Friendship

I’d argue it wasn’t forgotten in the prequels. Most of the characters and plot revolves around and is supported by very large well funded organizations (Republic, Trade Federation, ect) which means the clothing and equipment they have is less likely to be worn down. The same can be seen in the original trilogy with the Empire, storm troopers and imperial ships are well polished and not “used”.

Same, although to be fair I think the reason TotK got boring was because it was so similar to BotW. Both of them are incredible games but there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Agreed. I’m only two episodes in so far and it’s just been a fun adventure set in the Fallout universe which is exactly what I was hoping for from the series. I don’t need or even want an amazingly deep and thought provoking plot from this series so it’s been basically exactly what I wanted so far.

Except that’s not what’s happening. They aren’t increasing their FTE headcount, just screwing over their contractors to save a quick buck. Nothing to celebrate here except corporate greed.

Star Citizen, I like to poke my head in every few patches to see how things have progressed. I gotta say, despite what a lot of the naysayers claim, it has become quite a fun game and their development has only sped up since I first started playing. Still, a couple months hiatus every once and a while is worth it.

Fallout 4, I get that this is one of the more controversial choices but while the main storyline was super weak the world design was phenomenal. I love just wandering through the Boston area wastelands uncovering random things and fighting ghouls and bandits.

As you mentioned, they didn’t make ESO. Entirely different studios involved in the two games. They probably should have spent some time with the Zenimax developers before trying FO76 though.

Agreed, I’d much rather have no Blizzard than the toxic swamp that it was/is(?). I do wish we could have a Blizzard that designed games more like they used to, but minus the toxic culture though, which is what I’m guessing the above comment was meaning as well.

Well this certainly makes them more bearable at least.

Best: Baldur’s Gate 3, Star Citizen, Hunt Showdown
Worst: Starfield, Star Citizen

No kidding! Way more confidence than I’d ever be able to muster.

To jump in on Hunt Showdown, the initial learning curve of the game does require a little time to get used to compared to other shooters. However the biggest call out I would have is to not try playing the game solo. Hunt is very much a game that is made or broken by the company you keep while you play it and it takes a very special kind of player (a masochist) to enjoy playing it solo. Either way, definitely understandable to bounce off it, it’s a great game but not for everyone.

The implementation makes all the difference and if the world is just a boring empty place the novelty has already worn off from all the other games in the open world genre that have already done it. That said, games like Minecraft, Valheim, and the latest Legend of Zelda’s leave me with hope that open world games can still be fun.

Minecraft, especially when modded makes for a really fun experience exploring a vast world. I could see a game that leans into the adventuring and finding new dungeons and ruins to explore succeeding provided they make the experience of stumbling across them fun.

One can only hope. That policy has left Valve spinning in circles and accomplishing very little for a long time now.

As with the several times they tried this before, this is a train wreck of an idea for so many reasons. While I do love the idea of mod creators getting to make money doing what they enjoy, from the consumer perspective this is bound to be awful… I don’t want to have to get nickel-and-dimed by what are essentially third party micro-transactions… with no grantee that the product I just bought will even work with the others I bought or that they will continue to be supported if the game gets patched a year later. Not to mention virtually zero quality control, leaving users to trust in reviews, AKA other customers who put their money on the line.

And from the mod development side of things, this is going to make building off other mods a complete mess. Think of how many mods you have installed that have had other mods as requirements to work. Are those mods going to need to be bought by the user too? And are the mod creators going to have to set up some kind of revenue sharing with those dependency mods? What happens if a mod developer uses a free mod as a dependency, is that fair to the other mod creator? Do moders have the rights to request their content not be used by other mods? And if so what does that process look like and who arbitrates it? Having seen this tried before, it makes a mess and long term it will stifle collaboration leading to weaker mods.

Star Citizen. It’s a buggy mess as usual but it’s such a fun mess. Especially the Siege of Orison event going on right now, I’ve had some really amazing emergent gameplay moments come from it that have me very excited for the future of this game.

Saw this while I was in a meeting, working from home is great!

Exactly this, the idea that every viewpoint deserves to be respected and given an equal share of attention is false. Racists, homophobes, ect don’t deserve to be given a platform to spread their views and down votes are one of the more effective tools a community has to limit those kinds of content.

Guildwars 2 is guilty of most of the same things.

I can count the number of times I’ve been put into an empty server on one hand. The game has a pretty dedicated playerbase.

That said, I completely agree with the notion that time restrictions don’t really make sense right now. The game is far too buggy in it’s current state to really make the insurance claim times make sense and the developers seem a little out of touch on that. They have actually tried to increase the wait time several times to massive outcry from the community. I really think they would be better served cutting the grind down a little bit while they iron out the game.

A beautiful example of how teaching someone new knowledge helps everyone!