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Phillip's avatar

Happily anticipating these apple arcade releases. My 8yo recently discovered Uno and being able to play without asking Dad to shuffle for him will be great. My 5yo likes the 2d racing games that are all over the app store, and also legos, so that one should be a hit. And I'm excited to try out Lost in Play for myself!

I've played the Rematch betas and it's definitely solid. There's a pretty high skill ceiling for precise offense and teamwork that could hook a dedicated audience, and the walls make it a fundamentally faster and more arcade-y experience compared to any realistic soccer game. I'm super nervous for any team trying to launch an unlicensed sports game dependent on multiplayer, though, especially one that isn't F2P to cast the widest net.

I'm not super confident about our ability to snag a Switch 2. Trying to buy one from my friend that owns a local game store to support him and local business and all. He's been saying I should be able to get one of the two they are marked to receive, but also isn't taking any actual preorders, so... we'll see. It's not going to be a huge deal for my family if we have to wait a while.

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Patrick Klepek's avatar

I think there's a chance that A) they sell out really quickly on launch day and B) if you spend a little time and effort, you can reasonably find one in the weeks ahead

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marcos's avatar

have you had a chance to look at "To a T"? for folks with game pass it seems like a fun game to dip into. i've only played the demo on steam which was comically adorable and look forward to playing the full game with my kids.

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Patrick Klepek's avatar

Yes! My 8yo had trouble with the controls, but I wanna sit down with them and play it myself. I was supposed to send sone questions to Keita Takahashi but ran out of time...

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marcos's avatar

yeah, i fully intend to play it whereby i'm "driving" and they're just telling me funny things to do, which worked out really well for wattam. to a t's controls are lowkey warioware/qwop-esque but i was def into it in the demo.

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Zack Goodwin's avatar

Deltarune chapter 1 is very much the wind up where Toby Fox gets the not-undertale out of his system. Chapter 2 is an absolutely wild ride that built off 1 in all the best ways. Genuinely stoked for 3 & 4 to come out.

Also, while my first and eldest daughter is still a good deal away from even being a whole year old, I can't wait to introduce her to Mario Kart World. It's going to be a while before she can appreciate it, but that's okay. My wife and I will enjoy it in the meantime

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Patrick Klepek's avatar

I feel sorta bad that I'm getting a Switch 2 and then immediately taking it away for a flight to California for a few days lol

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Kara Mace's avatar

Curious - what's your take on Nintendo's insistence that you won't own your Switch 2? We were looking forward to the new system until they came out with that, after all the pre-orders. If I'm spending that much on a system (not to mention the crazy pricing on the games), having them basically tell consumers "you can buy it but we keep discretionary right to brick it if we don't like what you're doing with it" really rubs wrong. And not having physical cartridges anymore is also a no go; there are times having a physical copy is essential, because gameplay still relies on an internet connection a lot of times.

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Patrick Klepek's avatar

I think it's unfortunate, but absent government regulation (which I would support), it makes sense Nintendo would push a clause like this. Piracy was absolutely rampant on Switch. Did it end up *helping* Switch, in a way? Impossible to tell. But what is possible to tell is that Nintendo hates how easy it was to pirate games on Switch, so they're investing in new ways to control it. It does feel like this generation is the death of the physical game, in the sense that you can no longer expect every major release from a major publisher to have a physical copy in stores. I think we are increasingly moving towards a model like movies and TV, where companies will partner with partners to produce limited editions. (This has its own pluses and negatives; the boutique physical market has thrived in movies and TV, resulting in high-quality transfers of movies that would otherwise never have been released.)

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Katya Ryabova's avatar

Wow I hadn't heard of that before and it sounds really messed up 😔 Rubs me the wrong way too, although I guess we've been heading in that direction for a while now with streaming and digital purchases that you don't actually truly own.

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Kara Mace's avatar

Microsoft tried something similar with the XBox One, and quickly retracted that idea when everyone blew up. Nintendo has been aiming that way for awhile.

I understand trying to outwit the piracy, but sounds like that might be a technical issue on the coding or games side. To outright say that you're only "renting" access to a system that costs several hundred bucks is insulting.

And pushing for everything to be digital only also smacks of companies trying to control where the end product is - or limit who is "allowed" to own it. I know for games it started as a backlash against second hand sales, from companies like GameStop. Manufacturers felt they were losing too much money from the second hand purchases, so started working on more ways to control the products. Which is counter to how materials and goods have always been bought and sold; but with digital, its a whole new ball game.

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Katya Ryabova's avatar

Yup, absolutely. Agree with the "insulting" statement especially.

Future is silly sometimes... I wish physical games weren't dying out.

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