For something I’m paying for, I want no ads, recommended or otherwise.

For something I get for free, if it’s easily skippable/ignorable, I don’t really care, I’ll skip it or mute the tab or whatever. If I can’t, I’d rather have a like sniper level targeted ad (use all the data!), really try to show me something I’ll care about (there was some like 10 minutes ad about the science behing glass by one of the guys from MythBusters, I watched the whole ad, it was great). The demographic level targeted ads are my 2nd least favorite, mostly because it feels like I usually need to suffer through what is a targeted ad but if they bothered to exclude some of the audience based on some data points (looking at you luxury car ads, it’s just never going to happen), they’d know I’m a bad target, I’d rather some generic add over those. My least favorite ad though, when I get an ad in a language I don’t even understand, like at least match my primary language, wasting everyone’s time…

Article feels weirdly biased, an Xbox mid-gen update has been talked about for over a year and is expected in the next like 4-6 months. Anyone in the market for a current gen Xbox is likely to consider that and may decide to postpone their purchase until then, making sales artificially lower than demand for an Xbox. The article doesn’t even mention it, instead talking about even more speculative hardware that isn’t likely more than some R&D project, if that.

You can see similar effects for PS4 sales when the PS5 was announced, sales cratered. Can’t tell too much with the PS4 to PS4 pro because they announced close to actual release.

Feels like the author is clickbaiting the console war.

Yep, UI mouseover is fine with it unplugged, issue returns when replugged.

1. PC, other than M/KB, I have a Razer Tartarus.

2. I was using the scroll wheel, might have missed the cue to use keys, that’d fix it for me.

Played a couple runs. Definitely seems up my alley.

Feedback:

1. Idk why, but when cursoring UI menus, it just ticks from where I cursored to the top like I’m holding an up arrow. Happens in Menus, Stats, Level ups and Shop. Clicking works fine, just really couldn’t read any stat descriptions.

2. When teasing the locked towers/skills, when you obscure the text with the X of locks, it’s hard for me to read and get excited about getting access to that thing. Maybe move the lock indicator somewhere there isn’t text (top right?).

3. This is maybe more fundamental, and idk how it fits with your vision, but scroll wheeling between skills feels clunky, could it maybe be key based (either as well or in addition), think that’d feel snappier to me.

Any new purchasers (I am one) are also probably waiting for the mid-generation update coming later this year.

This isn’t early access, it’s advanced access, like if a game has a deluxe edition that lets people play a few days before the official release.

Palworld, rent a dedicated server, anyone can hop in or out as necessary. Guns, legally(?) distinct from pokemon monsters to catch. Cartoon violence. Tons of fun to be had.

Turned based on pausable stuff can reduce stress by allowing for thoughtfulness, and even single player games can be done together through strategizing, while also not requiring the 2nd person if they aren’t available. To that end, I’m going to recommend Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons or Broken Age. Then probably some kind of tactical game, Darkest Dungeon, Loop Hero or Shadowrun. After that, maybe some kind of management game, Cities: Skylines, SimCity, Stardew Valley, Humankind or Against the Storm. If you want to go deeper, Crusader Kings, Dyson Sphere Program or Wartales.

Real-time games that require using multiple sticks/buttons/aiming+moving at once are inherently more difficult to start without the muscle memory, so I’d look to build that up with games that have simpler controls starting with Vampire Survivors or Brotato. Then I’d probably do some kind of non-shooter first or third person game, thinking of Escape Academy, Firewatch or Superliminal, Amnesia (maybe). Then a combat first/third person game Assassin’s Creed, Battlefield (Campaign), Mass Effect. Then maybe something that’s got combat plus extra stuff, Atomic Heart, Deep Rock Galactic, Dead Space (maybe), Doom, Prey, Wo Long, Remnant. After that is really PvP stuff.

If you just want more readably accessible stuff, A Short Hike, Disneyland Adventures, Peggle, Plants vs Zombies, Bejeweled, The Walking Dead from Telltale (maybe).

I also pulled every game on this list off of Xbox Game Pass, so that might be a good way to try a bunch of different games for cheaper.

Satoru Iwata and the Wii U is the single instance I can think of.

Been thinking on this, I believe that if you family share the game on steam, each steam account could independently access the same dedicated or community servers, but local worlds will still only be accessible by the creator as they are the only one who can host their world. You may be able copy the world files between the different folders though.

While that’s part of it, it’s definitely not “just” that.

Sadly, part of it is that the game has released in a fairly stable/polished state, which is considered a positive in the world of broken releases. The multiplayer also just works with little issue as opposed to some problems of yesteryear.

There’s also a perhaps surprising pent up demand for good co-op PvE focused games. They blow-up hard but tend to fade out depending on gameplay quality. Part of this is the streamer effect, streamers like to play group games with other streamers because it helps cross-pollinate their audiences. Sales are also improved due to group/peer-pressure, if someone can pull in their friend group, that’s a lot of sale multiplication.

I also think that the developers tried to make a game that’s fun. A lot of decisions seem to have followed the rule of cool for this type of game e.g. pal mounts, firearms, catching people, automation of survival elements via slavery.

It also manages to have both a clear and guided progression system while maintaining the freedom for the player to just fuck off and do whatever they want while still at least partially progressing.

My only honest gripes with the game are how world saves are handled (they should use the Grounded system in addition to having dedicated servers) and that I for some reason can’t find the exit button on the title screen so to quit I need to alt-f4, for the rare times I need it.

Your account can only have 1 person per server/world and it is only for that world.

You can create/join multiple worlds, each has its own independent progress.

So for example, if everyone in a family of 4 wanted to play but only one account, they each could play independently on different worlds using the same account, but could never join each other’s worlds with any character other than the first made on that world.

Not that I’ve seen at least, you can mulch a bunch of the same type to get like a better tier of it, but for like the little penguins and the big penguins, you get the big ones from eggs or as a boss so far.

Worst most captured Pokemon only leave their Pokeball to battle themselves to exhaustion in either gladiatorial combat against another similarity trapped opponent, for the purpose of additional enslavement or simply to physically or mentally cripple their free opponent into unconsciousness.

If it helps, inside of a Pokeball it’s supposed to be a simulated paradise for the pokemon, but that is also a form of cyber dystopia so …

It’s not really a pokemon game, the similarity basically ends at: there are weird fighting animals you catch with round objects and take research notes on. There’s no evolving, combat is an active battle rather than turn-based, combat participants are unlimited, your character participates in combat directly, you can catch people, you put what you catch to work for you at your camp, plus all the survival elements.

I’d settle for just having the online co-op functionality that Grounded has, make the Xbox/PC host it but allow multiple players to do that for the same save.

It’s fun so far, typical survival type game, but with a ton of pet varieties that you also enslave to work at your base. It’s pokemon basically in that there are cutsie animals with punny names that you catch, combat is definitely not standard Pokemon.

I’ve installed (not shown as a pre-install) it on Game Pass, about to boot it up.