Lawyers gonna lawyer. And Japanese companies have never embraced modding.

Don’t forget distribution. It costs money to make a nice cartridge. It costs money to stamp a CD and put it in a pretty box. And that cost applies for every. single. copy.

Now compare that to digital distribution…

Roguelikes, such as Hades. A single run won’t take you longer than 30mins (and often far, far less than that – you’ll die, a lot).

Every run is progress. And if you feel like you’re not progressing fast enough, you can turn on “God Mode” (the protagonist is a god) and gain 2% damage reduction after each death, to make subsequent runs a little easier (no penalty in doing so, either).

Music is integral to build the game’s overall atmosphere. At least indie studios still get it: Look at Cuphead, Hollow Knight, Hades, Vampire Survivors, etc.

Still describing the Diablo 3 in-game real money auction house. People just gathered the quickest-to-gather saleable thing over and over, sold it en masse for real money. Little money × many transactions = lotsa money. Then they bought the good stuff.

Became a gold farm simulator, as full stacks of gold were saleable. If they had blocked gold sales (can’t remember if they did do so eventually), it would’ve just moved to X relatively-common legendary item.

First Steamworld game I didn’t really get into.

IMO, Heist > Dig2 > Dig1 > Quest > TD > Build

?!

Wtf, then.

It’ll get an influx of players next month with the GamePass release. How long that lasts is ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At least Magic cards are physical goods.

Edit: But apparently, MtG Arena is digital.

I’d like to see the actual Elf Wars. It’s a gap between the events of MMX and MMZ.

They already did X remaster on PSP; wasn’t awful, wansn’t great.

This article’s premise is BS. Easy mode is for people of any age who have not gotten gud.

I don’t disagree with you, but a lot of people, when presented with new game mechanics, don’t have the time to spend “getting gud”.

I know that if I were to start playing, for instance, Hollow Knight today, rather than at its release (cleared Pantheon of Hollownest), I’d likely have to put it down or install a nail damage increase mod – I have kids now; no time to grind at bosses to learn the patterns.

They made a comment about VR during one of their OLED Deck interview. Deckard – whatever it is – is still in the works, I presume.

You forgot Sea of Stars (which bested all your listed games in the Indie category at Golden Joystick).

Obligatory 🤡

Microsoft could be somewhat less shitty. Let’s see.

Disagree with the “anyway” thing. Traditionally, Diablo games haven’t grown their legs until the expansion/revision; where they became completely different (and better) games. This was true with D2/LoD, and certainly true with D3/RoS.

I reserve hope.

If Sea of Stars doesn’t get (at least) Best Indie, I’m flipping tables.

Fascinating how no inkling of this, then Robert pulls off what was thought impossible on the DE-10nano/MiSTer FPGA, and lo-and-behind, Analogue is here to cash in “save the day”.

Just buy a MiSTer and support Robert Peip’s Patreon, instead.