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HITMAN 3 PRE-LAUNCH GUIDE (PROGRESSION CARRYOVER)

https://www.ioi.dk/hitman-3-pre-launch-guide/
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Welcome to the HITMAN 3 Pre-launch guide. This blog post will be our place to share in-depth details about HITMAN 3, including how to carryover your progression, our new Access Pass system, what to expect on launch day and more.
We are excited to see all of our players embark on Agent 47’s next journey and experience the dramatic conclusion to the World of Assassination trilogy.
Before you start reading, this is how the game begins.

Release Details

HITMAN 3 will be available on 20 January 2021 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, Stadia, Nintendo Switch and PC.
We’re happy to confirm that the Nintendo Switch version of HITMAN 3 will also launch on 20 January. The Switch version of HITMAN 3 is playable via cloud streaming technology. A stable and permanent internet connection is required to play.
Release Time HITMAN 3 will release simultaneously on all platforms at 13:00 UTC on 20 January 2021. To see the exact release time in your timezone, follow this link. This release time will ensure that the IOI teams in Copenhagen and Malmö are best-placed to ensure a smooth launch. At that time, digital copies will be available to play and the games servers will be online.
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Pre-load It will be possible to pre-load HITMAN 3 on PlayStation and Xbox platforms. Make sure that you’ve configured your console to do that and the downloads will begin when they have been prepared and certified. On PC, there won’t be a pre-load option for HITMAN 3 and downloads will begin at the above release time.
(For PS4 and PS5 owners in Asia, please note that HITMAN 3 will not be available for pre-order or pre-load. This is due to recent changes in the age ratings systems in those regions. HITMAN 3 will be available for purchase at the above time.)
Day One Patch HITMAN 3 will require a day one patch for all disc users. The day one patch will be automatically applied to digital players. This patch will include access to the VR mode for PlayStation users and will include the remaining locations that are not included on the disc.
Game Size HITMAN 3 will take up approximately 60-70 GB of storage space on all platforms, with the obvious exceptions of Stadia and Switch. The data that you download will also include all the content required to access HITMAN 1 and HITMAN 2 – but you are still required to own/purchase access to those games. To underline that; purchasing HITMAN 3 does not grant access to the previous two games by default.
Using this method allows us to reduce the file size for all players to 60-70 GB and has the benefit of making the process of redeeming or purchase access to HITMAN 1 and HITMAN 2 as simple as possible. (We talk about that more later). Also, we want to clarify that reducing the file size doesn’t mean that we’ve made any compromises on the visual/audio quality of the game. If you’re curious about the technical aspects that made this possible, we recently talked to PC Gamer about it.

HITMAN 3 - Editions

There are two editions of HITMAN 3; The Standard Edition and the Deluxe Edition.
– The Standard Edition includes the HITMAN 3 base game. Nice and simple. – The Deluxe Edition includes the HITMAN 3 base game and the Deluxe Pack. Again, nice and simple.
The only difference between the two editions is the Deluxe Pack, which includes 6 Deluxe Escalations, in-game suits, items and weapons, a digital soundtrack for each game in the World of Assassination trilogy, an introduction to each HITMAN 3 campaign mission by the Game Director and a digital artbook that highlights the characters, targets and missions included in the trilogy. A free IOI Account is required to download the digital soundtracks and World of HITMAN Art Book.
Here’s a visual look at everything that’s packed into the HITMAN 3 Deluxe Edition:
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Next-gen Upgrade Console players who pre-order or purchase a physical or digital copy of HITMAN 3 (either Standard or Deluxe) on the current generation of consoles (PS4/Xbox One), will receive a free upgrade to the next-gen version of the game for no additional cost. Note that you won’t be able to receive the next-gen upgrade if you purchase HITMAN 3 on disc and you own a disc-free next gen console.
When making a digital purchase, you will automatically be entitled to download the next-gen version when you access the game on that console.
When making a physical disc purchase, you’ll need to insert the current gen disc into your next gen console and you’ll be able to download the next-gen version for no additional cost. Simply keep the disc in your machine whenever you want to play and you’ll be good to go.
Pre-order Bonus The HITMAN 3 pre-order bonus celebrates all three games in the World of Assassination trilogy. Introducing the Trinity Pack. You’ll get it just by pre-ordering the game, no matter what platform or edition.
The Trinity Pack includes a total of 9 items, with 3 distinct sets that represent a different game from the trilogy. Each set includes a suit, briefcase and weapon. From the White of HITMAN 1, the Red of HITMAN 2 or the Black of HITMAN 3, you’ll have all 9 items in your inventory to mix and match as you like. The classic Hitman insignia is etched onto the items in gold to add an elegant flourish.
Note: The Trinity Pack will not be included with either the Standard Edition or Deluxe Edition after January 20.
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At selected retailers, pre-ordering a physical edition of HITMAN 3 will also include an exclusive physical passport. This unique item is filled with details and references from Agent 47’s career and commemorates 20 years of Hitman. See the list of retailers in our previous pre-order blog post.

Progression Carryover

All current HITMAN 2 players will be able to carryover their hard-earned progression into HITMAN 3.
After completing the carryover process, HITMAN 2 players will be able to start HITMAN 3 with their existing player profile, XP rank, location mastery levels, location mastery unlocks, challenge progress, challenge unlocks and Elusive Target suits/unlocks. All of those things are what we call ‘progression’. It’s not possible to pick and choose elements to carryover. It’s all or nothing.
The carryover process requires an IOI Account and can only be done through a web browser, it’s not possible to do it in-game. We will have the website ready to go before launch, but it is not live yet. Once it is ready, we will share the news via ioi.dk and update this post.
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Here’s more about how it will work:
– Progression can only be carried over from HITMAN 2, including progression you have from the Legacy Pack (HITMAN 1 locations within HITMAN 2).
– Progression can only be carried over from within the same platform. There are only three options:
HITMAN 2 (PlayStation) → HITMAN 3 (PlayStation) HITMAN 2 (Xbox) → HITMAN 3 (Xbox) HITMAN 2 (PC/Steam) → HITMAN 3 (PC/Epic)
Note: “PlayStation” = PS4, PS4 Pro and PS5. “Xbox” = Xbox One, Xbox One S, Xbox One X, Xbox Series S and Xbox Series X.
Essentially, it doesn’t matter what specific console you have earned progression on. It only matters that progression can only move forward and within the same console ‘family’.
– Progression carryover is a one-time process, meaning once you have performed a carryover for a particular platform, you will not be able to do so again at a later time.
– If you have played HITMAN 2 on multiple platforms, you CAN perform a carryover for EACH of those profiles, but only within the same platform, as listed above. For example, if you play H2 on Xbox and PlayStation, you can carryover your H2 Xbox progression into H3 Xbox and independently carryover your H2 PlayStation progress into H3 PlayStation.
– When you complete the carryover process, your existing HITMAN 2 progress will remain as it is (i.e it will not be removed/deleted). However, your progression in H2 and H3 will NOT be synchronised.
– If you have already started playing HITMAN 3 and THEN choose to perform the progression carryover process, you will lose all progression earned within HITMAN 3 up to that point. We recommend you carryover progress before starting HITMAN 3.
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What exactly will be carried over?
When you start the process, you will need to select an account that you have linked to your IOI Account. You will then be able to review the HITMAN 2 progress earned on that account and confirm that you want to perform the carryover process into HITMAN 3.
The following progression will be included in the carryover process: player profile, XP rank, location mastery levels, location mastery unlocks, challenge progress, challenge unlocks and Elusive Target suits/unlocks. Savegame files are not carried over.
Note that there are a small amount of items/unlocks that are not carried over through this process, such as the rewards unlocked through the HITMAN 1 GOTY Escalations, becuase they are linked to a purchase. Those items will be available in HITMAN 3 when you redeem access to the associated content. In addition, the ICA Electrocution Phone has been retired and will not be available in HITMAN 3.
HITMAN 3 on Stadia On Stadia, all progression that players have earned in Hitman: World of Assassination (from both H1 and H2) will automatically ‘carryover’ to HITMAN 3. For additional clarity, Stadia and PC are two different platforms and progress cannot be shared or carried over between them.
HITMAN 3 on Nintendo Switch Progression carryover is not possible on Nintendo Switch because HITMAN 2 is not available on that platform as a standalone game.

Access Pass FAQ

HITMAN 3 allows players to access locations from the previous games in the trilogy (H1 and H2) and play them all under one roof. Essentially, we have setup H1 and H2 as DLC for HITMAN 3. You can buy or redeem/download an Access Pass and get access to its content within H3. For example, if you buy the HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass DLC for HITMAN 3, you’ll get access to the locations and missions included in the HITMAN 2 Standard Edition within HITMAN 3.
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In addition to the option of purchasing an Access Pass, it is also possible to redeem/download an Access Pass for no additional cost, if you have already purchased that content from the same store that you have pre-ordered or purchased HITMAN 3.
To make this happen, we detect what you already have installed for HITMAN 2 and can make the corresponding Access Pass available for no additional cost on the same store. Note: If you only own HITMAN 1, you will need to import that content into HITMAN 2 first, via the instructions in our Legacy Pack FAQ.
This process will work between console generations. For example, if you own HITMAN 2 on PS4, you’ll be able to download the HITMAN 2 Access Pass DLC in HITMAN 3 for both PS4 and PS5. The same applies for the Xbox family of consoles as well.
We know that’s a lot of information, but once you’ve seen all of the Access Pass options, and there are five in total, it will make more sense.
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HITMAN 1 GOTY Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 1 GOTY Edition: ICA Facility, Paris, Sapienza, Marrakesh, Bangkok, Colorado, Hokkaido, 3x GOTY Escalations and rewards and 4x Patient Zero campaign missions
How to get it – Consoles: If you have previously downloaded the HITMAN 1 Legacy Pack, HITMAN 1 GOTY Legacy Pack or HITMAN 1 GOTY Upgrade for HITMAN 2, you will be able to download it for no additional cost. (Yes, that’s a free upgrade to the GOTY Edition if you only own the Standard Edition of H1!). The price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store. – Disc: If you own a version of H1 on disc, you must follow the process in the Legacy Pack FAQ to access that content in HITMAN 2 – and then redeem this Access Pass.
– PC (Epic): If you pre-purchase or purchase HITMAN 3 on EGS within the first 10 days of launch, you will be granted the HITMAN 1 GOTY Access Pass for no additional charge. In addition, if you own or redeemed a free copy of HITMAN – The Complete First Season on EGS when it was available for free, you will be able to download this Access Pass at any time after purchasing HITMAN 3.
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HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Standard Edition: Hawke’s Bay, Miami, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Isle of Sgail, plus 1x Sniper Assassin map: Himmelstein
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a digital copy of HITMAN 2 Standard Edition or HITMAN 2 SilveGold, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost. The price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store.
– Disc: [See below]
– PC (Epic): As HITMAN 2 is not available on EGS, we have set up an 80% discount for this Access Pass for the first 14 days after HITMAN 3’s launch.
HITMAN 2 Standard Access Pass [DISC] Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Standard Edition: Hawke’s Bay, Miami, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Isle of Sgail, plus 1x Sniper Assassin map: Himmelstein
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a physical disc copy of HITMAN 2 Standard Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost through the HITMAN 2 in-game store. (You will see the full listing price if you look for the Access Pass in the PS/Xbox store as a disc owner.) On Xbox, you also need to own a digital copy of either HITMAN 3 or the HITMAN 2 Free Starter Pack before navigating to the in-game store.
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HITMAN 2 Gold Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Gold Edition: Hawke’s Bay, Miami, Santa Fortuna, Mumbai, Whittleton Creek, Isle of Sgail, New York, Haven Island, plus 3x Sniper Assassin maps: Himmelstein, Hantu Port, Siberia and 4x Special Assignments.
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a digital copy of HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost. The price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store. – Disc: If you bought HITMAN 2 Gold Edition on Disc, it will have included a download code for the HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass; you need to use that to get access to the content from the Gold Edition. See below. – PC (Epic): As HITMAN 2 is not available on EGS, we have set up an 80% discount for this Access Pass for the first 14 days after HITMAN 3’s launch. It will also grant access to the HITMAN 2 Expansion Access Pass.
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HITMAN 2 Expansion Access Pass Includes: Locations and missions currently available in the HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass: New York, Haven Island, plus 3x Sniper Assassin maps: Himmelstein, Hantu Port, Siberia and 4x Special Assignments.
How to get it – Consoles: If you own a digital copy of HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost. The price for the Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store. – Disc: If you own a physical copy of HITMAN 2 Gold Edition, you will be able to download this Access Pass for no additional cost because a download code for the HITMAN 2 Expansion Pass was included in the box. If you have redeemed that code, the price for this Access Pass will be listed as ‘free’ when you look for it in the store.
HITMAN 3 Access Pass on PC We’ve done everything possible to make this process smooth and player-friendly. However, due to various circumstances out of our control, we want to acknowledge that the process is different to our initial plans for PC players. We also want to share some of the initiatives we’ve set-up to make sure that PC players the chance to keep enjoying the benefits of the World of Assassination.
Our hope is that these initiatives help to ensure all HITMAN 3 PC players can able to enjoy the new game with full access to HITMAN 1 and their progression carried over as a minimum.
HITMAN 3 Access Pass on Stadia Due to the convenient set-up of HITMAN 1-3 on Stadia, the Access Pass system is not required. Players will continue to have access to the locations they already own through Hitman: World of Assassination, or can purchase the games that they don’t own through the Stadia Store.
HITMAN 3 Access Pass on Switch HITMAN 3 is the first game in the trilogy to be available on Switch. As such, each relevant Access Pass is available for purchase through the HITMAN 3 in-game store.

HITMAN VR

At launch, HITMAN 3 will support PS VR and all locations in the World of Assassination trilogy can be experienced in a new first-person perspective. Yes, that means you can traverse the outside of the tallest building in the (Hitman) world in PS VR! If you own the previous games from the trilogy on PS4, you can also access locations from them within HITMAN 3. That’s more than 20 Hitman locations from the World of Assassination trilogy to enjoy in PS VR.
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You can either play HITMAN 3 in PS VR natively on your PS4 or via backward compatibility on PS5. To make sure all PS VR owners can experience the game in VR, we’re including a free digital copy of the PS4 version of HITMAN 3 with all PS5 copies, whether you choose to buy it via disc or digital.
If you are playing on PS5, your progress between the PS4 (VR) and PS5 (non-VR) versions is shared between the two versions. You’ll be able to play the non-VR version of HITMAN 3 on PS5 with the next-gen improvements that we support (including Dual Sense support!) and then switch to the PS4 version for VR and all of your items and unlocks will be right there waiting for you. You will need to have both versions of the game installed on your PS5 to make that happen.
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Whether you play on PS4 or PS5, a DUALSHOCK®4 wireless controller is required to play HITMAN 3 in VR. Playing HITMAN 3 in VR on PS5 also requires a PlayStation Camera adaptor. For full details on the requirements for playing PS VR on your PS5, including how to order a free PlayStation Camera adaptor, see the official PlayStation PS VR site.

More to come

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We have got our sights firmly set on January 20 and our entire team is doing everything in our power to make the launch of HITMAN 3 as successful as possible. It’s an incredibly exciting time for us to be so close to releasing our next game, as well as deliver the dramatic conclusion to the World of Assassination trilogy.
Please keep the conversation going on Twitter, Discord, Reddit and in HitmanForum and be excellent to each other.
The World of Assassination awaits…
submitted by cakeblock941 to HiTMAN [link] [comments]

How I shipped my game solo on consoles & how you can do that too (Q & A)

After a good launch for my game, i started to get some random questions from users across all the channels, but there were one user on reddit (u/TamoorGames) who had many questions and he sent them in a very nice and organized way (mostly asking about the Xbox and Nintendo Switch for each question), i did answer him. Although i own the answers, i did ask his permission to put his questions alongside my answers in public, just in case it can help someone. So, Enjoy it, and feel free to AMA.
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Q.1: Have you signed up as Individual or as a company? Or enrolled into Xbox Creator Program? Can you please share the overall process in a quick brief.
- Singed by myself for both platforms, i only had to contact the ID@Xbox team, show them my game, they first didn't approve it as it was not polished enough, so i did try once more time after a couple of years, and then it was approved, and everything started from there. No not Creator Program, and tbh i don't even know what is Creator Program, will google it later.
For Nintendo, I did reach out the Nindies guy who was always on the youtube videos and on twitter (he left by now, a new guy came, and that new guy just left a year ago or so). But in general, this is how i showed my game, just reaching out the nindies team leader.
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Q.2: From which country you’d signed up? Is the Xbox Developer program available for developers all around the world? I’ll signup from Pakistan
- I did from China while I'm not Chinese, i would say Microsfot is the most open company, they don't have per region issues, like for example if you are in China and try to sort things with Sony or Nintendo, it won't be that easy...not at all. Because you've then to go through Japan office (due to region), but then you targeting the western market and English only game...it becomes a lot of communications and troubles.
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Q.3: Can we publish any game on Xbox? Or first we need to get concept approval from Xbox and then we can start our development. Or does Xbox have any categories on which we can only develop our games? e.g. shooting, puzzle etc
- While the certain answer for this question is not from me, but I would say any game. Xbox & Switch are platforms, mostly for gaming, despite the fact there are some apps in there (YouTube, Netflix,...etc.) so whatever your game genre or type is, I'm sure if they like it they won't mind it on their platform.
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Q.4: Which Game engine have you used to develop your game? I am using UNITY. Is it good for Xbox or i’ve to consider any other game engine?
- Unreal. Any Engine is good for any platform. Don't let the engine be your biggest issue, we're are in 2020, all Engines are great and most of them are cross platform. if you are not so confident about Unity, you can just remember it made Cuphead, Ori franchise, Max & Magic Marker, and many more Xbox exclusives. And if we start thinking about Unity games made for Switch, we will have endless list! Even more than Unreal based titles, as Unity already prove that it is super optimized engine for Nintendo devices since the WiiU and 3ds.
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Q.5: Can you please share the list of Hardware that you used for Xbox development and testing? E.g. Does Xbox have their own development kit or we can test our game on any Xbox? Which Xbox you used?
- Yes, i used devkits. With that said, i learned that any Xbox One (consumer device) can be turned to a devkit mode. I tested my game on Xbox One S & Xbox one X (the weakest and the Powerful one, so i can grantee the performance).
For Nintendo, i can't explain what hardware i did use, but once you are approved you've access to the documentations where you can read about the different hardware types, and then you can based on your use and game type or development type request the hardware that you need.
But all in all, for any platform, you need their hardware (aka devkit). And at least one device per platform.
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Q.6: What are the main reasons for rejection from Xbox? And what factors do I need to consider while developing my game?
- If you mean rejected as a project to be released on the platform, I guess when my game rejected first time, because it hasn't a "Full playable loop". Start, Play, End, Restart if you want. It was a punch of levels, not connected, no UI & lots of Debug menus. Xbox team (or any other platform) they need a very clean and clear vision so they can decide..
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Q.7: What kind of Legal document and other Document Xbox require? This will help me to save time by preparing in advance.
- Most of the documents as far as i can remember, they send to you. You don't produce documents, you just read and sign (of course if you find it make sense and nothing against your goals or considerations). Xbox was the least demanding, Nintendo was fine, no magical papers were requested. But Sony for example would require your last fiscal year revenue breakdown and documents to proof that!
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Q.8: Do Xbox have their own tools for leaderboard, cloud, ranking & in-app purchases?
- Any Xbox player already know, all that called Xbox Live (which is a set of services), and most of the engines does have high level interface to deal with those services. Don't worry :) and there is always documentations and pages to help you, either at Xbox websites or at the engine (Unity at your case) site.
For Nintendo it is different, i don't have any online features in my game, because online in Nintendo is treated differently, where any user on Xbox have online access and online features, in Nintendo the online features you purchase as a product (per month, per year,...etc.), so it is common to find many games doesn't have leaderboard or clouds save,...etc.
But again, all engines already have the high level interface for those features, regardless you will support them or no.
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Q.9: Can you please share the complexities of the Xbox development as you’d mentioned in your message? Like which development steps i can follow to avoid delays and rejections (Any Tips and Tricks)
- I was already familiar with the platform[s] (remember I'm already a game engine programmer), but what was new and seemed complex to me was the "rules" of the platform. Those are things you must read about at your first days of developing for the platform, due to NDA i can't talk further about that. But what i meant by the rules it is for example how to save, when to save, for example a platform would give you limit/bandwidth for saving calls per second, where other platform won't care and give you unlimited calls. Or what is the status of a player while playing (online/offline), some platforms won't care, where others would care a lot about that. Can a player change account while playing or not, some platforms would require, where others would not even allow.....etc. those are thing that vary between the different platforms, and they were the reason for any rejection i had (the ignorance of the rules). Because even if your game is already complete and finished before the port, the port to a platform is not just hit "Build", you have to "re-adapt" the game for the platform.
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Q.10: What advice would you like to give yourself, if you are starting today as an Xbox Developer?
- Don't rush things. And try to "Understand" the reason behind any thing in the platform. If you just adapt the game for the platform rules, you will have lots of complications, because you could make something to fit a rule, but it break with another rule. If you understand perfectly the platform, and the reason behind everything, you will not suffer during development.
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Q.11: What are the things you wished you knew when you were starting as an Xbox Developer?
- as i said, the platform set of rules. It takes time to know them correctly.
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Q.12: Can you please share any other tips and tricks or would like to add any point/Question if i am missing?
- just focus on the game more than on what platforms you need to target. If your game is good, solid, bug free, the platform stuff won't take much time. Also some info about how to be recognized by platforms could be changed, I've been Nintendo developer for long time, even before the Switch device announced, and I've been Xbox developer since 2014 i guess, when the ID program was announced. So things might be different, might be easier or might be harder now, not quite sure.
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Finally, few more points:
submitted by VikongGames to gamedev [link] [comments]

My DD on GME and their potential future as a buisiness

Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, and this should not be taken as financial advice. I eat the peels of oranges and throw out the fruit. This is for entertainment purposes only.
Just wanted to run through a few points on GME in hopes of having some quality discussion. I’m going to try and focus on the long term potential of the company, and less about squeeze related potential.
For a moment, lets forget about the GameStop hype train, and get down to the basic facts and fundamentals of the business, in hopes of trying to pick apart it’s future potential in the world of gaming. Video games are a $150 billion industry, with that expected to grow twice the GDP by 2023 Source. This market is largely untapped at the retail level, the reasons for which can be argued into the dirt. Yes, brick and mortar businesses are the next blockbuster, I get that. But even when Blockbuster was dying, there were other competitors fighting for every movie rental customer out there. And do you remember going to Blockbuster every Friday or Saturday night with the family because it was movie night, and how enjoyable it was to wander around to pick out the nights movie? Perhaps GameStop could corner this potential nostalgia for younger generations? Parents are still going to need to go to the mall to pick out school clothes or groceries. Why can’t they dump their kids at GameStop while they go do the shopping the way they left us in the magazine aisle of the grocery store?
Understandably, the gaming industry is shifting towards digital and online purchases. Does that mean children will never ever leave their house again? Look how cooped up Covid has made you feel. I would kill to go to a mall right now. DFV believes that while the shift is happening towards digital gaming rather than physical discs, it is not happening at the speed everyone thinks, and likely won’t see it’s full realization until the next generation of consoles in about 3 years Source DFV. DFV notes that while numbers are hard to pin-point, estimates that between 40-50% of games are still purchased in physical format. Switch Animal crossing had sales split right down that middle at 50/50 digital/physical. This buys GameStop at least a few years of revenue from physical sales while the transition is made towards a more digital consumer basis.
GameStop has already made it clear that they are to reduce store locations considerably due to rising costs their leases, and overseas brands almost entirely liquidated. It is still too early to say if they will reopen storefronts overseas, but I think that will largely be based on the success of their new test stores.
An experimental store was opened in Tulsa Oklahoma, and proved very successful while trying out new strategies like DnD and tabletops style game rooms. Much like the video game market, the tabletop market is widely untapped and has a massive market for purchasing new games, accessories, figurines, paints, dice, you name it. Furthermore, offering a place to play creates atmosphere, with in-store purchases for DnD or WarHammer 40k sessions only an arms-reach away, opening up the opportunity for spur of the moment product sales. Geek culture has come out of the woodwork in the last decade, and it’s here to stay. I think GameStop could potentially offer a place of gathering for all sorts of like-minded tabletop gamers. They also floated ideas like PC building stations, and learning to program a video game. These are massive growing industries and GME could be the stepping stone for those that are too intimidated by them.
We’ve all heard the “Brick n mortar is dead” counter argument from the bears, but while there may not be a place for 5700 GameStop locations world wide, it does have its place in this world. Apple products are all available on their website, or even through BestBuy, but why is the Apple store at the mall always packed when you walk by it? How often do you see people in there who don’t even intend to buy anything? Product image is a powerful force, and should never be discounted. Seeing an artificial line up outside the Pandora jewelry store creates an image that their market (mainly younger to middle-age females) cannot walk by without feeling compelled to see what all the fuss is about. Or when you go out on the town, do you go to the club with the dude trying to solicit you to go inside, or do you go to the bumping one with the loud music sexy girls waiting in line trying to get in. Walking by and seeing a Super Smash bros tournament going on will cater to their consumer basis in the same fashion.
I feel that GameStop has already taken many steps in this direction, and is well underway towards becoming this powerhouse business within the gaming industry. With board members like former Nintendo COO and CEO Reginald Fils-Aime Watch this to see this guys massive potential! He’s already a widely known face and well loved within the gaming community, and could fall into GameStop promotion without breaking a stride.
We all know of Ryan Cohen’s success in cornering a market in pet toys and food that could’ve easily been filled by Amazon. How did he do this? Through outstanding customer service. People were willing to pay more because of the relationships he built with his clients. Things like sending hand-written cards to pet owners goes a long way.
Ryan of course brought with him 3 of his Chewy buddies to the exec team, including Kelli Durken the new VP of customer care. Chewy scored a Net Promoter Score of 86 in 2018. Anything less than 80 is bust for those of you who aren’t familiar with the rating, and is not easy to obtain. I believe this was largely part of Durken’s efforts.
GameStop’s bonds will also be maturing on March 15, 2021. With share prices so much higher than expected, they will easily be able to pay back investors on this loan should they choose to raise capital via issuing more shares from the treasury. GameStop before the massive hype was also considering buying back shares, which of course would raise their value considerably, as well as put any short-sellers in a bind as they are further reduced from the available share float from which they are shorting.
OR AS A BONUS THIRD OPTION, GameStop could issue a one-time cash dividend to all shareholders, as an appreciation to all those investors supporting the company (Lets say it’s $25 / share, $25 * 51,000,000 available shares = $1.275 billion) HOWEVER, if you are currently shorting any shares, you now must PAY $25 per share. If 100% of shares are currently shorted, then shorts are coughing up $1.275 billion. This is essentially a direct cash transfer from short sellers to share holders and has little direct benefit to GameStop, but we can all speculate on what this would do for publicity given the current thoughts on GME shareholders and Hedge funds that are shorting GME. I don’t know all the ins/outs of this, feel free to provide more info if you know more about this.
Will any of these moves carry over to the $150billion gaming industry? Or will people just order video games off Amazon and Wal-mart and play CoD in their basement? This of course does not touch on the potential for e-sports, as I feel that would almost deserve a post for its own discussion. I even read potential for an agreement with console makers / developers to “trade-in” digital copies of games for credit towards another, with GameStop acting as the hub which you can do this, taking a $0.50 commission. That’s free revenue for virtually no cost. Curious to hear more thoughts on that model. Source
I encourage you to poke holes in the potential I see. My opinion is obviously biased at this point, and welcome any alternate views or theories for discussion. It seems hard to have quality talk regarding GME without spamming memes or getting voted down by bots and bears.
Disclaimer: I am not a financial advisor, and this should not be taken as financial advice. I eat the peels of oranges and throw out the fruit. This is for entertainment purposes only.
Position: Diamond handing 2326 shares. I just like the stock.
Tl;dr:
submitted by DrConnors to DeepFuckingValue [link] [comments]

FAQ to help new users know where to start and what software to choose

Q. Can my Switch / Serial number be hacked? A. Check here: https://ismyswitchpatched.com/ If it shows as unpatched then its hackable out of the box, regardless of firmware. If its patched then you will need a modchip. ALL Mariko (red box) and Lites are patched.
 
Q. How do I mod my hackable system? I don't know what guides to use
A. Use this guide specifically for entering RCM. Do not use this guide to set up cfw if you intend to pirate games, it does not include things like sigpatches or installers which you will need. Use Birb's guide to set up your modded system once you are in RCM. Do NOT use video guides. They are generally full of misinformation, outdated information, bad advice and stupid configurations.
 
Q. How do I prevent bans? A. Keep your sysnand completely clean, only use homebrew/backup games on your emunand and make sure you either have incognito installed on the emunand or its completely offline.
 
Q. What is an emunand? A. Its essentially a copy of your system that can be modified separately of the original. If you install homebrew to one of them it wont affect the other. Emunand is NOT the same as cfw.
 
Q. What happens if I get banned? A. Youll lose access to playing games online and accessing the eshop. Generally accounts are not banned and you can still update the system through nintendo, although this is discouraged.
 
Q. How do I update? A. Download the latest compatible firmware here https://lmgtfy.app/?q=darthsternie Extract to a folder on your sd card, named firmware for example. Then select the folder in your updater app (for atmosphere its recommended you use daybreak, for sxos choidujournx is the usual app). Choose the exfat firmware regardless of sd format.
 
Q. What format should my sd card be? A. Fat32
 
Q. But how do I install big games from a fat32 sd card? A. Most people either install over a usb cable (with tinfoil and nut or awoo and nsusbloader) or over shops. If you dont have a usb cable, ftp works as well.
 
Q. What are shops? A. Shops are basically online collections of games that you can browse and install similarly to how you would on the eshop. They are accessed through tinfoil.
 
Q. What cfw should I choose? What are the pros and cons? A. Atmosphere is the popular choice right now. Its pros include being free, constantly updated and having a lot of community support. Its cons include not having any out of the box support for installing games, so you need to add sigpatches yourself once they are out.
Sxos is another popular option, and the only option currently for modchip units (although atmosphere is working on support). Its pros include being made directly for piracy, so it supports installing games out of the box and it can load off of external hard drives. Its cons include being paid and being a questionable choice at the moment. Due to multiple members of the group being arrested its unclear if it will receive much more support.
The last modern cfw is reinx. Reinx works out of the box with games and it is free. However it is now no longer being updated and it has fewer features than atmosphere.
 
Q. Where do I get games from? A. For shops you should check out JITS and Quota shop. Those should provide you with easy and safe access to games. Rebirth is discord server that provides gdrive and tor links to full game stashes for download on pc. Theres multiple websites you can find by googling, and you can find large libraries via torrents. Most torrents and websites will be hosting 'scene' dumps, groups like venom or suxxors, who release privately to ftp servers with other scene groups. These dumps get rehosted to private torrent trackers, and then websites will upload them publicly.
 
Q. Why are my downloads failing? A. You should probably ask the source of the download. If thats a shop then join the shop discord to ask.
 
Q. Why wont my switch boot? A. Most likely its in rcm, try injecting a payload. If its not in rcm then its probably just out of battery. Bricking the switch canNOT prevent it from accessing rcm and hekate, so if you cant get into hekate then it isnt bricked. Youre doing something wrong or you broke the physical hardware.
 
Q. Can I transfer save files between sysnand and emunand? A. Yes. Transferring from sysnand to emunand is easy. When you make the emunand the saves should transfer automatically. After that you can go offline on the sysnand, make a nand backup, run cfw on it to dump the save and then restore the backup. This way the nand will be completely clean. For going the other way around its a bit harder. You can dump the sysnand and inject the same on your computer into the nand before restoring it, but this cannot guarantee you wont get banned.
 
Q. How do I unhack my switch? A. If you use emunand then its as simple as not booting into rcm. If you use autorcm then disable it in hekate. If you do not use emunand then youll need to format your console with something like this https://github.com/StarDustCFW/Haku33
 
Q. What are the different game formats? A. The 'standard' format people most often use is nsp. This is the common format used for eshop games. Another common format is xci, which is a gamecart dump. Any cfw can install nsps OR xci to the console to run like an eshop game. However, sxos can also mount xci as if it was a gamecart instead of installing it to the home screen if thats something youre interested in. There is also nsz and xcz, which are compressed versions of nsp and xci which save space and bandwidth. They can be directly installed, the same as nsp and xci, so they are considered objectively better.
 
Q. What installer should I use? A. Currently theres a few popular installers. The most popular right now is tinfoil, which can be found at tinfoil.io. It has the most features of any of the installers, being able to run shops, manage save games and cheats, link accounts, install incognito, hdd support and much more. It supports installing any of the 4 game formats mentioned above.
Next we have awoo. Awoo is a popular installer that is based on adubbz tinfoil's install code and xortrolls gui. It is the most popular lightweight installer, being able to support every format the same as tinfoil. An alternative to this program would be tinleaf which is also based on the tinfoil install code and xortrolls gui, giving it a similar feel and functionality but without the anime girl theme.
Lastly of the currently used installers we have goldleaf, which is xortrolls spiritual successor to tinfoil. Goldleaf has some features the other two lack, such as a web browser. However it supports the fewest formats, only nsp, and unlike tinfoil and awoo it wont check if a game is modified before installing, so it would be easier to accidentally install a malicious file using goldleaf.
submitted by Ibcap to SwitchPirates [link] [comments]

Diablo Immortal AMA with Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer) and Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer)

Hello folks,
Today folks who are part of the technical alpha for Diablo Immortal had the opportunity to ask questions in an AMA style format for Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer) and Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer). Below is the full text of the AMA. Enjoy!
sVr: Will there be seasonal buffs or events ? (RedDragonFlayer)
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): So we are definitely looking to have a variety of cool events. There's actually one event in the game right now which is the Challenge Rift Event. You can see this on the left side of the main menu. The backend that drives that event can and will be used to run new events in the future. Maybe we'll make Halloween a special thing?
sVr: Will PvP have a reward system? (RedDragonFlayer)
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We have more plans for PVP that we can't talk about just yet. But I hope you guys have been able to check out the Bilefen Zone Trial. One thing I can say now is that none of our PVP plans are going to move the game towards an eSport. What we want is a fun place that players of all types can gather and have a good time killing each other.
sVr: We have runes, however, they are just materials currently. What about Runewords and what made you "not include" them? (Swootcandy)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): No current plans for Runewords. Runewords are super cool, but their functionality overlaps a bit with Legendary items. We wanted to include runes as a consistent thematic element so using them as a reagent in the crafting recipe seemed cool.
Leviathan: Can you speak towards Hardcore and if it will be in? If not, philosophies on why?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Levi. Not only does Diablo Immortal extend character progression, but it is also an inherently social experience, in that we want to encourage players to join guilds and build in-game friendships. Having your buddy permanently disappear from your guild because their character died in an unfortunate and gruesome way could be a fun idea for some, but it's not the experience we're looking for, so we do not currently have plans for Hardcore mode.
MuggleMama: Is there a reason some legendary gear needs to be identified but some does not?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Sometimes we identify the gear when you get it from somewhere like the free track on the Battle Pass, but the legendary drops from the rest of the game should be unidentified. Right now there's actually a bug in the game that makes this inconsistent, and we'll be fixing that in the future.
Leviathan: Some of the people on my stream notice (and love) that many of the sounds are from old Diablo games. Are they placeholders or there to stay? Great nostalgia.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): All the sounds you hear are intended to stay unless we have a reason to change it. Personally I love the nostalgic sound of gold falling on the ground.
Leviathan: Will there be a transmog system or ways to customize characters so that people can differentiate themselves from one another?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We are not currently looking at a transmog system but we do have a couple things which are similar. The first is that we are looking at a way for your to manage your legendary powers more easily. No details to share about this right now but stay tuned.
The second is that we are planning to have full body cosmetic outfits. These will be available as a real money purchases in addition to being on the paid track of the Battle Pass.
sVr: What are your plans to "circumvent"/"restrict" the continuous powercreep inherent to ARPGs (with each major content patch)? (Demonic Eevee)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey sVr. I'll answer in two parts. We plan to cap Paragon progression and gradually raise that cap with each new content update. Legendary powers are designed to scale and will carry forward to higher level versions after content updates as well. Gems and Legendary Gems can also be unsocketed and carried into a new sweet item in the future. The second part would be with regards to the numerical tuning. Without diving too deep into the math right now, one of the reasons we have both "Attack" and "Offense Rating" as well as "Life" as well as "Defense Rating" is so that these attributes can scale linearly over time, while still making you feel more powerful. Normally you need exponential numerical growth to really feel the power difference, but the dual-attribute system should allow us to avoid crazy large damage numbers over time.
Leviathan: Will the Bestiary have statistical details on enemies (like if they have Armor and such - could help with gearing/more info) or be more flavorful/lore based?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): The Bestiary entries are going to show more about the lore of the creatures than gameplay related details. We want to reveal more of the world every time you get a new page.
Leviathan: How is the Power stat on items calculated? What does it take into consideration?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Power is calculated from all the stats on your item. The attributes on your item (strength, int, fort, spirit, willpower) are all 15 points each. Your particular build might value one attribute over another, but we didn't want to try and guess which ones you are looking for so they are all weighted equally. Then there are extra points added for magic and legendary properties. Again, we try not to make judgement calls on which property you might want for your character, the points added varies with the level of the item but not with the property itself. Finally, sockets are given a base score (I believe it's 48? Don't quote me on that) to make the socket appealing. Ultimately the "Power" of an item is supposed to give a rough gauge of which item might be better for somebody who doesn't want to do a lot of math but the actual best item might differ for somebody who wants to do a lot of min/maxing.
Dredscythe: Reforge seems to be unlocked at 45 (current level cap). Is that the plan when 60 is the new level cap, or can we get access at lower level 30, 45, etc.?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Reforging is available when you get a Legendary item to Rank 6, not when you reach a certain level. It might not be common to get to that point before max level due to the amount of crafting materials needed to rank up your items.
Dredscythe: The XP to level ramps up after 30 quite a bit, what’s the plan going forward looking at 60. Aimed for play time in hours range?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): I can't give any specific time amounts because we'll be analyzing data and feedback from the Tech alpha to possibly go back and make adjustments to the 1-45 experience as well. However, a few high level goals: (1): The amount of XP and time required to level post 45 continues to increase in the same way that things increased after 30. (2): We like the way level 1-20 feels in that it's very fast which is great for getting people into the game. (3): As a singular data point the last level from 59 to 60 should be about 2.5 hours for most players.
Neinball: Is it possible to use the phasing tech when interacting with quest givers/story points so that we don’t get swarmed with mobs while unable to control our characters?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): In Technical Alpha we have an issue where sometimes you are attacked by mobs while you are in a dialog sequence with an NPC. We definitely will be fixing this in the future.
echohack: Upgrading individual items and gems is a major shift for Diablo Immortal from previous games. We currently know about several upgrade systems: Gems, Legendary Gems, Charms, Reforging, and Salvage. What limits are being put into place to prevent Pay2Win from dominating these upgrade systems? Are there some upgrade systems that will be driven by gameplay only, and never influenced by monetization (such as the current Blacksmith / Salvage system)? (Chaosteil)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Echohack, great question! When we set out to make Diablo Immortal one of the first "tentpoles" we laid down is that the gear should be earned strictly through gameplay. I think the question understates just how important gear is (and by extension salvage/rank up) and how it affects gameplay... it's the majority of your power. I think it's worth noting that I don't think the "hunt" part of the item hunt feels strong enough yet and we hope to tune it more after the Tech Alpha. sVr alluded a bit to this in feedback he gave relating to the stats on items (still waiting for you to send over your details sVr!!!) The "magic" attributes that roll on items such as "+3% damage for your primary attack" don't feel impactful enough yet, and the attributes that initially appear on an item might be a bit light compared to the attributes gained from rank-up. Beyond items, Paragon is another example of a system you use to upgrade your character solely by playing the game. We don't have XP boosts and that was a conscious decision. At its core everything you do in Immortal is tied to gameplay: how you progress, acquire gear, earn various items, etc. all have to be done by actually playing the game, there's no way to bypass that.
echohack: Will bluetooth controllers, or other mobile phone controllers such as the PS4 / PS5 / Xbox / Nintendo Switch Pro / Razer Kishi be supported?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We get this question a lot! During Technical Alpha we're focused on making the best mobile experience for our players. However, because it's been such a common request from the community we hope that we can test controller support in the future.
Lord Fluffy: It seems pretty clear that a lot of assets were reused from Diablo III? I assume work wasn’t done to actually recreate these assets exactly as they were in D3. So, assuming you’re somehow importing them... why not import everything to give us a a way bigger pool of Elder Rift maps?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We are still in active development on the game, so the assets in Technical Alpha now will not necessarily be the versions we ship with. I'll talk about environments for a second because you brought up Elder Rift maps. The game engine for Immortal is in many ways capable of higher quality in art than we were able to achieve in Diablo 3. On top of that, we have a large talented art team that have their own creative ideas on how Sanctuary should look in Immortal. So between the tech and the team we have invested a lot in making new zones that have never been seen before, but also recreating zones you have seen so they are fresh and reflect our commitment to quality.
echohack: Can you talk in more detail about rewarding players for exploration? Specifically, can you talk in more detail about Lairs and "Legendary Monsters" (name?) -- these seem very interesting!
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): The Lairs are intended as fun side dungeons that are rewarding to explore when you come across them but not quite common enough to explicitly farm. Ideally when you're out in the world for other reasons, like main questline, a Zone Trial, or doing bounties you see a Lair and think "ooooh! Shiny!" and jump in, but we don't necessarily want you to wander the world aimlessly looking for them as your top priority. With regard to Legendary Monsters, they're a bit similar to Lairs in this regard, but with the possiblity that you may or may not ask some guild mates to come and join you if they're online. I'd love to know if you all think we're close on these goals.
echohack: Is the current hub-and-spoke model for towns similar to what we will see at release? (ie: Westmarch the main hub with minor towns in other zones)
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Yes - the way the minor towns are set up with Westmarch as the capital city is the plan for release.
Lord Fluffy: Would Blizzard ever consider a pay to play server of Diablo Immortal where you couldn’t pay to win?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Fluffy! We really want to introduce Diablo to as many players as we can around the world, and we believe the best way to do that is with a free to play game. It's also important for us to make one shared experience and not split up the community. I was watching your stream when you were pushing Challenge Rifts and I know some concern was brought up that this wouldn't be as enjoyable for you when the Crests are ultimately purchasable in the future. In that regard, I think an important note is that Challenge Rifts are not going to be the ultimate end game that Greater Rifts are in D3. I don't want to spoil anything right now, but I will say it includes both PvE content and activities for larger groups of players. Grats on getting #1. BTW, in Australia there's a Barbarian who cleared 40. :wink:
sVr: For the remaining 15 levels to 60, is each class going to see new skills? (or are the current skills stretched over to 60)?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): The tech alpha does not include all the skills characters will be able to learn when the final version of the game is released. There are 2 additional skills per class and we are hoping to add more skills to each class post-launch as free expansion content.
Mugglemama: Will phasing be used to reduce the number of people you see in places like Westmarch? Or will it become overloaded with players?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): There are a few things we're doing to help combat having too many players on screen. First, when many players are in the same zone at once we do spin up a second copy of that zone and divide the players between the different areas. Secondly when a large number of players are on the screen at once we do some dynamic culling of players who may be farther away from you to help performance. Even right now we are hanging out in Westmarch and you can see how characters fade in and out depending on their proximity to you. We will continue to tweak and improve this system so that points of interest in Westmarch are not overcrowded.
ECHO Gaming: How will the battle pass work across multiple character accounts. If you purchase the pass will it only work for one character per account or across all characters on that account.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Echo. The current plan is that you purchase the Battle Pass once and it unlocks the benefits and paid reward track on all of your characters. Pretty sweet right? While we're on the subject I want to clarify that we are currently thinking of a monthly battlepass that starts at the beginning of each month and ends at the end of the month. During tech alpha the duration is set to 2 months only because we didn't want the battlepass to reset partway through the tech alpha in the event it goes past Dec 31 (duration of tech alpha still TBD. We are getting lots of good data and fixing bugs on the backend as it relates to server stability and other behind-the-scenes stuff).
Orelus: Will there be additional zones with upcoming patches once released or any plans for another classes joining the roster?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Yes! We are planning for more of everything. New Zones, new Dungeons, more legendary items, quest lines and bounties. We will even be working on new Classes to add. All of this will become a part of the game for everyone to enjoy for free without purchase.
Raxxanterax: How will the sharing of resources (if at all) be implemented into the released version of immortal? Currently our paragon levels seem to carry over to other characters, will anything else? Shared stash? Any other shared resources?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Hey Raxx, I lurked in your stream on Saturday, it was nice to see you enjoying the game. Right now most of the progression is done on a per-character basis. Before I dive in I want to caveat that this is definitely an area of design that might change (or might not). We would love for more things to be shared between characters but the problem we ran into is that we also have bonuses (such as bounties, first kill of the day, battlepass) that reward you for activities on a daily/one-time basis. We don't want the best way of progressing your main to be rolling up a stable of alts and then funneling all the resources into your main.
Neinball: So after starting up a new character: is it meant to be a whole new experience (no shared currency, completely reset battle pass, etc) per character or a limitation of the alpha? And do paragon levels on those new character only unlock at max level?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Paragon is shared across characters but only unlocked when those characters reach max level. We did this to have a more meaningful leveling experience similar to World of Warcraft when your main character is the primary focus. We wanted to to make sure that a level 33 Demon Hunter and a level 34 Wizard had reasons to group and tackle hard challenges and create a social environment that is beneficial to the game. If that level 33 Demon Hunter had 300 paragon points to spent they would not need to engage in leveling the same way.
Leviathan: Has there been anything from the reports, videos, streams, that has surprised you in the alpha whether pleasantly or unpleasantly?What do you think of the alpha thus far, community reaction, etc.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): I'm really overwhelmed by the positive reception. It's definitely been a busy two years and it's very rewarding to be able to "show don't tell". I think one moment that gave me a chuckle on Sunday was opening two streams at once (I think it was Gregg and Raxx?). The two of them were partied up. I was on my anonymous-smurf account and joined them in the party. But then Gregg booted me from the party! LOL. Fortunately I could hear Gregg talk in stream about how I think he was poking around the UI.
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We've been saying that "playing is believing" mantra for a long time. It's great to finally see you all play the game and hear their reaction. I've been watching multiple streams constantly for days and it's only made me more excited about making this game! Also I really thought I was good at CR pushing until a few days ago :frowning:
Lord Fluffy: Will there be end-game currency conversion? hitting that arcane dust blocker on the alpha right now and the progression slow down feels pretty bad. Just playing for rare drops and having thousands of reusable parts.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Tuning the materials is one of the areas we're looking at for technical alpha. Things are constantly in flux during development, and the ratios of crafting materials is an area we wanted to learn more from this test. I don't know if running out of Arcane Dust feels any better than running out of Scrap Materials (you're always going to be blocked by /something/). One solution is to provide a conversion mechanism, but another solution is to provide different activities for different resource types. Maybe activity X is good for parts, activity Y is good for gold, and Z is good for Arcane Dust. All that said, it's awesome to see people getting to this part of the game, and this will definitely help inform decisions for the next phase of development.
Raxxanterax: How important are clans going to be? In Diablo 3 theyre mostly just another looking for group channel. Are clans in Diablo Immortal going to have more importance?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Guilds in Diablo Immortal are a great way to group up with like-minded players and we have achievements to help guide some of the activities. But I have to say that we have larger plans for social groups beyond what Guilds are in Technical Alpha. Can't say more than that today but we are excited to share more in the future.
Megax: What information do you intend to add to the bestiary? I couldn't find a way to decipher what power each rare and elite monster brings with it. The icons help but it is still not the complete information
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): The Bestiary will contain lore information on the many enemies to defeat in Immortal, but will not contain gameplay details. The Elite monster powers are dynamic every time they are spawned in the world. I think it's a good point of feedback that we should make sure that these powers are easily understood by our players.
Wudijo: Do they plan on trying to do a low config version for like 2-3 years old phones?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): During Technical Alpha we intentionally have a pretty narrow list of supported devices that help us test compatibility, performance and stability. At ship our game will support as many devices as possible. And even after installing the game, you can customize the graphics quality to suite your preferences.
Wudijo: Items being the root of Diablo, will they add primal kinds of items in DI?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): There are no current plans to have Primals (or Ancients) in the game. That said, we do want to add more content after launch and Primals and Ancients are certainly on the table. However, I think systems like that are more interesting when they are also tied to new content (new ways to interact with the game).
Wudijo: At BlizzCon they said a fully fledged mobile game with no PC version, is it still the case or will this change?
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): We are focused on creating the best mobile Diablo experience. We are excited to bring the epic action rpg elements to Diablo veterans and newcomers alike on their mobile devices.
Wudijo: If there are no primals, what would be the other version, like uniques kinda replacing legendaries in D4, but for DI?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): For launch I feel the item system we have with game-changing legendaries and the rank up system is fairly robust. We do need to examine and tune the numerical values on attributes but no major changes planned right now. (but this is tech alpha, so things are always subject to change)
Wudijo: Considerations for another skill slot for movement or utility skill only?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): We have explored that but no current plans. We're pretty happy with the control scheme right now and want to avoid adding too much more complexity.
NotPatrick: What is the design intent, pacing and soft limits for your gameplay and paid systems? For example, gear upgrading and the amount of crafting material, paragon, and how to engage with the market?
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): The short answer is we want the game experience to be enjoyable for both players who want to remain free and those who choose to spend money. How all of these systems interact with the player experience is something we're paying close attention to, and tuning them will be important to get the balance right.
Caleb Arseneaux (Lead Producer): Hey everyone I'm going to sign off for now. It was great hanging out and getting to answer all of your questions. I just want to say that this Technical Alpha is just a part of the game we are making and have much more to reveal in the future.
Wyatt Cheng (Lead Designer): Thanks for all the great questions. A few extra tidbits of information that I picked up from watching videos and streams over the past few days.
Auto-navigation is unlocked for a zone when you complete the main questline for that zone. That's why it's not obvious at first, but then available later (most often when a bounty sends you back to a previous zone). We could do a better job communicating this.
I don't know how many of your found Guild Achievements, but I've already made a note that we need to iterate on the UI here. If you open up your guild page and hit the arrow to expand to full screen, there's a UI for guild achievements.
Thanks again for all the great questions and I'll see you around!
submitted by echohack4 to Diablo [link] [comments]

10 Overlooked Indie Platform Games

There are also some links within the first link that discuss indie local multiplayer games and upcoming indie games as well.
Note that previous lists were not themed solely around platform games.
Introduction
We're all familiar with the Shovel Knight’s, A Hat in Time’s, and Celeste's of the world. These are some of the indie platform games that hit the big time. Of course, for every one of these games, there's 100 other indie games that have been glossed over, relegated to a spot in a digital store few people will ever find themselves in. I wanted to bring attention to some of these lesser known indie games once again.
Platformers from Previous Lists
I’m going to list the platformers that were in the previous three lists. None of them will reappear on this new list. 1-6 are from the first list, 7-11 are from the second list, and 12-14 are from the third list. They are as follows: (1.) Four Sided Fantasy, (2.) Daggerhood, (3.) Momodora: Reverie Under the Moonlight, (4.) Biolab Wars, (5.) Gravity Duck, (6.) Penarium, (7.) Cursed Castilla (Maldita Castilla EX), (8.) Hayfever, (9.) Duck Souls+, (10.) Cybarian: The Time-Traveling Warrior, (11.) Verlet Swing, (12.) Valfaris, (13.) Primal Light, and (14.) Tamashii. Note that both Biolab Wars and Valfaris are listed as run & guns, but they have platforming elements and are considered platformers by some people. Hayfever and Valfaris were my favorite games for their respective lists and are some of my favorite games in the genre. These 14 games listed range from puzzle platformers, precision platformers, action platformers, first person 3D platformers, Metroidvanias, run & guns, etc. There’s also Flat Heroes from my 10 local co-op recommendations list found as a link within the first post. Guacamelee is on there too, though it doesn’t qualify as an overlooked game.
Details About the List
All 9 games available on Steam are currently on sale. When this post is 17 hours old, the sales for these games will be over. Genre is going to be more like a short descriptor of the game for this list since these are all platformers. I’ve also included games with local co-op mixed in with solely single player games, including one built around the co-op experience for this list (before I did separate lists for single player only and games that included local co-op). I'm going to order them according to Metacritic Critic Ratings. One of the games towards the bottom has a pretty low rating (60%) that I personally disagree with, but it's only fair that you hear from more than just me. Since Steam has 9/10 of the games on the list (Switch has 8 of them, Xbox One has 6 of them, PlayStation 4 has 5 of them, and Wii U has 1 of them), I will be using the Steam Metacritic Critic Rating of each game, except for #9, where I will use the PlayStation 4 version, since that’s the only version of it available currently. I’m going to list 5 2D and 5 3D platformers for this list. For the purpose of this post, I’m just going to stick with saying “achievements” and “getting all achievements” instead of “trophies” and “platinum trophy” since Steam has 9 of the games on the list. You can basically substitute these with “trophies” and “platinum trophy” if you’re a PlayStation gamer. I will make mention of the two games on here that don’t include a platinum trophy however.
Platforms will include a link to the U.S. store page of the game for each platform. Price is in U.S. dollars.
1. Levelhead
2. Splasher
3. Marble It Up!
4. Spark the Electric Jester 2
5. Never Alone - Arctic Collection
6. Shadow Blade: Reload
7. Pumpkin Jack
8. Unbox: Newbie’s Adventure
9. A Tale of Paper
10. Polyroll
Special shoutout to Levelhead which is my favorite game on the list and one of my favorite level creation games ever.
Have you played any of these games? What are some other overlooked platform indie games?
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Among Us for Nintendo Switch - Review

Among Us

Genre: Party Game
Players: 4-10 Team Competitive (8-10 Recommended) (Local Wireless, Online)
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Review:
Among Us is a Party Game with social engineering and stealth elements that first released on PC and mobile devices in 2018, but absolutely surged in popularity in 2020, with the Nintendo Switch getting a port of that game late in 2020. For those who aren't aware, the premise of this game is similar to classic social games Werewolf and Mafia – there is an impostor among the players (or depending on the settings, two or three), and the other players must either manage to complete a series of tasks or deduce the identities of the impostors before those impostors murder the rest of the crew.
Given that this is one of the most popular games of 2020, I'll cut straight to some of the questions you may have regarding this version of the game – firstly, yes, this game has full support for cross-platform play and it works mostly without a hitch (mostly... but I'll get to that later). Secondly, no, there's no voice chat, not even using the Nintendo Switch Online app – just as with the other versions of the game, if you want voice chat you'll have to supplement this game with a secondary app like Discord. Thirdly, why should you spend $5 on this game if you can get it free on your smartphone? You know, this one I'll take a few paragraphs to go into.
All I should have to say is that “free with ads” isn't really free at all. Or I could say “being able to play it both on TV or in handheld seems like it's worth a measly $5 to me”. But here's the thing – I've played each version of Among Us (I've been loving this game on PC for months), and while I was initially skeptical of how the game would run on the Nintendo Switch, after spending some time with it, I actually think the Nintendo Switch version is my favorite. I swear, I did not think that was going to be the case, and as much as I love the Nintendo Switch, I will absolutely call out a game when it is an inferior version... but for the most part Among Us on Switch is an amazing port.
Players using Joy-Cons or a Pro Controller will find the various tasks to have new controls that are varied enough to require some adjustment – some make use of the control sticks, some make use of buttons, and a few even use the motion-sensing capabilities of your controller. Largely, these controls all make sense, and I would say that roughly half the tasks are actually easier to perform with a gamepad, while half are maybe slightly more difficult, but none especially so. I should mention that playing the game in handheld mode also gives players the option to use the touchscreen instead, where these tasks tend to perform much like their mobile counterparts – however, if you have the Nintendo Switch in handheld mode, you can swap back and forth as you please, and the only limitation is that you cannot use the touchscreen for movement like the mobile version requires.
Speaking of movement, the big difference here in both docked and handheld mode is simple movement and common commands. Having the precision movement of a gamepad is absolutely wonderful, and having every command tied to a gamepad button makes it a lot easier to juggle multiple things at once, like moving and bringing up the map to call for a sabotage elsewhere. While so much of playing Among Us well comes down to having proper strategy and being convincing in an argument, I found the overall mechanics of playing this game to be easier on Switch than on other platforms.
With the mechanics largely feeling natural on the Nintendo Switch, what you're mostly left with is the excellent core gameplay, which plays out like a delightful game of cat and mouse where wits and logic are the most important tools for both sides to win. Suffice it to say, this game is hugely popular right now for a reason – this is a fantastic Party game that is an absolute must-play... under the right conditions.
Ah, yeah, that's the downside, not just to this version, but every version of Among Us. Firstly, not only is this a game that can only be played in multiplayer, but it's a game that requires at least four players to play at all (and ideally you'll want to have 8-10 players). Because of how the game works, there is of course no couch multiplayer either, though this version does support local wireless multiplayer if you can get 4-10 people in a room who each have their own Nintendo Switch and a copy of the game. Also, while you can choose to play with random players online, this is a game that really only shines when it's played by a group of gamers in a private lobby who already know one another. Finally, while you can always type out your arguments using the Nintendo Switch's usual keyboard function (either with a controller, touchscreen, or using a USB keyboard hooked up to your Nintendo Switch dock), this is a game that absolutely benefits from voice chat, meaning that suggestion of using Discord above isn't even a suggestion so much as a strong recommendation if you want to enjoy this game at its best.
I know that is a lot of caveats to make this game enjoyable, but for the most part this is true of all other versions of the game too. Let me say that it is absolutely worth it to go to the trouble of setting up everything to play this game as it's really intended to be played, as the result is an absolutely amazing experience that makes for an outstanding online party game that will have you and your friends tossing accusations back and forth and laughing after the fact when you realize who was really the impostor... or laughing just as hard at how ingeniously or terribly that impostor went about their machinations.
In terms of the presentation here, much as with the other versions of the game, Among Us features mostly simple, colorful, whimsical 2D hand-drawn art depicting its characters and locations. While absolutely not impressive on a technical level, this artwork is nevertheless so expressive that it has been endlessly meme-ified across the internet this year. These visuals are paired with some simple but memorable sounds, and rather than music, most of the game features atmospheric noises to add to the feeling of paranoia the game is aiming for, with only the menu screens, acts of murder, and meetings receiving a simple fanfare. Again, nothing impressive, yet all work well for the game to create something truly iconic.
On the Nintendo Switch, these visuals seem a bit cleaner, and mostly have nicer framerates than I've experienced on other versions, though I've seen these framerates drop somewhat during busy moments. It's nothing game-breaking, but it's noticeable nonetheless. Really, there's only two significant flaws that seem exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version of the game – currently, the Nintendo Switch version of the game is lacking some of the content (skins) of the other versions of the game - namely, as of this writing, there are no outfits or pets, only hats. Also, some of the skins exclusive to each version of the game do not display properly in cross-play games. However, these are overall pretty minor complaints, and ones that may very well be addressed in a patch.
All things considered, the Nintendo Switch version of Among Us is my favorite version of one of my favorite games of 2020 (yeah, it originally came out in 2018, but let's not quibble over that detail). The controls translate surprisingly well to Nintendo Switch and are in my opinion even an improvement, and for the most part the only flaws this game has are the ones other versions of the game have too – namely that you really need a private lobby with 8-10 friends using Discord to play it at its best. However, if you can manage to get together a good group to play the game (using any platform that plays the game, thanks to cross-platform compatibility), this is an absolutely must-play Party game and the Nintendo Switch is a superb way to play it, and for a mere $5 I'd say this is a game you should absolutely consider getting on your Nintendo Switch.
tl;dr – Among Us is a Party game similar to classic social games like Werewolf and Mafia, where players try to figure out which of the others among them are murderous impostors before it's too late. The port to Nintendo Switch is quite good, includes cross-play, and has controls I strongly prefer over other versions. The barrier for entry here is still a bit high thanks to the sort of conditions you need to get a proper game going, but the small $5 price tag and the massive amount of fun on offer here when this game really gets going make it more than worth the trouble to round up enough friends to play it properly. If you can manage to do that, this game is an absolute must-play.

Grade: A-

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2020 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Game of the Year, Best Strategy Game, Best Port/Remake, Best Multiplayer, Best Value, Funniest Game, The “Wow, this game was way better than I expected!” Award
submitted by CaspianX2 to eShopperReviews [link] [comments]

My year 2020 in gaming

All of y'all's year reviews made me want to do the same, so I wrote down a few sentences of everything I played last year. I was surprised it was so much as my partner moved in with me and I expected to have a lot less time, but that actually didn't happen and Corona did its thing. I'm a bit late to the review party, but I needed time to write down my thoughts and didn't want to do it in one session.
Standard platform is PC, everything else is labelled.
Done:
Darkest Dungeon – halfway through (most tier 2 bosses). it was a nice and interesting start to a game I thought I liked, but 40 hours in I realized I was in fact not having fun. It was repetitive and the payout was very low for me as rewards felt small and especially upgrades to the village took a lot of time. I did play the game with too much emphasis on keeping every character alive, in a game that wants you burn them, so maybe that’s one me. But maybe it’s just not my type of game. Visuals, presentation and the IDEA of the combat system were nice, though. 5/10
Kingdom Hearts 3 (PS4) – finished story. Kingdom Hearts has become a burning pile of tires, but I hold it dear since the first game and I want to know what is happening. The visuals are amazing and the combat system is engaging, at least, yet a bit much at times, with way too many special interactions going on at all times. But KH3 is basically if the story has an alignment which is just true chaotic. The main story is…there, for most of the game, but nothing happens with it. Each world has its own story and both them and the overarching plot are almost completely irrelevant to each other. What a pity. Also, so many minigame and once-and-gone game mechanics, what the hell. I had fun, but it could have been so much better. And they skipped over most FF elements. 6/10
The Wolf Among Us – 100%. Played it with my partner who had already finished it years before. It’s one of the prime Telltale games and the first that I wasn’t familiar with the source material with. It has a very interesting lore and visuals for sure. Other than that, very much a standard Telltale game and you either like it or you don’t. I did enjoy it a lot with its interesting plot and characters. 8/10
Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Switch, digital version) – finished story. I like me some occasional space game. Starlink was an oddball in many ways for me. I probably wouldn’t have looked at it as I thought it’s just a toy merch game, but Starfox and the existence of a toyless version drew me to this. I know I could have played nicer looking version, but the tie-in with Starfox was actually not that shallow and came with a small unique storyline, so that’s the most Starfox I will get until Nintendo releases (and doesn’t fuck up) another full game. Due to its toy origins, the game has a few unique quirks, like the weapon, ship and pilot switching on-the-go to match enemy vulnerabilities and combat styles. The mix of planetary and solar exploration and gradual faction growth with even a few RTS elements sprinkled in worked for me. It was a lot of fun! 7/10
Injustice 2 – finished story, some achievement hunting, trying out all characters a bit and dabbled in the multiverse mode. I’m not a huge Beat’Em’Up player, but some concepts are too interesting to pass up. Given how few Heroe League (Avengers and Justice League) games come out well, I had to take my chances here. The story is…forced, but it works for this kind of game. The interactions between the heroes are pretty entertaining to watch. I can’t really judge if the combat system was good or not or balanced or not, but it worked for me, although some fights were pretty frustrating. 7/10
Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales – 100%. Gwent really got to me in the Witcher 3. It was kinda sad to see that this is an entirely different card game (although closer to the online Gwent), but it was still a great one. Telling the really interesting story of Queen Meve, the game not only expands the lore of the really intriguing Witcherverse, it also tells it through this mix of roaming through a map and army fights presented by card battles. The visuals weren’t all too exciting, although the art style worked for me. The score was awesome, though, maybe even better than the one from W3. I can absolutely recommend this game to any person interested in card games and in the Witcher. 9/10
Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden – finished story and most content. I have so many tactical RPGs on my backlog, all with very interesting settings, but animal mutants in a postapocalyptic Sweden? That’s one of the freshest ideas in a while. The top hat wearing duck really sold it to me. Unlike many other games of its genre like XCOM, the areas are connected with each other like in more classic RPGs. Stealth kills played a huge part in this game as open combat makes the game a lot harder. It’s not a very long game, which I appreciated. However, the initial premise of its animal mutants really fell short as there were actually not that many in the game. I also would have liked to have more of the characters in my team, but the stealth advantages made some characters a lot stronger than others, so there was little choice in which people to take. Itemization and progress were alright, the combat is pretty much as in XCOM etc. 7/10
Cities in Motion – played some scenarios. Preparing for Cities: Skylines, I figured I should play this first. It’s an alright public transport planning simulation that made me excited for planning stuff throughout several cities. However, I have some serious issues with it. For once, this game punished you hard for planning public transport like in real life and creating ridiculously tiny lines (like 2 stations per metro line) was the only way to any meaningful amount of money. Also, the German scenario pack has 12 scenarios, but only 4 cities (other packs are similar). It’s interesting to revisit cities in different eras, but to rebuild everything every time is annoying. And the tasks you get are borderline asinine, like building a line with three stations in far ends of the map, which I circumvented with temporary lines that I immediately deleted after completing it. In its core it had great potential, but felt lazily executed. 5,5/10
BATTLETECH – finished story, some flashpoints and fooled around with mech components for a bit afterwards. Been a while since I dived into MechWarrior games, maybe a good 17 years. Battletech is…GOOD. Maybe my favorite game I have played that year. The campaign is great, has a good plot, but also gives you an open galaxy to explore at your own leisure. The hunt for new mech chassis in the midgame was the most fun I think. Building mechs, balancing your finances, keeping your people alive and trained, random events on board of your ship and upgrading your ship all felt meaningful and well interconnected. It’s also a turn-based tactical RPG, but it works with its own rules (like weapon groups and destroyable sections) and does so very well. 9,5/10
Batman – The Telltale Series – 100%. A solid game for both Batman and Telltale fans. The story was original enough and I always enjoy a plot that isn’t focused on the way overused Joker – who has his part, but a very interesting one. Not really much more to say here. 8/10
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch) – finished story and most of the map. Finally, I tackled this behemoth of this generation. I haven’t played a Zelda since Majora’s Mask and the reason for that was a lack of drive to finish either of the N64 installments. Now, 20 years and a friend with a copy available later, I felt urged to play it as I wanted to give back the copy. Didn’t expect much despite the hype, but I have to say this game is (almost) as good as people say. It’s one of the few games that really lets you do whatever you want in the order you want (after a brief tutorial). My partner is playing it right now and it’s interesting to see how different our approaches to the order of quests and also specific challenges are. It rewards creative problem solving due to its physics engine. It is not perfect, especially the weapon system is weird and non-permanency in weapons feels just odd. NPCs are not very well written. The world is rather empty and while that has a plot reason, it feels like there should be more at times. But despite that, the game is a lot of fun and deserves its reputation. 9/10
Monster Hunter World + Iceborne (PS4) – defeated everything up to Furious Rajang, about 350 hours played with a fixed group of 3 and sometimes two other RL friends. Probably the game played most intensely this year. I bought a PS4 Pro in February and soon after – also thanks to Corona – I started playing this with two other friends, almost daily for several months. I had played Tri a decade ago and liked the general idea, but hated a lot of outdated conventions (both from Nintendo and the game itself) back then. World does most things I hated so much better. The monsters are engaging and (mostly) fun, the weapons are diverse and have their niches, the progression system is addictive, I love the Palicos & the private suite customizations and there is so much to see and find in the few maps they have. Great game if you like the combat and if you don’t focus too much on story because that one is paper-thin. 9/10
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (PS4) – finished story. I liked U2 and U3 a lot, so this was a must-play after getting the PS4. It’s probably the most graphically impressive game I have played so far. The combat felt a little forced at times, but I guess that’s the genre. Although sneaking felt more possible and rewarding than in previous titles (as far as I remember). The story is a typical “one last gig” thing, but I liked the inclusion of Drake’s youth and especially how they concluded the Drake saga (maybe?). It’s a very solid game and definitely a must-play for PS4 owners. 8,5/10
EVERSPACE – finished story, post-story and most side missions. I don’t like losing progress, but like Rogue-likes with in-between progression systems, so despite my first hesitation, I picked up this game as I was craving a new space game. Though having a VR, I never got to play it in that mode, but still, I had a lot of fun with it. Some runs were intense and discovering new elements always put an excited wtf face on my head. The in-universe explanation for it being Rogue-like worked for me and getting funds to improve your ships between runs was addictive enough to try again and again. Same with weapons, they were different enough to try out different ones. Just don’t expect too much content out of this, it’s not a big game. 7/10
GRID (2019) – finished base game and some of the season pass content. I was a big fan of the first Grid and played all games in between. But like them, this one did not manage to be as engaging as the first one. While I enjoyed playing through the different leagues and liked the variety of cars and inclusion of a team mate, I did get bored to go through every cup as some of them had a severe lack of cars within them. There was no upgrading of cars, money was meaningless for 99% of the game and a overall career feeling of the ‘story’ mode was absent. At least I didn’t have to basically only race against Ravenwest anymore and other teams were still relevant. I feel like Codemasters could do a lot more with the foundation they have created here, but fail to connect the races in a meaningful way. 6/10
Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness (PS4) – finished story and most side quests. This was one of my most wanted PS4 titles before Horizon: Zero Dawn came out. I loved Star Ocean 1, 2 and 4 so much. 4 in particular was just great enough to fill the small void that FFXIII had left back then. I heard about the mediocre reviews of IaF. And it was…actually mediocre. What I forgot or never knew was that I got released as a PS3 game in Japan first. And it really, really shows. The game was UGLY. Not ugly ugly, but playing it directly after Uncharted 4 was quite a shock. Not that it matters too much. However, the second problem I have with this game is directly aim at its soul. The other games had you jumping between planets and several distinct locations. And IaF started very promising, hinting at similar qualities. But then, it just…went into its climax and ended. Sure, some parts are in actual space. But you have seen about 80% of the locations within the first quarter of the game, which is ridiculous. It’s such a pity as the game’s story and combat are actually very enjoyable and I loved just grinding, which is quite unusual for me. But the narrow scope of the game wastes a lot of potential and that’s a real disappointment to me as a fan of the series. It could have easily done so much better. 6,5/10
Risen – finished. Oh boy, this game was sitting in my backlog for a LONG time – probably since its release I wanted to try it out. Unfortunately, this is a case of being TOO patient. The game is horribly outdated nowadays, the combat is not much fun and punishes you hard even on easy difficulty. The quest flow, general plot, start and choice of character skills are good, but I do think everything else – graphics, item flow, combat, sound, art design - was pretty bad. This was two years before Skyrim, but it feels like it’s been 10, honestly. I am still curious about Risen 2, 3 and Elex, however. But I might skip the first two after this. 3/10
Team Sonic Racing (Switch) – finished story. Yes, story. It’s as good dumb as you would expect from a Sonic racing game. Weirdly enough, I performed a lot better in handheld mode. The minigames are frustratingly hard as drifting is way overdone. The actual racing is nice, but no match to Mario Kart 8, although I do appreciate the idea of teams with ultimate boosts and item sharing. 6,5/10
Yakuza 0 – finished story and most major side activities. God, this game completely surprised me. I was absolutely 0 interested in crime settings, but Humble gave me this gem of a game. My partner suggested to try it out together, but lost interest in it, so we stopped for 2 months. I then picked it up again by myself and got increasingly invested in the story, the combat system and the bajillion of side things to do. THERE IS SO MUCH TO DO! And most of it is fun, doesn’t overstay its welcome too much and helps develop the main characters a little bit. The Real Estate and Hostess Club minigames are basically entire games-within-a-game, the pocket racer would also work by itself and the Karaoke songs were absolutely adorable and are a must-see in all of gaming. While I thought that the game got bloated a bit due to the two characters both having their own full-blown story, but sharing a single game, the interconnection made it kind of necessary to not separate them. But the game felt a bit long thanks to that (and all of the minigames that felt kinda mandatory at times). Anyway, I am now completely hooked on the series and look forward to the next entry – although I really need some time off lest I encounter the good old Assassin’s Creed-like fatigue. But given I couldn’t give two shits about Yakuza – even though I fucking majored in Japan Studies – this is an amazing feat. 9/10
Additional note: Getting into Yakuza memes alone is worth playing this, but the more I read and watch about this game and the series, the more and more I appreciate this franchise.
Endless Legend with a few DLCs – finished two full games (~38 hours). I was in the mood for a 4X game and this one was poking in my side for a bit. Endless Space was quite enjoyable and the overarching plot kinda works? I enjoyed expanding, researching and the quest system as well, but it felt just like Civ5 in general, with a few exceptions of course. It was weird that the ‘ages’ weren’t really differentiated visually and that you kept using the same units throughout the whole game – also there are not many of them, but there is an intriguing RPG-like customization system baked into it instead, which was cool enough. The winter and sea fortress system was also refreshing (but probably brought in from DLCs). Factions had some differences that went beyond what Civ would do, but the really deviating ones (like lava or fungus people that need different ways of city building) were hidden behind DLCs I do not have. Two games were enough for me, but I may come back in the future. 7/10
Need for Speed: Payback (PS4) – finished story. Being a PSN+ freebie, I got a bit excited over the silly F&F story that I felt like seeing with my own eyes. And the game delivered on that - but not much more. My last true NfS was Hot Pursuit (2010) (and my NfS favorites: Shift 1+2), so it had been a while. But I realize that I do not need that speed anymore. While the game was ultimately enjoyable, especially cruising around, finding stuff and customizing the cars, I especially disliked the offroad races with their weird rubber band perfect traction AI which was really frustrating. The driving in general revolved too much around drifting everything, but I guess that’s full arcade racers for you. And the automatic car reset was a bit too eager at times. 5,5/10
Rise of the Tomb Raider (PS4) – finished story and Croft manor side story. Also a PSN+ freebie. I have played the first game and was quite entertained by it. As I played Uncharted not too long ago, I was able to compare those two games a bit and while Uncharted looks undoubtedly better (and I prefer non-supernatural stuff in this kind of game), I think that Tomb Raider is the better game overall. This might be due to the usage of a skill and weapon customization system, which made exploring places and looking for XP, resources and parts fun. I also think that limiting the game’s world to one location (outside the prologue) helped immersion a lot. The game has quite a bit of a different feeling than the first TR, but mostly due to Lara being kickass from the start instead of allegedly being a frail grad student that 20 hours later massacres armies of armed and trained mercenaries. I liked it quite a lot of the backstory with her dad and caretaker were quite interesting as well. 8/10
Not done / on and off:
League of Legends – almost exclusively ARAM, sometimes bot games for trying out stuff. Not much to say to this, it’s a notorious, but ultimately good MOBA. The new items overhaul was a bit of a big change, but now I am getting the hang of it, I think. Some of the new champions of this year are fun to play, like Samira, Lilia and Seraphine. One of my friends quit the game for good, I think, so only one other is left, and it’s the go-to game if it’s just the two of us. Sometimes I play by myself, but I try to play more single player games then.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) – some 70 hours to built my house, the island is my partner’s. This is my first Animal Crossing and after hesitating at the beginning, I did enjoy it quite a lot. It’s very relaxing, you can work towards small goals, but without any stress. Interactions with other villagers will become repetitive, but at the beginning it feels very sweet. It’s also nice that Nintendo supports the game with free updates every month. 8/10
Yu-Gi-Oh! Legacy of the Duelist: Link Evolution! (Switch) – played through story mode until midway ARC-V. I have my YGO phases every now and then where I watch a show and play a corresponding game at the same time. The Switch game is pretty nice as it lets me play through all TV shows’ stories, lets me play with most characters’ decks, has reverse duels for every story battle, but I also can always use my own decks which is sometimes very necessary as some matches are VERY one-sided. There are also challenge battles against very good decks which are as difficult as I imagine actual competitive dueling. Two things I don’t like about this particular YGO game: No free battle vs. CPU and only 30 custom deck save slots. The Tag Force games were still ahead in that regard. Still, it’s a solid entry that can provide hundreds of hours of entertainment for YGO enthusiasts and is a great travel companion. 8/10
Undertale – I just can’t get into it, sorry. This is my second attempt and I got a lot further than last time (about one third in). But something just doesn’t click with me. Maybe the humor feels forced, maybe the retro graphics do, or maybe I get too hype-talked by people. I don’t know.
Super Seducer – almost done with the first one. We mostly play it together or with other people, to have a good time. I got this from Dunkey, but I have to say the first one isn’t even that funny. A lot of the explanation in how to approach women are cringy at best and predatory at worst. I guess it does teach how to behave better for some very inexperienced guys, but in general it shouldn’t be used as a guideline in how to get girls to talk to you.
Katamari Damacy REROLL – almost done. It’s a fun game for a silly afternoon. The controls are garbage, but it doesn’t matter too much. The humour is great and rolling up increasingly bigger things is weirdly satisfying.
Borderlands 2 – Playing with friends every now and then. It’s still fun and I haven’t explored all characters yet (although leave me alone with Krieg), so there’s still more to get out of it.
Jackbox 1-7 – I was a huge fan of the early YDKJ games 20 years ago, so I’m happy they are still around and have adapted new technologies to further their game concepts. The Jackbox games have become staples in many parties and were a major driver during corona to get people together online around the globe to play a few rounds of whatever minigame we wanted to enjoy. Some games are not good, of course, but the ever-growing library of minigames always manages to add refreshing new titles to the list. My favorites are Quiplash, T-K.O. and Champ’d. 10/10
Risk of Rain 2 – unlocked all characters, had a couple of runs with friends and by myself. I have to say I might not like the game too much. The characters are interesting and the upgrade system is addictive, but losing progress without much being gained from a run (except lunar coins and unlocked characters/skills) feels like making no progress at all, in a way. It’s fun to play with friends and you can somewhat relax and chat while jumping and shooting around. 6/10
Beat Saber – half of campaign mode, but mostly custom songs. I LOVE Beat Saber. It’s the reason I got a VR system this year (a used 2017 Vive, but I don’t need more for that) and I had a lot of fun (and exercise!) with it. It’s sad when your wanted songs have not been mapped or mapped really bad, but the existing database is really big and a lot of fun to go through. There are a lot of gameplay additions (like one-handed, 90° and 360° modes), but the standard mode is still the best (or most-supported). The latter half of the campaign is dumb as hell, tho - hitting a specific amount of combos within a very small threshold in both min and max is such a dumb thing. Mods make the game a whole lot better and some stuff should really be in the base game. 9/10
Audica – played through campaign mode and some custom songs. Not as good as Beat Saber, but it’s still very enjoyable. It’s hits the same spot, but with a twist. Mod support is not a big here, but still there. 8/10
Cities: Skylines + most DLCs – still working on my first city after 40 hours. Depicted as the penultimate city builder, I had to get into this at some point. I have to admit, it’s pretty good. As good as imagined? Maybe, maybe not. The base formula is not that complicated, but the DLCs add a whole lot of flavor to it. I can definitely recommend it, but I still have a lot of time ahead with it.
Postponed:
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Switch) – I started and had a lot of fun with it, but stopped after roughly 5-10 hours as my partner was taking over the Switch with BotW (she played Witcher 3 before, so I was able to player with the Switch in the meantime) and switching cartridges all the time is a pain in the ass. Will continue soon and am very excited to do so.
​
Summary: 2020 was probably the most intense gaming year for me so far, mostly thanks to Corona. My top three are probably BATTLETECH, BotW and Yakuza 0, with some honorable mentions to Beat Saber, MH:W and Jackbox. My gaming year 2021 is going to look similarily awesome and I already planned to play so many very high-profile games: Xenoblade Chronicles 2, Paper Mario: The Origame King, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Starpoint Gemini Warlords (almost finished this one already), Darksiders 2, Horizon: Zero Dawn, Gran Turismo Sport, Persona 5 Royal, Final Fantasy VII Remake, Borderlands 3, GTA V.
submitted by Nacroma to patientgamers [link] [comments]

Thoughts on Genshin Impact and what to anticipate for and to expect in the future

Preamble

I'm going to talk about some of the community's sentiment towards Genshin Impact and what to anticipate for and to expect in the future from miHoYo and future games they release.
If you think this post is too long, at least skip to sections you might be interested in. Or to the last section and things that interest you in that section (11. My personal thoughts on what to anticipate for and to expect). I've removed a lot of hyperlinks to save on characters.
Very little people know about miHoYo's upcoming game, Project X:
Project X: Project X is a new ray-traced action shooter from popular anime game developer Mihoyo, coming in mid-2021. The game features next-gen anime-style rendering and advanced interactive physics on a spherical open-world planet.
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/news/gtc-china-2019-ray-tracing-games/
Relevant game experience

Preface

I'll be mainly drawing comparisons between GI and HI3 in the "My personal thoughts on what to anticipate for and to expect" section. As of writing this, GI is essentially how HI3 is in terms of the systems in place (and YouTube and social media). I'll also be basing what I anticipate for and expect of the game with what I've experienced in HI3.
I went into this game blind. I never played the Closed Beta Test (CBT), watched any gameplay of the CBT or read anything about the game besides what was on the official website.
Reminders
I'd like to remind everyone that a subreddit is only a very small minority of the actual population of the user base a subreddit is about. Subreddits are almost always echo chambers for topics and tend to silence opposing opinions.
Companies are for profit. miHoYo is no exception. They know what they're doing to maximize profits. They had/have such a successful game with HI3 to convince investors to invest in the development of game. If you want things to change, you vote with your wallet.

Table of Contents

  1. Should I keep playing? (16 sec)
  2. Game release expectations (59 sec)
  3. What is Genshin Impact? (48 sec)
  4. "End game" (16 sec)
  5. Spiral Abyss & the "meta" (1 min 10 sec)
  6. Power creep (23 sec)
  7. Primo Gems, Gacha and Resin (2 mins 16 sec)
  8. Addressing community statements (4 mins 50 sec)
  9. Notoriety of miHoYo (26 sec)
  10. The future of Genshin Impact (35 sec)
  11. My personal thoughts on what to anticipate for and to expect (13 mins 42 sec, every unbolded point below totalled)
  12. Successful release (1 min 5 sec)
  13. System, QOL and in-game content changes and updates to anticipate for and expect (1 min 17 sec)
  14. Power creep (23 sec)
  15. Animations, music and story to anticipate for and expect (2 mins 3 sec)
  16. Nitpicks (38 sec)
  17. Addressing the player base that mainly play gacha games (4 mins 34 sec)
  18. Addressing the player base that mainly play PC games/MMOs (1 min 22 sec)
  19. Project X (16 sec)
  20. Final Thoughts (44 sec)
  21. Bias (19 sec)
  22. TL;DR (15 sec)
Approximate reading time of ~26 mins at 225wpm.
With all that out of the way, lets get started.

Should I keep playing?

Do you still enjoy playing the game? If so, go ahead and continue to enjoy playing the game. If not, you might want to consider taking a break until new content comes out, or if there is a significant systematic change to the game.
There's nothing keeping you from not playing the game, you can always quit.

Game release expectations

From the general sentiment of Reddit and the first auto suggested result from Google, people expected GI to be an MMORPG-like game where you can play with your friends (like a typical MMORPG) but were confused about what Genshin Impact was/is once they started playing (specifically when they reached Adventure Rank (AR) 7).
If you're a person that falls into what I said above, you won't like hearing the following.
It's not miHoYo's fault, it's yours.
You were misled by the game's marketing when you could have done due diligence and researched details about the game beforehand (e.g by going on YouTube and finding out details about the game from their 3 closed betas).
An analogy to this is AMD vs Intel & AMD vs NVIDIA, where the three companies try to sell you their products with cherry picked performance numbers. The community always echoes to "wait for the product to be released instead of pre-ordering" and "wait for 3rd party reviews".
When people have expectations and those expectations are broken, most of the time depending on context, all they're left with are negative feelings (e.g. disappointment) whether or not it's warranted.
But even though it's not miHoYo's fault, it's the company's job to keep their player base invested in their game, and by extension their company.

What is Genshin Impact?

Genshin Impact is a mostly single player RPG with co-op elements. The game implements the gacha mechanic to get characters and weapons exclusive to gacha. The game also implements the typical stamina/energy mechanic in gacha games in the form of resin.
This is where a disconnect comes from. Typical PC gamers aren't able to endlessly grind the game to progress (I've played Black Desert Online starting in beta, I understand grinding; grinding for hours in the same location for a couple thousandths of a percentage of character experience points per mob kill) while gacha gamers don't like the gacha system in place due the system being worse than other gacha games in terms of the resin recharge rate and gacha rates.
But people still play GI as there are various reasons why people like playing this game e.g.:
But the thing I want to stress is the main point of this game is the story. Everything else is secondary/complimentary to the story. Everything revolves around the story.

"End game"

A lot of people on this subreddit are probably at the point in the game where there's no more story content to do, and all they're doing are:

Spiral Abyss & the "meta"

Spiral Abyss is currently the end game of GI due to its difficulty and rewards. Once you're able to fully clear the Spiral Abyss, you're free to do whatever you want in the game (though you've always been free to do whatever you want) for now (until they release something else that replaces Spiral Abyss as the end game).
This brings me to the "meta" and tier lists. You can have a tier list with ratings for multiple categories (e.g. exploration, aesthetics, etc.). But generally when you see a tier list for GI, it's going to be about how strong characters are in combat, and specifically the Spiral Abyss. There are world bosses too, but they currently seem to scale off of AR and what the game thinks how strong your characters should be at that AR. Comparing this to the Spiral Abyss where it requires you to max out your characters, weapons and artifacts. All this results in the "meta", which is what characters are optimal in clearing the Spiral Abyss.
But the game as it is right now has nothing that pits players against each other (typically in the form of a leader board), so the "meta" doesn't matter.
The Spiral Abyss as we know of now will have their mobs change over time. This will require you at a base level to have one main damage character of each element maxed out.
Note the existence of a timer in Spiral Abyss. You need to be able to do enough damage within the time constraints to clear floors. Doing damage sells.

Power creep

As the story progresses, characters develop and characters are bound to get stronger. The characters available now are inevitably going to be power crept by newer (and existing) characters.
If there is (or isn't) a mechanic in the game (e.g. shields, attack speed, etc.), miHoYo will make characters, weapons, artifacts and mobs that revolve around that mechanic.
Yu-Gi-Oh! is the go to example of power creep for every game.
The more text and conditions there are in a description, the more power crept the thing is

Primo Gems, Gacha and Resin

Here's every post I thoroughly read about the topic, and a couple comment threads in each (sorted by upvotes):
It's interesting how low the gacha rate of this game is compared to most other gacha games (Exos Heroes with the 0.5% though). But you have to remember that there's a pity system in place of 90, with 75 being a soft pity:
https://www.reddit.com/Genshin_Impact/comments/jo9d9d/the_5_rate_is_not_uniform_06_there_is_a_soft_pity/
You have gacha games where there's a higher gacha rate, but then you see/know of people that have spent multiple times the expected pull rate currency amount without getting what they wanted.
You also have to take into account what you're getting out of a character in GI (explained later on in Addressing the player base that mainly play gacha games).
The stamina mechanic in GI is in the form of the resin system. Resin is the cost for a lot of in-game content that rewards progression mats (e.g. talent books, mora, etc.). The cost of a resin refill increases over time, further discouraging players from progressing faster than at the rate miHoYo set the recharge rate to.
This is really interesting because in combination with the relative low gacha rates of 0.5% for a 5⭐ and 5.1% for a 4⭐ with characteweapon progression being stunted by resin, it discourages a vast majority of the player base to spend money and wish because they wouldn't even be able to use their newly wished character unless they already had the mats.
This is what the system in place is trying to do. It's getting players to play the game once or twice a day, for 20-30 minutes for daily commissions and using resin.
This is what you see for the stamina mechanic typically implemented in gacha games, but to the extreme to discouraging players from playing more and progressing more than the amount the system intends.
How you enjoy the game is your preference and might not be the same for others, whether you enjoy grinding for hours and hours, or enjoy playing for a couple minutes to a couple hours every day. This typically correlates to the amount of time a person can allocate throughout a day.
One thing I'd like to point out are people saying that there's nothing to do outside of resin. What they typically mean is that there's no activity that "directly contributes to instantly progress my characters/weapons/artifacts". You can spend hours and hours traversing the world, fighting mobs and collecting mats from them, collecting mats in the world, challenging the Spiral Abyss, etc.. Look at Enviosity on Twitch for example.
Having options is nice.
Which brings me to...

Addressing community statements

I'll reiterate that I thoroughly read every post and a couple of the top comment threads of each post. There are a lot of valid complaints about the game and great suggestions for the game.
The three things that ticked me off the most are the statements/imperatives that:
  1. Because miHoYo targeted/appealed GI to the global main stream audience on Android and iOS, alongside releases on PC and PS4 (and eventually the Nintendo Switch), it puts GI in some upper echelon AAA tier, so the gacha mechanic causes the game to have an identity crisis
  2. Tell other people "how to play the game" on the basis of their own preferences, leading to obvious hypocrisy
  3. Generalistic statements about different subsets of the player base with no explanation and making sweeping assumptions based on statements
1.
First things first is that a lot of these statements are black-and-white, but the topic they're making these statements about aren't. This means these statements are wrong and misleading. These statements typically have the person:
Wikipedia says an "AAA (pronounced and sometimes written Triple-A) is an informal classification used for video games produced and distributed by a mid-sized or major publisher, typically having higher development and marketing budgets."
I assume what people typically think when they think of an AAA game is a game that takes the limits of what computer hardware at the time can provide (depending on platform) and implements that in the game. They can do so because there's money to do so. This can also correlate to the amount of money used in marketing or the existing franchise itself (if a franchise is popular, it has innate marketing in it's fan base).
From what I've stated above, do I consider GI an AAA game for the global main stream audience? Yes.
So assuming GI is an AAA game for the main stream audience, then comes the statement/sentiment that because it implements the gacha mechanic, the game has an identity crisis.
Being an AAA game and having the gacha mechanic aren't mutually exclusive. I've already proven it above by stating GI is an AAA game from the definition provided.
The gacha mechanic is specifically about spending a currency to randomly receive an object (capsule-toy vending machine). The gacha mechanic is essentially the loot box mechanic found in many AAA western games.
The resin system GI has in place is not the gacha mechanic. It's the stamina/energy mechanic you typically see in mobile gacha games to stunt progression until it regenerates over time, typically allowing players to pay a currency to recharge/refresh stamina/energy.
And the same as before, being an AAA game and having a stamina mechanic aren't mutually exclusive.
It's an AAA game with the gacha mechanic and stamina mechanic, there's no identity crisis. miHoYo knows what they're doing.
Does the stamina mechanic detract from the game? You have a subset of the players that typically have played games that can be played for hours and hours upon end that don't like this system because they can't progress at the rate they want. You have a subset of the players that typically play gacha games that don't like how slow the resin recharge rate and high resin recharge is, relative to what they've experienced.
Does the gacha mechanic detract from the game? You have a subset of the players that typically have played games that can be played for hours and hours upon end to get things they want. You have a subset of the players that typically play gacha games that don't like how the gacha mechanic is implemented, typically complaining about the gacha rates.
The answers to the two questions above are completely subjective (the person's preferences), and you'll see that a subset of the extremes for the two types of players I mentioned (the "far PC gamer" and the "far gacha gamer") are the ones that express the most issue with the game, and in the form of black-and-white statements.
Which all comes back to "the main stream audience", "casual audience", whatever term you want to use. I mentioned before "that a subreddit is only a very small minority of the actual population of the user base a subreddit is about. Subreddits are almost always echo chambers for topics and tend to silence opposing opinions."
When you take a look at who's writing these posts/threads/articles/etc., they aren't a part of the "main stream audience". They might think they are, but they're assuming the main stream audience has the same gaming tendencies they do.
But then here comes the grey. You have players that are okay with the system in place, which I'll address in point 3.
2.
The far ends of the player base have specific preferences on how they want the game to work. A subset of them don't like this, so they express so. But in a lot of instances, they think/make negative comments on the people that have opposing preferences (or don't mind the system in place).
A subset of the far ends put down how these players enjoy the game, and at the same time are defensive at how they typically enjoy games and simultaneously push their preferences/views on other people.
This is hypocrisy.
3.
Finally, for some of the people that make these statements on social media or to people that think this way.
Do they actually read what the people that oppose their thoughts and opinions say or do they see a post on Reddit/a headline somewhere, glance at the title, notice it's not attacking the system, and not read the post at all or to try and understand where the opposing side is coming from?
A person making a factual statement (or a subjective statement) does not mean they are defending or attacking the statement's various opinions around the statement's topic.
For example, I could say that "I like X bubble tea made by Y store". The statement does not:
See where I'm going with this?

Notoriety of miHoYo

From what the Chinese community have said about miHoYo, the gist is that miHoYo has a monopoly on high quality gacha games. HI3 was released in 2016 in China, and the only game that matches or beats its quality today is GI, Punishing: Gray Raven (released December 2019; in essence HI3 with Nier aesthetics) and X2: Eclipse (currently in CBT). As such, miHoYo sets up a system to really encourage (using predatory tactics to entice) users to spend money to progress (e.g. progression of collecting characters, maxing out characters, etc.) in anything but the story.

The future of Genshin Impact

I see GI, and by this extension this subreddit, like Fire Emblem Heroes. Initially the community was full of life e.g. strategy guides, fan art, cosplay, etc.. But due to decisions to maximize profit, the game died off and only a smaller dedicated fan base is left.
GI was released during a pretty optimal time. Other major games weren't releasing or were delayed when GI was released (Cyberpunk 2077 being released in 2077?), so the game's still on the top of everyone's attention. Once other games of the same or higher quality come out (mainly Blue Protocol, but unknow global release date, and isn't the same genre of game as GI), the player base of Genshin Impact might lower or won't spend as much money, forcing miHoYo to take action.

My personal thoughts on what to anticipate for and to expect

If you reached this part (or skipped to this part), it probably means you're going to continue playing GI for now and want to know what to anticipate for and to expect.
But first, I don't think the points I mentioned in The future of Genchin Impact will happen to GI due to its high quality.
Successful release
The release of GI was great (US$245 million in the first month, sure if it takes into account every platform), but I personally expected more in terms of quality of the game and content since HI3 was already the highest quality gacha game until now (my criteria under Addressing the player base that mainly play gacha games). Though they're killing it in the music department.
You have to realize how successful the release of this actually game was, and by extension HI3.
This game has no previous franchise that automatically gives it a huge dedicated fan base. When I say huge, I am talking about the likes of, Fate/Grand Order (F/GO) with the Fate franchise, any mobile game based off a huge/popular anime/manga franchise, any typical PC/console game that's based off a huge/popular franchise, etc..
For how high quality the game is, HI3 must have done pretty good to convince investors to invest in GI with GI's US$100 million development cost.
Note that GI is aimed towards the main stream audience (your typical PC gamer and mobile gamer). HI3 specifically to mobile gamers (until they added a PC port). Also, the genre is a huge part in the popularity of HI3. Fantasy is more popular than sci-fi.
It's up to miHoYo to retain their player base for GI and for their future products.
System, QOL and in-game content changes and updates to anticipate for and expect
Almost all the quality of life changes that're applicable to GI and HI3 are already in HI3 e.g.:
Expect to see the following added to GI that already exist in HI3 (though I'm probably forgetting things):
Also the nice attention to small details e.g.:
Everything you see for GI in terms of YouTube and social media content have been the same and/or higher quality as HI3 e.g.:
So...
Expect to see the things that GI hasn't done yet but have done for HI3 (not in any specific order):
I expect them to implement more MMO aspects e.g.:
Power creep
I touched on this before. In HI3, miHoYo started releasing character specific weapons and artifacts. Because of this, it stripped out any real strategy out of weapons and artifacts. Genshin Impact seems to be different since there're no artifacts locked behind gacha. All the unique strengths of characters are dumped into their constellations.
If characters are power crept, expect miHoYo to do something to make the characters that were power crept more relevant, typically correlating the the progression of the story and its characters.
Animations, music and story to anticipate for and expect
It's the resounding sentiment of the HI3 fan base of "when is an anime for HI3 coming out?". The story of HI3 started in 2016 and is said to progress for 3 more years until a new arc/story takes place. There is so much content in the main story and side stories that can span multiple seasons for an anime.
I'm reiterating that the story of GI is the main point of the game. I'm worried they won't do anything unique or special (unlike HI3) outside of your typical fantasy/RPG story plot lines since this game is aimed towards the main stream audience.
miHoYo has their own music label HOYO-MiX. and their own animation studio miHoYoAnime (they've previously outsourced help). They've produced/are producing banger OSTs and animations. In HI3, when there's a major character development arc, they come out with a banger animated short with a banger song (with lyrics) for that animated short for that character. They sometimes do this for events e.g. (spoiler alert for everything except the last video):
I'm waiting for the same in GI.
The difference in GI and HI3 is that HI3's main story isn't canon with the existence of the player (captain). It's like a story book. The manga (and short visual novels) are the same. HI3 has an alternative universe that involves the player that comes in the form of in game event stories (with all the event stories following the same story). GI seems to be reversed. We're playing GI with the player (traveller) that's canon to the main story of GI. The manga is not canon with the traveller. You'll need to read the manga if you want to know everything about the GI world.
The problem is that I don't know how there's going to be an epic anime-style animation/song for now since the story revolves around the player travelling to different regions. We don't have enough story and character development with the different characters in the game, so there won't be any animation/song that can evoke any strong emotions.
There're songs/OSTs in HI3 that are sorely missing on their official YouTube and/or Spotify/Apple Music:
Guns GirlZ has some great songs:
You'd have to dig for them on YouTube (pretty easy on YouTube) or Google, because of the disparity between the Chinese community and the global community.
You can find GI's songs/OSTs here:
Common links:
Nitpicks
I'm disappointed with is the level of "coolness" of the characters' talents (subjective). HI3's characters have super cool character abilities and ability combos. I'm still waiting for the same in Genshin Impact (probably after characters are power crept).
Addressing the player base that mainly play gacha games
The gacha rates for 5⭐ and 4⭐ characters and weapons are low compared to other gacha games.
Now actually consider what you get from the characters (weapons give you higher stats):
Compare this to almost every other gacha game, where you either get static/animated 2D art or low quality 3D models, maybe with multiple voice languages. Quality being completely dependent on the character's rarity.
GI on the other hand beats every other gacha game out of the water, with in my opinion the 4⭐ characters being the actual stars of the show (but not Bennett, sorry Bennett).
miHoYo invests in their characters that make you like them.
There are other reasons to play a game as I stated previously besides what you typically do for gacha games (e.g. collecting characters/weapons, auto-battling etc.).
There are a lot of gacha games out there in a saturated market and the vast majority of them all follow the same gacha system. It might be a good idea to think about the game you're going to download and play because of the game publisher's marketing, and whether to invest time and resources into it because they're so many other games in the same genre.
To do so, you have to think about a game in a more critical manner outside of the content of the game.
Of course, if a game as a monopoly of the genre (GI being the only open world gacha game), there's no other choice.
What I look for in a gacha game before even trying to play it is:
Game optimization
If I a game runs poorly and is unoptimized even though other more demanding games run better, I have no reason to invest in the game.
One example that falls into this category is the gacha game that's been recently released called Illusion Connect. The game doesn't run on Android 11 at the time of writing is, with their support saying it's because Android 11 is too new:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.superprism.illusion&hl=en_CA&gl=US&reviewId=gp%3AAOqpTOFC-IBCuWinIURXdr3ZpChpbtlWdmQuM9kseAkpR0_1LHfpyOZN3qb_edaM76jOQqVcV2cOgdea5LL70Q
Look at every other game that runs on Android 11. Look at GI that runs great on mobile.
Game UI/design
If the game UI/design is bad, I don't invest in the game. You can search online on what makes good game design/UI, but a couple points for me are:
Style is subjective, but inconsistent style/design in UI isn't.
In terms of gacha games, you'll typically have characters that are drawn by different artists, causing a discrepancy in what you consider a character's art to be in terms of quality. This can be jarring for players.
For example, F/GO has bad UI:
A good example of UI/design is Apple. All their products follow a consistent style (hardware and software), and they pay close attention to the small details in their operating systems, apps, etc., specifically transition animations.
Audio quality
I'm specifically talking about the quality of audio:
The worst offenders are gacha games that have audio that sounds like they're 16kbps.
You then have extras like songs and original sound tracks (OSTs).
Gameplay/gameplay quality
The vast majority of gacha games follow the same setup:
  1. Advertise the game primarily with art/animation, and not the actual game/gameplay, which means they're clearly enticing players to play their game to collecting characters -> gacha
  2. Turn-based strategy in the form of two teams of characters fighting, having auto-battle as an option
  3. Use of low quality 2D sprites/3D models
If you enjoy the gameplay, go ahead and enjoy the gameplay.
The game producer's past history and tendencies
If a game passes every previous check, then I'll look at the game producer's past history and tendencies to assume what to expect of the game.
I'm looking at F/GO once again. The game's the top grossing gacha game in the world, yet the game producer doesn't update the game and it's UI to be better or higher quality.
Conclusion
I put gacha games on par with high profile PC games. I'm not going to be wasting time and resources on a low quality game that I'm looking to invest in for an extended period of time.
The following, most notable gacha games to me that fit the criteria above are:
Epic Seven [Smilegate Megaport], Arknights [Yostar Limited.] (the UI is 👌), The Seven Deadly Sins: Grand Cross [Netmarble] and Fire Emblem Heroes [Nintendo Co., Ltd.] almost gets a pass.
Addressing the player base that mainly play PC games/MMOs
I suggest reading the section above.
Welcome to the gacha mechanic and stamina mechanic.
As long as miHoYo generates their intended profit, you'll be stuck with these two mechanics in their current state if you continue playing.
I suspect they're so restrictive on resin so the player doesn't get bored with the game (less time played = less bored of seeing/doing the same things) since there is a lack of end game content that will hopefully get resolved in the future as they add more to the game.
Feel free to disagree with me.
There are other aspects of the game to enjoy.
The gacha mechanic isn't a bad model for a game depending on how it's set up, and whether you're talking about the perspective of the player or game producer. In terms of the game producer, the gacha mechanic is great for profit.
This is probably your first time playing a gacha game and knowing about the company miHoYo. Companies don't owe you anything, and you're not a long time fan of miHoYo to warrant being owed to.
This isn't like living in a country where if you don't like something about the country, (most of the time) you are stuck in the country. It's a game and you're welcome to not play it.
This is the only time I mention in post that this AAA level game is free to play.
Everything I've stated previously says that GI discourages you from wishing and spending primo gems on resin refreshes. It makes people that really want a charactecharacters and/or really want to progress in the game spend money, so it's even more on them if they do spend money.
This game will last a while, and there is a lot of content coming up.
Project X
I'm leaning towards the game being a story based open-world game (alien-robot/mech) with the gacha mechanic for characters and weapons. I learn towards this because of the proven successful game model miHoYo's used. On the other hand it could be a PvP shooter with a cosmetics shop. It's really up in the air for me until we get more news. I'm heavily leaning towards miHoYo to use the same/similar engine/aesthetics as their Lumi N0va Desktop instead of what they use in HI3 and GI:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdS7c_U9QrpEn5MxZje7RXA
Final Thoughts
miHoYo is one of my favourite game companies to date from the experience I had with HI3 and now GI. miHoYo has done what I've always wanted in a game (until Matrix levels of technology come out), which is a high quality 3D anime-style open world story-driven RPG with tons of great out-of-game content. For me, the story & character development takes priority over to everything else (then the music and animations).
One of the big things miHoYo did that propelled my opinion of them is their creating of a PC port of HI3 with higher quality graphics settings. They didn't need to, but they did because they could and a subset of the player base wanted it.
You can read a brief history of miHoYo, their CEO, and their games from:
People loved something, were inspired by it and set out to create and spread what they loved to the world.
Bias
You might think that because I like miHoYo, that I'm bias towards them, that everything/a lot of things I've said is invalidated. That's where you're wrong kiddo. Just because I'm bias towards miHoYo doesn't mean everything/a lot of things I've said is invalidated (liking the games miHoYo have produced and the things they've done in the games and out of the games). They aren't mutually exclusive.
TL;DR
submitted by Aleie to Genshin_Impact [link] [comments]

what games does nintendo switch online support video

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Nintendo Switch Online FINALLY Worth It... Free Switch Games!?

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what games does nintendo switch online support

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