So over the winter holiday or so Dave the Diver exploded onto the scene. I finally got to play it and I totally see the appeal! Super charming/chill atmosphere, great art and visual style that's super dynamic and playful, and a lot of fun mini-games comprising the core loop such as the Diner Dash experience of running the sushi bar and the constantly changing blue hole fishing.

The cast of characters is also incredibly enjoyable. The chef and his cut scenes when he "enhances" a dish or otherwise takes a special action add so much to the game. The surfer beach bum friend who is giving you directions throughout has this vaguely "used car salesman but he's still your friend and wouldn't screw you over" vibe. The weapons geek is a little iffy with the way they handle weight and the "basement dweller" trope though, which I was a little surprised to see unfortunately. Still, a fun wacky cast and a great energy define this game that makes it very easy to see why people flocked to it.

But I. Am. BORED. I do not enjoy the fishing at all, it just isn't fun for me. The O2/weight restrictions kill my chill zen state really quickly (though I totally get why they are there) and if I get curious at all I have to react kind of quickly to the inevitable hostile predators. The diner dash mini game has a "timer" going for each customer but it's so stripped down and forgiving that I just get into a light flow state and enjoy it more readily. Under the sea though just isn't for me.

Anyone else play(ing) it?

It is no secret that the industry is experiencing a pretty rapid, substantial contraction. Sega US announced layoffs yesterday, Embracer just a few days ago, Microsoft laid off 1900 actvision/xbox employees, and the list only grows larger/more dramatic the more you look into it.

I'm just curious what people here think. Is this an opportunity for indies? Could this lead to a substantial overhaul in how some studios are run? Is it just going to get worse and deeper as we enter a new dark age?

Hello again! I finally wrapped up Bluey: The Video Game with my son, and I am proud to say we collected everything! He really enjoyed visiting all the classic locations from the show. Like I said in a previous post, it’s a little rough around the edges but it does what it sets out to do for the most part and the $40 price tag makes it a little more tolerable.

I am looking forward to playing The Finals soon. Got it downloaded but haven’t really had a chance to sit down and sink my teeth into it. I haven’t played a multiplayer shooter in a while, so I’m hoping this one delivers!

I have also been plucking away at my second playthrough of BG3 and while a lot of the issues revealed themselves on playthrough 1, I am still very much enjoying it. You really can change your experience in wild ways if you want to!

So what is everyone playing right now? What do you have on the horizon?

Back with the weekly thread!

My son and I have been playing Bluey: The Video Game. He has definitely enjoyed it. It is basically one big collect-athon where you are doing an interactive episode of Bluey, more or less. At $40 I would say the price is fine but it’s a little thin/janky at times. Still, they got the voice actors and my son seems to love it, so the primary check boxes are definitely ticked.

We get to spend 20 to 30 minutes running around memorable locations from the show, many of which are pretty much carbon copy lifted straight from the show, so he’s happy haha!

What have y’all been playing?

Hey everyone! As this is "True Gaming," we would of course love to see a few sentences elaborating on your thoughts of what you are playing.

I actually took a solid week away from the computer and games! My wrists haven't been great so figured some time away from it the phone and such was a good call. Excited to dig into Cocoon and Dead Space this week. Also might get the Bluey video game for my son, we'll see.

So: what are you playing?

Hey everyone! Going to test out a weekly "what are you playing?" thread to encourage some discussion. As this is "True Gaming," we would of course love to see a few sentences elaborating on your thoughts of what you are playing.

Right now I am putzing around in Baldur's Gate 3 trying to see what whacky things I can pull off or incur in my second playthrough. I also have the Dead Space remake tee'd up for play soon and have been occasionally playing Arcade Paradise with my son, which has been a real delight - once you beat the game it's just a fun arcade to run around working on high scores in. He just loves picking up all the trash and the little "gamified" aspects of the arcade himself!

So: what are you playing?

I love FMV's in games, plain and simple. I think they're so rarely deployed that at this stage it's almost always to great effect. Sam Barlow is the obvious one that comes to mind (Her Story, Telling Lies, Immortality) but there are also some famous examples from the past such as the often campy/ham-fisted but always fully-committed and enjoyable performances in Red Alert and Command & Conquer. I also really enjoyed Dr. Darling in Control.

All of this is to say that that FMV's as a component or the centerpiece of games frequently comes across, at least to me, as being film's "found footage" equivalent in video games. FF films got a bad rep for "shaky cams" or being a way to mask cheap productions, but some of the best films I've ever seen were shot in that style (for those of you who haven't seen [Rec.] do yourselves a favor). Every now and then the style gets a brief moment in the sun and everyone moves on. Perhaps it's just seen as too gimmicky but I don't want to get too thick in the weeds here.

I've now seen several great examples of FMV's and I feel like there's just this barrier it can't cross. I'm not sure if it's technical - asking developers to also be versed in filmmaking, even though many of the same principles in games translate such as lighting and camera angles is maybe too big of an ask - or if it's just not something that interests many devs yet. Either way, I'd love to see more of it and I'm curious how people think it can be deployed in new and interesting ways. Immortality is a great example because of how it integrated not just the footage but the very tools used to edit films. The UI is a gamified moviola which was necessary for editing and reviewing back in the day. Having editing experience myself actually made the game play better, but it was still very accessible to my friend who had never edited a clip in their life.

I know this is sort of half rant/half question, but I just really wanted to talk about FMV's so here we are!

We had an interesting discussion on the discord about "hand holding" in video games. To describe a game as "hand holding" is 99% of the time a pejorative when I see it. So my question is 1) what constitutes "hand holding" and where would you say the line is? Is there "good" hand holding or is it always a bad thing akin to babying or not respecting the player? Always love good examples but mostly just curious what people think here.

Looking to dip my toes into Linux for the first time. I have a 2016 Intel MacBook Pro with pretty solid specs collecting dust right now that I think I’m going to use. Research so far has indicated to me that the two best options for me are likely Mint or Elementary OS. Does anyone have any insight? Also open to other OS’s. I would consider myself decently tech savvy but I am not a programmer or anything. Comfortable dipping into the terminal when the need arises and all that.

@linux #linux

It says something about the current relationship of large corporate apps and users when Slack makes an update - of particular annoyance is that the search bar at the top basically eats the entire border now making it impossible to move the window around unless you make the window sufficiently large - and my immediate thought is “this must have been deliberate in order to make sure Slack takes up as much of my screen as possible.”

It’s hard for me to think of a legitimate reason for how massive that search bar is and why it is so damn close to all the edges at the top making the window virtually immovable unless you greatly expand it.

It’s just malicious design as usual.

@technology