I guess I should keep making supporting the comic my primary subject for a while, so I mention the various links at the start.

The other day Nintendo announced an update for Animal Crossing New Horizons because of the Switch 2 port getting extra features. I kinda thought I was done with it since they never improved the villager AI and it killed the immersion for me after a while. I don’t expect the AI to be improved, but going back in to see the new features might be nice. There’s new characters to meet and I already own the Amiibo required to meet them. I don’t think Nintendo really understands how they could make Animal Crossing a real hit that goes beyond just the luck of releasing a new version during a pandemic. I doubt anyone will ever see this who would matter in that regard, but I think they need to increase the sandbox elements while improving the villagers. It’s all well and good to be able to design furniture layouts and stuff, but if the residents can’t interact with the stuff it’s not all that interesting. The sad thing is that the previous version of the villagers did a lot better job of seeming alive because they had so many more dialogue options. It took a while before things got repetitive. Beyond that the villagers need to be able to use ladders and objects. If you kick a ball at one they should kick it back. That sort of thing. If it was a little more Minecraft with robot friends I think it would do better. Also, the island needs to be much bigger. At least twice as big with the same villager limit. That way there’s space to design things for them to interact with. Anyway, that’s just my opinion as a long time player.

They added more Animal Crossing music to the Nintendo Music app, so I’m listening to it. It’s funny how hearing the old songs bring to mind the many hours I spent in that imaginary world. Story of my life really. Imaginary people that I move around because the real ones treat me so poorly.

Anyway, it’s time to post, so I’ll leave it at that. I hope you have a nice Wednesday and will wait patiently here for you until Friday. In the dark, with my eyes open. I am only real when you look at me.

Edit: I found Gears and his minicon. I put them in a protective case and it fell behind a box as I was moving other things apparently.

16 Comments

I never played Animal Crossing, but it makes me think of Bethesda; I love all the schedules the NPCs have and the radiant AI to make them actually DO things, like eat, drink, use blacksmithing equipment, etc. So what did they do with their most recent big game? Rip almost all of it out; most NPCs are just generated randos, most shopkeepers just stand at the counter every second of their lives, etc. I thought they had something pretty great that really could have been expanded to make TES6 pretty great, even with all the usual jank and garbage storytelling that exemplifies their games, but it seems like they instead decided to remove one of the most unique things they had going for them. I dunno what’s causing it but it’s weird to see so many of the game companies refuse to capitalize on the things being clamored for. I’m standing here, waving my money at the screen, but nope, they don’t want to take it.

Precursor PSA – do not pre-order any game EVER and don’t buy on day one unless you’re an influencer or a sheep who can’t help themself (in either case you may want to try and work on that character flaw). Wishlists are good, and playing demos to leave a review are great, but AAA games and such need reviews before you spend on them.

Bethesda has had this pattern for a long while. Elder Scrolls 1 & 2 (Arena and Daggerfall) were ridiculously complicated for their time and both had issues with the developers halting production and releasing the game not because they were finished, but because they had too many cool ideas to ever realistically finish. I mean Arena was supposed to be centered on an actual arena and then covered a continent. Morrowind was MUCH smaller but in a good way, had better NPC ai and had many many more curated quests & interactions. ES_4 (Oblivion) was similarly sized, but traded a bunch of depth to the system for ease of use – and that wasn’t a bad thing, in a lot of ways the simpler character growth system definitely made the game. Morrowind was too rough to start and had no real recourse if you (or some other factor) killed an important NPC

Then ES_5 (Skyrim) dumbed things down, more heavily restricted what a player could do and was a huge success; these three things were concurrent but not necessarily all related or connected. Seriously, Skyrim has so many locations that are either locked to keep you from exploring until you’ve triggered the quest for them or SHOULD be but aren’t and have things that break if you go there too early. Additionally, while Morrowind & Oblivion had modding capability, Skyrim was where things got much easier (speaking from experience)

Fallout 3 was Oblivion with guns (somewhat buggier, but generally good) and then Fallout 4 was even more restricted than Skyrim and was also a huge success, but between the story and gameplay FO_4 has several issues… Issues that many people fixed or at least ‘fixed’ via modding. But they also made modding more restrictive… At least they released a DLC that went completely against the settlement loop of the original game and allowed the player to be a destructive idiot, sorry pointlessly destructive idiot

Fallout 76 & ESO are games that exist and I have no interest or comments on them.

Starfield… Like Fallout 4, it was impossible to mod until, what a half-to-full year into its release? And at this point the complaints that Bethesda only release games partially done for modders to finish… it’s not completely true, but there’s too much weight to the idea. And the story is stupid, the characters are stupid, the game’s core loop at launch was stupid and (faux-dragon shouts), and (environmental hazards), and… Starfield is a rather cool game, which I wouldn’t pay for and won’t ever likely play

part of the problem is that a huge team doesn’t necessarily produce the game faster; they need expertise in a lot of situations, not warm bodies. But the western AAA game industry has long held to the battleship strategy of pile on many many people, overwork a bunch of them, drop them when the project shifts (and transferring them to another project is not the norm)… this means that much of the skilled craftspeople of the gaming industry don’t stick around and hone their skills, instead either burning out or setting off on their own projects (occasionally with skills for engines and other programs that can’t legally be exercised due to NDA and/or licensing. maintaining proprietary tech is a blessing and curse)

I would love a game that had the mechanical depth of Oblivion (e.g. custom spells), with the few additions from Skyrim (like catching bugs and trap spells) and similarly appropriately sign-posted/restricted locations (though a lot of what I consider to be the high points of Skyrim, in retrospect turn out to be modded content). I’ve been playing Oblivion again and the NPC schedules actually feel more alive than Skyrim, that was a good feeling, even on the occasions you needed to figure out where that jerk you needed to talk to was standing at this time on such and such day. This is absolutely a pipe-dream, but I personally want a larger but emptier overworld (so that you can’t stand in a village and see two different ‘unexplored’ ruins by just turning in place); just more boring empty space away from the roads – picking flowers and catching butterflies is my favourite part of these games. Standing at a ‘remote’ location and having three unvisited map markers; the problem isn’t that game holding your hand, its that it feels cramped

I’ll be shocked if ES_6 releases as a full game, completely floored if the game is any more complicated/less restrictive than Skyrim and flat out don’t believe that the game will have any real modding comparability within a year of release. I do, however expect I will want mods long before that. If/when ES_6 releases, I’ll probably have it somewhere down on my list after 40 or so ‘buy it on sale’ games. I really hope it’s a cool game, that its successful and that they keep making games. I’d be nice if they made games I want to play, but I don’t expect it anymore

geeze, sorry for the rant, I think some steam got released there

side-comment; I didn’t actually play AC: New Horizons, but I did religiously watch a streamer during the covid times and the island seemed so cramped. dude had a bunch of creative ideas and basically couldn’t do anything until he had full control over their island and could cram all of their villagers into one (tastefully arranged) corner. the game is adorable and charming and… *sighs* seems kinda empty for all the cool stuff to be found

You feel better now? At first I thought you were arguing with me or something, but then I realized you were just venting decades of frustration.

Also, I was really confused for a second because my brain interpreted that as “Assassin’s Creed: New Horizons” and I had no idea there was an AC game where you conquer an island and rebuild it.

If I get a switch 2, I’ll probably oick up Animal Crossing again. Had to trade in anlot of my stuff when finances got tight, and I miss relaxing games…though I also found my 3ds again, so maybe just going back to New Leaf is the real answer currently.

Oh he was. Good for him.

Last quote: Schrodinger’s author lol.

My ex and I played a lot of Animal Crossing on the Game Cube. When we split, I kept the Game Cube and my memory cards, she kept the game disc, getting a used Cube. When I looked a couple years ago at buying another disc, I was shocked at the price, for it being used. So my virtual house on the island still goes unused. ;(

My villagers always mention the girl I was dating at the time. They show me letters she wrote and it makes me sad. Although I guess probably not as much now. I haven’t looked in on that town in at least a decade.

Looks like $60 is about the going rate for a disc these days. I’m surprised people are trying to get 200$ for opened ones.

my daughter has a switch, wont be buying a 2 because they will have the power to brick it remotely. Buying a license to use is bad enough for software, I’m not doing it for physical items.