I suck at them all. Love the art.ini files though

I’ve never been a big Minecraft fan, but has Hytale reawakened any of that passion in people?

Yeah, so often I want Capcom to process that Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney is my least favorite of the whole series, not because of the new protagonist, but because Phoenix is way too present in it.

I can start to see some indie games following through on the formula, which to me is a great evolution though. Very little has the creative inventiveness of the original trilogy though. So hard to alleviate from brain drain.

I really liked the multiplayer of Infinite, it actually felt like a Halo game again. But by then the damage to Halo's reputation was already done.

Reach was (and still is) the best one. ODST is over hyped and I will fucking armor lock on that hill.

Oof, I was fortunate to never have a 360 RRoD, but I knew people who did. Were you ever able to get it repaired or exchanged through Microsoft's extended warranty program?

I didn't finish Lost Odyssey because I eventually lost interest. The premise was certainly interesting, the music was very good (Uematsu is a genius), the dialog was well done, and the gameplay was fun. What slowly drove me away was how depressing everything in the story was. It felt like every single story beat was trying to be devoid of any hope or joy.

If you enjoyed the survival aspects of Minecraft, maybe you'd enjoy Vintage Story? It overtook Minecraft for me in terms of block games I enjoy, since it feels a whole lot more rewarding getting better tools, weapons or armour in game.

The Warthog physics made diving around like a maniac so much fun. Some of my fondest memories are of LAN parties, and Halo was always a staple.

I actually liked XVI and the VII remakes better than anything they have made since FF XII, but I suppose that isn't a tremendous bar to reach. The SNES era of Final Fantasy is still my favorite.

Yeah, he's unfortunately had way too much influence over the Final Fantasy series since Sakaguchi left. I also feel like Kitase has been creatively stuck making the same game over and over.

It does annoy me a lot that diablo immoral made "LOL, WHAT WERE YOU SAYING, HATERS???" amounts of money

Yeah I agree. The SNES era was definitely a golden time for the series, they just kept getting better with each entry and peaked with the masterpiece that was VI. IX will always be my favorite entry though.

Also, like, the trilogy's ending was kind of final, and the potential endings veeery different. Andromeda had to happen in another galaxy because that was the only way to be compatible with the drastically different endings of ME3. But they lost so much of the world building. I'm assuming. I've never played it. But the Citadel was a big thing in the original trilogy, as was citadel politics.

They could've made the fourth Mass Effect franchise game good though. They could've had it take place before or between the events of the main series. With different characters as the player's team. Between ME and ME2 there's a healthy amount of time for a bunch of events and the crew wouldn't have to run into Shep at all.

Who wouldn't want to explore the darker side of the Citadel? Maybe another look at Omega. Definitely the various species' homeworlds like Sur'Kesh. There's so many awesome worlds we saw a bit of in the main trilogy that they could expand on. And yes, of course they could still add new ones too.

IX is my favorite of the PS1 era for sure.

Completely agree with all points. It's my favorite gaming franchise and you're exactly right. The point of the different endings was that it was the end. The galaxy moving forward is what you decided it would be.

As for Andromeda, it's worth a play sometime. It got a lot more hate than it deserved. It's not amazing, it's not trilogy level, but it was a fun romp and a decent way to kill some time. Just go in with those expectations. They didn't disrespect the cannon or betray anything, it just didn't have that spark of the trilogy.

I'll miss you, dragon age!

I miss the days of Briggs' undefeated Server Smash streak. I led a squad in the first three-way smash (not this username) and I still remember what a rush it was. I eventually got to a point where I had reached BR100 (before they increased the cap), the server population was dwindling, and I just wasn't having fun any more so I drifted away from the game. I don't regret the time I spent with it.

It was already way past its warranty so not much could've been done. Yeah the depressing story can be a bit much too but it also felt very real and relatable. We all have loved ones who've passed away and I swear that game made me feel that moment it happened all over again. There are glitters of light throughout the story though and that's what made me keep going because it also does a pretty great job of emulating hope to the player. It's been so many years since it came out but I'd be willing to pay top dollar for even a basic port of it on Steam.

I wouldn't say that about World of Warcraft. Its certainly a roller coaster with many ups and downs but I would say its up right now and Midnight is lots of fun.

Hmt I might say the story of 4 and 5 was halfway decent.
In a vacuum.
While not comparing it to Reach (or 3. But that hasnt stuck hard in my memory. CE was peak for me. I remember getting lost as a little kid in the hallways on the Pillar of Autmm on the way to the rescue capsules)

I think Luke on the LTT WANshow has an excellent point about that:
Game devs do not have the PR filter of a (hehe) PR/marketing-person.
So they might pick the most illusioned with the project to present on stage. But those may also drop thse nuggets in the believe that they made a game the gamers would enjoy

I revently played GTA online again.
The role playing aspects become very obvious right now. Loads of little side jobs are appearing like firefighter, deliver newspaper/pizza, taxi driving etc.

Lol. "Skyrim in space."

First time I've seen this take. BL2's story is my favorite of the series, and the best feature of the game IMO. Then 3 happened...

Ah man now I'm curious. What faction? We maybe crossed paths. I was dominantly NC in D1RE/SHOK, VS in CIVZ back in my early days.

TR in BOTM, we probably did cross paths since the server wasn't that big

Spoiler tagging this in case anyone still hasn't played it:

Agreed in general, Square has turned to shit - but XI and XII were not where it happened, those games are great and XII in particular was peak Square. Part of the problem was Tetsuya Nomura and the slew of spinoff shovelware games with half-baked Kingdom Hearts style stories they started shitting out. The other part was a combo of their embrace of mobile gacha-style bullshit, and the apparent lack of skill and experience that go into their games as they shifted from maintaining their own engines and in-house tools in favor of joining the Unreal and Unity bandwagons.

But don't worry, another "going back to their roots!" phase is just around the corner.

Almost like making games focused on milking people's nostalgia for a successful IP isn't actually a recipe for quality.

I just booted up the game. I put 96 hours into it. Don’t remember anything but the vague total recall style plot and that the guns/powers are mass effect.
Imma play through it again.

The story for 4 was great. It's the only aspect of 4 that gets praise (although I think the graphics are underrated AF, those cutscenes on 360 are unreal).

5 had a shit story, but it had phenomenal world building. Evil Cortana was actually a really cool villain (if you can get over them semi-resurrecting Cortana) and the Guardians should have been the new Halo. Also, the combat was awesome and they fixed the Prometheans to actually be fun to fight against.

BTW, I have a special affinity for the stand-alone stories. CE, ODST, and Reach are my top 3 in the series.