Gaming

It's still meme monday in my TL i swear to you mods

It's been a while since I looked at a main series Pokémon game and thought, "That looks nice." This includes last week's full reveal of Pokémon Legends Z-A, which going from the first bit of footage seems to feature a lot of hazy-edged grey rooftops, futurist UI, and eerily smooth NPCs, and not a lot of consistent, nice-to-look-at art direction to tie it together. This is also a shame. First, because - and I don't think it's too controversial to say this - it's good, generally speaking, when things look nice. Glad we've got that established.

Second, and still pretty obvious but at least a bit more interesting: while they've never been graphical powerhouses, there have absolutely been times when Pokémon games have looked quite wonderful. And there is undoubtedly room for Pokémon games to look even more wonderful. But the series' recent, and quite aggressive moves away from that is both a bummer, and, considering Pokémon's history with artistry - across its spinoff video games, its animations, its strikingly impactful trading card art - a waste.

Saying this out loud among Pokémon fans, however, often leads to some interesting reactions. While even casual observers and non-Pokénerds probably got whiff of controversies like "Dexit", the nickname for the first time it was revealed less than the entirety of the Pokédex would be catchable in a single game, back at the launch of Pokémon Sword and Shield, fewer will be familiar with "tree-gate" of the same era.

Medium update: Bugfixes, much faster rendering, new beautiful inifinite background terrain with triangles, player spaceship is always on top.

https://tetramatrix.itch.io/old-school-retro-mini-game-spaceship

It sounds basic, but it was refreshing to hear a developer talk about their multiplayer shooter in terms of custom lobby rules and scaring the pants off your buds instead of metas and MMR. We're in something of a golden age of co-op games about getting scared with your friends—Lethal Company and Phasmophobia made proximity chat a mainstream feature, and one of the best-selling games on Steam right now is another co-op thriller called R.E.P.O.—but the trend hasn't caught on in casual PvP shooters. If Midnight Murder Club was released 20 years earlier, it probably would've been a Source mod with a small but vibrant server culture.

It's a lot harder to wrangle my friends together to play something these days, and you can double that if the game costs money. I asked Velan what Midnight Murder Club is like alone if my friends don't pick it up to play with me, and it was like I'd walked right into the question they hoped for:

"We know that party games live and die on being able to get your whole friend group to pick it up," Harrison said. "So we have two versions of the game. We have Midnight Murder Club, it's going to be coming out at $20. But then we also have Midnight Murder Club Guest Pass Edition. That is a free download, and you can join a lobby hosted by anybody who owns the full game."

To be clear, the Guest Pass Edition is not a demo. It's the full game playable for free as long as you play with someone who owns it. No other strings attached.

So, I want to use my handheld for more than a music player. Need recommendations for systems to to gen 4 + GBA

Mainly games that aren't too complicated but anything is fine

I played around 10 hours of UFO 50 when I got it, and even though I liked a lot of the games it kind of slipped of my radar after this.

This week I've been giving it another go and I have some THOUGHTS to share:

• Avianos is something I immediately closed down because it felt like a bit of a headache, but now that I've been playing it I am astounded by how well it is designed. An absolute masterpiece in strategy, playing it is immensely exciting. It has so many intricacies and interacting mechanics while still being rather simple and limited in scope. Phenomenal game.

• Magic Garden I liked the first time around, but now that I'm going for high scores I realize just how meticulously designed it is. This feels like an all time classic arcade game from the likes of Pacman and Tetris. Perfectly crafted mechanics and gameplay loop, with interesting risk-reward mechanics and tough but fair difficulty.

• I'm finally starting to click with how the Campanella controls (because of The Big Bell Race of all games), so those games are starting to open up their magic to me too.

• Moon Cat is a beautiful example of learning to play a game from scratch to mastery. A lot of people absolutely hate the controls, but to me it felt amazing to go from complete incompetence to muscle memory of all the moves.

COOP corner:

• Bushido Ball is extremely fun to play in coop with a friend. Just a great and fun grind, though slightly overshadowed by...
• Hot Foot: this is one of the best sports gaming experiences I've ever had in my life. Funnily enough, I used to play dodge ball quite seriously a few years ago, and it's absurd how much of the real experience is captured in this arcade 2v2 version of it. My only criticism is that it NEEDS a real 4 player 2v2 mode. This would result in some of the best nights ever for my friends group!
• Seaside Drive: this felt like AAA UFO 50, just an amazing run from start to finish with great asymmetrical coop.

About half of my games are still dusted, so I think I will be dipping into this collection for the rest of my life. What an incredible achievement!

I'm currently enjoying Heroes of the Storm (HotS) on my Linux system. I appreciate how quickly I can dive into a game, but I feel the game mode is underdeveloped considering its popularity. Unfortunately, HotS is now in maintenance mode and won't receive new content.

• Dota 2 offers ARAM as a custom game mode, but it's managed by donation-based P2W mod manager systems.
• League of Legends (LoL) isn't easily set up on Linux and I don't like it very much,
• Smite just doesn't feel smooth or enjoyable to play.

I'm looking for recommendations on ARAM or ARAM-like games that I can play on my Linux system.--

MMO Game by one of the original creators of Star Wars Galaxies, game already playable for Alpha testers, Beta testing expected after Kickstarter for funders

Suggestions of video games resembling ancient Greek/Roman paintings in visual style?

"Dominion of Darkness” is a strategy/RPG text-based game in which the player takes on the role of a Sauron-style Lord of Darkness with the goal of conquering the world. He will carry out his plans by making various decisions. He will build his army and send it into battles, weave intrigues and deceptions, create secret spy networks and sectarian cults, recruit agents and commanders, corrupt representatives of Free Peoples and sow discord among them, collect magical artifacts and perform sinister plots. Note – one game takes about 1 hour, but the premise is that the game can be approached several times, each time making different decisions, getting different results and discovering something new. Note - one game takes about 1 hour, but the assumption is that you can play the game several times, each time making different decisions, getting different results and discovering something new. One “gameplay” shows only a small part of the whole.

I’m still developing the game, adding new plot and mechanics elements. They will probably continue to develop it for a long time. Nevertheless, the current version is very playable. It is available for free here: https://adeptus7.itch.io/dominion

**If you are hesitant to play the game, I invite you to watch/read the reviews:

Indie Sampler (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM6f4UCEgWU

[BOKC] BlancoKix (video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgNpSKToOSg

Choice Beat (zine): https://choicebeat.wordpress.com/2025/02/21/choicebeat-13/ Review of my game You can read on the page 30 - I am also adding screen of the review.**

I am preparing to launch new version of the game. Its focus will be on economy (You will gain new possibilities to influence economy of Your enemies and it will influence their situtation in more important ways) and this pesky Chosen One who sometimes interferes with Your glorious plans of world domination/destruction. If You want to participate in testing, please write me on [email protected].

Answering GDC's 2023 survey, 78% of respondents said they considered the harassment and toxicity developers receive from the public to be a serious issue. A simple sentiment is often the most effective, and the title of Dragon Age veteran Mark Darrah's latest video cuts right to the heart of it: "Your $70 doesn't buy you cruelty."

You don't have to like a game, and you don't have stay quiet if you have complaints, says Darrah. You're entitled to be angry, and you're entitled to express that anger. "If you are mad at that Ubisoft game, be mad at Ubisoft," he says. "Express your anger to Ubisoft or the studio that made the game. But you cross a line when you start being cruel about it." (Thanks, PC Gamer and GamesRadar)

Looks like open-world simulator games coming from Finland have one common theme: getting drunk. The competition between this and the previously posted Last Drop is going to be tough. Regardless I am delighted of Finnish culture being represented in games.

Whatcha playing?

I've been playing a bunch of Avowed! I am really enjoying it. It kinda feels, combat wise, that they just fixed Skyrim combat lol. It's like Skyrim combat but with any actual feedback. It actually feels like you're hitting things.

I also played and beat Thank Goodness You're Here. That was a trip, but a funny and worthwhile one

Why Blizzard doesn't support Linux officially in its games? (Warcraft, StarCraft, Diablo etc)

Don’t have a whole lot to say in this intro paragraph. If you enjoy these, do a blog post with your own game and art recommendations. If you don’t have a blog, consider starting a free one on neocities or bear blog. I also have start putting more effort into my recommendation list on Itch.io if you want more recommendations. Consider starting one of those too. I’ve heard they’re way cooler and sexier than Steam Curator pages. I like these ones by Meagan and WildWeasel. And leave nice comments on things you like! Anyway, as Geoff Keighley always says, “Now more than ever, video games.”

This has been evident for anyone following the gaming industry, but now Phil Spencer basically admits it. Good for them, actually.