The major franchises are, by and large, sponsored by the platform holders and major publishers at this point. They can actually spend a few years working on a game. More time means less crunch
And as a consumer? I already got way too many games to play. Right now I have Baldurs Gate 3 (!), Armored Core 6 (???), Alan Wake 2 (… I have to have died and somehow got put in The Good Place, right?), and LAD Gaiden (that actually is sane) in the next few months. Let alone whatever I managed to forget because this shit is so insanely stacked.
But also? it doesn’t really matter i I play a game at launch. Last of Us 2 and God of War 2 were some of the bigger games ever with massive twists that EVERYONE cared about. And… because I ignored threads about it, I was pleasantly surprised (well, mostly bored but…) when I finally got around to them a year or three later.
And… for as big as these new games are? I still got Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld and Warframe to check in on way too often.
So yeah. I am perfectly happy with the big sequels getting more time in between games.
Kenshi is fun but always feels like too much of a time investment to get to the fun parts. Sort of like a roguelike where the first hour is always the same but you still will probably die. Caves of Qud is VERY different, but has a similar “let’s do some weird stuff in a weird world” but is “fun” from the first few minutes.
Starsector I could just never get on with, but keep trying every year or two. I think the problem is that I “grew up” in the peak of the elite game genre and with stuff like EV Nova. And now that Cosmoteer is out, that is more of what I want from that style of game. Just a shame the quests are so weak and there are no mini-narratives… yet.
That’s a fair critique of Kenshi, yeah 😂 I have a soft spot for it because I started following it back in, like, 2011, when Chris was the sole dev and didn’t even want to do a Kickstarter for it. It’s up there with Grim Dawn amongst the greatest success stories of games I’ve backed (it’s quite a short list lol). I’m hoping Kenshi 2 will fix a lot of the jank and bugs from the first one, since it’ll have foundations built by a team instead of having to deal with a legacy “good enough” codebase.
Star Sector is indeed a bit tough to get into, and I still don’t like actively piloting ships. This might be attributable to inputs: I’ve got a Kinesis Advantage II ergo keyboard, which is stupid comfortable for 14-hour stretches of typing, but means I have to remap every single key in every single game I want to start playing. What keeps me playing is the sheer amount of community-made content available, which adds a lot of replayability in the form of new ships, weapons, factions, and questlines. Also Nexerelin, which adds a lot of 4X elements, changes the gameplay significantly.
I was looking at Cosmoteer just recently, funnily enough! I was thinking about buying it, but my brain actually used the meme on me:
We have Cosmoteer at home
I’ve just pulled up the store page again, will probably watch some more recent Let’s Plays to get a better idea of the experience.
How about Avorion? I like what I’ve played, I just suck at building and haven’t put in the time to learn it any better, but it has heaps of good reviews.
This is good all around?
The major franchises are, by and large, sponsored by the platform holders and major publishers at this point. They can actually spend a few years working on a game. More time means less crunch
And as a consumer? I already got way too many games to play. Right now I have Baldurs Gate 3 (!), Armored Core 6 (???), Alan Wake 2 (… I have to have died and somehow got put in The Good Place, right?), and LAD Gaiden (that actually is sane) in the next few months. Let alone whatever I managed to forget because this shit is so insanely stacked.
But also? it doesn’t really matter i I play a game at launch. Last of Us 2 and God of War 2 were some of the bigger games ever with massive twists that EVERYONE cared about. And… because I ignored threads about it, I was pleasantly surprised (well, mostly bored but…) when I finally got around to them a year or three later.
And… for as big as these new games are? I still got Dwarf Fortress and Rimworld and Warframe to check in on way too often.
So yeah. I am perfectly happy with the big sequels getting more time in between games.
Oh boy, based on your list there you might be me. Have you played Kenshi or Star Sector by any chance? If not, I would like to recommend both.
… Right, the topic… Yeah, I agree, less crunch = good, more time to play all these fantastic games = good!
Kenshi is fun but always feels like too much of a time investment to get to the fun parts. Sort of like a roguelike where the first hour is always the same but you still will probably die. Caves of Qud is VERY different, but has a similar “let’s do some weird stuff in a weird world” but is “fun” from the first few minutes.
Starsector I could just never get on with, but keep trying every year or two. I think the problem is that I “grew up” in the peak of the elite game genre and with stuff like EV Nova. And now that Cosmoteer is out, that is more of what I want from that style of game. Just a shame the quests are so weak and there are no mini-narratives… yet.
That’s a fair critique of Kenshi, yeah 😂 I have a soft spot for it because I started following it back in, like, 2011, when Chris was the sole dev and didn’t even want to do a Kickstarter for it. It’s up there with Grim Dawn amongst the greatest success stories of games I’ve backed (it’s quite a short list lol). I’m hoping Kenshi 2 will fix a lot of the jank and bugs from the first one, since it’ll have foundations built by a team instead of having to deal with a legacy “good enough” codebase.
Star Sector is indeed a bit tough to get into, and I still don’t like actively piloting ships. This might be attributable to inputs: I’ve got a Kinesis Advantage II ergo keyboard, which is stupid comfortable for 14-hour stretches of typing, but means I have to remap every single key in every single game I want to start playing. What keeps me playing is the sheer amount of community-made content available, which adds a lot of replayability in the form of new ships, weapons, factions, and questlines. Also Nexerelin, which adds a lot of 4X elements, changes the gameplay significantly.
I was looking at Cosmoteer just recently, funnily enough! I was thinking about buying it, but my brain actually used the meme on me:
I’ve just pulled up the store page again, will probably watch some more recent Let’s Plays to get a better idea of the experience.
How about Avorion? I like what I’ve played, I just suck at building and haven’t put in the time to learn it any better, but it has heaps of good reviews.
Hold the fucking phone, did you say Alan wake 2?
There’s no way, tell me what you just said is real. I have heard nothing on this, I’m gonna go look this up ASAP.