Your video game hot take(s) thread

[XsjadoBlaydette]

Ok having now played the pathologic 3 here's a criticism that I cannot find online through Google, bing or duck duck go searches (if anything at all about the ps5 version tbh wtf is going on) - how have you rebooted the same game twice and still got it running capped at 30fps, seriously lol...release the frames, free our eyeballs!

 

[Drathnoxis]

FromSoftware has been remaking the same game for over 30 years.

 

[BrawlMan]

FromSoftware has been remaking the same game for over 30 years.

That's really not a hot take. Most FS fans from way back in the day already know that and told the younger or newer fans already. Everyone knows about King's Field at this point. That said, a lot of people from the early days miss it when they were experimenting with other games or just making quirky games for the sake it. Plenty still want Tenchu back, or a reboot of Ninja Blade.

 

[Old_Hunter_77]

Hollow Knight can f*** off already.

One of the 2026 games that interested me is coming out tomorrow and it is called MIO: Memories In Orbit. It is a metroidvania which is a genre I generally like but don't love, because of the back-tracking- I do like the exploration and figuring things out but unless it's executed perfectly I can get annoyed if a solution is not logical but then also I don't mind looking stuff up if I get really stuck. A game with neat art (Ultros) or gameplay will draw me in easily.

Here is AV Club's review of the game, where they give it an A and praise the art, theme, and platforming:
MIO: Memories In Orbit will be hard to forget

But look at this paragraph:

"Despite its obvious love of Metroid, MIO is a game of its time, fully aware of Hollow Knight’s massive impact. It runs at a fast pace, MIO can only take a few hits before dying, there’s a currency that’s lost whenever they do die, and there are a number of optional, equippable modifiers that can be found or bought that boost MIO’s defense or offense. Team Cherry’s most obvious inspiration is difficulty, though: MIO’s boss battles are brutal. Most of them are rapid-fire chaos, with a large variety of attacks that are cycled through randomly and require instant recognition to avoid, and invariably a second phase where everything gets faster and more complex. If you enjoy this genre for its sense of exploration and discovery, and aren’t particularly adept at split-second action, these battles (of which there are many) will serve as frequent brick walls to your progress."

Well.... goddammit!

The review goes on to identify "accessibility" options including one where your deaths on a boss "degrade" it over time so even with the accessibility mode you're still running back to and dying over and over again. Which is not something I want to spend my limited time on earth doing any more.

Why does every good game require brutal difficulty now? And run-backs, and currency lost on death- that is FromSoftware's insidious influence on games, that is a big part of Hollow Knight continuing to make its way into everything. Ugh.

One day someone will make a game where boss fights are marginally more challenging than regular enemies, have one "phase," and it will be appreciated. By me, at least.

 

[BrawlMan]

Why does every good game require brutal difficulty now?

Even before FS's influence, it's.....

​

I found more than a few games that are brutally difficult, but have the right amount of challenge. If you're looking for a game where you can make the difficulty as easy or challenging as you want, then play Double Dragon Gaiden. As you soon select a save file, you can choose your difficulty however you want.

 

[Worgen]

I don't really like flying units in RTS games. They are fine with how they are done in something like C&C where they take a few shots then have to reload, or in something like World in Conflict where they are a call in strike, but I don't like when they are another layer of just unit hanging around. Its pretty common for them to also end up as a big ball of unit that lacks collision so they just swarm together in a way that I find annoying.

 

[Xprimentyl]

I don't own a PlayStation, so have not been able to play Bloodborne, but I've been watching Wuggernaut's blind playthrough, and I've got to say, as much as I like the overall aesthetics, the enemies constantly screaming, and bosses that wail and screech throughout the entire fight kinda... sucks. I'll give it that it's true to the nightmare theme, but I don't imagine playing it and having to concentrate listening to all that would be much fun. I always said if I got the opportunity, I'd finally play it, but I think watching it is enough for me; I can scratch Bloodborne off the list.

 

[Drathnoxis]

I don't own a PlayStation, so have not been able to play Bloodborne, but I've been watching Wuggernaut's blind playthrough, and I've got to say, as much as I like the overall aesthetics, the enemies constantly screaming, and bosses that wail and screech throughout the entire fight kinda... sucks. I'll give it that it's true to the nightmare theme, but I don't imagine playing it and having to concentrate listening to all that would be much fun. I always said if I got the opportunity, I'd finally play it, but I think watching it is enough for me; I can scratch Bloodborne off the list.

Cope. That wasn't something that impacted the game at all for me while playing. I'm sure that it's less noticeable if you are actually focused on the fight and avoiding damage.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Bloodborne (...) as much as I like the overall aesthetics, the enemies constantly screaming, and bosses that wail and screech throughout the entire fight kinda... sucks.

This is something that I agree with in hindsight but also was never even close to an issue while I was actually playing the game.

 

[BrawlMan]

I am halfway through Romeo Is A Dead Man. I am loving it, but this might be their most janky melee combat action game. The combat does work, but this is Grasshoppers and Suda's second least polished combat system after Travis Strikes Again. Killer Is Dead is still their most polished title in terms of combat and stage design. In games like KiD and No More Heroes, you can block, dodge, and their is a bullet time mechanic when doing successful dodge/blocks/parries, etc. This might change when getting to next half of the game, but there is no blocking in Romeo. Just dodging, but there is no perfect dodge mechanics. Hence the zombie summoning system called Bastards. Think Pokemon, but with zombies. Surprisingly fun and addicting when you combine the powers of these guys.

Also, the whole enemies respawn when you save at a checkpoint is not exactly a Souls thing. Killer7 has a similar mechanic where Heaven Smiles respawn at specific sections or when you go to save or upgrade. I get why Suda has this mechanic. If he didn't the game would be too easy and would get boring fast. As you are actually exploring different areas, optional paths, even though these games are linear. In Killer is Dead, there are some side paths/hidden paths for upgrades, but you're mainly going into a straight line. The levels in Romeo Is A Dead Man are more open ended by comparison. I still would've preferred to find a better compromise, but it's not enough to upset me nor ruin my enjoyment.

 

[Bob_McMillan]

Something that's been on my mind for a while. TLDR, Ahoy has collected data from hundreds of games and concluded that games were not particularly brown during the 7th generation, and if anything, it was the 6th and 8th generations that was brown. I have my problems with his methodology (for example, why even include sports games), but it is quite an interesting video.

That's his hot take, my hot take would be that I think I would prefer piss and poo filters on drab games rather than the colorfully ugly games we keep getting these days. Concorde and Highguard look so uniquely terrible, and they're so bright so you can see clearly just how awful everything is. At least with brown games, everything is uniformly brown so it all blurs together.

 

[ExtraWildGames]

1cc/no death/no damage runs are more interesting and fun to watch than speedruns.
It's more about interacting with the game's system instead of ignoring it entirely.

 

[BrawlMan]

At least with brown games, everything is uniformly brown so it all blurs together.

Which is why I hate them even more. They're super boring and rarely anything pops out. Yes, you have bright colored games that are grarish, but even then, most of those ain't Concord or High Guard any way. I love unique art direction as much as most people, but when you're senelsessly copying brown/grey especially, then you've already lost appeal to me and most others.

1cc/no death/no damage runs are more interesting and fun to watch than speedruns.
It's more about interacting with the game's system instead of ignoring it entirely.

Agreed. Speedruns have their moments, but they blend in too much.

 

[Worgen]

Something that's been on my mind for a while. TLDR, Ahoy has collected data from hundreds of games and concluded that games were not particularly brown during the 7th generation, and if anything, it was the 6th and 8th generations that was brown. I have my problems with his methodology (for example, why even include sports games), but it is quite an interesting video.

That's his hot take, my hot take would be that I think I would prefer piss and poo filters on drab games rather than the colorfully ugly games we keep getting these days. Concorde and Highguard look so uniquely terrible, and they're so bright so you can see clearly just how awful everything is. At least with brown games, everything is uniformly brown so it all blurs together.

Grey brown isn't just about being grey and brown. Serious Sam has a lot of grey and brown but you would never say its a grey brown shooter. Serious Sam 3 is much more of a grey brown shooter, but even then, its no where near as much of one as gears of war or some of the cod games from around that time.

 

[BrawlMan]

Grey brown isn't just about being grey and brown. Serious Sam has a lot of grey and brown but you would never say its a grey brown shooter. Serious Sam 3 is much more of a grey brown shooter, but even then, its no where near as much of one as gears of war or some of the cod games from around that time.

Serious Sam 1st and 2nd Encounter, along Serious Sam 2, remembered to have proper art direction. Even Serious Sam 4 with some of its problems, remembered to get this right. BFE still sorta don't like and playing 4 and Siberia Mayhem make it even harder to go back and play.

 

[Worgen]

Serious Sam 1st and 2nd Encounter, along Serious Sam 2, remembered to have proper art direction. Even Serious Sam 4 with some of its problems, remembered to get this right. BFE still sorta don't like and playing 4 and Siberia Mayhem make it even harder to go back and play.

Yeah, much as I love Serious Sam games, 3 really is the weakest, mainly because of its start as a different military shooter game. Its still got cool moments but yeah, I would rather replay SS4, SSSM or SSBFE then 3 at this point.

 

[BrawlMan]

Also, @Worgen, I am really not liking Absolum. I appreciate the art direction, combat, music and voice acting, but this game is really reminding why I don't do rouge-likes/lites. I hate the run back, and the only things in this genre or genre hybrid to grab me are SOR4's survival mode, and Double Dragon Gaiden. Absolum I more than likely gonna uninstall and never bother with again.

 

[Worgen]

Also, @Worgen, I am really not liking Absolum. I appreciate the art direction, combat, music and voice acting, but this game is really reminding why I don't do rouge-likes/lites. I hate the run back, and the only things in this genre or genre hybrid to grab me are SOR4's survival mode, and Double Dragon Gaiden. Absolum I more than likely gonna uninstall and never bother with again.

I know right. There are some roguelikes I can really get into, but Absolum wasn't really one of them. I'm sure someone could make an amazing roguelike brawler but Absolum isn't quite it.

 

[BrawlMan]

I'm actually glad Rushing Beat X went the 2.5D route. It makes the game stand out more, and I love the heavy use of ink shading. Some people were ragging on it with the early builds and looking like a "cheap XBLA game", but if that game came out back during that timeframe, nearly everybody would have been eating that shit up. Besides there's plenty of great looking XBLA games from that era, and still look great today. Most opinions have long shifted, but you're always gonna have your pathetic naysayers whenever there's a new game to a franchise that was brought back from the 90s.

Besides, if City Connection went with pixels, people still would have complained and gone on about how it's just another retro pixel brawler or some contrarian bull.

 

[ExtraWildGames]

I'm actually glad Rushing Beat X went the 2.5D route. It makes the game stand out more, and I love the heavy use of ink shading. Some people were ragging on it with the early builds and looking like a "cheap XBLA game", but if that game came out back during that timeframe, nearly everybody would have been eating that shit up. Besides there's plenty of great looking XBLA games from that era, and still look great today. Most opinions have long shifted, but you're always gonna have your pathetic naysayers whenever there's a new game to a franchise that was brought back from the 90s.

Besides, if City Connection went with pixels, people still would have complained and gone on about how it's just another retro pixel brawler or some contrarian bull.

Speaking of 2.5d, did you ever play that other 2.5d Double Dragon game that's not Gaiden?