8bitdo SN30 pro. Small, lightweight, perfect button placement. SNES controller designers knew their shit, just add two sticks and a pair of triggers and you can play almost anything with it.

Connectivity is just one of many problems with joycons.

The shitty sticks that may or may not drift after a dozen of hours and the faulty rail cable that disconnects the SL/ SR buttons are worse.

Yeah, I got it mostly for the campaign, hoping for more Baldur’s Gate. It was so disappointing.

The story was uninspired, but most of all solo gameplay was so boring. One character, one NPC companion and you couldn’t control them in any way, starting at low level, all of that made your strategic choices practically inexistent.

And then the engine breaking everywhere causing it to rewind your action after 5 seconds because it suddenly remembered “hey, you were not supposed to be able to go there, we’ve put a bunch of knee-high crates to block that 5 meter wide empty hallway!”

Yah, I haven’t tried latest update yet. Problem with NMS is that it’s a bit daunting diving into it again and again, I don’t like returning to month-old saves and starting from the beginning takes ages. Especially that with all the content updates, you get a dozen simultaneous quests jumping at you at first occasion.

I’m still doing expeditions, and that in itself is already a ridiculous commitment IMO. I wish we could just do them at our own pace, the time limit is baffling. I noticed that last expedition literally 2 days before it ended, I got everything, but it was a freaking race to get there.

It had a few graphical upgrades through the huge content updates it got year after year.

Now there is more biome diversity, more decorative flora, better underground environments, more creature types…

If anything, they tried so much to populate it that sometimes I feel it’s lacking some truly desolate environments. “Empty” planets are uncommon, and even those are mostly cluttered with weird stuff and “anomalous” living things.

I’ve not played Forbidden West, but I’ve played all of Zero Dawn. I’ll just say, as much as I like the game (I do, quite a bit), it’s bad at being open-world.

Most narrow paths are only related to quests, and if you try exploring them before you need to go there the game punishes you by making it a chore to go and to leave for no gain. Also, the terrible message “you’re out of bound, turn back now or we reset to your last save” is one of the worst failure at world design ever. It pops up constantly if you’re just trying to explore.

And yes, I tried playing HUD-free for a bit (I had a great experience doing that on Breath of the Wild). As you said it’s almost impossible, the environment, while looking good, is way too messy to spot the small details you’re supposed to… Unless you turn on the magic compass and GPS.

In other games, paths and important items are highlighted with lighting and clear and functional visual cues. Beside the infamous yellow paint, HZD does almost none of that efficiently.

Even if it’s self-imposed, that still sounds like a terrible idea to me.

Hoopa : “Just gonna drop a bunch of those legendary idiots for shits and giggles. Catch, trainer!”

If someone complains about buying a finished game and not getting more of it later, they’re idiots and there’s nothing you can do but ignore them.

Publishers that do ultra-early access/roadmaps/live services with promises of content/bug fixes/trust me we’re making the rest of the game later, are clearly to blame for the mess too. They’re the ones poisoning the well.

But plenty of games release in a final state and that’s okay. They have to be firm about it though.

I didn’t know he did that, just checked… And yeah, the voice and tone are very recognizable but it’s also a bit funny that his character is a skeleton there too.

I don’t know what kind of funny or what style of review you’re looking for, but there’s Matt McMuscles, who does “What Happened” and “The worst fighting game”.

What happened is not technically always about bad games, but about troubled development in general. Most of them do end up rather disastrous or at least disappointing and are known for it though.

The worst fighting game, however, exclusively reviews bad games, since, well, he’s looking for the worst one.

Single joycon is barely usable, but the Wiimote was terrible for sideways holding.

Its shape was clearly never intended for it, and the d-pad was absolutely awful, one of the worst I’ve used.

The d-pad worked as buttons (which was how most games used it, in vertical mode), but for movement it was very stiff and almost impossible to get diagonals. For a console that featured virtual console heavily and needed a lot of classic controls, that was very bad design.

Hey, I backed that Kickstarter a long time ago!

Time to revisit it I guess.

Game doesn’t exist anymore where I live, but the last thing I bought from a similar store (down to overpriced games and being mostly about merch) was a 8bitdo controller several years ago. I was there, price was not excessive, and it was slightly more convenient than having one delivered.

Beyond that… I went a couple times just to pick up a free event pokémon on 3DS, and nothing else, and I think the last actual game I got from them must have been Order of Ecclesia on the DS.

The French branch filed bankruptcy 10 years ago.

Some of the stores became Micromania-Zing (owned by gamestop) which amazingly enough still exists.

Yeah, those have been primarily funko pop stores for years too. Their new games are like 20% more expensive than everyone else, and their second hand games priced like everyone else’s new.

Until they give a “better” reason, I am going to assume the one they hinted at is true, and Microsoft just decided that it was worthless because it wasn’t “Mikami’s studio” anymore. Honestly, I already suspected it.

In which case, fuck them. These games were not made by one person, a studio is bigger than its director. And the rest of them didn’t get even one chance to prove themselves.

Truly shows how little they value the people who make their games.

I did see a few low-poly, very PS1 or N64-looking indies recently, even going as far as mimicking the weird texture wobbling from the PS1.

But Penny’s big breakaway is not really low-poly, or something that looks like 5th gen/PS1. Not graphically anyway.

Though it’s mechanically rather retro, with the focus on move combos, scoring and speedrunning. It’s almost more of a linear kind of skate or jet set radio-like game than a platformer.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance / Bomberman Tournament multiworld

So… that’s a thing apparently.

I have a personal beef with that game :)

I am sure there are people with good memories of it as an arena shooter, but I had little interest in that. And as a Metroid, it sucked (…sorry)

I remember trying the First Hunt demo, that was a demo cartridge from the beginning of the DS and was supposed to be a short teaser for what Hunters would be. Back then I thought, yeah, with a game around it, it could be great.

Turns out the actual Hunters was absolutely nothing like that, and focused only on multiplayer. The only reason they tacked a half-assed single-player mode on it is so it could be sold to people who wanted an actual Metroid game. I’d respect the game more if they didn’t try to sell it as more than it really was.

The reveal wasn’t a complete surprise though.

It was hinted that guy would return in MP3’s ending, and apparently in Federation Force too (I haven’t played that one, but of course the reveal has been floating around).

Sure, it was still kind of hidden, but for those who recognized him at all, chances are they’d knew that too.

The trailer certainly failed at making his apparition exciting in any case.