We still have a ways to go before reaching the inflation-adjusted, $150-per-game peak of mass market games in the 1990’s. A key difference is games back then had way higher marginal cost (it’s near zero now).

The interesting thing is that the market is becoming a lot more like it was back then, full of people that only buy one or two games a year and only play those. Of course now, the model is retaining players with DLC and MTX, whereas in 1995 it was more because people could only afford one or two games a year.

Ughh. The selective enforcement is maddening, both with this and TikTok. So much of the filed complaint especially applies to Roblox, but it’s clear that we’re only interested in protecting our consumers when it really means chipping away at a foreign rival’s burgeoning soft power.

Following up on this conversation since I just saw this PC Gamer article:

I played a whopping 23 city builders in 2024, and here are my 5 favorites

How is Stormgate innovating? Genuine question–I’ve been avoiding it largely because it looks so much like StarCraft (and Pottinger even calls it out specifically in the article as something not innovative).

I’d add They are Billions as another evolutionary branch that’s doing something different. Starting to see some clones of this formula.

That said, I don’t think Against the Storm or Manor Lords are the kind of games Pottinger is talking about. Against the Storm doesn’t even have combat. Those are more in the city builder realm.

I think there are too many JRPGs that still use their battle system in support of their narrative for it to be considered anything other than a core system in those games. That’s especially the case in lower budget games in the genre.

Larger budget projects are branching more and more into side content/worldbuilding, but I’d argue it’s still highly underdeveloped in the genre when compared with western RPGs, in quality if not also in quantity. Persona and Yakuza are exceptions, rather than the rule. Persona is doing something entirely different (and well enough that it’s being emulated now) while Yakuza, as you say, carry a lot of that over from prior development into its RPGs from the series’ action games.

This is what I was wondering. Was the genre that quiet this year? Manor Lords isn’t just early access, it’s early early access. So many outright unfinished systems.

Unfortunately, Cyberpunk is exactly the kind of product that is going to keep driving the realistic approach. It’s four years later now and the game’s visuals are still state-of-the-art in many areas. Even after earning as much backlash on release as any game in recent memory, it was a massively profitable project in the end.

This is why Sony, Microsoft, and the big third parties like Ubisoft keep taking shots in this realm.

They showed up

After the credit roll I took it as a sign I wasn’t getting much more lore or more Aunt Lori. I’d buy a DLC just for more Aunt Lori.

Looks like it was October, so I’m guessing after? The production controls did help once I figured them out but I realized once I was digging through the UI every time I was making a building or cornerstone decision I wasn’t getting into the flow state I wanted.

I had an intense love affair with this one earlier in the year that fizzled out quickly once the credits rolled. Solid game, but the only thing that keeps it from being in my collection of 1000-hour games is that it’s a little too dense for my taste. Keeping track of what builds what (and which build I had currently unlocked) was taking up a smidge more brain power than I’d like once the difficulty started demanding it. By the end I’d started layering in how to evaluate cornerstones, the best way to do trade, map modifiers, and it became too much. Ironically, I’d probably get to a level of comfort just by putting more time into the game but it’ll just feel like work.

One of those “almost there” games for me.

Since The Witcher 3 came out, my favorite video game stories have been Disco Elysium, Cyberpunk 2077, 13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim, Alan Wake 2, Citizen Sleeper, and Metaphor: ReFantazio. I also really liked Death Stranding, but Kojima’s not for everyone.

I dunno, I might side-eye my partner a lil bit if it turned out they were really good at CK3’s schemes.

That’s the original version of the game. It’s had enhanced ports but never a remake previously. From what we know, this is a full remake, with changes to gameplay, a new localization, and some additions for continuity. The game’s 20 years old. Hard to put that anywhere near modern.

Since it’s the first in a continuous series, it’s long seemed necessary to at least bring the game into full 3D for new players to come on board. For long-term Trails fans, the value of this remake (and the inevitable second one, at least) will probably depend on some of the details, especially the localizations for players that don’t read Japanese.

I don’t know what it is with Japanese devs and arbitrary multiplayer decisions. The way Capcom handles Monster Hunter’s multiplayer continues to baffle me.

From a PC gaming perspective, it feels like Western developers decided to just give players multiple options to play together all the way back in the 1990’s. This sort of thing always feels badly regressive to me.

I wonder how well the marketing exclusivity is working for them. I’ve come across more than one person that thought Metaphor: ReFantazio wasn’t on PlayStation because of it.

Don’t mind me, I’ll be sitting here waiting patiently for my Destiny of an Emperor remake.

Biggest surprise for length was Dragon Quest VII, the PSX version. Started playing it close to release, dropped it several times and finally finished it years later.

I’d played multiple games in the series before and I think the longest one topped out at 40 hours, so I really was not expecting a 100+ hour marathon like that was (although the very, very long prologue should probably have served as a warning).

Especially considering last I checked, Porsche isn’t pushing a line of space ships.

Big, chunky logos are part of this specific vibe, though I can understand why it’s a turn-off (with a couple of the fictional ones being out of focus).