dwarf

The first couple of hours are quite testing because you don't know who you are yet and the most abrasive characters in the game give you shit for it. Not saying it isn't a melancholic game thereafter, but it does settle down a little and there are plenty of beautiful and touching moments that make it more than worth persevering with. Would be a shame to miss out on a once in a generation game like that 🥺

Arrived to this game late but smashed through it in a week. It's so good it makes you depressed at how bad the writing in every other game is. Like... before playing it I was dimly aware that games weren't satisfying my desire for good storytelling, but afterwards I realised I've been starving my whole adult life. Perhaps, given that capitalism disincentivises creative projects like this, I should be grateful Disco exists at all – particularly since it has such radical (if cynical) lefty politics 💕 I like to imagine David Cage playing it drunk and then killing himself.

Yeah it's kinda crazy from a publisher perspective, but people can always summon other players or use a beefed up mimic tear to make things more manageable. You can tell they've thrown a lot of money into advertising the game. I've played a lot of the DLC and it's great so far – it's basically another helping of the main game. With it being an add-on, I was concerned it would be quite small and not feel very open-worldy, but the Land of Shadow is MASSIVE and has plenty of branching paths to pull you in various directions. I suppose that's to be expected given the price tag and how long From have had to work on it. Master stroke of Miyazaki to suggest it would 'only' be the size of Limgrave. Edit: lmao at them patching Torrent into the Elden Beast fight... take your time lads

This aint it fellas. The gameplay and graphics are from a bygone era and it doesn't seem to have a clear identity, which isn't a surprise given all the development complications. Prime remains in my top three games of all time, but I made my peace with the series after the disappointment of Corruption - very glad I didn't have any emotional investment in how the series would pan out!

@Sheikah – interested to hear your thoughts on the game

Also, genuine, non-trolling question - I don't play much of anything these days: how should I sell on my Switch? I've got the console, Zelda, joy cons and a pro controller. Would I get more money by selling Zelda and the pro controller as two separate items on eBay? Thanks for any tips.

Kinda crazy how hard this game fucks. Like it's actually too good.

(haven't read the review either lmao)

I've not even played it and yet I want to throttle that Eurogamer reviewer. Don't temper my hype, you bounder!

Nintendo is goated.

I recently finished Elden Ring, which dominated by life at various points over the last 6 months... and now this big chungus is about to drop! Re-listening to some BotW soundtrack today - man it's taking me back. I had a brutal manual labour job at the time and playing it was such a release, one of the few I had. What a magical game. HOLY FUCKING SHIT. With the foundations from the first game already laid, they've had 6 years to build on all the core concepts that made the original so good. Surely the result has to be amazing?! Like I get the hesitation about them re-using the same map (more-or-less), but if anyone deserves to be trusted, surely it's these guys. Won't be watching any more pre-release footage.

Completed this just now. Fiddly controls and repeated mini-bosses aside, absolutely loved it. Only a half-formed observation which might not stack up, but I feel like Dread bucks the trend with other Metroid/Nintendo games in the way it rewards precision - particularly through the 360-degree aiming. Super satisfying to clear a room quickly by exercising that extra level of finesse, even if it's rarely necessary.

Was terribly bored this evening and realised I hadn't played anything in a while. Decided that I might like to try out the Hitman games. As it turns out, one doesn't simply try out the Hitman games. Figuring out what entry to buy, alongside which DLC, in order to get a reasonable price for the main content... I honestly just gave up. I feel like I'd sooner hack into MI5 with a Nokia N-Gage. IO Interactive, if you're listening - you can get in the bin. You'd have my trilla if you weren't such bastards about this whole affair. Ye just don't deserve it, DO YEE!?

Reviews are saying this is rock hard, which I wasn't expecting but it definitely piques my interest as that's what I liked about the originals. And it's also good, apparently. If it was £30 I'd be tempted but £50 is steep.

Sorry I should have made it clearer: by worker productivity I mean the value workers create through their labour has shot up (because they're more skilled, the technology they use is more advanced, etc), but instead of getting paid more in recognition of that, that extra value is taken as profit by employers. Completely unjust, but this is what happens when you don't have unions. Fab post all round though, especially the bit in bold. The phrase 'living for the weekend' also hints at a broad discontent among the public with regards to work time issues. Glad this has been fruitful though! Without derailing the thread or trying to force more socialism down your throat, I'd argue the lack of positive change has been down to the marginalisation of the left. Labour has lost its roots in trade unions (restored somewhat under Corbyn but that ship has sailed now), and the Tories have only ever spoken in the interests of capital. Both have bought into the market fundamentalist ideology I mentioned earlier, so it's just been a relentless torrent of shit for working people. The Tories just happen to be significantly worse. But yeah... Cyberpunk looks sick.

I promise I'm not being contrarian for contrarian's sake, but I'd really stress the material conditions as the overwhelming reason for increases in overtime. If people have to work harder and longer to maintain the same standard of living, they're going to do that through lack of any other choice. If people are working more overtime in other industries, and in other countries, that's because rising inequality has been a global trend. Stagnating wages, the privatisation of public services, a less generous welfare state, etc, have forced workers to work longer, and historically low union power means they've been unable to mount any opposition to the economic exploitation they've faced. The games industry shouldn't be let off the hook because people everywhere seem to want to work more these days. The question here is about the extent of exploitation, and the games industry happens to be a particularly egregious example because union density is lower than in other industries. If game designers were in a position to collectively bargain for better wages, realistic release date schedules, and reduced hours, they wouldn't have to do the overtime. Working to hang onto your job is a material question. Saving up for a wedding is a material question. Someone might be 'happy' to work 6 days to see a game off, but again, is it really a choice if they need to work those hours to hold onto the job? If they had the option to push the release date back and work 5 days a week, I'm sure most would take that option. These people have lives to live. If the rich fucks at CD Projekt and/or the publishers have to take a slight hit to account for that, then that's the sacrifice that has to be made. You could ask: well why is union density low? Isn't that a cultural issue? Well yes and no. Material and cultural explanations are intertwined. A market-driven ideology has ruled the world for the past few decades, which comes from the top. Leaders have introduced laws that make it harder to unionise. The greater variety of jobs, and types of work contract (zero hours, temporary, freelance etc) also make it harder for workers to unionise, as they seemingly have fewer shared interests to unite over. All of this worsens people's material conditions. This then drives changes in culture - people have less time and money to support other people, they become less used to engaging in collective efforts, they meet more of their needs in the market rather than in publicly provided services, they're fed stories in the billionaire press about poor people being scroungers, and so on, so they become more individualistic. Individualistic people are more easily exploited because they don't support each other, which leads to worsening material conditions, and the cycle continues... It wasn't the case back in the day, but the galaxy brain take in today's world is that work is a political issue. Workers need to build collective power to oppose things like crunch, plain and simple. The idea that we have work-life balance in a five day week is a myth, let alone in a six-day week. That this is isn't obvious shows how far we've fallen. For full disclosure, I consider myself a socialist (or at the very least a social democrat) and I'm working on a video about the idea of a four-day week (as a political policy), hence the essay! With that said, I don't think you have to be terribly left wing to agree with most of the above.

Worker productivity has increased dramatically over the past forty years or so, but in the same period that hasn't translated into higher wages (in real terms) for the average employee as the value they're producing is increasingly lining the pockets of the top few earners. It's therefore likely that people are working overtime to make up for the money they've lost out on; so on some level it's contentious as to whether you call that overtime voluntary or not. Cultural changes have an impact on people's willingness to work overtime, sure, but the underlying material explanation might be more compelling.

The difficulty of the Souls games is exaggerated, true, but they're still difficult when push comes to shove. And it's one of the few series where seeking out tips and guidance online comes recommended - if you go in blind you unwittingly handicap yourself in a big way, as the mechanics aren't made transparent. I'd also disagree slightly with buddy Goron: some things in the series are outright unfair, but like other unconventional aspects of the game (including the opaque systems, minimal dialogue etc) in most cases they make the game better, darkly funny, or at least distinct. We could pick bones about what encounters are fair or unfair, but ultimately we'd all agree that even the hardest sections are worth persevering with. Also not mentioned: the sense of atmosphere and reward you get in Souls games is unmatched, and so many details contribute to that. My personal recommendation would be to play Dark Souls first. Play the best, I reckon, and then try the other entries if you like it. I love what they've revealed of the Demon's remake so far, don't get me wrong. The FOV makes it look way more cinematic than I remember it being, and it'll still be a treat to play even after all this time. But some of the less polished aspects of the game could put new players off, so you may as well try the series at its peak if possible, and it's cheap and easy to do. I didn't get along with the movement/combat of Sekiro so I didn't stick with it, but that might've been from general Soulsborne fatigue more than anything else.

Don't get me wrong - it's a good way to build tension. It's just that it makes up too big a proportion of the game, especially on harder difficulties which require you to stock up.

Why has nobody in the boardroom suggested they stop dicking around for five minutes? Give it a sensible name, invest in new studios, and you're half way there. UGH.

See I'd be interested in going for the grounded trophy, but I just can't be arsed to go through the slow-paced item collection. Maybe one for when I upgrade to PS5 and have an itch to replay it. You'll hear from me in a year's time when I nope out after the first proper mission.

I'm glad she raised the fact that indie game UIs are generally more flamboyant/eccentric. While I generally prefer minimalist or customisable designs, there's definitely still space for other approaches. I remember enjoying Papers Please for its more creative aesthetic, and the fact that certain areas of the screen appeared to be bigger than they needed to be - as if the developer was making a virtue of sacrificing functionality in favour of style. Retro UI designs probably also play into a nostalgia for outdated operating systems or software. Papers Please took me back to using Windows 98, or playing Monkey Island, when elements of the UI weren't responsive to your mouse pointer. Today everything on your desktop animates or changes colour depending on your mouse position, which is obviously helpful, but it's nice to revert back to a time when things weren't so slick. One of the pleasures of Monkey Island was the fact that you never knew if you were about to click on the right area of the screen until the game world reacted to your click. Contrast to today's games, where the interactivity of certain objects in the world is revealed (or 'spoiled') to you before you make the effort to interact with them, be it through button prompts, the colour of the objects themselves (e.g. if they have a shiny quality to them) or other signals. Also, was reminded of this after sharing the last video. Great channel:

Posting this here because it's the kind of video Mark Brown would make, and the presenter is hilarious. As mentioned in top YT comment, it's great that she sticks to her own opinion despite the fact that the developers she interviews offer the opposite view.