Because it has a library of interesting and innovative exclusives, making use of an unusual control input. Whether that makes it worth it or not is personal preference, but you can’t disagree that it offers something unique.

Because improving visuals is an easily quantifiable task, but improving gameplay requires creativity and risk-taking, neither of which are compatible with the AAA business model.

Such a shame NOLF is so deeply mired in rights disputes that we’ll probably never even get a digital rerelease, let alone a sequel.

It’s called a branching narrative. Most common related Steam tag for finding similar games would probably be ‘choices matter’.

You can manually restart in OW - it’s an ability you can learn from one of the characters you meet.

In my experience, if people are going to bounce off the game it’ll come down to one (or more) of three reasons:

• They hate the flight controls
• They hate the feeling of being on a constant timer
• They hate the lack of explicit direction in what to do next

It’s one of my favourite games of all time, and it has good reasons for all of the above, but it’s definitely not for everyone!

And for anyone wondering, my counterpoints to the above would be:

• Learn to use the autopilot but don’t trust it; learning to manoeuvre precisely will come over time
• Don’t overthink the timer element; pick just one thing to investigate and focus on that, anything else is a bonus
• Use the ship’s computer and follow the unknowns; avoid walkthroughs unless you’re absolutely 100% stumped on what to do next

Business cards are still very much used in Japan, which I’m assuming is the exact target market here.

The DC had upscaled art so the old game looked good enough on 1080p screens, plus a few new bits like character portraits.

This is a complete repainting & reanimating of the assets to 4K quality. Very different! Just compare screenshots and you’ll see.

Not to mention native console ports with crossplay multiplayer

There are prebuilt solutions in some common engines, and companies like Multiplay that will help with development and hosting, but ultimately it depends on the specific needs of each game.

What works well for one project might be overkill for another, so studios have to spend a lot of time figuring out their needs and building something bespoke for it.

Turn-based all the way for me. I need time to think about my moves!

I want to love RTS games, but I just don’t have the executive function skills needed to prioritise tasks and make decisions fast enough to do well. Single player against CPU is sometimes doable if there’s an easy mode or cheats, but online multiplayer is just impossible.

Newer, cheaper competitors like the FPGBC are finally muscling in on the Analogue Pocket’s market, so I guess they’ve decided to double down on being the ‘premium option’.

This has nothing to do with the subject of the post…

I don’t know why, but I freaking love simple/arcade golf games. Surprised Golf wasn’t available already, but I’ll definitely be playing!

I think you mean ‘after the GameCube’.

And even then, the GC only sat as a middle-ground between the original Xbox and the PS2. Nintendo hasn’t explicitly tried to make a graphical powerhouse since the N64.

Yeah I wouldn’t use EA Sports as the yardstick here as they keep them coming long after everyone else has given up on a platform. FIFA 14 came out on the PS2 in 2013; the same year the PS4 launched.

I wouldn’t call this a cash in at all - in fact, it’s now easily the best way to play Q2, with impactful (but optional) visual improvements, revamped AI, new accessibility options, both of the original expansion packs, the entire N64-exclusive campaign now available on all platforms for the first time, AND an entirely new campaign created specifically for this remaster.

There are a lot of low-effort ports out there (looking at you, Rockstar), but this ain’t one of them.