Media Videogame thread

[MrHands]

Palworld is out. It has universally good reviews and has sold 4 million copies in like 3 days. It's breaking records in active steam users.

It plays a bit like a good Legends Arceus. I'm a few hours in and just built my first house. I have a few sheep and chickens (err, whatever the Pal version is called). The Pals can be instructed to work for you, and with some setup you can automate most of what you need done.

Comparisons to Pokémon are inevitable but it isn't really like Pokémon at all. The game is in early access but with the absurdly good reception it has received I'm excited to see where the games goes from this point.

 

[Divine Retribution]

Palworld is a mash-up of Pokemon and Ark, doesn't try to hide that fact, and somehow manages to make it work anyways. I'm not too deep into it yet and probably won't be for a while (work is a bitch), but it's definitely a fun game and while the Pokemon inspiration is evident, it clearly isn't setting itself up as a direct competitor to Pokemon and does its own thing so I could legitimately see this game maintaining a community, unlike other Pokemon clones that have come out over the past few years.

I wonder how long until we have competitive Palworld simulators.

 

[Ironmage]

Screw it, I'm apparently not getting much sleep tonight anyway. I feel like I'm broken as a gamer.

There's been so many things in recent years that have disappointed me that I can't get excited for anything. Many times they've been popular enough that I feel separated from the community because of not liking them (even if it's just that others move on while I can't). Sometimes I try to make do with the new stuff, but it's hit me with one of the tabletop games I played that my thoughts have degraded such that I can no longer really respect diverse playstyles.

I would love to see games that don't just feel like shells of their past selves, but I don't see what I could do to get that spark back.

 

[bdt2002]

Screw it, I'm apparently not getting much sleep tonight anyway. I feel like I'm broken as a gamer.

There's been so many things in recent years that have disappointed me that I can't get excited for anything. Many times they've been popular enough that I feel separated from the community because of not liking them (even if it's just that others move on while I can't). Sometimes I try to make do with the new stuff, but it's hit me with one of the tabletop games I played that my thoughts have degraded such that I can no longer really respect diverse playstyles.

I would love to see games that don't just feel like shells of their past selves, but I don't see what I could do to get that spark back.

Trust me when I say this is not just you. It’s only gotten harder for me to enjoy video games and tabletop games, ironically enough, since both of these mediums have the same core issues, particularly regarding playing with other people. It takes a lot less effort and risk to try something new than to stick with what you know works. And even then, there’s an argument to be made that the community around something you enjoy can entirely ruin the experience of going back to those games for one reason or another. I have as many complaints about modern core series Pokémon as anyone else, but the negativity across the fanbase also makes it hard to just ignore those and only play the ones I’ve actually enjoyed.

So, that begs the question. If newer games aren’t enjoyable, and older games are losing their appeal over time anyways since there’s nothing keeping them fresh… what now? Do you or I or whoever else just never play video games again? It’s honestly starting to look that way, for me at least. All we can do is learn to never get excited for anything else- I don’t care if that’s “negative” or whatever, when every time our hopes get dashed, we’ve only dug ourselves deeper into boredom and disappointment.

 

[CryoGyro]

A bit of extrinsic motivation is my main driver nowadays. I'm trying out and thoroughly exploring games I never would have cared about otherwise with RetroAchievements (SMB1, Mario Golf GBC, Crystalis). I've become an Old School RuneScape member to journey through and be part of decades of history. I engage with Magic because I can talk to a friend and write about it with no holds barred. All the while, I'm giving myself permission to 'not finish' something if other activities are calling me; this video has transformed my additude towards leisure.

If you feel like you've seen it all, make something of it. Don't just be angsty about games, try to articulate why they feel hollow. Don't handwave about 'community', dig into how social narrative can impact a game experience. You guys have the material for worthwhile conversation.

It's also okay to just not play games for a while. Consumption isn't a sustainable identity.

 

[Divine Retribution]

I've become an Old School RuneScape member to journey through and be part of decades of history.

I hope you cherish the memory of having free time.

 

[Rabbitcalipse]

Hello everyone,

I would like to talk about arcaea, it's a game that I played when i leaved Osu (yea, I'm a rhythm game enjoyer) i use to play it in a old phone that i use to have when i was 14/15, but, whit the time, the game goes updating more and more that my phone can't run it well.

Now, i have a tablet, I play it when i'm taking a break in the job, maybe my tablet have a problem that don't work when i touch it, Despite that, i could get a 8.97 potencial (It's my Accuracy Score) 0.03 more and i can unlock a new world with more sond (or maybe dificults, IDK).

Did you play or are you playing a rhythm game that could recommend me?

 

[Cancel cult]

ive got bad news guys
so, minceraft is getting an update that adds trial chambers, and with it these loot boxes you get for completing them, and one of the rewards is diamonds. you can only open them once, but in an effort to make servers more co-op compatible it isnt just once in total, but once per acount. however, you can buy multiple acounts to get more diamonds, then give them to your first acount.

minecraft is now pay to win.

 

[ant4456]

It plays a bit like a good Legends Arceus.

mfer thats called legends arceus

Comparisons to Pokémon are inevitable but it isn't really like Pokémon at all.

mfer you just compared it to legends arceus

 

[RainWaiv]

i got Lies of P for myself to play after i finish Super Mario RPG and I been really excited to dive in. Seems a "me game" lmao

I haven't played yet but I have heard it's good, and I do like the genre as a whole. When you get some ways through the game, would you mind sharing how you feel about it? I want to know if it's worth getting.

 

[MrHands]

mfer thats called legends arceus

The only reason anyone cares about that garbage pseudo-open world collectathon is because it has Pokemon in it. If it was Tem Tem or whatever no one would ever talk about it a week after launch. The only reason anyone cares about LA is because the bar for Pokemon games is so incredibly low that the only one to show any serious innovation gets a ton of attention. It still isn't a very good game.

mfer you just compared it to legends arceus

Main series games like SwSh or SV, not spin offs. Palworld does have some gameplay loop similarities to Arceus except it does virtually every aspect of it better. It even sold better lol.

I'm tired of making excuses for Gamefreak. The world's most profitable franchise is passing off some of the worst triple-A games on the market and is charging 60 dollars for what amounts to nearly the same exact game every single year. Palworld isn't exactly the same as Pokemon but it's close enough to make comparisons and unlike Gamefreak, a developer with many decades of experience and virtually unlimited resources, Palworld's dev team consists of like 10 people and a fraction of the budget.

 

[RainWaiv]

I'm tired of making excuses for Gamefreak. The world's most profitable franchise is passing off some of the worst triple-A games on the market and is charging 60 dollars for what amounts to nearly the same exact game every single year. Palworld isn't exactly the same as Pokemon but it's close enough to make comparisons and unlike Gamefreak, a developer with many decades of experience and virtually unlimited resources, Palworld's dev team consists of like 10 people and a fraction of the budget.

If the actually innovative games sold considerably better, then they would make innovative games. The reason they keep releasing the exact same game over and over again, as a buggy mess on release, is because there is absolutely no reason not to. They keep releasing the same shit every three years, and it sells solely based off of the pokemon name, because the 10 year olds and vgc players keep buying them.

 

[Cancel cult]

If the actually innovative games sold considerably better, then they would make innovative games. The reason they keep releasing the exact same game over and over again, as a buggy mess on release, is because there is absolutely no reason not to. They keep releasing the same shit every three years, and it sells solely based off of the pokemon name, because the 10 year olds and vgc players keep buying them.

no, the reason they do this is because if they dont release a game every three years, their revenue takes a huge hit. they take shortcuts because they have to. and then they proceed to patch out the glitches, and yet you still complain.

 

[RainWaiv]

no, the reason they do this is because if they dont release a game every three years, their revenue takes a huge hit. they take shortcuts because they have to. and then they proceed to patch out the glitches, and yet you still complain.

Game freak has clearly shown to be able to make games that are not dogshit and not buggy on release (PLA). They choose not to because pumping out a buggy mess in half a year is easier and more profitable.

 

[MrHands]

no, the reason they do this is because if they dont release a game every three years, their revenue takes a huge hit. they take shortcuts because they have to.

This is hilariously wrong. They push out games because the Pokemon franchise depends on rapid releases. But there's no reason Gamefreak has to be the ones making every game. Other studios manage rapid releases by assigning different companies on different games so each game gets several years of development despite releasing a new game each year.

Gamefreak is probably not worried about money as the games they produce sell better than almost literally anything else despite having the production quality of a college student's first Unity project. The Pokemon IP sells literal shit as long as a Pikachu is duct taped to it. Look at Pokemon GO upon release. It was barely playable with almost nothing to do yet it raked in billions.

and then they proceed to patch out the glitches, and yet you still complain.

Yes if a game is sold to you for full price that is as terribly constructed as SV you absolutely should complain. SV weren't just glitchy (they still are) they're terribly built "open worlds" that are barren, lifeless, and with some of the worst graphics I've seen a big studio release since the Gamecube. This isn't acceptable and unfortunately the Pokemon community is such a toxic mess that when you criticize anything a legion of fanboys rush out screeching "They're just a small multi-billion dollar indie company THEY'RE TRYING OKAY".

No Gamefreak is lazy and they're bad at making games. You're welcome to enjoy Pokemon but it is absolutely in your right to criticize a company that repeatedly produces things that are dramatically worse than they have any right to be. Pokemon games on the Switch SHOULD have blown our minds but instead they're just copy / pasted formulas from the DS era with somehow even less content / love and care. Meanwhile Palworld had like 10 guys make a game with more passion than anything Gamefreak has made in a while, so if a literal indie company can do that maybe Gamefreak needs to look themselves in the mirror? Yeah I get that Pokemon fans will buy anything but there's a tipping point where it finally will catch up to them and I think we're getting close to it.

 

[Cancel cult]

This is hilariously wrong. They push out games because the Pokemon franchise depends on rapid releases. But there's no reason Gamefreak has to be the ones making every game. Other studios manage rapid releases by assigning different companies on different games so each game gets several years of development despite releasing a new game each year.

Gamefreak is probably not worried about money as the games they produce sell better than almost literally anything else despite having the production quality of a college student's first Unity project. The Pokemon IP sells literal shit as long as a Pikachu is duct taped to it. Look at Pokemon GO upon release. It was barely playable with almost nothing to do yet it raked in billions.



Yes if a game is sold to you for full price that is as terribly constructed as SV you absolutely should complain. SV weren't just glitchy (they still are) they're terribly built "open worlds" that are barren, lifeless, and with some of the worst graphics I've seen a big studio release since the Gamecube. This isn't acceptable and unfortunately the Pokemon community is such a toxic mess that when you criticize anything a legion of fanboys rush out screeching "They're just a small multi-billion dollar indie company THEY'RE TRYING OKAY".

No Gamefreak is lazy and they're bad at making games. You're welcome to enjoy Pokemon but it is absolutely in your right to criticize a company that repeatedly produces things that are dramatically worse than they have any right to be. Pokemon games on the Switch SHOULD have blown our minds but instead they're just copy / pasted formulas from the DS era with somehow even less content / love and care. Meanwhile Palworld had like 10 guys make a game with more passion than anything Gamefreak has made in a while, so if a literal indie company can do that maybe Gamefreak needs to look themselves in the mirror? Yeah I get that Pokemon fans will buy anything but there's a tipping point where it finally will catch up to them and I think we're getting close to it.

of course they care about money. they are a company. owned by nintendo, who will do anything for money. if they dont do what makes them money, what do you think nintendo will do to them? also, the pokemon games have always had bugs, and the original red and blue were far, far, far more buggy than sv. and you cant complain about a game being buggy if they are working on it. are you asking for them to delay the game until it isnt buggy? all that would acomplish is that you would have to wait for the game, and gamefreak would lose money, because guess what, you are going to get the same product either way. hell, having everyone play the game to find the bugs probobly will end up resulting in less bugs, because they will get so many people finding the bugs. you tell me how a game studio should patch out a bug they dont know exists. so what is your problem? that you get to see that games dont magically come without bugs? that gamefreak dosent outsource the work to another company because that worked so well for bdsp? that they dont delay the game just for the end product to be the same? that they cant make a game with 3d models of 400 pokemon on top of having a giant open world without having bugs in it? and if you check the reviews for scarlet and violet, you can see that a lot of people loved the game. it is a good game. get over yourself, and wait for the bugs to be fixed like you claim you are capable of.

 

[Cancel cult]

also, palworld got more time than sv, and is also a buggy mess, and is also plagerising everything

 

[Amaranth]

yeah crediting palworld's success to "passion" is a bit misguided, they outperformed their budget primarily due to theft

but if a game like that can make such numbers it's pretty clear that there's a big hole in the market that pokemon could fill but gamefreak is refusing to fill

 

[MrHands]

of course they care about money. they are a company. owned by nintendo, who will do anything for money. if they dont do what makes them money, what do you think nintendo will do to them? also, the pokemon games have always had bugs, and the original red and blue were far, far, far more buggy than sv. and you cant complain about a game being buggy if they are working on it. are you asking for them to delay the game until it isnt buggy? all that would acomplish is that you would have to wait for the game, and gamefreak would lose money, because guess what, you are going to get the same product either way. hell, having everyone play the game to find the bugs probobly will end up resulting in less bugs, because they will get so many people finding the bugs. you tell me how a game studio should patch out a bug they dont know exists. so what is your problem? that you get to see that games dont magically come without bugs? that gamefreak dosent outsource the work to another company because that worked so well for bdsp? that they dont delay the game just for the end product to be the same? that they cant make a game with 3d models of 400 pokemon on top of having a giant open world without having bugs in it? and if you check the reviews for scarlet and violet, you can see that a lot of people loved the game. it is a good game. get over yourself, and wait for the bugs to be fixed like you claim you are capable of.

Use paragraphs buddy I'm way too lazy to read all that. tl;dr responses...

1) Gamefreak's shitty low budget games make an absurd amount of money. They aren't releasing games on their schedule to "keep the lights on" they're doing it to keep the Pokemon mega franchise moving. This could be fixed by introducing other game studios to make Pokemon games, giving each game more development time while keeping up with the release schedule, but Gamefreak refuses to back off and let others touch their precious turd.

2) Yes they should delay the game until it isn't buggy. They should release a functioning product or, if not functioning it should be released as "early access".

3) Pokemon Red was a buggy mess because of a variety of reasons but once the Pokemon franchise exploded and the budget / resources were increased Pokemon games have been fairly consistently bug-free. Even in Pokemon Red / Blue you could probably play through an entire game without knowingly encountering a glitch or crash. For SwSh or SV to perform so bad despite not really looking good something has clearly gone wrong.

they outperformed their budget primarily due to theft

Ah yes stealing such concepts as "cartoon sheep" and "penguin". I get that some Pals definitely are influenced by Pokemon but most just fall under "animal with elemental powers". There's a thousand Pokemon, pretty much any monster design is going to look like one of them. Have you actually played Palworld?

Palworld does fill a hole that hasn't been able to be filled by Gamefreak or the Pokemon company. Hopefully development continues because Palworld is actually incredibly fun even in its early access stages.

 

[Cancel cult]

View attachment 602370

 

[Amaranth]

Ah yes stealing such concepts as "cartoon sheep" and "penguin". I get that some Pals definitely are influenced by Pokemon but most just fall under "animal with elemental powers". There's a thousand Pokemon, pretty much any monster design is going to look like one of them. Have you actually played Palworld?

it's not about the monsters, for example "pal spheres" are spheres and not other shapes for a precise reason, all the survival elements and that whole part of the gameplay loop is derivative at best - and this is not new for pocketpair, their entire business model is "take successful thing, slightly reskin it, blend it with something else that is also successful, put it out in the world and see what happens"

you can say that they made a fun product absolutely, that's unarguable, but "fun" and "made with passion" are two very different claims to make

 

[Cancel cult]

if game freak outsources the work, we will get bdsp 2

ok, the point about calling it early acces, i agree with

in terms of soul, i played emerald and gen 7, and between the two of them, i found gen 7 had much more soul put into it. gen 7 might not have the same quality of game design, but care was clearly put into it. maybe you think the first games had more soul because you were younger. maybe your just blinded by nostalgia. regardless, you clearly have a bias, because the alola games had lots of soul. exibit a:team skull. team skull themselves are loveable numbskulls that everyone loves. this is contrasted heavily by their boss, guzma, who is the exact oppisite. it is clear that so much care went into making himas cruel, tragic, and crazy as possible. and po town has a perfect atmosphere for the time you go into it. this isjust one example.

 

[MrHands]

View attachment 602370

Boy you are really reaching with these aren't you. Cartoon sheep, cartoon lion, cartoon chicken. Not sure what Zorua is referencing, it looks nothing like any of the Pals?

Except the cat's face but at a point I'm just going to say it's either an influence or coincidence. Who cares lmao.

it's not about the monsters, for example "pal spheres" are spheres and not other shapes for a precise reason, all the survival elements and that whole part of the gameplay loop is derivative at best - and this is not new for pocketpair, their entire business model is "take successful thing, slightly reskin it, blend it with something else that is also successful, put it out in the world and see what happens"

you can say that they made a fun product absolutely, that's unarguable, but "fun" and "made with passion" are two very different claims to make

Spheres have been the preferred shape for throwing for thousands of years. Do you expect them to throw cubes lmao. There are guns so perhaps American footballs would have worked?

As for passion I'm close to 100% sure you haven't put any serious time with the game because every single Pal has unique abilities and traits. Not JUST working the mines, stuff like being rideable, having unique weapons, abilities or so on that are each animated with different expressions. I downloaded Palworld on my Xbox expecting to play it for an hour and end up bored but the energy and detail in the game is surprising. They went above and beyond many, many times when compared to Gamefreak who cuts Pokemon to "improve the game" but delivers something that belongs on a game system fifteen years ago that sells for for twice the price.

I'm not going to call Palworld perfect but it's popular for a reason. It's something that hasn't been done (well) before and maybe we as a community should look at what a low budget dev has accomplished and ask why Gamefreak / the Pokemon company isn't putting the effort in. If Palworld was a Pokemon product with Pikachu etc it would probably be one of the most popular games of all time, but instead we're stuck with some sub par games from a company that seems to have lost interest a decade ago.

 

[Cancel cult]

you are on so much copium right now.

neuteral is litterally the only type that has a different name

 

[Amaranth]

As for passion I'm close to 100% sure you haven't put any serious time with the game because every single Pal has unique abilities and traits. Not JUST working the mines, stuff like being rideable, having unique weapons, abilities or so on that are each animated with different expressions. I downloaded Palworld on my Xbox expecting to play it for an hour and end up bored but the energy and detail in the game is surprising. They went above and beyond many, many times when compared to Gamefreak who cuts Pokemon to "improve the game" but delivers something that belongs on a game system fifteen years ago that sells for for twice the price.

I'm not going to call Palworld perfect but it's popular for a reason. It's something that hasn't been done (well) before and maybe we as a community should look at what a low budget dev has accomplished and ask why Gamefreak / the Pokemon company isn't putting the effort in. If Palworld was a Pokemon product with Pikachu etc it would probably be one of the most popular games of all time, but instead we're stuck with some sub par games from a company that seems to have lost interest a decade ago.

none of this contradicts what I said, they were able to make a fun and popular product with polished animations and attention to detail largely because they didn't have to come up with much of it, allowing the budget to be spent elsewhere

it's like you're reading my posts and the only thing you can process is "hm, this person is not 100% positive about palworld, i better go on my spiel about how great it is" rather than actually engaging with the nuances of what i'm saying

i don't hate palworld, i don't like gamefreak, i don't think gamefreak has interest in innovating within their franchise, but i think it's ridiculous to say the driving force behind palworld is "passion" when the game is /at absolute best/ derivative