goosemunch

I'm not a huge GT fan (or any racing games in general) but I can say that what GT series gets right, compared to every other game in competition, is the 3rd person camera view.

The problem with 3rd person view in most racing games (including sim-y ones like Forza Motorsport) is that the camera points toward the direction of momentum instead of where the car is heading. It means the camera reaction is always delayed, so not only does it feel unresponsive, it's easy to oversteer and fishtail. It's perfectly fine in arcady games like NFS or Horzon series (and you can get used to it to some degree), but if responsiveness is key, then you had to stick with either hood or cockpit view, limiting visibility. So yeah pick your poison there.

GT series also used to have this problem (until 4 I think) but they started locking the camera in 3rd person view to where the car is pointing unless the car spins out of control, so the driving feels super responsive without having to switch to hood/cockpit view and limiting visibility. It's a no-compromise experience.

I'm definitely with you there - all the reviews are basically the same due to them being assigned to the people with similar taste and experience. Once you read one review, you've essentially read them all. Waste of words is what they are. I want variety and different point of views.

I wonder. It was pretty shocking to see that Community GOTY vote counts for 2021 were a mere fraction of previous years. Just summing up pure votes for top 50 games:

Of course there could be a myriad of reasons why there were so few votes (e.g. slow year for games) and may have nothing to do with health of the site or the community, but I have to say my gut reaction was a lot more pessimistic.

Yeah? I thought it was a good idea. A. They don't have to take time out of regular work hours to prepare for dedicated Quick Looks. B. Guaranteed non-solo Quick Look. C. You get to see the crew's faces. D. Live chat interaction (maybe) E. Being a slice of UPF, it's like a marketing vehicle for youtube viewers "hey sign up for premium for more like this". I mean yea it might feel like an ad, and if you're already a subscriber then it adds nothing for you, but I think they should continue doing it personally.

The Talos Principle and Half-Life: Alyx

Clubhouse Games on DS was always my go-to game for vacation away from home. I haven't tried the Switch version but I hear it's just as good.

The last time I went to Taco Bell, I had to go out of my way because they're so dang rare around here, it was only because I wanted some churros. It turns out they don't even sell churros anymore! What the hell is even the point.

A couple examples come to mind...

Tie Fighter for DOS had iMUSE dynamic/procedural music system (which sounded especially amazing when paired with MT-32) but when they remastered it for Windows with higher-res art and textures, they replaced it with pre-recorded CD soundtrack. Procedural BGM is one of the biggest victims in modern video game era and nothing really came along to replace it (though arguably pre-recorded music has the upside of being able to use licensed music, and the talent pool for composers is much bigger since they don't have to be familiar with technology).

The CD-ROM version of Loom had VGA art with full voice acting, but some content was cut from the original EGA/floppy release (I don't really know how much was cut). But I mainly prefer its EGA graphics because it looks like it was done by more talented artists who knew how to work with limited palette.

@shindig: I know you're joking, but slow walk-and-talk sections in Naughty Dog games and Gears games were some of the biggest offenders I've noticed. I assume they couldn't get the timing down because their QA people were too enamoured by beautiful graphics that they couldn't help but stop and gawk at every other step.