Heya, I dig the walls of text sometimes! I also tend to bounce around a variety of games, so I like the idea of short notes about each. Until recently I was writing similar notes digitally as separate notepad files and littering them throughout my computer, but I've been trying to make a habit of using stuff like Zim or Joplin to keep them better organized. 😅

Also right there with you on covering weird jank and "subpar" games, so thanks for writing about them!

Hey yeah, appreciate the detail in how you go about it! I'm kinda surprised by the responses saying they don't tend to write anything until further in and/or completion, but it's reassuring in a way, as that's been my approach too for some time.

I also dig that you try to engage with the "soul idea" as you call it of games. It resembles what I've read elsewhere of a reviewer trying to evaluate in part on whether a game achieved what it set out to do or not, which I thought was interesting.

Interesting approach, and I get it for those more involved or longer games, as some don't even have all their systems in play till awhile into the game (which is worth noting in itself!).

Thanks for your perspective!

Oh yeah, and here's to Outer Wilds! Absolutely a game for the ages!

I agree, and strive to remain cognizant of how both game size and digital only games serve to widen the digital divide.

Appreciate your reply compelling me to elaborate, as without I see where it can read like, "why not redownload several 50+ GB games" which unfortunately is increasingly people's situation with games. 😟

It's decent enough to consider it, I'll give you that.

Something worth adding, I think:

I mainly play smaller games (like ≤ 10 GB, often below 5 GB at that), with few bigger ones in the mix, which is why I even considered this method.

Also back when GOG Galaxy was being introduced, GOG had fewer big games, I think. If not then it's that I lean towards smaller and older games in general.

@JulesTheModest Er...How do you mean? The Galaxy app has its issues, but I've not run into this one.

Biggest issue I ran into was years back trying to point it to my existing directory of GOG games from before Galaxy to get it to recognize them without reinstalling them, but eventually I just decided to reinstall whenever I felt like playing them again (and uninstall from old location).

I think I may have it wishlisted, so I'm definitely trying to keep an eye on it. Waiting till it's fully released so I don't feel compelled to play it more like pseudo-QA and enjoy it less though

Thanks for the suggestion!

It sounds kinda familiar, but I don't know if I have or not. I'll have to look into it!

I'm also bookmarking Worlds Apart to check out later, so thanks for both suggestions!

These are solid suggestions for sure! I still need to get around to the rest of the Dishonored series past the first and finish Prey.

Immersive sims I think are pretty close to what I might be wanting, but they're unfortunately not that common, and some have RPG elements I don't find enjoyable. The Arkane games you mention pretty much avoid them last I checked though, and I dig'em for it

I have, a little, and have enjoyed those I've played, but I'm also fond of more visual art in games, so on the text heavy front I lean towards point and click adventures and visual novels more.

However like yourself, I tend to think I should play more of them, see what they experiment with and push boundaries on.

Btw you might check out The Trackless if you like interactive fiction. It mixes some light text parsing with a 3D adventure game, making for a unique experience.

Right, as I mention though, from what I recall they didn't always have cheats, or necessarily the sort I might want like removing random battles for the games with them.

I use Steam, but I also go for games outside of Steam, which is what my message was indicating. I'm into first/third-person puzzle games, for sure.

Not much of a fan of Bethesda's style of RPGs (given you asked in another comment). They're too buggy/unstable in my experience, but also plainly RPGs.

@Donjuanme Yeah, you're not wrong. The trick is, "games these days", which I enjoy a fair amount of, but I'm also interested in games from across time, so older titles as well.

Those are a little iffier to play given some lack the settings or options, and sometimes also any cheats. Do you happen to know of any sites/resources advising how to use emulators to sorta do that for older titles?

Alternatively may need to review which old titles I have that have cheats for that kinda thing...

Yeah sorry, I ran into limits from where I'm posting (Mastodon).

Some reference points might be like Outer Wilds (nice mix of story & interaction) and going back a bit, games like Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee, Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and Mega Man Legends.

Each have a certain sense of place and an enjoyable degree of interaction in terms of either roaming around or trying to figure out how to get around.

Thanks! I have them, but the scale of the pieces isn't similar, albeit the perspective is kinda close.

The sad part is, those preyed upon aren't always necessarily well off enough to afford it.

It's one of those situations where either the microtransactions are in fact small, so the low costs add up over time before the victims realize it, or they're set up to pressure people into multiple rapid transactions, and so they either exploit some people's poor impulse control or gambling addictions, or more often than not, both.

Your initial claim remains false.

As indicated, digital game storefronts offered refunds explicitly prior to Steam, and it wasn't leading the way, especially given its policy was that all purchases were not refundable, up till 2015's changes.

Leading the way isn't making some exceptions to their policies occasionally, it's making refunds a part of the policies from the outset when others aren't.

@Kedly What? This is flat out untrue. Back in 2008 Stardock's attempt at a storefront via Impulse offered refunds: https://web.archive.org/web/20080708091849/http://tgnforums.stardock.com/315290

Later in 2013, EA of all companies would also offer refunds on their storefront, Origin: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2013/08/ea-begins-offering-refunds-for-its-digital-game-sales-on-origin/

And later that same year, GOG would offer refunds: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/gog-s-new-money-back-guarantee-is-more-about-trust-than-refunds

It was only a couple years after EA & GOG, in 2015, that Valve began offering refunds on Steam: https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/06/valve-begins-offering-refunds-for-all-steam-games/

Not OP, but I hadn't heard of Tempest Rising before! I'll have to keep an eye on that, thanks for mentioning it!

Whoa, that's a massive discount! Went ahead and picked them up because 1. could always use more shmups, and 2. why not for so cheap.

Didn't realize how deep the discount was till after that! 😂

#VideoGames #Gaming #GameDeals #Shmups #IndieGames

Seriously, that game was a charming semi-parody of some RPG elements and aspects of classic Legend of Zelda.

One of my favorite parts was the character creator, such a smart integration of a voxel editor. It put me in the mind of RPG Maker's pixel art sprite editor with how it had you make a small voxel spritesheet for the character.