Iāve been thinking about this for a long time, but some recent things that have happened have made me decide to take a break from the mainstream side of the industry.
The recent news that Yakuza 0 is going to be delisted from Xbox One, PS4 and Steam in favour of the divisive Directorās Cut version (something that is egregious enough already before we consider that the new version wonāt be available on Xbox One or PS4) got me feeling really frustrated yet again.
But then I got to thinking, I could let this frustration turn into being miserable (like I have in the past). Or, I could turn my frustrations with this side of the medium into enthusiasm for another side.
I have recently been playing Absolum, and havenāt been this enthusiastic a game in a long time. So I think Iām going to take this personal discovery and try to expand my horizons by delving into the world of indies. Sure Iām gonna be taking more risks without being able to fall back on safe established franchises like I normally do, but none of those have hit for me in the same way as this rougelike beat āem up has, so in my eyes it is a risk worth taking.
Itās good that youāre reframing your problem. No sense in stewing in your frustration about something like that. Good luck with your indie games journey! Thereās definitely more risk, but it makes it all the more rewarding when you discover one you love!
I used to stew in frustration a lot over things like this. I donāt think itās a coincidence that I finally decided to do something about it now that I have left social media and my negative thoughts and opinions arenāt so easily reinforced by others.
It used to be so easy to see something frustrating on there then go into the replies and quote posts and see other people getting frustrated and just fall down a rabbit hole of frustration.
Itās been a terrific year for small studios and indie games. Hades 2, Ball X Pit, Blue Prince, Silksong, Expedition 33, Consume Me, Dispatch etc. you also have countless retro games, I often just pop the NES on.
For me the big issue was jump in price for AAA games, particularly when they tack on the dlc content. Iād love to play Sonic Racing Crossroads but too much right now
Yeah, Sonic Racing Crossworlds is one of my big regrets this year. I thought I could justify the base price (No DLC here) by how much I would play the game. But they have been doing these FOMO inducing events for the DLC characters (free and paid) for engagement reasons, and it just completely burned me on the game.
DUUUUUDEā¦. I was so bummed about that game. Had no idea it was coming out, got excited for it as it might be a great āfirst Kart gameā for my kiddo, especially with all the crossovers - but I simply cannot justify the asking prices right now.
The silver lining is that Sonic games tend to consistently get decent discounts about 6-12 months after relase. Both digital store sales and the physical copies. If last yearās Sonic X Shadow Generations is anything to go by, that doesnāt appear to have changed.
So I figured with this being brought up on Dual Comm (was nice to see that my situation resonated so much with you guys, as the show has been resonating with me a lot over this year as I re-evaluate how I approach gaming and use tech as a whole) that I would give a little update on where Iām at with this, and itās been going really great.
I asked my more indie inclined friends for some recommendations and got a whole bunch of stuff added to the wishlist and downloaded the available demos too, of course.
Iām still playing Absolum on and off, my enthusiasm for that game hasnāt dropped one bit.
Iāve also been playing a lot of Lunistice. Iāve beat the game like 3 times now and have been jumping back in now and again to do the achievements. Iām not really an achievement hunting kinda girl, so itās not so much for the sake of checking them off out of a sense of completion, but because the game is just so much fun to go back to.
And, after having it recommended to me by a friend 5 years ago, I finally played Gris. That game hit me really hard emotionally, I wonāt say anymore as itās a title that should really be experienced blind.
I think for me this has kinda came almost naturally, it feels like mainstream gaming often has a lot of friction (specific consoles, weird account logins, graphic tweaking) and playing on my SteamDeck itās given me a lot more of a love for simple Roguelikes like Dead Cells and Hades this last year.
Setting my dad up with the new Gears of War: Reloaded on his PS5 wasā¦ fun.
PS5 System update
multiple steps of that
database clear after that
Copy game from disc
Download title updates
Oof, not signed into PSN, gotta sign in and remember password heās seemingly not needed since we set up the PS5
Renew his PS+
Update again
Launch Gears of War: Reloaded
Sign into Xbox account heās not logged into in 2+ years, wound up just making a new one with a separate Microsoft account he did have the login to, which gave him an embarrassing XBL name
Cool, Gears, Xbox, and PS all linked so he can add me and we can do online co-op over the weekend
Now game has a massive update within the game itself
For me it was the PS5 being less friction than PC gaming that had originally got me back into gaming after a multi-year break, it feels like they keep adding obstacles though which is weird. Also weird at least for me last game I bought for PS5 the download process didnāt start until after it did the copying. THEN I got the beautiful option to install add-ons like Campaign or Multiplayer. I do not know what there was that I could play if Single and Multiplayer are add-ons