crispy4000

Hades is complete, credits rolled. I have mixed feelings about the ending, similar to Bastion, but it was surprising the way it wrapped up, so mission accomplished. The game as a whole is deserving of the praise it gets. It's mechanically perfect. The thoughts/fears about RNG in it are easily placated by some of the upgrades, or you just learning how to better game the systems. Since so many of the upgrades still kick ass and provide multiple choices on pick-up, it's hard to go wrong. Same for the weapon choices at the onset. Hades reminds me of some 8-bit games, with a focus on pattern learning and recognition. But it makes that process infiniately more enjoyable, because your arsenal and tactics change dramatically from run to run. By the time you've gone on a few dozen escape attempts, you tear up the place, since you've learned how to game everything, from the upgrades to the enemies. Or you can turn up the 'heat' gauge to test your skills further. It's one of the most satisfying skill-feedback loops I've experienced in a single-player game. 10/10. I'd rate it lower if I could find anything truly worth complaining about. The best rogue-like I've played, maybe the best indie game as well on the whole. It's a game ass video game, in the best way possible.

SW Battlefront II Celebration Edition is next week. Surprise, surprise, we're seeing EA games given away now.

Had my best run ever earlier today. Rail w/ the reload damage bonus. On attack, I had homing, hangover, slow on hit, and slow during hangover bonuses. Deflect and sprint on dash. Slowed-down enemy projectiles. Reduced damage taken from close-up attacks. HP upgrades to 300HP. And the Poseidon Cast (invulnerability + sprint damage) with auto-charge for it. Easiest time I ever beat Hades. I didn't even lose half of my life bar. I thought it was my 10th run with where the story was going, I'm a little disappointed it wasn't considering how good it felt.

Which is also why good 3rd party support generally has more to do with multiplatform stuff. To be fair, I never really liked the idea of playing a blurry and fuzzy Doom or Witcher 3 on a portable. Even less playing Control streaming from the cloud.

Go with the purple weapon.

It was. You had Microsoft come reasonably close most often, in the 1700p and up range. Sony meanwhile was very transparent that you'd see their games perform to 4k with checkerboarding. So 1440p (the next standard resolution down) was understandable when upscaling wasn't used. But those were with current gen games at the time. Not prior gen games patched up. That's the bigger problem with marketing Series S the way they have.

Microsoft is touting Series S as a 1440p next-gen console. But a number of prior gen games are running at 1080p after being patched for it, including some of their own, like Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 4. If it's struggling to meet its 1440p target with last gen games, is it proper to market it as a 1440p next-gen machine? If you'd answer that no, they weren't being upfront enough.

Most of what you've mentioned yes. In some cases they foot the bill for development and publishing. In others, they're just paying it to keep it off other platforms, or certain other platforms. And everything in between. Nintendo doesn't have a history of being as bad as Sony and Microsoft about this. Mostly because they don't go into their deals trying to pull a fast one on their competition ... unless it's Monster Hunter.

They're paying for most of those though. If it's a (timed) exclusive from an AAA or AA publisher, it's Nintendo dropping cash. Gotta look at how the rest of the industry is or isn't supporting the Switch to get the full story.

Hey, if you wait until MP4 comes out, maybe some 1st party games will drop in price a little more reasonably. There's almost two generations of games to catch up with now on the Switch if you include Wii U ports. Some of the games you probably don't think of as marquee are stellar. Stuff like Pikmin 3, Captain Toad, Donkey Kong: Tropical Freeze, Mario & Rabbids, etc.

I'm a little surprised that Nintendo managed to do so well with indies. For a while on this board, there was this idea that indies were only doing well because the eshop wasn't over-saturated yet. Then they kept selling, and coming there first... Maybe in the future there's more to lose, with subscriptions taking off, and cloud gaming on phones. Or maybe not.

Far and away the biggest issue with the Wii U was the hardware itself. Imagine if the Wiimote had no mainstream appeal whatsoever and cost twice as much to produce. But it was still bundled with generation-old hardware. That's the nightmare scenario Nintendo created for themselves. Good games can come with time, as the vast majority of console launches illustrate. But that controller? It made the whole package dead on arrival. They'll never fall that hard again unless they make similar hardware mistakes. Nintendo never actually abandoned anyone. They just grossly miscalculated the appeal of the albatross they saddled themselves with.

That's alright until Nintendo decides it doesn't want to partner anymore. RIP Alpha Dream.

Yup, the Xenoblade 1 remake on Switch has already passed lifetime sales of the first game on Wii. The core audience on Wii wasn't as absent as some forum dwellers tried to convince themselves. Franchises like Zelda did sell better there than on Gamecube. But there's little question Nintendo's got a tighter grip now. Just look at Smash Ultimate, it's on track to double the copies Brawl sold.

Spent a little more time digging around on Steam for anything appealing, but ended up going back to Epic for Journey to the Savage Planet for $5. Steam sale ends in an hour.

Same with Camelot.

Yet the Switch illustrates that their core audience is growing larger. Most of their tentpole properties are selling at a faster rate than they ever have. Even their niche hardcore properties are booming relative to the past. It's very odd to make their core audience leaving a sticking point now. Generally speaking, they're not leaving Nintendo. They're rallying for them.

Nice, it's good they're locked in. Good studio, and very anti-crunch too from what I remember.

How hard is it to see that I did? Maybe I should use bold letters and underline it next time for the peanut gallery.

Sure, if it’s marketed as such and looks the part for whatever platform it’s on. Just my 2 cents.

I'm aware. Would you consider Grezzo's OoT/MM remakes to be AAA?

Neat. I've heard some people swear to it as secretly the best 2D Zelda before I came to D1P. I'll be checking it out.

Eh. I could see why it could be talked down like that. Both as a remake and an isometric 3d game. On the other hand, it's a much better game than the indies I can think of going for similar things. (ie: HoB, Yono, Oceanhorn) So is A Link Between Worlds. They're both must play classics in my book.

I think the PS1/Saturn days were some of the worst with it. I still remember loading screens between rooms. Games got a lot better at hiding it, or just giving you one long loading screen to get in and start playing. (which got infinitely more tolerable with suspend/resume)

All this talk of Alundra on here of late really makes me think I should get around to it in 2021 as well.