Man, the full release Starbound was such a… I don’t want to call it a disappointment but it’s definitely a shame what happened with it. It went through so many cool mechanics throughout the development and threw away like half of them (not to mention the near complete rewrite of the lore). Such a weird situation.

I barely touched the 1.0 version but I still play some of the beta builds from time to time - they might lack in content but boy do they grab me in a way the full release never managed to.

Catalyst missed the mark for me. Between locking the moves behind skill tree, larger focus on combat and slightly reworked art style it just didn’t grab me the way the original did. It’s not all bad and I still want to play it to completion some day but it was kind of a disappointment nonetheless.

Still waiting for Oni 2

Best I can do is the leaked early build of the project attempted by Angel Studios. It’s rough, obviously unfinished and Konoko looks a bit different but it has a somewhat working combat system you can play with and a bunch of levels to run around in. It’s also prone to crashes but that’s to be expected.

They really went all in with setpieces that felt like a serious crime drama. I never got to experience the multiplayer (co-op or otherwise) but what I’ve seen looked cool. I wonder if they’re people playing it these days.

For spoilers it’s:

::: spoiler <spoiler_name>
<content>
:::

It has great style! I love how much the leaned into the found footage/internet video aesthetic, as well as how they decided to go for a more naturalistic approach in regards to game ambiance (environmental sounds, diegetic music etc). It’s such a unique experience in video games, especially bigger published ones.

I think the general idea for the plot and world at large is pretty good (there are some interesting and rather grim details in the background), it’s just that Bungie missed the mark with how to write and present these things to actually hit the mark. It was also rushed out the door due to business shenanigans which cemented the end result.

Absolutely! It’s a very flawed game and a pretty rough experience, even with the Anniversary Edition fixes and mods. I’m still not sure what makes me go back to it but for some reason I end up doing just that every few years. It’s one of a few titles I’d like to see in a remastered or (slightly) modernised form. Not that it’s going to happen but one can dream, right?

These might be closer to mediocre than BAD bad but I don’t expect too many people to mention them so why not.

• Drakengard 3 - action adventure game with dated graphics (even at the time of release), terrible performance on the original hardware, huge amount of asset reuse (including whole levels) and writing that can range from childish, crass and annoying to extremely emotional. It’s rough but it’s also my favourite Yoko Taro game.
• Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2004, PS2) - alright gameplay, decent voice acting, meh story and levels. It’s not terrible but based on the opinions I’ve seen it seems like I enjoyed it a bit more than most. Pretty cool drum & bass soundtrack.
• Kane & Lynch (both games) - most people didn’t like these games due to rough feeling gameplay and presentation (especially in the first game), I can’t help but love it. I feel like all of the elements combine in a coherent and extremely raw experience which might not be “fun” or “polished” but for me it just works.
• Kao the Kangaroo (2000) - extremely basic mascot platformer with (mostly) dated visuals, linear levels and some annoying enemies. Sequel might be an improvement but I still prefer this ugly duckling over anything that came after.
• Oni (Bungie’s action game from 2001) - it has huge empty levels, basic presentation, pretty mediocre story and uneven difficulty curve. It also has a great hand-to-hand combat system which makes those issues easier to swallow. Pretty good Ghost in the Shell game.
• Scarface: The World is Yours - GTA clone set after an alternative ending to the 1983 movie with Al Pacino. Pretty ugly and rough around the edges but it also has some fun mechanics (empire building, customisable mansion, money laundering, ability to bribe cops and more). A competent experience, even if it didn’t reach the heights of GTA or Saints Row titles.

Edit: I remembered another one!

Trespasser - physics based action-adventure game from 1998, intended as a sequel to The Lost World: Jurassic Park movie. It has extremely weird and wonky control scheme where you interact with the world by moving your hand - as in, you physically move it with your mouse, no simple “press button to do things”.

• You want to open the door? Cool, use your hand.
• You want to make yourself a ramp using a plank? You know how physics work so go ahead.
• Interacting with keypads? Just push the buttons.
• Want to attack something with melee? Pick up an object and swing manually.
• You want to aim your gun? No crosshair, move the barrel in the general direction of your target and pray it’ll work.

It’s not super intuitive but it does work pretty well once you get the hang of it. Heck, I even managed to throw a 3-pointer at the court in the residential zone! Man, I wish I still had my Twitch account…

The game also went with a “no hud” approach so no ammo count (only vague call-outs by the character like “about 5 shots”) and to check your health you had to look at the tattoo on your chest (it changed depending on your HP). Also no gun reloading cause your other arm is broken and your character can’t do it one handed, I guess.

It was unfinished, extremely ambitious (both in terms of planned features and implemented technology) and has a bunch of problems. It’s an interesting and very unique experience, worth a try even today in my opinion. It’s also the only piece of Jurassic Park media I actually care about and I wish it was easily obtainable in official distribution again - come on GOG, you can do it!

That’s no good. Time to back up some of the resources I might need. Thanks for the heads-up!

To be fair, that’s not an issue isolated to gacha games. Plenty of modern titles take old style unlocks (skins, bonus characters etc) and turns them into small, often paid, DLC. It sucks but it’s a wider problem within the industry.

Oh, absolutely. I assume people who play exclusively gacha games do so due to the combination of F2P, regular content updates and excitement from pulling for characters/gambling but that’s just a personal guess. I don’t have any hard data to confirm it.

As for folks playing them regardless of genre, that’s not really exclusive to gacha games - there’s plenty of people who play whatever catches their attention, myself included. Strategy, racing, shooters, adventure games… if it clicks with me I’ll play anything (gacha or not). There’s too much fun stuff out there to limit yourself to a single genre, in my opinion.

My main game is the already mentioned Girls’ Frontline (the first one), which is thankfully old enough to come out before the modern monetisation practises and psychological tricks became the norm. There’s no limited pull currency, no need for character dupes (can be replaced by a resource that is so easy to get I can’t even spend it all), no character specific events to push the new and shiny unit etc.
It does have skin gacha for most (but not all) character skins but even then you can use farmable resource for that + getting duplicate costumes turns them into “Black Cards” which can be exchanged for specific outfit. It’s still a bad system and a black mark on an otherwise extremely free-2-play friendly game.

I feel like the most important part of playing gacha games is the ability to just walk away if a title ends up being monetised in a way that affects your enjoyment or well being (for those with lack of self-control). There’s plenty of fun to be had for free, no need to give into FOMO and suffering through predatory balancing decisions when there’s so many options on the market.

So do I, I’m just saying that many wonder “why people play gacha games” without realising (or caring) that there’s actual “game” part outside of the monetisation itself.

I can butt in on this a little bit. The problem with statements like this is that they treat “gacha” (the monetisation and unit recruitment system) as a genre when gacha games are too varied to be locked under this single umbrella (at least for a conversation like this). To name a few, you have games like:

• Arknights (tower defence)
• Azur Lane (bullet-hell kinda sorta)
• Bang Dream (rhythm game)
• Genshin Impact (action-adventure)
• Girls’ Frontline (tactical autobattler)
• Persona 5X (JRPG, just gacha Persona)

All of them play differently, offer different challenges and the impact of their gacha systems can be all over the place. Sometimes there are limited character pulls which have serious effect on gameplay (most of the modern titles), other times characters are super easy to obtain and improve as most of the monetisation comes from character costumes etc (Girls’ Frontline, Azur Lane for example).
Besides that, many of them have engaging stories, which combined with offering lots of content and being able to play them for free makes the whole thing even more appealing.

Not that the aspect of “oh cool, I unlocked new character” doesn’t play any role or that there’s nothing predatory about most of the games using this mechanic, it’s just that “gacha” mechanics aren’t always the sole or main factor keeping people playing.

TL;DR: They are just free games that can, but aren’t always, predatory with a specific gameplay mechanic. Often offer enough value for free players to have fun with them.

Was it a specific mechanic, the whole theme of the expansion or something more specific like how it was utilised with the difficulty you play on? I’m pretty sure I like all of the expansions for that game but I’m also a rather casual player when it comes to 4X games so I’m curious about your experience.

I should really give survival another shot. I played it maybe 3 times so far and while I did like it, it never managed to stick with me beyond that - I’m not sure why. Guess it’s as good of an excuse to reinstall the first game as anything else.

I actually know it exists thanks to a few cross-posts between it and !girlsfrontline@lemmy.world but I keep forgetting to check it out. Thanks for the reminder!

I never really got too deep into builds and just threw together whatever looked or sounded cool until recently. I’m finally starting to try come up with things that actually work properly within the intended mechanics though even then, I don’t really care about min-maxing and popular builds and simply tinker on my own. That said, I mostly play solo so it’s not like there are people who could get angry at me for not playing “optimally”.

Do you also alternate between the games or did you found one that stuck with you for good?

I don’t have specific numbers since some of these games were played on various platforms or outside of environment which keeps track of play time. Still, these are the things that come to mind in regards to where I spent most of my game time.

I’m putting each title into a spoiler to avoid a huge wall of text. I tend to get a bit rambly when talking about games, sorry.

There are probably a few more titles with similar play times but I don’t want to make it look like I had no life as a kid (I didn’t). I love games man.

They also do Bandcamp Fridays! These are the dates where all of the revenue goes directly to artists, without the usual 15% share for Bandcamp. Here is the list for this year if anyone’s curious.

He actively misrepresented the campaign and spread misinformation about its goals. I don’t know if he genuinely didn’t understand or if he was too embarrassed to admit to a mistake but he did a lot of damage to the momentum and perception of the whole thing.

It sucks these big creators only now pick up the mantle but it’s better than nothing. There’s still some time left.