Zastier

I think that one pixel upscaler shader used on Yoshi looks good actually

either that, or make zones curve around roads like they did in SimCity 2013, and adapt surfaces around the curved grid. The game already has tools for both of these solutions.

Cities Skylines 2 should remove the zoning grid from streets, and instead let you place a grid independently, filling in the space between with surfaces to replicate how buildings are actually placed in streets.

It's kinda weird to say this honestly, but the only city builder that actually got zoning right is Cities XL.

for the uninitiated, it's like a boob window, but for masc genitals.

cock windows

Ben Starr makes any game he's in better.

We can have our cake and eat it, we can have beautiful games that run great. I am genuinely going to go insane because games look the same as they did 5 years ago but run progressively worse.

If this Chinese mobile MMO can run this well while providing detailed, dense, foliage that's constantly in motion, beautifully rendered character models, physics enabled clothing and hair, vibrant lighting, why should anyone settle on the latest game in a big AAA franchise running at 30fps?

Sword of Justice has unironically shifted my view on graphics in video games. This game looks absolutely stunning, one of the most graphically impressive games I have ever played, and it performs so amazingly well, some of the best performance in a modern video game.

one of the hidden benefits of being bi-lingual is having a really good understanding of why localisation is so important, because sometimes I will see someone's fan translation from English to Polish and I'll be like "gurl, the words might be the same, but that don't mean the same thing"

It is not an MMO, but it does have an online mode and bosses you can do with other people at end game.

Kinda love Sword of Justice's solution to the whole, wheelchair in fantasy problem, where the character in the wheelchair just sorta flies to get around.

I have decided I actually really like it, it's so fun.

I am genuinely unable to decide on whether I am enjoying Sword of Justice. Such a weird game.

I don't dance is the most homosexual song Disney have ever put out.

It's fine, they're just making sure it had 16 times the detail.

"And god broke off one of his ribs to turn into his partner" is exactly the sorta thing you'd see in ancient myth, but because it's written in some book it's considered more plausible by some people.

Now as long as those two happen, you can convince people the game is fixed even if it isn't, as per Cyberpunk 2077, which while better now than on launch, is still a very flawed and buggy game with performance issues.

What I think is needed for a game to successfully have a second wind is thus:
-Small, incremental updates over a short period after launch, with minor fanfare
-One large content update that addresses some major criticism a game had accompanies by a huge marketing push

Counter to that, New World had incremental big releases that eventually fixed the game, but never to the point where people would give it a third or fourth chance.

Similarly with FFXIV, in spite of incremental updates that were well received by the community to the OG 1.0 version, people didn't come back to it until the 2.0 release which granted, was a different game.

In spite of No Man's Sky fixing most of its problems in the first update, and becoming gradually better over the first 3 updates, people didn't start considering a second chance until Next.

What I have noticed over time is that in order for a game to actually receive a second chance, the changes to it cannot happen incrementally. They have to happen in a big release with a distinct marketing push.

I am very curious about the No Man's Sky effect, as in, a game releasing to a bad reception, receiving a second chance and complete flip in reputation.

I fully predict Civ 7 will be a 1:1 repeat of 5. 4 years from now, after it gets expansions, it will be considered the best in the series.

My point of it could be the best UI in the series relies heavily on them updating every single screen with the same principles as the stuff they already changed.

Don't get me wrong, the UI still has ways to go. The tech trees remain basically unchanged, there's still the odd alignment issue here and there. But the new improvement screen, the new loading screen, pause menu, city view, its honestly fantastic at displaying information.

I think a big element that gives Civ 7 a huge edge over prior Civ games is just how much more fun combat is here than prior games.

Civ 7 might genuinely have the best base game UI out of any of the Civ games, it's genuinely really well put together now (for the most part anyway). I really hope they'll keep releasing updates cos all it's really missing is improvements to the age transitions.