I really need to stop spending money on FOMO early access survival games just because my friends are playing them. The potential this game has is cool but the odds it gets realized ever are low, and currently its just a sequence of a bunch of ideas stolen from other games tacked onto gameplay loops intentionally designed to waste your time.

Survival games have so much potential as a genre but they just always come out as these really grindy, skinnerbox games that just infuriate me to play. I've only ever liked 2 survival games, Subnautica and Minecraft, and its because those games actually make exploring the world exciting and rewarding, and also aren't intentionally designed to waste your time by forcing you to grind levels to craft things and making you watch bars go down constantly.

I'm not going to give this like a half star and say it's demon spawn from the depths of this industry or something like that. I think there's a reason why so many people immediately latched onto this thing because there's the potential of this thing being another survival game with a unique hook that could last for hours upon hours while standing out from the likes of your typical Minecraft, Valheim, ARK, etc kinda games. But I don't think that product is fully here yet, and I'm wary of whether or not Pocketpair will capitalize on their ridiculous massive success with this thing. Craftopia hasn't been abandoned necessarily but it's been in early access for 3 years now with no clear signs of leaving anytime soon, and this is another title on top of that one.

I'm also not going to dismiss this game because of concerns about generative AI; I don't like generative AI assets one bit and the CEO of the company being a moron is concerning, but there aren't any signs of actual assets made by AI being in the game itself. This feels like a product made by proper human hands, just without a care for trying to actually hide the blatant subjects that it's ripping off. Nobody is being fooled by the Pokemon here, and I think Pocketpair was fully aware of it and fully played into it as a selling point, and I think it worked in their favor.

But I'm going to refund the game because while I see the ground works of what could be something much more extensive and potentially special, it's only if Pocketpair can actually prove they weren't in over their heads with this. I would rather play something like Valheim for now with the more extensive progression and building mechanics that game has, let alone the sheer amount of polish that has over this. There's something about the game and knowing at least some of the previous history behind the company that makes me wary about giving into the hype of yet another early access game this early on that made me feel kind of weird and icky after a few hours of playing, that I probably should've spent the $26 bucks on something like Prince of Persia instead and let this one settle on where it's going before I really get invested. I'm not completely passing on this one, but I'm giving it like a good 6 months or so before I consider eyeing it up again.

you had to be there

when the online wasn't a ghost town it felt like the full experience it quite obviously isn't in any other context. the fashion, the modular create-a-wrestler style movelists, duels; it was delightful, if insanely obtuse in ways it never should've been allowed to be. absolver is a dreamer's game, made with the impractical grandeur of idealists

the dark souls veneer followed by the realization that the single player content was a total wasteland certainly turned some folks off, and it's not tough to figure out why. uncover this shortcut, now fight this boss, now calibrate the north western stance in your cardinal direction combo deck. regular people turned to goop when this shit hit; folks were disintegrated for thinking it's another R1 bonanza. this is a fighting game, baby, or at least the corpse of one

revisiting it now's a bummer. just doesn't hit the same way without player interaction. an extended tutorial devised to usher you toward a wider community that's dead and gone. bones long turned to dust. the fallout 1 death screen where you're slumped in the desert repeating for eternity

ppl talk about when mmos lose their communities, but there's something extra sad about this space + time for me. reaching for the moon, designing a combat system so heavy and nuanced, and then having it relegated to fighting hollows in the undead burg forever. purgatory shit. gustave dore woodcuts depicted this exact scenario and we should've learned from them

true marvel of ungoverned spirit. indie games rarely felt so brazen and optimistic as in those ten minutes in time

The Pokemon defense force has come out in full swing against this game (I know them well, I'm a Pokemon fan) but it's actually pretty damn fun. It's a survival game and does what you'd expect a survival game to do, but the gameplay loop of the Pals helping to build your base and automate your progression is incredibly satisfying. The designs are definitely blatant ripoffs of Pokemon, but I'm cool with that. The AI art thing is iffy but so far unfounded and the game was in development for years so I'm inclined to believe it's a nothingburger. Will keep playing.

Playing Palworld reminded of my time with this game. I beat it. I liked it. It was alright. I was just excited they did new things and if it wasn't for the Switch's specs it probably would have been better.

This next one of these Legends games will probably be really cookin'. They really have something here that needs refined to be snappier in it's moment to moment gameplay with mechanics that don't suck, and then Pokemon games are back on top. Competition is getting stiff though. I think with the power of their next device, Nintendo will be able to seal the deal in having world design with more environment detail. I'm sick of looking at fucking mountain terrain.

the video game counterpart of The Avalanches - Since I Left You. Takes a bunch of inspiration from the most popular, generic shit that exists and creates something new with it. An actual postmodern game that ironically oozes with creativity, especially when compared to the masses of survival and cozy slop that pollutes the steam store.

This is BOTW but good, pokemon without the insufferable fanbase, and pretty much what any "cozy" game wants to be. And yes, it uses the unfunny "what if cute things edgy haha" joke as a marketing tactic, but this time it's actually based because it gets people mad about it for some reason.

So far, for the price tag and taking into account it's still an EA product, it's pretty solid. Basically an enhanced craftopia with a better direction and budget, with fairly good optimization and less jank (but just enough so that it's still as soul).

I'm probably gonna play more with my friends on my dedicated server and keep enjoying myself by making my pals army work on the "super hard working" setting. 🗿

On one hand, Palworld is on about the same level of creative bankruptcy as Lies of P. In addition to the obvious Pokemon ripoffs, you've got Zelda fonts and sounds, you've got Xenoblade world design, you've even got freakin Limgrave.

And yet on the other hand, despite all these very questionable and almost certainly litigious similarities, it's a better Pokemon game than anything Nintendo has released in at least a decade. It's also a far more tolerable crafting game than most, thanks to the Pals providing some level of automation, and pretty lenient hunger/sleep/whatever mechanics. In light of this, I find it much less egregious than something like Lies of P or Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, which were simply soulless, inferior versions of the things they were shamelessly trying to emulate.

Palworld has issues for sure. Pathing is total shit, Pals don't appear to have swimming animations so they just run in water, and building is bizarre, with objects refusing to connect to others for no discernible reason. The controls are inconsistent, where sometimes Tab will exit a screen, sometimes F will exit, and sometimes you have to hit Esc. There's no "exit game" option on the main menu, so you have to alt+f4 this bitch. It would also be nice if your Pals had a setting to stop them from trying to Last Hit every enemy like they're playing Dota.

Despite all this, I'm having a pretty good time with it. Hopefully the developers don't abandon it, but with its success, they have a pretty good incentive to keep updating it.

Also, fuck Nintendo. All my homies hate Nintendo.

EDIT -- I would like to clarify: Do Not Spend Money On This Game, You Idiots. It's on game pass if you really want to play it. I do not say this because of some moral issue regarding stolen designs or (as of yet unfounded allegations of) generative AI usage. Don't pay for games in early access! You're buying broken shit that will probably never get fixed! Goddamned Mindcraft ruined everything.

Everybody fuckin' gangsta (🤣🤣🤣🤣) until RVR-01, rogue cyborg protector of humanity's future and prosperity, dropped this banger over here (😁😁😁😁):

> restart
> system guardian
>
> worldnet break down
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory error
> memory check ok
> playback

LAST LETTER

" I am cyborg humanity.
I am cyborg animals.
I am cyborg flowers.
A cyborg world.

And my name is the Guardian.

[Soldier/Human]. Listen to me.

All the things created using Vasteel have been destroyed [by me/by you].

Their number was too great. But now has been reduced to a proper level. The world will continue as it was before.

The living creatures of this world will continue to fear battle and [die in/live by] combat. But even in a world of minor warfare one oversight could mean...

RVR-01 Gauntlet destroyed
RVR-01 Gauntlet destroyed
RVR-01 Gauntlet destroyed
RVR-01 Gauntlet destroyed

The existence of Vambrance will once again cause humanity to embrace mass death and destruction. Just as Vasteel did.

This I know.

You know it too. Do you not?

[Soldier/Human].

You must make sure humans never reach access to Vambrance again if you wish to safeguard humanity's future.

[Soldier/Human]. May fortune be with you... "

FAREWELL

> playback end
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> return
> initializing end cycle
>
> safeguard ok
> shutdown ok
> worldnet endstatus ok
>
> cyborg end
> complete

I love note-taking as gameplay - so satisfying to have a physical artifact that develops and fills up as you play. But what made it wonderful in my time with Void Stranger was sharing it with others, and getting complimented on my sketches and theories. That made playing so much fun. That's a really personal fun a game designer can't make for you, only provide an opportunity for. In that sense, this was the most fun I've had with a video game. Beyond grateful for such a unique and fascinating play experience, outside of the incredible artistic craft on display.