I know it’ll get better eventually as developers scrape more actors and fine tune (likely without consent or compensation) but right now  it seems to have really nailed that “phoning it in” sound.

Kinda? Like with Leather Goddesses of Phobos (look, it was my dads collection) there were puzzles where you had to sniff a particular one and use what it smelled like to answer the question. It was just a different way to do the same thing that an included code cypher could accomplish, but in a novel way.

I have a box of old Atari text based adventure floppies around somewhere. Several of them came with little scratch and sniff pages to use along with the game. Even then, not always a pleasant experience.

I really hope the supposed Switch 2 delay has forced GameFreak to slow down their release window. Scarlet/Violet and Legends Arceus would both have benefited from an extra 6 months at least.

This is old hat Nintendo secrecy. Deny deny deny “we have no plans” until a month or something goes by and, hey, whaddya know. Their “no plans to...” are now actual plans and being explained in the Direct.

Jumping in head first with some Tears of the Kingdom levels of ridiculous problem solving, I see.

The event seems a little late in the year to use it to advertise fall/winter announcements. Of course, coupled with regular Nintendo Directs, that may not be the case.

After playing the beta some, Diablo 4 is much more cinematic and will have scripted scenes often and involving close ups of your character. It also offers greater character customization in letting you transmog your gear. Even letting you give it an “unequipped” appearance.

My takeaway from the video is that the characters look extremely bland compared to all the green and light in the scene. I’m not against realism, but maybe dusty black and dark grey aren’t making your character pop.

I used to work in the toy section of [major retail big box store] and I learned very quickly to not keep overstock boxes of HotWheels cars on the topstock shelf. The collectors and resellers would %100 of the time take the boxes down and take it apart to spread the cars out and look through them. Sometimes they were…

I wonder if Metzen is going to be able to stomach the design changes of Overwatch and Diablo when he gets his fingers on them. I doubt he can steer them away from the “micro” transaction mess.

There are so many small details visible in just the small snippets that I don’t even know if I’ll register any voice issues on first viewing. Like the alternating signs for the pipes (safe/don’t enter). Say what you will about Illuminations, but they obviously put a lot of work in this one.

Yeah, it seems an odd industry to finally decide to grow a spine for.

I just pulled the summer event Bikini Pyramid Head! It’s a 6 star!

Does it have to be a revolving shop though? Now it’s full FOMO.

Yeah, considering it’s heavy meme material and is getting referenced over and over, I’d say it functionally is a GREAT ad trailer.

You’d think “here’s how you get 2player mode” would have been main article stuff of Nintendo Power back in the day. Why would that be hidden?

Probably accurate. And frankly, that’s enough for me.

My running theory for Fuecoco is it’ll be fire/ghost as its final. It’s currently a little pepper with a white face (I thought it was an apple at first). I think it’ll essentially be a ghost pepper and the white face will turn into skull shape.

^THIS. Traditional Pokemon is exhaustively slow. Learning the menu madness is mostly removed adds some real points.