crispy4000

I worry more about the future, when subscriptions start splintering more, as they have already with video streaming content and PC gaming storefronts. There’s also the possibility of further price hikes, subscription tiers, etc, once things are more established. How the next generation of consoles handles this will be a major topic of conversation. The big 3rd party publishers are hungry for it, and won’t want to get screwed over.

https://www.usgamer.net/articles/the-gaming-subscription-bubble-just-keeps-growing-how-long-until-it-bursts

I’m of the total opposite opinion. There’s almost no hand holding, and the little of it that is there isn’t awful by any stretch of the imagination. Most other games do more tutorializing than BotW does, and the way it let you discover things on the plateau first was totally fine to me. ... I just started AC Odyssey recently, my first AC game. I don’t play Ubisoft games often, but my first impressions were that it was a mess of waypoint systems and icons vomit. I wanted more hand holding to start, because the game communicated too much at the start (while oddly explaining very little about what the icons mean). That’s where Nintendo struck a perfect balance IMO. The opening hours shouldn’t need to feel bloated, and a little constriction can go a long way to help that.

Game was designed around the controls, I can’t imagine it another way. But I’d hope a Switch port would be more responsive. SS felt especially good to me after playing TP on Wii, which I would have preferred button presses for.

The last few dungeons in Skyward Sword are so good. So are the final two bosses. It’s a flawed game in some respects, but it really hits the stuff that matters. You just have to get through some occasionally blatant filler.

I was so close to buying this on the Steam sale. Nice!

Wind Waker may even have the weaker dungeons, honestly. More visually inspired, but the puzzles in BotW’s were more complex and often spanned mutiple rooms. I think the Shrines were also better than the small puzzle islands. IMO, BotW is the game Wind Waker tried to be, outside of the story bits. Better overworld, better puzzles, better combat, more fun special items/abilities, collecting things was fun and served a purpose, etc. Before release, I was more opposed to the idea of BotW because of the game WW was. I have to give Nintendo credit for delivering, even though I prefer a more traditional Zelda design. BotW is still a great game.

Impulse bought Slay the Spire on Steam, plus Seraph and Dex on Fanatical for $2.

There’s been a pendellum swing with the 3D series in the past. The next Zelda could be that, or even bigger/broader than BotW.

They already had a good fighting system in SS, IMO. Not perfect, but a lot more fun. It felt just challenging enough, plus the bosses were the best in the 3D series. BoTW's bosses were a joke.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Wind Walker let you pick up enemy swords, easily toss the boomerang, grappling hook, arrows, bombs, etc... but so much of that felt redundant because none of it was as effective as parry strikes. Why bother with special items when the standard sword and dodging does the trick? Heavy swords were especially useless. I feel like BotW would have suffered similarly if it weren’t for durability. I would have stuck to light lightning weapons full stop. Not having them break (or less than they do) would call more attention to how enemies were HP spounges by the end. For me it got to the point looking up guides for exploits just to kill enemies faster. I don’t think durability is a good system. But I do think I prefer having a bit of micromanagement on the fly over whittling down a health bar by rote. BotW is a long game already. It did need something to keep you on your toes more than just enemy challenge IMO.

Perfect dodge is basically jumping out of the way right before you get hit. There’s an enemy that will force you to master it if you want to do any real damage / survive. It’s a better combat system than most 3D Zeldas. Only problem is that Skyward Sword’s was much more engaging. BotW’s felt like a step down to me. But it does manage to do the ‘kitchen sink’ thing in a way that WW and even TP kind of floundered at. Some of that can be attributed to the durability forcing you to use more weapons. Though I agree it’s not ideal.

Finishing up Celeste on Switch since I’m traveling.

I don’t think you hit an irreparable roadblock. As others have said, you’d need Din’s Fire for the Shadow Temple anyways and could have quit on the base game there in the same way. For that reason, it’d be better just to keep on going where you are when you come back to it.

MQ’s puzzles are totally fair IMO. It will force you to use everything, but I love that about it too. Too often Zelda games just focus on one puzzle item, or ignore what else you can discover on the overworld. It’s not quite as hard as Zelda 1’s new game +, which is kind of stupid with its liberal uses of fake walls. But the only truly unfair puzzle I can ever remember in a Zelda game was burning that stupid overworld bush in the original. It’s esoteric as some point & click games get.

I've got Momodora on my backlog as well. Let me know when/if you start playing @Keyser_Soze, I'll join the club.

Total haul, assuming nothing else goes on sale (or I pull the trigger on something late): Inside $7.19 Talos Principle complete $8.24 Sleeping Dogs complete $4.49 (Amazon) LiS Before the Storm complete $5.75 (GMG) Rise of the Tomb Raider complete $9.50 (GMG) Deus Ex Mankind Divided complete $5.16 (GMG) Overcooked $10 (Switch) Splasher - Free (chrono.gg) Sonic Mania Sonic Lost World Sonic Forces Sonic CD Sonic Ep 1 & 2 - $15 Sonic total from Humble Bundle Total = $65.33 - giftcard/credit offset ($55.86) $9.47 spent total I was considering some cheap indies (ittle Dew 2, Valley, World to the West, Tooth and Tail, The Way, Tacoma), but they'll be in good bundles next year. Steam needs to compete with GMG if they want my business. I bought Talos Principle and Inside entirely with marketplace credit.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen card prices drop as fast as this sale. Mine can’t sell for 5 cents. I might just go ahead and trade them for gems.

Thanks for the updates Pikachu. Holidays keeps me busy.

Bought deluxe editions of LiS Before the Storm and Deus Ex Mankind Divided for $10.90 total at GMG.

Honestly, the only 3D Zelda that comes close, with all its blemishes, is Skyward Sword. Second to that is probably Majora IMO. Master Quest also has the best dungeons in the series. Replaying OoT that way is basically getting to re-experience it’s puzzle bits.

PS+ subscription to play stuff with my brother.

Yup

This must be illegal. Happy I've never bought anything there.

Not sure if you can stack star deal discounts with coupons.