I am so sick off the "Hardcore Gamers" complaining about Facebook games and motion control games and every game in the "Casual Games" genre. Well as a Golden Age Gamer I thought I'd shed some light on the subject while staring at my display case filled with retro consoles and reminisce on some of the things I'm bringing up.
Let me take you on a trip back through time to the time of the PlayStation. Golden Age Gamers like me hated the new gamers it was bring into gaming and all the new genres being brought in, but we were content since we were still getting the games we loved. Fast forward to the dawn of what some of the Golden Age Gamers called the "SIN BOX" aka Xbox where gaming started on it's dark path toward creating most of you today, the "Hardcore Gamers" and the dawn of realism in games. We were outraged by the arrival of the jocks and average people coming into the nerd mecca that was gaming. Gaming was losing it's touch and more games targeting the new "Hardcore" audience were flooding the market and games about anything were disappearing for more realistic "Hardcore" games, and we were pissed at first but as time progressed we learned to live with them for one reason and one reason alone... the games targeted at us became even greater then we thought they could be.
Yes thanks to you "Hardcore Gamers" games targeted at "Golden Age Gamers" became fantastic and kept getting better. Let's look at Final Fantasy for a minute and also SHUT UP I know you hate it for do decent reason. Final Fantasy's visuals have gotten so much better thanks to your money buying games increasing the amount of money coming into the industry. Thanks to YOUR MONEY Final Fantasy XIII looks as magnificent as it does(even though everything else in the game is sub par but that's another post to write). You've obviously seen the first party Nintendo games quality haven't you? That again is YOUR MONEY making the games look as good and fun as they are.
My point is YOUR MONEY helped the games industry and helped make our games great. Now see what us "Golden Age Gamers" have done? Sure we still complain about the "Hardcore's" being the main focus of game companies today but when we get our games we remember what you guys did for us. Now you guys are the ones whinging about the "Casual Gamers" ruining gaming like we did when you first came into gaming. Their money will do to your games what your money did to our games. Also they are spending more money then us on their games thanks to micro transaction so more money for the industry is coming from them now, *psst* don't tell them!
Also I only found out about Golden Age Gamers a short while ago and I'm shocked I never knew about it. So the groups are Golden Age, Hardcore and Casual if you like the segregation.
"Here I am checking out the latest release by Team Ninja, Nioh 3. So expect to be fending off infamous Yokai, all while aiding lords and being friends to spirits. I’ve been enjoying the Nioh games since the first, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the devs have cooked up this time." Kyle @ TC
The first footage looks compelling.
The longer we live with Switch 2, the more we discover about how developers intend to port across their PlayStation 5/Xbox Series X titles over to the new Nintendo hybrid - and the reveal of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle tells us much about how a cutting-edge engine scales back to accommodate the more power-limited T239 processor. Some of the cuts are obvious, others less so, but the good news is that Switch 2 appears much better equipped to carry off these ports than its predecessor did at the same point in its lifecycle.
Looking at Indiana Jones specifically, the first point to focus on is how much of the original presentation holds up, based on the footage seen in the recent Nintendo Direct. The game's materials, lighting and environmental detail don't seem obviously degraded compared to, say, the last-gen Switch's idTech ports. That we're seeing this mere months into the release of the Nintendo machine is promising. This is just the beginning.
Realistically though, there are cuts, of course. Compared to PS5 and Series X, screen-space reflections on water are gone for example - and it makes sense. SSR is expensive, but its absence is far less impactful than slashing shadow quality too aggressively or removing volumetric effects. Its omission is even less painful bearing in mind that the effect on Xbox and PlayStation consoles wasn't the best implementation we've seen anyway.
"What’s this? Back-to-back reviews of games I did back-to-back previews of last year? That’s continuity, folks. This time I’m playing Cairn, the latest game from The Game Bakers; a small French studio — just 17 full-time members working remotely around the world — responsible for Furi and Haven. It’s clear these guys have some serious range. Speaking of, Cairn sees protagonist Aava tackling a mountain range, culminating in an attempt to climb the yet unconquered Kami. In order to summit this killer mountain, Aava will need grit, determination, and perseverance… as will I. " Paul from TC
The problem is that the "hardcore gamer" seems to come off as someone who thinks that the gaming industry is only there to cater to them, and that the industry better not, for any purpose, go out and try to corral anyone else. If they do, it is a sin to which there's no repenting from. Sadly, this is a reason why gamers are seen in such a bad light: it's because they act like that sometimes. Of course, this is the select few who DO this, but they're just so goddamned LOUD that it seems to be more than there actually are doing that.
The majority of us gamers, hardcore, casual, and most in between, just want to play good games. Casual does not always equal bad gamers, and hardcore doesn't mean they are good gamers. You be surprised at what casuals and hardcores would be caught playing, too.
Of course, no one will completely get rid of the idiocy in the gaming community, but the more that people can prove that the ranting is in the minority, the better.