Part of me thinks the devs should just be more settled about having more relationships that don’t involve the player. You get 5 supporting characters, and character A, in their “relationship event” with you, admits that they have feelings for character C and want your advice because they don’t know how to express it.

I heard about a very silly, cartoony game that applies this as a basis: Buster Jam. The two leads are in a relationship, but it doesn’t affect their lazy heroic dynamic in any way. Funny to have a villain remark “…you and your GIRLFRIEND…” and not get corrected.

I would actually agree with him in some level. Art should always be evolving, and it should be looking past its comfort zones, even past areas many others have failed, to do so.

It doesn’t need to be a form of “disqualification” as he says, but there IS value in applying change even just for its own sake.

YES, absolutely. The child in the street looking for his hide and seek buddy is cute world building, but it should take up 0.0003% of my playtime. Don’t quintuple that occasion by making his line fully voice acted.

I feel like there’s an absolute banger of a JRPG opportunity if someone can nail the interruptive timing of Guardians of the Galaxy or Class of 09. Forget AI; comedic timing is the true rare technology.

With this and the comment lamenting mobile development, I suppose I should plug Curse Crackers, a game made with GBC aesthetic.

They seem like pretty good games to me, but so much of them seems so, SO far removed from my nostalgia of the original. There’s some comparison videos out there in how they deliver certain scenes, force some cameos too early, mismanage the music, tweak plot that didn’t need tweaking, and so on.

I mean…basically FFXIV’s Dawntrail expansion. But even then, a lot of their side dungeons and such have been referencing events/worlds from other Final Fantasy games via some multiverse theory.

The main reason Valve doesn’t step in on these is they have a firm philosophy of giving the community the tools to form their own outcomes, rather than directing them in every issue. So they might be dissatisfied with people writing “Woke TRASH!” braindead reviews, but also not want to take action on them.

The least they’ve done is remove the clown award so people have less incentive to troll. But I’d also like them to implement community blocklists; If you nag a game for “Having/not having LGBT representation”, you go on a blocklist 90% of the community is using.

When microwaving a thick food, like pasta, there’sa risk of the “deepest” part being cold from lack of microwave penetration. Shift the contents of the plate into a donut shape, so most of it is on the sides and a gap in the center, before microwaving. That helps the heat penetrate evenly.

Well, that’s the good part. I don’t think AI will ever replicate the kinds of full-system dynamics that occur in ranked modes, but I DO think it could make for an interesting challenge when the goal is to reduce the game state to just a few techniques the game is trying to teach the player.

For instance, an AI playing as Guile that can only use Flash Kick and Sonic Boom, and teaches players to counter him by spotting out his charging and blocking what comes through.

After playing Arc Raiders, I kind of wonder if the newer generation of AI could put together a challenge that actually fits the holy grail of fighting Game singleplayer.

An AI could be given a special avatar that challenges a particular theme of the player’s development, being strong in some regards but not in others. Think one enemy that’s a crawling ninja with super fast movement, another who’s a crawling hulk with high-range attacks.

The AI could also be guided by metrics of how fast its opponents learn mechanics or how much they enjoy the match, rather than “how do I beat this player”. I’d feel safe thinking a predictable AI would not be judged well.

EDIT: I honestly do get the knee jerk downvotes regarding AI, given everything it means in recent years. But let’s not forget it also refers to computer opponents in video games (which admittedly may see advances due to current mostly-icky tech)

I think the biggest thing it can help with is steady escalation of difficulty.

In level 3, you learn how to grapple. The level has a growing number of enemies that can only be beaten by grappling.

In level 4, you learn about pokes and block punishes; and enemies will use different attacks that can test your block (but grappling is set aside for the moment so players aren’t overloaded)

Oh, and crucially: This isn’t put into the set dressing of a big square stage with a “Training Step 5 of 182” HUD and a “Good!” and jump to the next lesson each time the player executes a mechanic once.

Have the president’s daughter kidnapped, send a horde of zombies, make the player a detective finding clues in the bad part of town. Break it up with a locked door puzzle, climbing sections, etc. The lessons of interest learned from every other action adventure game.

I watched a streamer I like playing through this. I really liked the cinematic element of some of the horror sequences, and there’s some nice “open world moments” and vehicle moments. That sounds initially like it doesn’t fit with a creepy game, but I liken it to the isolation of Highway 17 in Half-Life.

Best summary I can give: 3D-movement fighting game, very much based around having three heights of attack, and a few ways you can guard moves based on their height, as well as react to your opponent’s guard.

It’s mostly known for sexualized characters, some of which are visually on the “younger” side, and a very complex, DLC-driven, gacha-based method of unlocking other costumes for its roster. It shares a universe with the Ninja Gaiden games, so a few of those characters like Ryu Hayabusa appear as more than just cameos.

I’ve been at risk for carpal tunnel before, which is why I primarily use a keyboard.

…on a GUI.

Linux is great for a lot of things but so many open-source apps are terrible about giving you a visual interface for something, and then letting you use your keyboard to navigate it. Granted, Windows has steadily enshittified its lead on that front as well.

I’m imagining getting a headshot of Kasumi, upon which she indignantly says “Hey! My breasts are down here.”

I don’t think it’s a full hate train, since it’s a game that defined my early childhood, but Half-Life 2 had more flaws than I’d initially admit.

Some I’d the things you need to pick up on to enjoy the levels are not readily apparent in the moment. The gravity gun obscures your view, leading many people to get objects trapped against bits and bobs. They only introduced the intelligent save system in Episode 2, meaning many players get stuck just before a big fight at 20 hp.

The story, while often environmental, relies very much on Lost-style mysterious elements; not just relating to the G-man but the resistance’s ready acceptance of Gordon’s reappearance. Most crucially, what little further development we’ve gotten on it suggests Valve never really had concrete ideas for a conclusion, or even an answer for people’s burning questions.

I mean, not here. But give me five minutes to look up my secretary’s number in my Rolodex so I can dial her number on my rotary phone, and she could take a Polaroid of it for me to share.

I’m going out with a girl who confesses she always looks up to me and always feels at ease around me, even when I’m not saying anything.

Then, once I’ve finished playing that gacha game, I’ll drink a beer and go to bed.

There could be two major attacks.

First is pricing realism. Just like many pre-IPO products, it’s trying to gain interest. Someday, it has to make money, meaning everyone with a cheap/cheesy idea will need to pay for it.

The second is legislative attacks related to copyright infringement. I’d see it as a progressive legislator asking them for lists of permission from every image author they’ve grabbed from. Inevitably, they profess “We don’t have that!” And the model is blocked. Admittedly, that is not something I see happening soon, but it’s something to hope for.