@bisonhero: I have Pikmin 4, but still haven't played it. Super Mario 3D Land has been my Switch game to work through before getting to it. I am really interested to see Nintendo take another shot at these ideas, but I feel pretty cautious given that I didn't really like the way Pikmin 3 softened the series.
You might be surprised. I find that Pikmin 4 "softens" the difficulty even more, in some ways, with most enemy attacks not one-hit killing your Pikmin anymore. On the other hand, the challenge is most definitely there! Getting platinums on all the Dandori challenges is more challenging (and satisfying) than anything in Pikmin 2 IMO. But it's more about perfecting time management and less about the danger of all most of your Pikmin being wiped out by one attack. So it's both easier and harder than Pikmin 2 at the same time, depending on what you want to get out of it. But it does take quite a while to ramp up.
It is hard for me to imagine an even easier Pikmin after Pikmin 3, but I suppose you could do it. While some attacks in Pikmin 3 are one-hits, others are not as long as you can call your Pikmin back in time, and enemies are more likely to scatter your Pikmin and give you time to pick them up than they are to throw them off their back and quickly try to eat them. The time management aspect was also definitely present in Pikmin 3's side challenges, but as I say in the essay, I wish I could have seen it in the main campaign.
@bisonhero: I have Pikmin 4, but still haven't played it. Super Mario 3D Land has been my Switch game to work through before getting to it. I am really interested to see Nintendo take another shot at these ideas, but I feel pretty cautious given that I didn't really like the way Pikmin 3 softened the series.
@wollywoo: Thank you. I think that a dungeon crawling Pikmin could work, but the execution here misses the mark. Maybe if the caves weren't so mean-spirited, maybe if they were cut down a little, they'd be brilliant, but that's not what we get in Pikmin 2.
@junkerman: Thank you. I don't think there's anything wrong with preferring older games, it doesn't make you a grump or anything, but Halo Infinite is not a good representative of modern shooters. You can probably tell your general tastes much better by looking at other FPSs that have come out in the past few years. I don't think it's about wanting casual play either; Halo is obviously trying to court a fairly large audience still. I mean, it's Halo, it has to be bigger for Microsoft than some highly technical niche of players, but it's falling apart for both a general and hardcore audience.
Black Mesa does indeed slap! Excited for whatever Crowbar Collective does next. I am tickled by the Black Mesa: Blue Shift mod by the HECU Collective - a fanfan project, or a modmod, if you will. Looks great so far!
Ah yeah, I did quite enjoy Manifold Garden. A unique and peculiar mood. And it has my favorite ending of any game of this ilk: Feels like at the climax of our spiritual journey through sacred geometry, we are now witnessing Eternity/The Divine.
And you know what it be: C-C-COSMO D!
Thanks. That means a lot. I noticed the Blue Shift mod on the Steam news page for Black Mesa, and it looks great, but I would rather play it when it's all complete. The ending of Manifold Garden is definitely transcendent. I think that's why it contains those mandalas. I think that's also part and parcel of the game's mathematical themes. By this point in the puzzles, you've been able to look beyond the superficial aspects of the worlds' appearance and see the forms foundational to it.
It sounds like you really have it out for Elesh Norn, Mother of Machines.
I do, but she appears so much in here mostly because introducing more example cards that demonstrated the Elesh Norn problem would have taken up more time and been more for a reader to absorb in a blog that already has a lot of info.
@ll_exile_ll:I do not mean to imply that scripted setpieces are gone. I mean that they are a proportionally smaller part of blockbuster games and are not discussed as much as they once were.
@calvinball: Thank you for the compliment. I have not thought much about music being able to imply certain kinds of gameplay. That is interesting to think about.
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