I wonder if people realize that cyberpunk is meant to be a dystopian satire, and not just a cool aesthetic. It should feel like a condemnation of a number of modern practices (including our over-commercialization and hypercapitalism). I guess the issue with Deus Ex is that reality has jumped the shark so hard that it doesn’t even look like much of an exaggeration in some spaces, and more like the logical outcome of another decade or two.

I’m sure there are some weird tech bros out there that see it as a utopia, and that’s where I stop being able to see eye to eye with them. Who would want to live in a world where the cycle of poverty is more vicious than ever, where literal under-cities of people have to subsist on artificial light and synthesized foods that keep them alive, but only barely?

Aggression should be part of a game, but shouldn’t be the only way to play it. Obviously, when a game is optimized, it may be the best way to play (Monster Hunter and HAME speedruns come to mind), but a lot of great games try to design so that different archetypes can coexist and play off one another.

Street Fighter 6 encourages aggression. The Drive Meter system makes it so that turtling and blocking forever will end with you in blowout, taking chip damage and having worse frame disadvantage, as well as removing your ability to use Drive moves and opening you up for stuns. However, also hidden within the Drive System are some of the tools to deter mindless aggression. Drive Impacts are big moves with armor that lead into a full combo, so if you can read a braindead attack sequence, you can Drive Impact to absorb a hit, smack them, and then combo them for 35% of their life total. There are also parries, which can refill your drive meter.

Magic: The Gathering has tried to balance the various archetypes (Aggro, Midrange, Control, and Combo) so that every format should have at least 1 competitively viable deck in each meta archetype. Typically, Aggro will be too fast for a Control deck to stabilize and kill them before they can get their engine set up. But Midrange will trade just efficiently enough (with good 2-for-1 removal or creatures) to stop the aggression, and then start plopping out creatures that Aggro will have difficulty overcoming. And Combo often has nothing to fear from Aggro, since Aggro oftentimes can’t interact with the game-winning combo pieces. And because of this system, Aggro decks have to have sideboard plans ready for whatever meta they expect at an event or tournament. Removal or protection to get over or under Midrange, and faster speed or other types of interaction to take down or disrupt Combo. Magic’s systems (Mana/lands, instant speed removal, and even the variance that comes from being a card game) don’t punish aggro directly, but they make sure that there are usually answers out there.

You’re right, I guess I wasn’t thinking it all the way through. Guess it’s up to SE to decide if they want to hire more artists and spend their time polishing bits of older content.

Usually when a dev studio says “budget”, it’s primarily a time budget, not just money. Yes, money can be used to hire more staff, but everything we know about software development says that output doesn’t scale linearly with man-hours.

Fixing hats in the way they would like (which isn’t just the modded method of having ears or parts of heads clip through whatever hats/helms exist) would require them to go through every headpiece created so far and rework them for the races’ head shape. Is it possible? Yes. Is it the best use of their time and effort? Probably not. It’s a live game; they’re always pushing on for the next bit of content.

I haven’t delved into this game much, and I’m not well-versed in 40K lore, but do you only get to play as the Ultramarines, or do they have other legions/chapters to customize as?

I dislike the Epic Launcher and almost every move they’ve made as a company, but I’m glad that competition exists. People should have choices of where to get games, in ways that make sense for them. Unfortunately, I don’t really see a reason to choose EGS other than exclusives and freebies, but hopefully they actually develop it into a valid candidate.

In general, having more publishers and storefronts and developers in a place of stability is good for the industry. It sucks when studios have to get shut down because the funding isn’t there.

Any big finds in this list?

I’ve personally really enjoyed Sea of Stars. I don’t know if it’s too short or too long, because it did drop out of my attention for a bit, but the good moments are great. One of 2 games where I actually teared up/cried last year.

I like Into the Breach a lot! I’m not much for roguelike/roguelite games because I feel like I’m not improving/learning at the rate that the game expects, but Into the Breach is just so cool and fun, and it’s the tactics-based game that has made me think the most on every individual move. Each team plays so differently, and they do make use of the run-based system in interesting ways.

The study isn’t from Oxford. It’s from a team of Chinese scientists (likely in China) who used a large dataset collected in the UK.

The study is published in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, which the Oxford Academic collects and reproduces for their academic press.

If you care about story, I’d recommend going 0, Kiwami, Kiwami 2, 3,4, 5, 6, 7 (Like a Dragon), Man Who Erased His Name, and then Infinite Wealth (8).

If you specifically want turn-based combat, you can start on 7 and honestly be pretty OK.

If you just want to have an enjoyable time, you can jump in on any side entry, like Judgment/Lost Judgment, Isshin, or this new Pirate one.

Overall, the mainline Yakuza games have an earnest and serious plot, with moments that take it over the top. But all of it is interspersed with moments of random goofiness and levity. My cousins have spent months on Yakuza 0 because they got really into learning Japanese Mah Jong and enjoyed the slot car racing.

The Chromecast with Google TV^™

Bought it, gonna give it a shot tonight. I remember hearing about this while on a bus to class maybe 7 years ago, and even though I wasn’t a Spelunky guy, I wanted this thing immediately. Derek Yu seems to have a pretty good handle on how to make a compelling game, so I’m looking forward to seeing this collaborative project.

Is it covert if you know it’s happening and have agreed to it?

This game gave me my first real experience of melancholy. A sort of bittersweet sadness, born of what was and what could have been.

To the Moon is an awesome little narrative. One of the games that reminded me that there’s room to feel feelings in games. And the main theme song (I think performed by Laura Shigihara?) is one of my favorite pieces of music to come from a game.

I probably won’t end up playing this, as I’m bad at this kind of game, but man does it have styleeeeee.

Back in the golden days of community servers, it sure as heck didn’t.

For anyone not into PokemonTCG, this looks like PokemonTCG but will play with different cards and different rules. Energy is different (it looks like you have energy in an Energy Zone instead of attaching to individual mons), the battlefield is different (3 bench spots instead of 5), and so far it looks like they’re not including rules-block cards (the ex, GX, VSTAR, VMAX, etc).

I believe last time they showed it off it was something like 2 free packs a day, and trading is included (unlike the current digital platform, Pokemon TCG Live).

So overall, it’s probably a fairly different game that’s looking to simplify the gameplay and introduce the entire “collect and play” thing to people for free. Hook them in with this, and maybe get some people invested in playing “real” PTCG.

Honestly, Pokemon is one of the games with fewer money issues than other TCGs. A tier 1 deck in Pokemon costs $30-$120 for Standard format, which is what most people play, apparently. JustinBasil has good posts detailing the decks and key cards, as well as strategies and example gameplay videos.

I say this coming from MtG, where that price point is only really something you can do in Pauper (commons only format), and a Standard deck will cost $50-230, a Pioneer deck will cost $120-380, and a Modern deck will cost $270-700. In Magic, the most powerful cards (for competitive 60 card play) is the credit card.

Pretty sure YuGiOh and One Piece and Lorcana and Flesh&Blood and Digimon also have more expensive decks than Pokemon. Obviously, Pokemon can get expensive once you try to bring out your deck with special art and special foil versions, but for just obtaining usable competitive game pieces, it’s basically the cheapest thing around.

Maybe I’m crazy entitled, but I feel like if I’m spending a few hundred dollars on this piece of hardware, I shouldn’t have to pay an additional fee to get some of its basic built-in features to work well.

Embracer doesn’t really make a game good or bad. The harm they’ve brought to the industry has more to do with their acquisition of studios and then closing them down after realizing they’ve overextended themselves. In the early days, they were looked at as a potential boon to the industry, offering pay stability for studios with their size, but obviously they made some poor choices and have done irreparable damage to many developers’ lives.