Those aren’t really FOMO in my opinion, more like being curious about what the praise was about. It’s trying new stuff, and rather healthy I’d say, even if you realize some of those really weren’t for you in the end. Yeah, I had quite a few of those too.

To me, FOMO would be anxiety about stuff that you really can miss “forever” and regret afterwhile.

In games, it’s weaponized with artificially limited stuff because whoever is pulling the string wants you to fear a missed opportunity and make an impulse decision.

It’s stuff like preorder “bonuses” you will never have another chance to get otherwise, time-limited content, battlepasses, daily rewards etc.

One of the most pathetic recent example I can think of being Nintendo making the translation of a 1990 Famicom game available only for a couple months. “Quick, buy Fire Emblem now, before it disappears forever!!!”

Long ago I watched the anime based on Tales of Eternia (the Namco “Tales of” game that was also called Tales of Destiny 2 in the US for no good reason, it’s not a sequel).

The anime is awkwardly shoehorned in a very specific and inconsequential part of the game (like, one that would last about 2 minutes). Nothing meaningful really happens in the series. Because of the way it’s framed, I also estimate its entertainment value for someone who didn’t play the game at basically zero.

Oh yeah, there’s a freaking swimming contest out of nowhere at one point. Women only of course. I’m sure it had nothing to do with having female characters in swimsuits for a while.

That certainly was one of the anime series of all time.

Skills and spells that outright don’t work and unreadable maps from hell ?

Just joking, I know how impressive Daggerfall was, but wow did it feature some of the trademark Bethesda jank already.

Even if a game is protected against piracy on its PC version, the version released on Nintendo Switch can be emulated from day one and played on PC, therefore bypassing the strong protections offered on the PC version,”

Are there that many multi-platform games that have denuvo and a switch version too?

I’d think most games “big enough” for denuvo wouldn’t have a switch port anyway.

If that was possible, not saving the animals should get you a bad ending in Metroid Fusion.

I know it’s not the most experimental thing they do, but I’m still grateful for the simple SNES-shaped controllers with just the added analog sticks and triggers. This form factor is still one of my favorites. Button placement is perfect, plus they’re light and compact.

…mullets? Do they fear cultural imperialism by time travellers from the 80s?

I guess the alternative could have been " let this Munna feed on your dreams" but it might have been too creepy for most.

Let’s be honest, the only reason I was still following E3 for a while was hope that something like E3 2006 would happen again.

Since it only got progressively more boring with time, I didn’t care much about it being cancelled, be it this year or forever.

That site probably : “Hey kids, did you know that steroids make you better at RingFit Adventures too?”

It’s worse than tide pods somehow.

Tide pods was a challenge, a incredibly stupid and lethal one but one that was not presented as anything else than the stupidest dare ever.

This is apparently presented as a health tip (complete with the usual “detox” pseudoscience bullshit). Fuck these assholes.

One thing I love about Dead Cells is how every level feels different. There is always some unique gimmick or special features or a very specific level structure etc…

The DLC levels are no exception, and just for that I’d say they’re worth it.

Oh yeah, acrobatics and athletics, the two skills that go up every time you jump and run. Good ways to fuck your progression both.

Also the social skills, Mercantile and Speechcraft.

Doing the hermit’s cooking tutorial fully actually makes that Great Plateau mountain even easier, because not only you’d learn how cooking works but he’d also give you the warm doublet right away.

Most of the mountain (all? except maybe a small area around the summit) is only level 1-cold, so the doublet is enough even without cooking.

I think the worst game I’ve ever played regarding skill progression is Oblivion.

Honestly, that game’s levelling is completely busted. Basically your class has a couple major and minor skills. You gain skill levels automatically by using them, and when you got enough levels in your class skills, you are supposed to rest and gain a character level.

Almost everything in Oblivion is levelled to match your character’s level. Gaining a level only serves three purposes : gaining a very small amount of health, gaining a few points in two stats depending on which skills you’ve used … And most of all spawning more, stronger enemies.

Lots of skills in Oblivion are not directly (or absolutely not at all) combat-related. Lots of default classes come with quite a few of them as major or minor skills. And those that don’t come with several damage-related and several defence-related skills.

Progressing in non-combat skills, or in too many at once in a “master of none” fashion, will make your game impossible. “Playing well” requires knowing and exploiting this by blocking your level up until you’ve maxed the right skill. Or even having some of your favourite skills not class skills at all.

This is really not my idea of fun character progression.

Honestly, no matter how much strategy you’re using, Master Mode is not exactly balanced. The sword trials in particular become unbearable.

You don’t cost them anything for not playing part of their game, and you don’t owe them anything.

If your interpretation of why they do this is right, it meand they want you to believe that “modern content” is a reward for playing through the rest. Nobody should think like that. Playing the game is the reward for playing the game.

It’s like if Netflix made you pay an extra as you start watching a series on season 4, because you didn’t pay your subscription through the three previous seasons.

Counterpoint : if it was just that, it’d be free.

They are. I was hooked on SpaceChem long ago and since then I’ve bought all of them (even Infinifactory despite the lack of solitaire)

I’d recommend Silicon Zeroes too, not by Zach Barth but in very much the same genre and well made too.

Been a while since I’ve played spelunky, is the tunnel man the shortcut to later levels? Because it exists in Shiten the Wanderer and it’s definitely still a roguelike. There are small deviations, like this, unlocking companions and keeping a storage room with limited access, but everything else is pretty straightforward roguelike.

That’s the thing in the end, no clear definition exists. The “Berlin interpretation” is just a bunch of guidelines, and even the most “roguelikes” of roguelikes deviate a bit from it (stuff like “no modes” is even broken by 3 out of 5 games the interpretation considers “canon”).

Personally I consider real time to be a bit of a stretch, but yeah, stuff like spelunky or crypt of the necrodancer blur the line.

Not Hades and Dead Cells though. I love them, but they feel way too different to play for me to consider them the same genre.