Character action games for me. It's something about the speed of combat that makes me feel I'm never getting as good as I think the game wants me to be.

@hazz3r said in That's News!:

Elden Ring trailer is starting to leak. Be careful out there if you want to watch it fresh when it's officially released.

Thanks for the very useful heads up.

A thread for examining the new games of March! Share your personal picks, interesting curios, and not quite there possibles...

.

Did you discover some small game that not everyone knows about?
Share that and let us know what it is about!

Already know a thing or two that interests you?
Make a list of your interests and/or possibles!

Don't know what's so great about an upcoming game you keep hearing about?
Ask here!

Don't follow gaming news that closely and just want to passively see what BigGames™ people care about?
This is the place!

~

Thread concept:

The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

.

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here's a couple text lists of upcoming games:
  • Giant Bomb
  • Game Informer
  • Wikipedia

Feel free to post other lists or list videos of upcoming releases that you find useful.

• Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.

All PC for me.

1. Resident Evil 4
2. Dark Souls
3. Dark Souls 2
4. Mirror's Edge
5. Imperishable Night

I actually can't think of how the list is different by excluding my uninstalled games, since unless something is super big in filesize I will uninstall "average to good" games first. I think it's only different because I have to exclude retro games that don't install in the first place.

@e_zed_eh_intern said in Favourite/Least Favourite Easy Allies Reviews:

@chocobop Does "Spoiler Mode" fill this? I have never watched because I have never played any of the games.

Well, "Spoiler Mode" is quite a longform piece of content, and it's not not intended to give you an impression of the game.

I can see why you are suggesting this though, because my previous comment about story moments sounds completely alien to how reviews are usually treated. To add more detail, basically I think there is space for short reviews that talk far more candidly about story while still being suitable for someone who might want to play it themselves. Like, a review could say something like "The story gradually culminates in themes of dealing with the aftermath of a neglectful father" or "Moments in game X where one character held the hand of a loved one on their deathbed were especially poignant". Just omit when, how, and who so that the story is still fun to watch, but still provide the actual details that may or may not be relatable to the viewer. If a reviewer just calls a story a masterpiece and uses the word "writing" a lot, that doesn't actually tell me if it is relateable, so I don't know if it is for me (I might even just assume it isn't...ha!).

I think this goes back to showing more gameplay footage too. The dilemma seems to be that if you, the viewer, are extremely eager to play some game that just came out, then your mind becomes a steel trap and your brain will automatically hang onto every little detail from videos you watch ("spoilers") whether you like it or not. So you will only watch reviews that have a very expansive spoiler cloak that won't show you more than the first few worlds or story chapters. But if you aren't eager enough to play a game by default then it doesn't really matter, you won't have the context to either parse or hang onto these details. In fact, you benefit enormously from watching a more candid video, because it becomes more socially engaging which gives your brain more cues to push you into wanting to play it (and the review itself becomes more fun to watch, so your time feels well spent in any case).

If I can use this topic to speak critically about reviews, the things I want from a video review are increasingly being called spoilers by the gaming culture and review culture writ large. I want footage from the entire game (perhaps not the final boss/final cut scenes, obviously). If the game thinks its story is significant, I want it described to me including what the major themes are and if the game has poignant moments I want to be told what type of moments they are.

I don't expect this will change though, and so I think I would actually get a lot more out of the Allies doing something else besides reviews (or, "in addition to reviews" if people like them). It's common for other weekly podcasts to have 2 or 3 people play a new hotness at the same time and discuss it on the show. This is very different than reviewing a whole game since they've only been playing for a week. Usually games are dropped on a regular basis since the podcast hosts have to move on to something new. But the point is that listening to two people -- who are both playing the game, and where their experiences are very fresh in their minds -- bounce off each other lets you gauge whether the game is truly exciting or not, whether the flaws matter and how much, etc.

Ranked and divided into tiers:

1. Twilight Princess
2. Ocarina of Time
3. Majora's Mask
4. Link to the Past (perhaps should be #3? hmm)
   ...
5. A Link Between Worlds
6. Link's Awakening
7. Skyward Sword
   ...
8. Wind Waker
9. Adventure of Link
10. Minish Cap
11. Legend of Zelda
    ...
12. Spirit Tracks
13. Phantom Hourglass
14. Oracle of Seasons
15. Oracle of Ages

A thread for examining the new games of February! Share your personal picks, interesting curios, and not quite there possibles...

.

Did you discover some small game that not everyone knows about?
Share that and let us know what it is about!

Already know a thing or two that interests you?
Make a list of your interests and/or possibles!

Don't know what's so great about an upcoming game you keep hearing about?
Ask here!

Don't follow gaming news that closely and just want to passively see what BigGames™ people care about?
This is the place!

~

Thread concept:

The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

.

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here's a couple text lists of upcoming games:
  • Giant Bomb
  • Game Informer
  • Wikipedia

Feel free to post other lists or list videos of upcoming releases that you find useful.

• Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.

A thread for examining the new games of January! (Holy smokes ya'll, it's 2021!) Share your personal picks, interesting curios, and not quite there possibles...

.

Did you discover some small game that not everyone knows about?
Share that and let us know what it is about!

Already know a thing or two that interests you?
Make a list of your interests and/or possibles!

Don't know what's so great about an upcoming game you keep hearing about?
Ask here!

Don't follow gaming news that closely and just want to passively see what BigGames™ people care about?
This is the place!

~

Thread concept:

The basic idea is to list new games that you are interested in, as well as games you are potentially curious about or want to give wider attention to. You can briefly describe them or ask other people to help fill you in. The hope is that regular threads like these can act as a collective filter/discovery mechanism to help people decide what is worth checking out.

"New games" means any new title that is being released or ported this month in any capacity (not "backlogs/what you are playing this month"). The angle here is sharing your anticipation and promoting game discovery (as opposed to sharing comments about a first playthrough in progress - that belongs elsewhere).

.

• If you want a handy list that covers most of the major upcoming games of the month, here's a couple text lists of upcoming games:
  • Giant Bomb
  • Game Informer
  • Wikipedia

Feel free to post other lists or list videos of upcoming releases that you find useful.

• Final request: If you are the first person to mention a game please provide (at minimum) a short sentence description. (If it is a very big AAA release though, then don't worry about it.) This is a good convention that makes the thread more useful as a discovery mechanism, and especially helps out anyone who doesn't follow the news as closely as you.

@jdincinerator said in Backlog Sorting:

How do you guys sort out the backlog of all the games you want to play? I've got way too many games I want to play and I find myself without knowing where to start and how to summon enough enthusiasm to play them all. I was thinking of playing them in alphabetical order but I'm not sure if this is the best way to do this.

I like to let myself naturally be reminded of games I own (from someone bring it up on forums, podcasts, youtube, etc. or just naturally thinking about the game). If that little moment makes me go "I really want to play that now that I've been reminded!" I will put it on a short list of games I want to play soonish. I refer to that list whenever I'm unmotivated about what to play.