soulslike Metroidvania with a PoE style skill tree. Really liked that one, the story was so-so but it has really good gameplay and super fun character customization. Good exploration, lots of secrets and i enjoyed the world as well. Looks pretty, too.

Blue Prince from earlier this year is a phenomenal game if you like escape room type puzzles. It’s an incredibly clever idea - a puzzle roguelite - and I had a great time with it. Gorgeous OST too. Definitely worth checking out, though be warned - taking hundreds of screenshots and 60+ pages of physical notes is almost required.

Earlier this year I played Skald: Against the Black Priory and I have a great amount of fondness for that game. A faux-retro RPG that pays tribute to late 80s style CRPGs it hit just right with me and ended up being my favourite RPG in a while. It’s fairly limited in scope, instead focusing on doing a few things well, and I think it really works out well for it. Beautiful music, great pixel art, great story. Also has some nice CRT emulation filters in the settings!

Which speaking of, right now I’m playing Blasphemous, which is another title with CRT emulation filters. It’s basically 2D Dark Souls but with more platforming. I have mixed feelings about the gameplay (I hate platformers) but the world building, story and lore are all immaculate and super cool.

Lastly, even though it’s in that not-quite-indie AA space you should play Claire Obscur: Expedition 33. Yes, it is actually that good, and much like when Elden Ring or BG3 released it’s kind of “required reading” to understand the zeitgeist.

But all of this is just my recent experiences off the top of my head, the list really does go on and on and on.