SaysWho?

I made the palico look like my cat. It was so awesome. I started messing around with the palico's voice pitch to get it to sound like my cat and my actual cat perked up when he heard them.

Didn't you say they were gonna lose elections last year and then remained silent after Republicans got their teeth kicked in Virginia and New Jersey and Washington and Alabama? Didn't you say nothing and avoid the boards during the dozens of special elections in deep red districts that voted Trump 2-1 yet voted Democratic? Is that what not sticking looks like? Let's hope @SomeRandomNecro doesn't bookmark your post.

I think with Pokemon, it's the two SKUs that prevent it from reaching Top 10. With Smash, I think it's the December release.

https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/blog/2018/video-game-industry-predictions-for-holiday-2018/ First, a summary of the bustling video game market: Now the predictions: Driven by the launches of Pokémon: Let’s Go, Pikachu!, Pokemon: Let’s Go, Eevee! and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Nintendo Switch will be the best-selling console of the fourth quarter and year in unit sales. By year’s end, the time aligned installed base of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One will exceed that of the PlayStation 2 and Xbox by 6 percent and will be ahead of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 by at least 30 percent. All three current generation consoles will each generate at least 4m units sold in 2018. Headset and gamepad sales will continue to show very strong growth rates through the rest of 2018, with high double-digit growth shown in the fourth quarter for both accessory types. Physical video game title release count will exceed 400 unique titles, finishing the year up at least 15 percent when compared to 2017. Physical video game software dollar sales will finish the year with growth of at least 8 percent when compared to a year ago, while digital full-game sales will continue to grow at double digit percentage rates.

I loved Timesplitters 2 and spent a lot of time creating maps; I just don't remember the single-player "story" being more than what seemed like disconnected stories. It's funny; I actually get your point somewhat because games like Halo and Half-Life 2 were so hugely influential in the 2000s. Those genres, in terms of popularity, really flourished to the point where even Sony was trying to get in on it with their own FPS franchises, Killzone and Resistance. But I don't know if I've noticed a decline necessarily? Among the other games mentioned, plus the Deus Ex games Human Revolution and Mankind Divided (which are definitely more hybrid since they're more RPGs with FPS elements), there's been quite a bit. I think some of the bigger, more popular genres have shifted, though, so while Overwatch is very popular, battle royale games like Fortnite are taking over the public conscience at the moment.

Some of those are first-person games, but I'd question if they're FPS games (Prime and Fallout 3 in particular). I guess it's fair to say they have some elements of that even if they're not in the classic vein like the original Doom or Quake. Timesplitters 2 I don't remember having a memorable campaign; its strength was making a map yourself (and again, the lack of jump felt a bit strange just a couple years after its release). Borderlands 2, Far Cry 3, and Bioshock: Infinite were all released in the 2010s. And since I think FPS is being stretched just a bit on this, Portal 2 and Fallout: New Vegas were released this decade, along with Titanfall 1/2 and DOOM. Personally, I prefer third person anyway, so I'm happy to see some shift in that direction (I prefer something like Horizon Zero Dawn over the Killzone series, to the shift is all the better for me).

You said success in regards to Overwatch, so I brought up the sales. Also, 8th for the year and only being out for two months is pretty fantastic. I don't really look at Metacritic as a good comparison since reviewers used to hand out 100s like hot cakes. Many of the high-scoring FPSs of yesteryear, like Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, are slideshow games now with their horrid frame rate, and have weird decisions nowadays like auto-aim and a lack of jumping. So you can cite their Metacritic scores, but I wouldn't put too much stock into them if you did.

omg...

I guess a perfect choice for someone like Collins (very conservative but says he won't overturn Roe). The thing is, if given the opportunity, would he stick with that? I guess we wouldn't know until we know.

The guy he responded to is going to be surprised when the racist moron doesn't win, I guess.

I'm totally down. Lemme know how your schedule looks. I helped madmankevin get a plat even after me not playing for a while, so I'll start rusty but I'll get back in the groove.

Oh hell naw, I'd take 5 over 1 in a heartbeat. 1 is my "least" favorite, which I put in quotes because I love all five of the main games and also Peace Walker. The bad first-person view (more noticeable during the Sniper Wolf battle and the jeep sequence at the end) really hurts during those parts, and the lack of options for stealth are noticeable once you've played future games in the series. I went from 5 to 1 and 2 back in 2015 because And it was so apparent how much better everything about the controls were and the amount I could do and the way both stealth and brute force felt great to play. Witcher 1 I haven't played, but for people starting the series, 1 is usually far harder to get through IIRC. The less fluid gameplay is also apparent going from Uncharted 4 or Lost Legacy and back to 1. Sonic Mania I think is also a great example of iterating on a franchise and making arguably the best Sonic game (can't wait for the sequel). Doesn't mean the previous games don't have a place in history or aren't enjoyable/good games now, but there have been big improvements in so many fronts. Call of Duty was the best-selling game last year and Battlefront was number 2.

This really doesn't matter. For most of the same games back then, if released now, would not be considered best in class because games are continuing to do better than what came before. The fact that FFXIII was a step down from previous iterations doesn't really change the larger point. Games can try to go a different direction; FFXV's open-world was different than the world map in older FFs or the linear ones like X. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't (which always happens if you try something completely new or new within a series). But the overall trend keeps improving, which is why people's favorite "old" consoles are never Atari; you're not getting the same quality game as you would the Genesis or SNES. Games like Witcher 3 or Horizon or God of War or Last of Us are written in ways that weren't possible 20 or 30 years ago. Metal Gear Solid was one of the few games that had pretty impressive voice-acting and wit that games in that generation like Resident Evil did not. Now many games have better writing overall compared to their contemporaries generations back. Something like Undertale is written better than most games of the NES generation games that I can think of. For example, even indie games that look like 8-bit or 16-bit games typically don't have this in them:

I'm laughing at your first sentence. Well played. I'm all for a different kind of Halo since 4 and 5 didn't inspire the series' future or keep Halo up there in popularity with games like Destiny, Call of Duty, Battlefront or Overwatch as far as big multiplayer games go. In fact, after God of War, reinventing a series gets a huge thumbs up from me.

What does that have to do with the hypothesis that more limitations on developers create superior experiences?

That's the point we're making. Putting it on better hardware and not restricting the developers didn't lead to inferior arcade games compared to their console counterparts.

Significant concessions were made to get it to run on the NES. We can also compare Sonic 1 on Master System: versus Genesis:

That actually goes to my point up there in response to him (though I think his points have plenty of merit on their own even though I disagree). Compare this: to this: Or just this: The NES made many concessions, and there's no way I'd play the right compared to the left, and that's not taking into account the sound quality. Minor differences are fine, but the right looks significantly toned down.

NES had significantly more limits than the SNES, and the SNES is far superior as a result. Atari had significant limits and there's little I'd go back to as a result. Even simple things, like Super Mario World having a save system and SMB3 not having it, put World over 3, for example. Games had more personality to them as well in the SNES days since there was far more developers could do to enhance the look of a game.

I dunno, man. Some of that dialogue about, "Mmmm, you got rid of my henchman. How can I eevvveeer repay you?" and all that talk about his life being as important as an insect reminded me of dialogue I put into my Starcraft user-made campaigns in 6th grade.

Now this is more what I was looking for. Thanks! When I tell people I play REmake Remaster with modern controls, people go nuts. I say, "I totally get why tank controls make the game more suspenseful and that it was built with tank controls in mind. All of what you say makes sense, and I can't argue with it. But I cannot play this game anymore in tank controls despite the lovely sandbox they set up for me in the main hall to experiment because I despise tank controls."

Oh hell yeah, it was an influential game! I still love reading about what games that generation developers take inspiration from (I usually hear about RE4 and Shadow of the Colossus). I'm talking more to mike's point that games keep improving what came before. What was influential before can seem quite standard now and even behind the curve. Still doesn't mean I won't have fun playing them and respect what they brought to the industry, but as far as if a game can pound-for-pound be considered best in its class being released now, I get what mike's saying. Balance and level design don't necessarily correlate with pacing. Sometimes a game can slow down, but the level design is still spectacular. The Last of Us slowed down several times due to its stealth but it's because of how open the level design was and the amount of choices you had in all areas. Sometimes it's fine to slow down and let the story breathe. Pacing is one strand in a giant tapestry of game design.

When I read that everything comes together in a way that goes beyond "surface" level things like gameplay, graphics, presentation, and stories (which seem way more than surface-level), I expected something more than, "I think it's paced better." That's a real weak sauce position.

And what else?

What's that something that RE4 has over other games?