Gaming

One of the biggest issues that's plagued the Nintendo Switch since its launch in 2017 is stick drift. In fact, Nintendo faced several lawsuits as a result of the issue, with an ex-repair supervisor previously stating that the workload to fix drifting Joy-Con was "very stressful".

Now, while we can acknowledge that Nintendo has undoubtedly been working hard behind the scenes to mitigate the issue for the upcoming Switch 2, we're nevertheless disheartened to confirm that the Joy-Con 2's joysticks will not be Hall Effect.

This comes via our interview with Nintendo of America's Nate Bihldorff, who outright confirmed the exclusion. Notably, he didn't specify whether or not the Pro Controller would include Hall Effect sticks, but the way in which he quickly deflects onto another topic probably implies that it won't:

Games Are More Expensive Than Ever, and It’s Only Going to Get Worse

The international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement are calling on people to cancel Game Pass subscriptions, avoid Microsoft-owned video game properties such as Minecraft and Call Of Duty, and boycott all Microsoft Gaming and Xbox-branded products in protest at the company’s reported business connections with the Israeli military.

The call follows allegations this January about the Israeli military’s usage of Microsoft’s Azure cloud technology and artificial intelligence products in the course of its bombardment and invasion of Gaza.

According to a joint investigation between the Guardian, Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Hebrew-language outlet Local Call, with additional reporting from Drop Site News, Microsoft have “deepened” their relationship with Israel’s defence establishment since 7th October 2023, when several Palestinian militant groups struck across the border and massacred over a thousand people. Israel responded to the attack by mounting a ground offensive and airstrikes that have destroyed much of Gaza and killed tens of thousands of Palestinians.

Major Update Highlights

• 64-Bit Support: Enhance your gaming performance and stability with our transition to 64-bit architecture.

• New Boss Units:

  • Double the Challenge: Confront two powerful new boss units, each offering unique gameplay experiences.

• Station Unit:

  • Introducing the New Station Unit: Expand your strategic options with this innovative addition.

• Shield Upgrade:

  • Fortified Defense Mechanism: Upgrade your shields to improve defense capabilities against formidable foes.

• Background Graphics:

  • Infinite Cosmic Space String: Enjoy a stunning visual experience with our newly designed infinite cosmic space continuous string in the backdrop.

Prepare for an upgraded adventure that combines enhanced visuals and intense challenges. Dive into the action and explore all these exciting new features!

"It wasn't fear anymore, it was madness. And when you're mad, you cease to exist."

The Last of Us, Limbo, Inside, Bioshock: take all these games with amazing stories and you'll find that video game storytelling works hand in hand with superb gameplay design. From Inside's simple 2D platforming forcing you to act like a puppet to Bioshock's main power-up gameplay system showing you memories of residents of Rapture, all of these games have a story that feels satisfying because it ties back to gameplay. I think that sort of storytelling is why some narratives can only be experienced in video games and why those games and more like them are so good. But they're not the only games with a good story.

The Town of Light is a first-person walking simulator game about a mentally unstable girl named Reneé and the journey we go on with her, exploring her past and present through her memories and experiences at a mental asylum. From the beginning it reminded me of Benoit Sokal's Syberia and this "other type" of games with a good story. I mean games that are so focused on their presentation that either their gameplay is too simple (like Syberia) or genuinely simple gameplay designs are not present in them and this makes the whole experience suffer.

Case in point, The Town of Light is a beautiful game and it's one of the best depictions of the on-goings and effects of being held up in a mental asylum in any media I have ever experienced. The game really manages to create an authentic immersive mental asylum in Italy through the various hospital documents, posters of fascist Italy, pictures of Mussolini and through it's dialogues and story accompanied in each of the game's fifteen chapters by an animated sequence of what is going on with Renee. What I adored even more is how the developers actually went to a real life mental asylum and recreated it in-game, highly recommend to check out the live-action trailer after finishing the game.

It seems to be that the whole purpose of this game's existence is to make you realize how fucked up these asylums were in real life and it really commits to that which is awesome. There are even branching chapters that you can get based on multiple choices you can make during the game which seems to really unlock different parts of the story. Unfortunately, while the presentation really gets fully realized, the gameplay and feel of the "game" aspect of it is actually annoying. I don't know how common it is for games like these but having unskippable cutscenes is always lame, the fact that my character can't run is stupid. The game was also very fond of crashing on my system even though it's built on Unity and I expected that would mean it would be pretty stable.

Overrall: The Town of Light is absolutely worth one playthrough atleast if you can look past the gameplay issues I mentioned and it's really a very unique and one of a kind presentation in gaming because of the themes it deals with. 7.5/10

See also

https://www.pcgamesn.com/thief/the-dark-mod-update

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.wtf/post/18752399

My blog is live, with my first post being a look at 3D platformer prototypes from various sources. I played the abandoned Kickstarter game Lobodestroyo, the decade-old prototype for Corn Kidz 64, and a couple of forgotten games inspired by Spyro.

What is all this daily pain and suffering for if I don't do what I was meant to do? We die eventually... fuck it!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/23565790

Hello! I'm currently working on a research paper for my English composition course, and we were given free reign on the topic. I decided to do my topic on the history of queerness in gaming, and I'm not only talking about queer characters, but also the gaming community too. So far, my major sources focus on things like:

• Demographics of games with queer characters (which identities, created in what country, what year was the game made, etc.)
• I want to try to find more stuff about trans, enby, and ace characters as I feel their representation is a little underepresented
• Opinions of queer and non-queer gamers on queer representation in games
• How fan interpretations, fanon, and external content (like social media posts) is important to gaming too
• What games do right and wrong with representation, especially when it comes to "non-gendered" character creators
• How localizations/translations are sometimes used to censor queerness. Also about how queerness can be seen differently around the world.
• Some info on Gamergate, but that's not a major focus of the paper
• A pinch of info about feminist gaming, but not necessarily lesbian-women-only gaming

I want to make sure I'm hitting what people find important to explain and teach to others, as the goal of this paper is to be read by anyone who's curious to learn. So if there's any topic you deem extremely important that shouldn't be missed, please tell me! Also, I'm a little more knowledgeable about JRPGs compared to popular western games, so character recommendations to bring up are appreciated greatly.

I plan to promote a survey about this stuff later on, I just need to get my questions together :). I will crosspost this to other gaming or queer communities, so you might see me there too!

This post is also on Reddit, although due to it being a new account I'm going to struggle to gain traction there with the low karma bans :(

Microsoft might be preparing to integrate Steam and other game launchers into the Xbox app. The company briefly posted a mockup image showing the new Xbox app...

I just beat the game on the easiest difficulty. That was still pretty fucking hard. The game was so fucking weird, and I mean that in a good way. I'm not quite sure what to make of it. I liked it but I wasn't super impressed with the gameplay. All in all, I'd reccommend giving it a shot if you get it on sale.