So over the winter holiday or so Dave the Diver exploded onto the scene. I finally got to play it and I totally see the appeal! Super charming/chill atmosphere, great art and visual style that's super dynamic and playful, and a lot of fun mini-games comprising the core loop such as the Diner Dash experience of running the sushi...
It is no secret that the industry is experiencing a pretty rapid, substantial contraction. Sega US announced layoffs yesterday, Embracer just a few days ago, Microsoft laid off 1900 actvision/xbox employees, and the list only grows larger/more dramatic the more you look into it....
I’m trying to find good gaming experiences for wife, who has some typical non-gamer traits, but also some otherwise hardcore traits. I find it hard to make sense of it, and I’m wondering if this is the right community to get some help and suggestions....
Hello again! I finally wrapped up Bluey: The Video Game with my son, and I am proud to say we collected everything! He really enjoyed visiting all the classic locations from the show. Like I said in a previous post, it’s a little rough around the edges but it does what it sets out to do for the most part and the $40 price tag...
Hey everyone! Going to test out a weekly "what are you playing?" thread to encourage some discussion. As this is "True Gaming," we would of course love to see a few sentences elaborating on your thoughts of what you are playing....
I love FMV's in games, plain and simple. I think they're so rarely deployed that at this stage it's almost always to great effect. Sam Barlow is the obvious one that comes to mind (Her Story, Telling Lies, Immortality) but there are also some famous examples from the past such as the often campy/ham-fisted but always...
It's a common issue at this point: a game releases, gets years' worth of updates and DLCs, and then eventually the developers move on to developing a sequel. The sequel comes out and... the depth and amount of content is nowhere close to what players have just been experiencing in its predecessor. The sequel may have many of the...
We had an interesting discussion on the discord about "hand holding" in video games. To describe a game as "hand holding" is 99% of the time a pejorative when I see it. So my question is 1) what constitutes "hand holding" and where would you say the line is? Is there "good" hand holding or is it always a bad thing akin to...
For those that didn’t catch the last Direct, Super Mario Wonder has announced that it will feature two different kinds of online multiplayer, both very different to local multiplayer - one where you can see “ghosts” of other players currently online on a given level, which can’t interact with you directly but can give...
I’ve been going out of my way lately to find unique mechanics, UI’s, etc. that fundamentally alter and improve a game, to the extent that their removal would severely hurt the game and make it less effective/impactful/etc. To be clear this is less “unplayable,” so not something silly like “removing the right thumb...
Before I start let me be clear that I am NOT talking about Zuckerberg’s “Metaverse” with a capital “M.” I am speaking of the concept writ large - aka a 3D/AR/VR/etc. "virtual world" akin to Oasis in the world of Ready Player One. This is incredibly boilerplate so if you are unfamiliar with the concept or want to know...
We’ve all played them. Games that live long in the memory; games that dominate your every waking moment for weeks at a time and games that you’d replay over and over again if you had the time…...
I'm old now. I've finally realised I get more enjoyment from watching someone play than to actually play the game. Why is that? Do you experience that as well?
When Ghostwire: Tokyo released, it seemed like every online social circle I paid attention to panned the game. “It’s open world, formulaic Ubisoft schlock, the gameplay is tedious and un-engaging, and the open world serves no purpose” was the general consensus....
I'm sure we've all played at least one survival game at this point, right? Minecraft. Valheim. Subnautica. Project Zomboid. ARK: Survival Evolved. Don't Starve. The list goes on....
Hello all! This is my first (non-test) post. I've wanted to chat about this subject for quite some time after I had a revelation while playing Mass Effect: Legendary Edition. I discovered that I am a sucker for romance in video games. Romantic love, sexual chemistry, what have you. I just really enjoy seeing budding...