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Friday Fun Thread for August 9, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I might just be a fan, but I don't think Nintendo is particularly overrated. To me, they really are the best at what they do.

There's really no other company that consistently makes games that "feel" as good to play. Maneuvering the character in Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, and Splatoon feels responsive, smooth, and intuitive in a way I haven't seen from any other game maker. They're also really great at making games that simultaneously have a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling.

God of War, The Witcher 3, and Horizon Zero Dawn are some of the biggest Sony titles, but to me the character movements feel sluggish, jerky, and unintuitive. They can have beautiful worlds and good stories, but I don't really enjoy existing there nearly as much.

Bungie is similarly good at making games that feel good - say what you will about Destiny or Destiny 2, it is fun to shoot guns in those games. Unfortunately, they are also pretty iffy these days on translating those good fundamentals into games that are overall fun.

Prototype and Warframe are pretty fun on the speedier-combat side, though they do share similar issues with the gameplay loop struggling at times.

God of War, The Witcher 3, and Horizon Zero Dawn are some of the biggest Sony titles, but to me the character movements feel sluggish, jerky, and unintuitive. They can have beautiful worlds and good stories, but I don't really enjoy existing there nearly as much.

Have you tried From Software games? I can' think of any studio that that makes third person melee feel as good as they do.

I played around with Dark Souls a bit, but I didn't get far enough to really judge. I usually only play video games when I'm mentally drained so I never stuck with it long enough to "git gud". Elden Ring is at the top of my list for the next time I have an extended gap from working.

Nintendo is the only game company left that I'd consider a preorder from.

It is telling that Nintendo's worst received titles tend to be games that they either rode into the ground (New New New Super Mario Bros. U & Knuckles Featuring Dante from the Devil May Cry series) or just didn't finish (Sunshine, the newer sports games, and to a point ToTK).