Brave Little Hitachi Wand

Time to pass laws, this shit keeps happening. If you sold a game over $x that completely ceases to be playable within X years, you should be forced to open-source your code.

Won’t bother guessing at what the best numbers should be, hardly matters as I’m sure lobbyists would defang the whole thing as much as possible.

It does! Thanks, looking forward to the next dispatch ^^

Great to see another update. One of my buddies is practically a game industry savant so I always feel a bit out of my depth with him. Reading this is my cheat sheet for talking points with him.

Who do you know of that talks about games as art? That’s more my focus, and the only one that really seems to tick that box for me is Noah Gervais - and he’s great, but I would love more variety if you know anyone doing pieces like that.

It’s a little cringe in retrospect, but I really liked my time with Makai Kingdom. Avoid if anime stuff isn’t your bag.

Ico had some interesting ideas that are worth a look.

Rogue Galaxy was pretty okay.

Psychonauts deserves a mention, though it’s kind of obvious.

Red Faction had cool political leanings for a game of that era.

You’ve got heaps of great suggestions already so I’ll leave it at that.

I’m honestly just jonesing for some Split/Second, looks like it’s still not there yet!

Thanks for the newsletter! I am not good with fediverse how do I like and subscribe… Your talk of emulation on the deck awoke something in me. I checked and yes, it appears you can emulate 360 on it too.

I was interested in the rest, but this has driven every other thought out of my head. I don’t even know how to make breakfast in this state. I’m a wreck.

It’s one of my top five all timers, and my kid’s. Raising em right. I was just trying to figure out where this other fella was coming from.

I suppose you’re right, I guess I had a blind spot there. Haven’t played it.

I’ve never heard of B: AA described as a metroidvania… How do you figure that one?

I still haven’t gotten to Ori yet (a glaring omission I know). Never heard of the other one but I’ve wish listed it.

I’ve seen video essays about metroidvanias that talk about “getting lost”. The real point is to follow clues, feel immersed in a world, learn to find your way, and make interesting decisions.

In Hollow Knight, it’s no problem to use the compass if you find that aspect too burdensome. I really enjoyed my time with Axiom Verge, and I seem to recall it came with a compass as standard? Perhaps that’s wrong, it’s been a few years since I picked that one up.

More to the point, which metroidvanias did you like and what did they do differently?

Seems like games with that good old novelistic style is now entirely dependent on indie developers.

I’ll probably get it if I hear Obsidian took any creative risks, but so far I’m hearing that it’s a mass appeal oversimplified ARPG with looter shooter vibes. Not really the kind of thing I crave from Obsidian.

Told you my instincts suck

What the fuck is that controller. God I hate it.

One thing I know about myself though, is my instincts suck and I’ll probably be eating those words before long.

I really loved his work. Thankful to be finding out from the ones who introduced me to him.

Zombie Kidz is quick, cooperative, and has plenty of achievements (with a sticker book to record them) as well as unlockables through gameplay. You get to use teamwork and planning, and turns occur in quick succession.

I think it might tick every box you mentioned.

Wishing them luck. I love all their work so far, I don’t mind games that size at all.

Is it such a failing? I hope I haven’t upset anybody.

It just seems like unnecessary noise in an already noisy world.

The context only increases the granularity of my distaste. We live in a society of conspiracism and forgetful unthinking chaos. I don’t want to read entrails for clues about the future, I want to wait patiently for a good game and not become schizophrenic trying to connect meaningless dots.