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Ashtear @ Ashtear @lemmy.zip
Posts
6
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59
Joined
2 yr. ago

  • The recent Steam censorship debacle actually sort of opened me up to adult games.

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  • Alicesoft is one of the major dev studios in this exact space, but their games range from having some non-con to outright featuring it. Not for everyone.

  • Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?

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  • I started Crying Suns and have been very impressed with the art and the story, both the greater narrative and the script. Not sure about the combat just yet, maybe my tactics are just bad.

    Overall though, I don't know how how the hell this one passed me by. Commanding a spaceship and roguelite gameplay, it's exactly the sort of thing I love.

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    [Discussion] Which 2025 game actually kept you playing the longest?

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  • Honkai: Star Rail. I love turn-based RPGs, and it continues to have the best turn-based combat I've ever played. The main story also has my favorite fiction trope (a shake-up of a pantheon) and it's got amazing music, so it just hits a lot of really good spots for me.

  • Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter adds Switch 2 version; ‘Prologue’ demo now available for PS5, Switch, and PC

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  • Having played a chunk of the demo with Japanese audio, this hasn't been a literal translation situation. It's a standard JRPG localization, closer to NISA's work with the series than XSEED's that was on the loose side.

  • Games @lemmy.world
    Ashtear @lemmy.zip

    Trails in the Sky 1st Chapter adds Switch 2 version; ‘Prologue’ demo now available for PS5, Switch, and PC

    www.gematsu.com /2025/08/trails-in-the-sky-1st-chapter-adds-switch-2-version-prologue-demo-now-available-for-ps5-switch-and-pc

  • Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes | Reveal Trailer

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  • Yeah, was a solid move to echo the series opening with the in-game engine.

    A roguelite structure seems like a natural fit for the premise, too.

  • Games @lemmy.world
    Ashtear @lemmy.zip

    Battlestar Galactica: Scattered Hopes | Reveal Trailer

  • MSNBC to rebrand

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  • Yeah, I'm not as down on the rebrand as everyone else seems to be, but this logo is a complete failure.

  • Blackbird Interactive acquires full ownership of Hardspace: Shipbreaker IP

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  • Best gaming news I've heard in a while. This was a fantastic new IP and really shows a lot of promise for future games. Really excited to see where they take this world.

  • Final Fantasy X programmer doesn’t get why devs want to replicate low-poly PS1 era games. “We worked so hard to avoid warping, but now they say it’s charming” - AUTOMATON WEST

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  • I still see the fifth generation as a lost one for pixel art. The games that do it really well in that era are few and far between (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Suikoden, Breath of Fire IV) and even those still had 3D elements in them that have aged like milk.

    I too grew up more on pixel art, but the problem I always had with 3D in the 90's was that--on an objective, technical level--it was already being done so much better elsewhere than it was on PlayStation and the others. Both PC and arcades were consistently driving much higher framerates, and by the late 90's, far better picture quality. It wasn't even four years after the PSX that the Dreamcast launched and completely outclassed it in graphics potential. I feel the move to 3D in the console market was just too early. I guess I can sort of see why some would be nostalgic for it, but to me this trend is the equivalent of being nostalgic for 19th century movies.

    What I don't get is why this trend is happening now. The tech's been there for indies and the like to do this for a while. The demo for people old enough to grow up with these games has also long been in disposable income territory. Maybe we're just oversaturated with pixel art at this point?

  • Mass Effect 1 is still my favourite sci-fi game of all time

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  • Even though I liked ME2 and 3 a bit more, the series overall still has my favorite Bioware cast by a mile and one of my favorite casts in gaming.

    The ironic thing is I actually find the setting kinda hokey, but the moment-to-moment action is fantastic. The exposition dump towards the end of ME1 that sets the stage for the larger conflict was so satisfying. A classic example of solid script writing and characterization elevating overall plot and setting.

  • what are in you're top 3 favourite games of all time?

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  • Impossible to rank, so I'll pull from at random from a top 25 I did not long ago:

    • Trails to Azure - This one had a massive impact on me, from musings on depression and self-worth to love for a city, a community, and the hard choices that come from that love. Incredible story and character writing. All boosted by a well-developed world with a lot of moving parts and a crazy good soundtrack.
    • WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames - Endlessly replayable. Holds up even to this day. Every time I think about it, I'm amazed at how they got lightning in a bottle with this new idea.
    • The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt - Just one of those games where every single facet clicked for me. Visuals, writing, setting, soundtrack, gameplay, meta-gameplay, decision points. All of it.

  • what are in you're top 3 favourite games of all time?

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  • Unfortunately it's a thing when going back to older games after being living in the map marker era for so long. This is a big part of why games back then came with annotated maps so you'd at least have a reference for all the locations.

    I'd say at the minimum, don't be afraid to pull up maps and take notes.

  • Gen Z Is Cutting Back On Video Game Purchases

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  • Setting aside how unusual it is for overall spend to decrease in this age cohort (I encourage people to read the WSJ report linked in this article), this is the only comment here that hits on the most newsworthy part of this. Video games have been recession-resistant for decades, but now we're seeing it as a leading category for cutbacks. Even though gaming is a low-cost hobby, zoomers have found alternatives, and that surely includes F2P games.

    While trends haven't been great for a while now, this is the most alarming data I've seen yet for the traditional gaming market. I feel like I'm gonna blink and there's going to be a generational divide like there is with baseball.

  • Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?

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  • Fire Emblem Engage. Only the third FE I've tried, I go back and forth on whether this series is for me. At this point, this one might be my favorite out of the ones I've played. The cast is really weird overall but I still quite like a few of them. I also like the character advancement and Engage systems. It's fun to tinker with my party. The battles also seem to have less of the nonsense and more of the kind of strategy I like than in the others.

  • Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?

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  • Classic. Gorgeous soundtrack, too. I remember as a kid (pre-Internet) actually calling up the store because I couldn't figure out how to save the game 😂

  • Weekly Recommendations Thread: What are you playing this week?

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  • I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed the main story in Starfield. I normally don't care at all about it in Beth games. Unfortunately, I was too disappointed by all the missed potential to keep up with it after that (which is just weird to type out, I think I went 200 hours in Skyrim before I decided to actually go through the story). The awful framerates I was getting really didn't help, either.

    Oh, and Starfield's Neon is gonna look real bad side-by-side with Cyberpunk 2077. Oof.

  • PlayStation 6 Console And New PS6 Handheld ‘Canis’ Specs Leak, It’s Claimed - Insider Gaming

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  • Improved ray tracing is key. We're at a point where hardware improvements aren't for selling games to end users, they're for cutting costs for developers. Project managers don't want to spend time and resources handcrafting lighting anymore.

    We saw it before where making SSDs baseline didn't necessarily always lead to a change in world design but certainly led to cuts in asset streaming optimization. Same with framerates.

  • Games @lemmy.world
    Ashtear @lemmy.zip

    The Eternal Life of Goldman | Can Fairy Tales Hurt? | Gameplay Trailer

  • Epic Games just won its antitrust lawsuit against Google again

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  • The domestic market can be, and even that depends on your perspective. For example, China doesn't have the insane Disney copyright regime the West has that artificially suppresses competition.

    Competing in the domestic Chinese market is another conversation entirely, as right now, for video games, China has to come to us. The remnants of insular, planned economy only get you so far when you're trying to build soft power and expand into foreign markets.

  • Every RPG subgenre acronym, decoded

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  • Mario & Luigi games are still JRPGs, which is a genre that's more of a vibe than something easily defined. Here it's a little easier because the series traces back to a major JRPG developer in the 1990s.

    Even Expedition 33, another one with timed gameplay, is frequently getting lumped into the category (though that might change in coming years). That's why I prefer the term Japanese-style role-playing games, as the genre is increasingly seeing game dev outside of Japan.

  • Epic Games just won its antitrust lawsuit against Google again

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  • depends how much chinese influence you want in the gaming market.

    There's no stopping that train now, Tencent or no.

    Traditional devs need to be ready to compete, and breaking up monopolies makes for a market more prepared to do so.

  • Games @lemmy.world
    Ashtear @lemmy.zip

    EA CEO Says No $80 Games for Now: 'We're Not Looking to Make Any Changes at This Stage'

    www.ign.com /articles/ea-ceo-says-no-80-games-for-now-were-not-looking-to-make-any-changes-at-this-stage
  • Games @lemmy.world
    Ashtear @lemmy.zip

    Waypoint Writers Quit Over Removal Of Articles Related To New Steam Policy

    aftermath.site /waypoint-quit-steam-vice
  • Games @lemmy.world
    Ashtear @lemmy.zip

    The Expanse: Osiris Reborn Will Take Cues From Mass Effect, Souls Games and More

    www.cnet.com /tech/gaming/the-expanse-osiris-reborn-will-take-cues-from-mass-effect-souls-games-and-more/