whatchu playing now

np! It's PvE coop, and you can control more than one character (one of our party wasn't feeling well so I was driving two) -- though I think that you can only have 5 playable characters in fights (so there's a hard mechanical limit there). I'm playing a private game, so I haven't had to worry about randos, but our two game sessions have been scheduled for 3 hours each so far.

Game sounds like it's not bad, though not my kind of thing
I will say that the general baseline level of art quality in indie games is frankly SO high now that it's hard not to judge Wildermyth. Though maybe they're deliberately trying to evoke middle school coming-of-age graphic novels, I dunno

idk i like when games feel like they're actually indie like one or two people made them and didn't necessarily have dedicated artists who know how to draw polished character art. but that game doesn't look like that overall

i don't know about methodology, etc, except that 50,000 people voted

https://kotaku.com/poll-here-are-japans-top-100-video-games-of-all-time-1848275437

100. Persona 3
99. Pokémon Platinum
98. Persona 4
97. Super Mario World
96. Romance of the Three Kingdoms
95. Mother
94. Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War
93. Persona 5 Royal
92. Monster Hunter 4G
91. Street Fighter II
90. Final Fantasy VIII
89. Super Mario Galaxy 2
88. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
87. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate
86. Monster Hunter
85. Dragon Quest VI
84. Final Fantasy XI
83. Dragon Quest VII
82. The Legend of Mana
81. Dragon Quest Builders 2
80. The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask
79. Metal Gear Solid
78. Nobunaga’s Ambition
77. Mario Kart Wii
76. Kirby Air Ride
75. Animal Crossing: Wild World
74. Super Smash Bros. Brawl
73. Gran Turismo 4
72. Kirby Super Star
71. Dr. Mario
70. Monster Hunter World
69. Super Mario RPG
68. Pokémon X/Y
67. Bloodborne
66. Ghost of Tsushima
65. Suikoden
64. Pokémon Heart Gold and Soul Silver
63. Final Fantasy III
62. Xevious
61. Super Smash Bros.
60. Pokémon Black 2 and White 2
59. Dead by Daylight
58. Animal Crossing
57. Super Donkey Kong
56. Super Mario Galaxy
55. Yokai Watch 2
54. Dragon Quest VIII
53. Tales of the Abyss
52. The Legend of Zelda
51. Final Fantasy IV
50. Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire
49. Kingdom Hearts
48. Nier: Automata
47. Final Fantasy XIV
46. Dragon Quest II
45. Kirby’s Return to Dream Land
44. Dragon Quest X
43. Xenoblade
42. Persona 5
41. Momotaro Dentetsu: Showa, Heisei, Reiwa mo Teiban!
40. Xenogears
39. Dark Souls III
38. Puyo Puyo
37. Final Fantasy IX
36. Pokémon Gold and Silver
35. Xenoblade 2
34. Final Fantasy V
33. Final Fantasy VI
32. Resident Evil
31. Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together
30. Apex Legends
29. Okami
28. Mother 2
27. Dragon Quest XI
26. Pokémon Black and White
25. Tetris
24. Pokémon Red and Green
23. Fire Emblem: Three Houses
22. Animal Crossing: New Leaf
21. Splatoon
20. Minecraft
19. Suikoden II
18. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
17. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
16. Kingdom Hearts II
15. Dragon Quest IV
14. Pokémon Sword and Shield
13. Undertale
12. Super Mario Kart
11. Pokémon Diamond and Pearl
10. Super Mario Bros. 3
9. Final Fantasy X
8. Chrono Trigger
7. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
6. Dragon Quest III
5. Splatoon 2
4. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
3. Final Fantasy VII
2. Dragon Quest V
1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of The Wild

more than a bit of recency bias there

the non-japanese games: Undertale, Minecraft, Tetris, Apex Legends, Dead by Daylight, Ghost of Tsushima

more than a bit of recency bias there

more than a bit of recency bias there

i just think its interesting to see what they are given theres so few

also really underscores how big a flop N64 and gamecube both were, they're almost absent from this despite most of the list being nintendo stuff.

no mario 64!

I just looked it up (having never owned a gc or 64, we were a ps household), and the n64 sold 5.5 million units in JP compared to 20m in the US and 6.75 in Europe/Aus. Ps1 sold 20 million in Japan alone. Whole different level domestically, plus a lot of those games probably not in arcades?

Am also interested looking at the bestselling list of ps1 games and seeing what didn’t make the list

yeah n64 was carried by the US which liked the rareware games a lot more, goldeneye especially

was a difficult console to develop longer games like JRPGs for since you had like 32mb cartridges instead of 700mb CDs
gamecube fixed this but couldn't cut into ps2's huge momentum especially since ps2 was also a DVD player at a time when those weren't trivially cheap

Undertale is interesting because I wonder how all the dialogue translated? I guess well?

probably? it's pretty rooted in the style of a bunch of japanese games in the first place (dq, pokemon, earthbound, moon, etc)

Yes but localizing a game jammed wall to wall with witty dialogue that depends on timing and slang is no small task. I've got a whole book about it going the opposite direction for Earthbound. So kind of curious how much of it potentially got rewritten vs. stuff that translated seamlessly, especially since it appears to be pretty darn popular over there. Might be interesting to compare.

Mario has always been more popular in North America than in Japan. I believe New Super Mario Bros. on the DS was the first one to sell well in Japan since the original.

I'm currently playing Mario Odyssey on my new Switch and it is wonderful. Kind of like SM64 but with 10x as much stuff.

that's just not true, mario is a big deal in japan, it was the consoles that flopped

zelda has a far bigger NA>Japan differential in interest (or did before botw) and metroid even bigger still

part of it is probably that they didn't make any new 2D marios for like 15 years until wii/ds

They didn't like 64/Sunshine in Japan?

they did fine proportional to the amount of N64s/gamecubes in japan (very few)

Mass Effect remake is up on gamepass so thought I'd finally give it a go
can't get over how zoomed in everything is, can barely see anything ahead and my character takes up so much of the screen. so used to 3rd person games that let you change the field of view or zoom back a bit, maybe the PC version allows this?
the writing and voice acting is pretty bad so far, i guess they kept all the original stuff from (looks it up) oh wow 15 years ago, that makes more sense i guess
can you tell I'm not having much fun haha

ass effect

Having a lot of fun with the painting game Chicory at the moment. Don't know if it will have much to offer once the novelty wears off but for now I'm into it.

Death's Door is a lot of fun so far (though I'm only about 2.5 levels into it), and appeals to me more than other Souls-likes because:

1. dying is a lot more forgiving (you don't lose your currency), and
2. the art style is cute and colorful (the grim dinginess of most From games feel unremittingly oppressive to me).

ya need a group, but this would be a fun ILX game.

City Guesser! you can set how difficult you want it to be, you have ten or more players, you see 100 seconds of footage/sound of a location, and you guess where it is. closer you are, more points.

10 rounds. seriously fun!

https://virtualvacation.us/guess

Just beat Demon's Souls and figured fuck it, let's go back to the first Dark Souls... it's wayyyyyyy easier than i remember.

I got Cyberpunk, and for as much shit as this game got last year, I’m rather enjoying it.

It's probably been patched a lot since release

cyberpunk is a lot of fun, but hilarious if you do any grinding at all — you can pretty easily make a character that can one-action (shot or hack) kill anyone

it’s really funny to take out an entire building of dudes from down the block

Guardians of the Galaxy in PS5 is a nice visual spectacle (looks consistently good in the new ray tracing mode, fine at 30fps unlike Miles Morales or Demon's Souls), engaging enough story and combat

I also got Assassin's Creed Valhalla off the recent Epic sale to casually play on the laptop and it's insanely beautiful looking, never thought I'd be indulging in escapism by walking round Tamworth tbh

I guess the gameplay loop will get appallingly repetitive sooner or later but I quite like the recent games' side mechanic of gradually rooting out cultists

i’ve got the microsoft game pass for pc thingy and have been playing halo infinite

this has always been a playstation/pc home, so i’ve had little experience with the halo series

jumped into halo infinite, playing it on the tv with a controller. completed most of the campaign, been having a lot of fun with the multiplayer. matchmaking is broken for the big game modes right now, but just jumping in and playing some 4v4 matches is a lot of fun. i’m not that competitive, just like having a fun time and it’s pretty well-balanced for that

i have no idea why the people who are the worst at driving the vehicles always decide to drive the warthog, but it’s hilarious. i jump in the back and inevitably the driver just drives directly into a rock

whole lot of jumping, if you didn’t gather that

halo is all about driving like an asshole and doing stupid stuff, i guess there are competitive types out there but i'm here for the madness

i was really enjoying the open world lite stuff and knocking out map icons, now that i'm back in corridor city i'm a little less interested. there's kinda too much story imo

looks and feels great, i love all the variant weapons and vehicles you can unlock

the grappleshot upgrades in single player are ridiculous and fun

I think half of the guys I've taken out since I upgraded it to the max level were just pure grapple kills

100% agree, the hookshot rules.

never thought I'd be indulging in escapism by walking round Tamworth tbh

This is the main reason I’m excited about this game, but I’m still in the intro section in Norway and it’s a slog, snowy mountains are just such an open world cliche at this point.

Yeah the start is fairly long and boring alright. Makes for a nice contrast when you then get access to the incredible natural majesty of [squints at notes] Ravensthorpe

At this very moment? The latest installment of "Antigen Internet Radio," on the Ship Full of Bombs podcast. SFOB is a real mixed bag, but this show is one of the best. I love his commentary, which is absolutely scathing.

Oops haha I misread the question.

awww and I was trying to imagine what a podcast that was also a game would sound like.
played thru Gorogoa in a couple of hours. perfect length for the kind of game it is, some pretty art and puzzling and then it's gone. good stuff.

That's a million dollar idea right there.

gorogoa rules

Played breath of the wild for a few hours. Ambitious changes for the series but some seem for the worse. Not sure if taking 10 minutes to walk in a straight line to the next dungeon really improves things. Most of the weapons suck so far -- maybe i should just bomb everything.

nba 2k22 is fun but has the very bad graphic design. every menu looks different and each one worse than the last. sometimes it's cool and technical and boring, sometimes it's jagged mountain dew lettering, sometimes it's these bizarre drop shadowed WWE PPV logo things, also every background is every color

has the difficulty improved? I used to win by 50 every game cos of how easy it was to steal back in the day, but it's been a few years

it changes difficulty based on how you play iirc. it can get pretty tough pretty quick if you know what you’re doing. i never had the patience to learn all the post up moves and crossovers and stuff though

i was never really good at any of that either, lol. just relying on steals and fast breaks

i am trying to unlearn my steal-spamming ways, getting called for it left and right here

i am shamefully kind of addicted to the myteam mode, the stupid pokemon thing that's wholly constructed to make you spend real money on imaginary cards. obviously i don't do that part but trying different arrangements of poke-players vs the computer is a good time. giannis wildly OP.

i uploaded this simplified graphic of the most famous sculpture of my metro area to use on a livery, and some guy chimed in with his own amusing artwork related anectode

https://www.gran-turismo.com/us/gtsport/user/notifications/decal/11767790/8368321499567751680

the middle aged anglo plur vibes of sim racing are something else