I'd just want more added, not necessarily changed

If you could make a RE4 remake change, what would it be? It's a fairly complicated question as the game is a classic, but all the recent talk of how it will probably be changed got me thinking.

In case you missed it, the yet-to-be-revealed (is it this thing?) Resident Evil 4 remake has been rumored to shift things around, and go for a "scarier tone." Industry legend Shinji Mikami even mentioned ??recently that he would want the "story to be better" if there was a remake. In other words, people have been sharing takes on how they'd like their ideal version of the remake to turn out. At the moment, I'm? not even sure where I stand.

At one point we were in the golden age of remakes. At a time where they were legitimately dazzling, and the games they were reintroducing to a new generation needed to be revamped for myriad reasons: one of which includes availability. But now we're at the point where the market is flooded with them (some of which are low effort), and a few remakes are based on games that aren't that hard to find. That's not necessarily where Capcom ended up, thankfully. Their remakes are generally satisfactory at worst, which gives me plenty of hope for RE4.

I think ultimately, I would want the foundation to stay mostly the same, but offer up more extras, like additional mercenaries levels, and an expanded Ada playthrough cobbling together her modes into something more expansive. Rumors are pointing toward the latter bit happening, so it sounds like they're on track for at least one welcome RE4 remake change.

The post If there is a RE4 remake, would you ?want to? change anything? appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm going with Paladin, Machinist, and White Mage

Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker shook up a number of mechanics with massive changes. Now that savage raiding is live, I figured it was time to check in. So what Endwalker jobs have you settled on?

With 2.0, I was all over the map, raiding savage with a Paladin, Ninja, Bard, Dragoon, Scholar, and White Mage. Over time I basically settled into raiding as just Paladin/tanking, and in every expansion, Paladin is my "story job" of choice to reach the new level cap: everything else is secondary. I did the same thing with Endwalker, bu??t with a fresh new expansion, I decided to try something old and something new. I brought back the? White Mage into the fold, while leveling a Machinist.

It's been a blast to see all of the ch??anges to White Mage over the years unfold right before my eyes at once, first-hand. No the job isn't perfect, but it's suited me well in everything I've played thus far. While I'm likely going to be hea??ding into savage content with my trusty Paladin, it's been a ton of fun healing again.

Machinist brings me back to the olden days of more carefree times with my Bard. When I want to unburden myself of the stress of tanking/shot-calling and reactively healing/fixing messes. It isn't the flashiest job mechanically, nor does it bring the most utility to the table, but it is flashy visually, e??spe??cially with the "dark Machinist" motif I elected.

I think what I've enjoyed most about these jobs is the story I've told for these characters o?ver the course of nearly a decade. My Paladin has mostly remained the same aesthetically: stoic as ever, representing the Maelstrom Grand Company colors. Though as a White Mage, I opted to swap from the bright color scheme of old into a darker tone. And my Machinist is straight out of a monster movie.

Feel free to share your job stories, both in terms of glamour end??game and mec??hanics!

[gallery ids="302761,302762,302764"]

The post What jobs are you? playing in Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker? appeared first on Destructoid.

For me it's completed Master Mode, all DLC, 100% of shrines, all sidequests, and incomplete Koroks

What's your Zelda: Breath of the Wild completion rate at? That includes anything and everything you want to share, from the?? story to DLC.

There's a lot of qualifiers here that could be included or omitted: whatever you're comfortable with. Like, "I just finished the main story" is enough. Or maybe you took on Master Mode. Or the DLC. Or all of the shrines. And every sidequest. But didn't finish all the Korok seeds. Wait, I'm this person! Zelda: Breath of the Wild completion rates can be complicated.

So over the past few years I've done basically everything there is to do in Breath of the Wild (except this one thing, Koroks hate it!). Maybe if I was a spry young lad in the age of scattered internet, before I learned that the reward is useless, I would have done it. Or, at the dawn of the internet, I would have considered getting it and taking ??a photo of the item for bragging rights.

But that time has passed. There is so much to do in the game that laboriously combing the world for 900 Korok seeds just isn't my thing. There's tons of secret sidequests to find! And doing all the s??hrines without guides is a task in and of itself. As is some of the DLC content (more shrines!). Now that you know where I'm at, it's ??time to share.

The post Wha?t have you?? actually accomplished in Zelda: Breath of the Wild? appeared first on Destructoid.

Following up Bluetooth audio

So the Switch has been out for four years now. Four years! And in that time we've gotten myriad "stability" updates that do nothing for us. But recently, there was a glimmer of promise. Bluetooth audio device firmware! It was a ray of hope that some day, we might get some of our most?? w?anted Switch requests. So what's the next big Switch improvement you'd like to see?

For me the answer is obvious: folders. I think if I could choose a single thing to wave my magic wand and grant, it would be folders. Just about every single gaming UI has them now, and given that?? they were big last generation, it's about time for Nintendo to get with the program. In fact I'd stretch this "one big Switch improvement" concept further and extend that wish to the entire UI.

Look, I dig that the Switch UI is simple. I wouldn't actually change that for the most part, as I know that people like it? compared to the PC OS-like presentation of its competitors. It's especially useful, when in portable mode, to get to stuff at a glance. But it would be nice to get more actual features with that UI.

What about expanded social features? We all miss the Miiverse and it's not coming back, but something even remotely similar would be fantastic. Now ??that they finally have a smartphone app, there's so much potential there to add more social aspects to? it, albeit in a safe manner befitting of Nintendo. I can go on and on. So I will.

How about actual optional themes? Nintendo kind of abandoned even t??????????????????????????he concept of color-changing. Or custom UI icon manipulation? No, I don't think I really need that Switch Online button that you introduced, thank you. Or what about better search o??ptions for the eShop menu? Or a better game-time tracker (remember the ones on prior systems)?

All of this is optional content that will en?hance a lot of user experiences, without interfering with people who like things the way they are. I don't think we're going to?? get all of them by the time the Switch is put out to pasture by whatever's next. But we could get a few! How about you sound off and give Nintendo some ideas.

[Switch folder header by porcorousseauu]

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It's time to sound off for our Switch OLED poll

Surprise! It's a Switch OLED launch poll. Given that it's due in less than a week, I figured it was h??igh time to see what people thought of it.

So here's my first answer: yes.

Of course it is! This is my career,? and getting new hardware is paramount to being able to cover things for Destructoid.

Here's my second answer: even if it wa??sn't my career, I'd still buy the Switch OLED.

The Switch has been a huge hit in my household, as both my wife and I regularly play it, and my daughter is interested in it. We have docks on each floor of our house, an?d enjoy portable mode around the house and in bed for some downtime. Although I'd say I divide my time between PS5 (exclusives), Xbox Series X (multiplatform), and Switch (mostly exclusives) equally, the fact that my family is down with the Switch makes this decision easier.

The revised dock (which you can buy separately) should hopefully improve download speed concerns (beyond the existing third-party solution), and the new screen will be a boon ??when playing on trips in the future, as well as at home in convenient spots. I'm very interested in the "enhanced audio" and better stand.

Of course, "no" is a valid answer for this Switch OLED launch poll for any number of reasons. I mean, maybe you don't want a Switch? in the first place. And the upgrades really aren't justified if you don't use the S?witch a ton (it's not like this is a Pro model). Or maybe you just plain couldn't get one due to the chip shortages and the fact that Nintendo doesn't do anything about scalping.

The post Are you buying the Nintendo Switch OLED? appeared first on Destructoid.

Prime Directive

Metroid Dread is exactly one week away. It's exciting, isn't it? A new mainline Metroid game that isn't a remake of some kind, and isn't Prime. Okay, so Prime 4 is on the way and I'm actually excited to see that series in the spotlight again. But growing up on the original series, falling in love with it during long car rides with Metroid 2, and then being blown away by Super Metroid, the classic storyline is really near and dear to my heart. So what is Metroid's future going to be like in 10 or 15 years?

With Metroid Dread closing the loop on so many storylines, it's really hard to say. I mean, money talks! This is the Switch here, and given that Nintendo is approaching 100 million hardware units sold, Dread is going to sell. I'm sure the powers that be can figure o?ut a number of lore reasons why Samus could return yet again, after she's returned already. Crazy anime Metroid DNA plotlines! This stuff writes itself; it does have a dinosaur pirate with a questiona??ble canon after all.

I mean, I wouldn't mind those mental gymnastics to be frank. If Metroid could get to the point where it's pushing out a Prime and mainline game every so often, that would be a good spot to be in. In the span of 1986 and 2002, we only got four mainline games, whereas the Prime trilogy only took five whole years to conclude.

What I'm saying is, Nintendo kind of runs on a weird timeline for these (or for any series for that matter, like where is our next F-Zero guys?). Metroid's future could consist of just about anything at this point, but for right now, we are getting two more games at the very least. One is close, and one is likely still very far away, hanging out with Bayonetta 3. In any case, I was curious what you ?all would want to see from?? Samus.

The post Where can Metroid’s future go from here? appeared first on Destructoid.

Given how explosive it was last year, more plans probably would have been a smart move

Let's take a stroll over to Nintendo's best-s??elling Switch software ch?art. OK, so we have Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in first place....Smash Ultimate in a distant third compared to the first two. And oh yeah! Animal Crossing New Horizons, a game that's only a little over a year old, is sitting right near the top with 32.63 million units sold. So where's the Animal Crossing support? Maybe on the way?

I've seen many Destructoid users voice their disappointment for a lack of New Horizons support, and I have to admit, it's a bit baffling. Nintendo ostensibly has a live service game here, with loads of potential for future content for keeping people interested and engaged with the Switch with its massive baked-in install base. But New Horizons even gets quality of life upgrades at a?? glacial pace, much less bonafide content drops.

As a reader has pointed out, Animal Crossing support has dwindled in recent months, with no new major updates in roughly two months. The fan demand is as clear as day with every passing pageantry tweet from the Animal Crossing Twitter account, which once gave meaningful updates for the futur?e of the game.

Speaking for myself, I didn't last too long with New Horizons, having most of my fill within a month. Coming back and participating in updates lasted me a few days for each event, but it's becoming harder and harder to log in at all in the past six months or so. Proper Animal Crossing support would have fixed that.

Again, not every game needs to keep people entertained indefinitely, but it's baffling when you have such a runaway success that you wouldn't double down on it. The same goes for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which basically just peddled off a few updates and said "so long!" You'd thin?k with a 35-million-plus install base that a few cheap DLC drops would sell like hotcakes.

Meanwhile, Sakurai's team is adding stuff to Smash Ultimate every few months. Go figure!

The post Should Nintendo?? be supporting An?imal Crossing: New Horizons more? appeared first on Destructoid.

I rocked the long sword for the...longest time

Now that y'all have had a little Monster Hunter Rise under your belt, it's time!

Time to share!

Me? I've been rocking the great sword. I know, it's basic! But it's also really rewarding a??nd fun to play.

The great sword not only looks cool, but it provides a ton of control for hunters. It's powerful, but not clunky. It also has several counter-abilities, making combat even more engaging as you swap from offensive to defe?nsive maneuvers on a dime. It's also flashy! There's nothing quite like sheathing yo??ur sword and then letting it rip like you're straight out of a samurai anime.

As a reminder, the game's produ??cer shared that the long sword was the most popular weapon in the demo, followed by great swords, then the hunting horn (which got a huge buff in Rise). So it's no surprise that the long sword is going to be a pop??ular answer.

After mastering the long?? sword, I started gravitating toward the hunting horn. I want to really get it down for when I start playing more with groups online, and I'm still intent on learning the dual blades inside and out just for style factor alone. Next up is the light bowgun, as I should probably have a ranged weapon in my ?repertoire for good measure.

But I know there's a l?ot of you out there who are rocking a few of the more esoteric weapons, too. Your voices deserve to be heard. Make the case for your we??apon of choice!

The post What’s your favorite Monster Hunter Rise weapon? appeared first on Destructoid.

You don’t have to say MvC2!

Outside of MMOs, one of the longest "gauntlet-runs" I've ever done for a single game involves Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

I picked it up from a local game store for Dreamcast, and played it for what felt like an entire day: I nearly unlocked everything. It was a breezy summer afternoon in 2000, and the world was my oyster. But as simple as it would be to say "that's my favorite Marvel vs. Capcom," i??t's not! Let's talk about the impact of each game, briefly, and discuss our top picks.

For the purposes of this post, we're not counting X-Men Vs. Street Fighter, or Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter. Just raw mainline "Marvel vs. Capcom" titles, starting with Clash of Superheroes from 1998. We can add way more of those into the mix at some point, like Children of the Atom.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes (1998)

Shockingly, the first Marvel Vs. Capcom mainline entry is still my favori??te. And my first ever experience with money-matches, and the?? moment I started to get into local and regional fighting game tournaments. I'll never forget it.

There's something so special about the streamlined "versus" approach, providing easy access to the "guest assist" system (in which crazy, mostly unplayable characters come out for a special attack) while cementing the tag-team format. It also had an insanely varied roster (which would become a series staple), which it deserves a lot of credit for. I remember playing Captain Commando for the first time here and rushing to play his game because his mechanics were so buttery smooth. Mega Man was a complete shocker to witness in a versus fighter (and led me to seek out Power Fighters and Power Battle), as was a Darkstalkers crossover (Morrigan).

It was a dream of a game. Something so ambitious that the prior? crossovers paled in comparison to it. And it's clean enough to go back to constantly, even today. For a lot of people, that rang true for roughly two years: until the seq?uel eclipsed it.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes (2000)

That&rsqu?o;s what I expected! I think this one will win it by a mile.

It's the daddy of everything discussed here. It's the incredibly packed sequel that defined fighters after it and helped p??opularize the entire fighting game community (FGC), thrusting it into the zeitgeist; for better or worse.

A roster of 56 playable characters is pretty much all the ammo you need to sell this to someone. "Do you have a favorite Marvel or Capcom character?" Odds are they're in it. Nearly everyone from past "Versus" entries made the cut, as did Amingo, Ruby Heart, and SonSon. There was an MvC lore now. A loose storyline that served as the connective tissue of Marvel vs. Capcom. This was a new thing, and it?? took over and dominated the prev?ious versus formula.

In every w?ay you can imagine, it impacted the genre. Like Thanos (who is playable), it's a formidable Titan, and still in the "best fighter of all time" conv?ersation.

Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds/Ultimate (2011)

And now we come to the third entry, which should give everything but Marvel vs. Capcom 2 a run for its money.

It's here, nearly a decade and change later, that Capcom continued the goodwill that they garnered with the second game. Now, it wasn't perfect! Not everyone made the cut and that pissed a lot of people off. But it played well, introduced new mechanics into the mix, and added a few characters (some of which were assist??s in the original!) from all walks of Capcom life.

The Ultimate version allowed it to extend its life onto other systems for years to come. L??ittle did Capcom know they'd have a bumpy road a?head of them six years later.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite (2017)

To predict this would come?? in dead last is to state the inevitable.

Although I enjoyed Infinite as a casual "kitchen table" fighter, the community overall did not take to it. One chief point of contention was the "MCU-ification" of the Marvel side, which was heavily skewed toward Disney's influence; chuc??king a few prior staples to the side.

Characters that were once vibrant and full of life felt deader, and the mechanics just didn't stick. Very shortly after launch fans rebuked it, and erred on the side of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 or 3 competitions instead of Infinite. If you had told me a st??oryline where U??ltron and Sigma merged to destroy the world would fail as a kid, I wouldn't have believed you. It was so stupid it had to work.

Capcom tried to market this one, hard, but even some of those efforts fell flat, like the off-brand "Infinity Stone" debacle. At the end of the day, "Marvel" still meant Marvel vs. Capcom 2.

A?nd I suspect it still does! Time to find out. We'll po?st the results within the next week.

The post Let’s go crazy! What is the best mainline Marvel vs. Capcom? appeared first on Destructoid.

Will you play it when the big 'next gen' update hits?

Can Marvel's Avengers even afford the "Real Reborn Treatment?" Will people come back if it doe?s miraculously get it? These are things I wonder at random moments whenever I see the icon flash across my PS5 menu.

Marvel's Avengers was always fighting an uphill battle. No matter how much Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics showed of it, a lot of folks felt like it didn't capture t??hat Marvel, or even general comic book spark.

The demo didn't really help, as it showed that it didn't play ??;like either of those things to boot. So we were kind of left like a weird Frankenstein's monster of a comic book action romp, and off-brand MC?U character models. It felt like there wasn't a lot of cohesiveness there from any executive level.

But even still, I had a decent enough time with Avengers as long as the story was rolling. It wasn't until I hit that endgame Destiny-like grind that things started to...grind to a halt. It's a rollercoaster of a game, in terms of mechanics and the live serv??ice loot foun?dation.

Square Enix and company assumed that throwing more characters and cosmetics at players would keep their interest. Even without any delays (I get it), I don't think that was g?oing to be the magic bullet they thought it would be. There are fundame?ntal problems with how the endgame is structured that will take a lot of effort and time to fix.

Some of the problems were of Marvel/Square Enix/Crystal Dynamics' own making: top-level marketing type stuff. Waiting forever to introduce him and making Spider-Man a Sony exclusive may have helped pay the bills, but from the outside, it looks like a big mistake. Executive decision after executive decision helped kill the momentum of this game: to the point where the CEO?? of Crystal Dynamics even had to address the drop-off in players.

So I ask: is the game salvageable for you? Are you coming back for ??the big "next-gen" upgrade (which, like Cyberpunk 2077's was delayed)? I'll probably give it a shot, not just because it's my job to do so, but I'm not super hopeful that it's going to be enough? to blow everyone away.

The post Is Marvel’s Avengers still salvageable for you? appeared first on Destructoid.

It's going to be a spicy holiday

As anyone ?with kids knows; your piles of Christmas gi?fts begin to shrink over time.

My family wasn't perfect, but Christmas was. My mom knew exactly how to make that day memorable, to the point where I've practically memorized every gift and kind act she made throughout my entire childhood (shoutout to Zen: Intergalactic Ninja and Toxic Crusaders NES, two rockin' obscure parental picks). That's the philosophy I want to pass on to my daughter: to channel my Christmas spirit into her experience as she grows. My kid was dressed like Elsa and opened up a? giant snow fortress playset: I think things are going great.

So! In recent years, Christmas has been relatively low key for me. What do you get the full-time gaming reviewer that he doesn't already have? It's nigh impossible! Today, I got a lot of great gifts from friends and family that?? involved hot sauce and food of some kind. Given how much time I spend cooking in the kitchen, it checks out.

My wife got me an amazing "coup?les do-it-yourself" painting kit that tasks us with creating a star-filled night sky (I'm gonna need more than a few YouTube tutorials but she's m??ore than up to the task). I gave her a D.Va mouse for her work laptop, and a Murloc backpack: I might not get gaming gifts as much any more, but that doesn't mean I can't give them!

What about you? One of my f?avo?rite parts of the year is seeing all of the cool gifts from around the Dtoid community.

The post What did you get for Christmas 2020, Destructoid? appeared first on Destructoid.

Or do you want it to even evolve at all?

As we reported recently, World of Warcraft Classic is quietly nearing the end of its major content cadence.

So what's next? Well, we probably would have gotten that news ?this past November if BlizzCon would have happened. Instead, we'll likely get it in February during Blizzard's BlizzCon Online festivities.

But before that happens, what do you want from WoW Classic?

The way I see it, there's a few options.

Blizzard could keep the "Vanilla Classic" feel the same and isolated. This is a rather risky venture, as the playerbase would likely slowly dwindle, doing the same thing over and over. The publisher seems to still be happy with how it's performing, augmenting and funneling into the modern WoW subscription base (remember, one sub gets you both versions): so this could propel Blizzard through another year o?r so, minimum.

Or, Blizzard could incrementally add separate "expansion" servers for future xpacs, starting with Burning Crusade. Given the high demand for both BC and Wrath of the Lich King (arguably the two most popular expansions), getting some form of expansion access is likely in the cards. In this hypothetical, Burning Crusade servers (and so on) would be separate from "Classic Vanilla," ??so the original experience can be preserved in a living time capsule.

Or, there's another option. We could also get a full incremental rollover of WoW Classic. As in, Burning Crusade takes over entirely and morphs the game; leaving "Vanilla" in the dust. From then on, every few years, expansions and patches?? would cycle in until the game is "modern" again (wi?th the "main" version of the game multiple expansions ahead).

It's really tricky, and I bet Blizzard is crunching a ton of numbers right now. Or they have a tentative plan they were going to unleash in November that was going to be divisive. As for me, although it would be a ton of wor?k, I think the separate expansion strategy would be the most amicable for everyone. Realistically, I think they'll  just start to roll it over.

Sound off!

The post Now that ??WoW Classic is nearing its last patch, how do you want it to evolve? appeared first on Destructoid.

I am Iron Man

Now that the 10-ish hour campaign honeymoon for Marvel's Avengers is over, some folks have either started digging into the endgame, or have peace?d out entirely due to the grind. Whatever the case might be, share who your current main is, or was.

What are your op??tions? Well, look above! Or below! The top showcases all of them in their off-brand MCU glory (minus Ms. Marvel), with the bo??ttom providing text options to lock in your vote.

As for me, I have to go with my boy Iron Man. It's a hoot to? be able to fly around the battl??efield and tower over everyone but Thor, and building into different weapon specs allows for some ranged variety: a great way to combat the homogenized feel of the melee system. Oh, and being able to cover up that aforementioned off-brand MCU mug with a helmet is a must.

Black Widow is also a close second, as her ultimate ability can wreck shop in a ??group tu??ssle, but Hulk is also sufficiently Hulk-like to warrant a go every now and then. Pick your poison!

The post Which Marvel’s Avengers character is your main so far? appeared first on Destructoid.

I've cut my playtime down a bit, but love the art gallery

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is still very young, but it'?s alre??ady been through a series of ups and downs.

After folks started to hit the "endgame," some of the creamy faults started to rise to the top. That said, Nintendo has made it very clear that this is a live service game, and advancements will come over time: most notably, the recent addition of Leif and Redd.

On the flipside, those changes can be contentious. Nintendo recently nerfed monthly interest gains in a bid to defeat time-traveling players. Tarantulas, which I've seen a whopping two of total in all of my time with the game, also got a nerfed spawn rate.

As I noted earlier this week, I've "completed the game" and unlocked terraforming, and like most things New Horizons related, it's gotten a mixed reception in my household. I was under the misguided assumption that it would function a lot like the in-game house editor tool, which conveniently allows players to arrange items in a top-down fashion, with a grid to show exactly wh?ere items are placed, to boot.

Terraforming has none of those things, so my dreams of being able to remodel my island with any sort of realistic timeline have been dashed. To make matters worse, I don't get the opp?ortunity to play very much at night, when a lot of the New Horizons magic happens, so I haven't experienced a few of the s?tingiest events like meteor showers. It's frustrating.

That said, I still enjoy New Horizons. I might not be playing it nearly as often as I'd like to (I hope some of the aforementioned issues are going to be fixed eventually, and let us craft multiple items and craft from storage, Nintendo!), but I am still playing. The little May Day puzzle was a brief bit of fun! I hope we get more of that sort of stuff. I also really love the new art wing in the museum: Blathers is probably my favorite Animal Crossing character in this iteraiton.

My time with New Horizons has been confusing, but what about you?

The post How have you been getting on with Animal Crossing: New Horizon’s recent nerfs and new events? appeared first on Destructoid.

I posted mine, and a blank one for you

Nintendo recently put out an official bingo card for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and I'm sure a ton of you instantly?? went "challenge accepted."

As you'll notice, a lot of it is stuff you can accomplish an hour in or so, and is a pure marketing effort from Nintendo to get you to notice some of the more diverse activities you can complete in New Horizons. However, a few of them are taxing, depending on how much you value ce??rtain elements of the game.

For instance, here's the three I didn't complete: catch at least five sea bass (I'm not big on fishing in New Horizons), use a wand to change your outfit and have wished on a meteor shower. Given that the wand and meteor showers are both linked to nighttime play — which I don't really do that often — I haven't finished those despite "beating the game." Even Reggie is miffed that the nighttime events are so stingy!

I'm sure most o??f you have cleaned the whole card out though! At least I snagged a bingo through other means, sidestepping these, from? a few rows.

Nintendo of America [Twitter]

The post How much of this official Animal Crossing New Horizons bingo card?? do you have crosse??d off? appeared first on Destructoid.

One two Freddy's coming for you

Five Nights at Freddy's really falls into that "single developer"?? category ??that's been so prevalent in the 2010s.

Scott Cawthon is responsible for a multi-million-dollar empire, alongside of recent solo studio names like Matt Thorson, Toby Fox and Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone. It really is amazing when you think about it, but a recent string of Switch eShop releases got me thinking: how much of the general public plays Five Nights?

Me? I like to dabble in a bit of everything. Some of it's for research, and the rest I just have no excuse: I love games of all shapes and sizes. Also, I have young cousins and neighbors who constantly ask me if I play it (and Minecraft/Fortnite/Roblox) so I like to have an answer ready.

You've probably seen the merch at some point (or the above Fazbear/friends face), but let us know if you've ever played a Five Nights game before.

The post Have you ever played a Five Nights at Freddy’s game? appeared first on Destructoid.

Absolutely

It's hard to believe that the Darksiders series is nearly 10 years old.

Literally just another month or so to go and we'll have reached the 10th anniversary of the original game: the original that challenged our notions of classics like Soul Reaver and 3D Zeldas. It's endured at least one corporate takeover and one development studio change, and so far we've seen the series through the eyes of three of the Horsemen: War, Death and Fury respectively. That leaves Strife as the odd man out, and though he is getting a prequel in the form of Darksiders Genesis, he most assuredly needs his own game.

Playing him in Genesis got me thinking: if we eventually get that, and it is considered the definitive "end" to the tale that started in 2010, will you be satisfied? Maybe once upon a time that's all I wanted, but over the past decade I've grown fond of the series, as well as its world and the characters that inhabit it. If Zelda can persist for 33 years, I'm game for more Darksiders. Stay tuned for our Genesis review closer to launch!

The post If we eventually get our Darksid??ers 4 Strife game, would you want more after that? appeared first on Destructoid.

The holidays can be tough

Ring Fit Adventure came out a month and a half ago, and the unopened box I bought is still ?sitting on my Switch shelf. I kno?w, right!

I've been busy with a bunch of other games, and now that the slo?wer winter season is upon us, I think it's time to bust that bad boy out of its cage. But even goi?ng through the process of that in my head, I thought to myself: "are people still playing it?"

Exercising regularly, especially during the perpetual season of excuses, can be tough. For many people, it's easier to completely change your diet if it means putting it off. Ring Fit Adventure is one of many devices that attempted to change that mentality by marrying gaming and fitness, but naturally it's no??t going?? to work its siren's song on everyone.

One of the chief elements that spurred this conversation the Ring Fit Challenge Instagram account, which did a drive-by in our comment section for the review and shared their story. In their own words: "I highly recommend this game for people who do not have time to go to the gym, especially parents like me. Playing the game for 2??0 minutes daily is doable and you can adjust the difficulty and movement settings to your needs."

Share your story! E?ven if it ended shortly after it?? began.

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Everyone wants the Great Wolf Sif edition

Anecdotally, there was an overwhelming amount of support for Pokemon Sword over Shield d??uring the new generational reveal, and it seems like the sales data supports that.

Breaking down the Japanese sales numbers even further, Dengeki Online notes that Sword managed to push 499,753 units, towering over Shield's 347,629 units. Not only did it have the most enticing legendary (basically Great Wolf Sif from Dark Souls over Shield-Face), but Sirfetch'd, which is exclusive to Sword, was one of the most celebrated new creatures.

Taking a gander at the all-time Switch best-seller list, all Sword and Shield need to do collectively to be the most successful Pokemon game on Switch is sell more than 11.28 million copies: enough to dethrone Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee. The pair should also be pushing Link's Awakening and Super Mario Maker 2 out of the top 10 very soon,? which sport 3.13 million and 3.93 million copies sold respectively.

Pokemon, like Call of Duty, continues to defy sales expectations while g??etting plenty of complacency complaints.

Pokemon [Dengeki Online via Nintendo Everything]

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The Persona series has such a rich tapestry of characters that you could probably argue all day over who your own individual favorites are, but as a cat owner at heart, Morgana really hit home in Persona 5. The fact that he ?can transform into all sorts of wacky configurations is just the cherry ??on top.

Morgana is bringing that madness into Persona 5 Scramble, the new Musou-like game arriving in Japan this February on PS4 and Switch. I say "Musou-like" because it really looks like it's shaking up the formula with a bit of Persona madness, especially with characters?? like Morgana and the ?titular Personas. His trademark humor also made it in, baka!

Call me crazy, but Scramble even seems import worthy, which will be super easy to do on the PS4 and Sw??itch, which are both region-fr??ee. I don't know if I want to wait for a localization announcement and the eventual release!

Now that I think about it: let's do this. Throw down on your favorite Persona 5 party member below.

The post Morgana, arguably ??the best Persona 5 character, rips in Persona 5?? Scramble appeared first on Destructoid.

PS2 hands down

After reporting that the PS4 had beaten the Wii and the original PlaySta??tion and became the second-best selling home console of all-time (behind?? the PS2), I had no idea that such an interesting conversation would break out among the community.

Folks started not only sharing what their favorite era of PlayStation history has been, but their favorite consoles in general. It got me thinking: we need to settle this once and for all, just like we settled that Obsidian's Fallout: New Vegas was the clear-cut best modern Fallout game.

I ho??nestly think it's anyone's game. Although I wouldn't put money on the PS3 (I was there for the launch of every system, the PS3 was rough early yet as studios tried to conform to its rigid architecture), I was surprised at how many fans that big block of a s??ystem had in the aforementioned comments section. For me, the answer took me around five seconds: the PS2.

GTA III, Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid 2/3, Final Fantasy X, Okami, God of War 1/2, Devil May Cry 1-3 (the whole trilogy!), Bully, Ico, Shadow of the Colossus (!), Katamari Damacy. I could go on and on, so I will: Persona 3/4 (both!), the continuation of the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, Viewtiful Joe, God Hand, Kingdom Hearts, Splinter Cell. It's just too much! Most of these series are still around today or are still being ported in remaster??/remake form.

The PS2's insanely packed library came before a time of extreme shovelware, and like the Dreamcast, it's easy to just look at the master list and pick out a mountain of classics. For that reason alone the PS2 may never be dethroned??, both in terms of sales and quality.

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I play all four, but FL4K is still my main

With all the recent FL4K nerfs, the discussions surrounding them really got me thinking: who do you play as in Borderlands 3 most of the time?

I stuck with FL4K for my first playthrough during my review session, and although I did create my own versions of Zane, Moze and Amara (my preferred characters of those three, in that order), I kept coming back to FL4K as my main. There's something about the concept of a pet-based class where the pet is always with you&nb?sp;that stuck with me: unlike so many other summoning-based archetypes where your pet constantly needs to be brought o??ut on a lengthy cooldown.

Zane rules pretty hard as well as he kind of has a pet with his drone, and the thought of sneaking around in multiplayer and surgically striking down elite enemie?s is just as fun as it sounds. I found Moze to have more quiet time than the others, but when her mech comes down it's all-out war, and the waits are worth it. Amara, while fun in her own right, hasn't?? grabbed me the way the others have.

But what about you? Borderlands 3 has been marinating for a bit and you probably have a clear-cut top pick in mind. There ca?n only be one! Let's see if my pre?diction that FL4K will win by a landslide is accurate, because it sure seems that way based on discussion havens.

The post Which Borderlands 3 character is your curre?nt ??favorite? appeared first on Destructoid.

I could use another Demon's Crest run

The long-rumored SNES Switch Online functionality was revealed yesterday. Finally! And thank goodness, it did??n't involve t??he similarly rumored "extra pricing tier."

20 games all at once isn't too shabby either (especially given the drip-fed nature of the system now), and that got me thinking: which game are you all going to play first? For me it was no contest. Demon's Crest!

I've played it basically once a year since 1994, so I may as well get my 2019 run in while the going is good. I do the same thing for Super Mario World so it was a close second (I'll never forget picking that one up and beating it in one sitting, then playing it all over again), and Kirby's Dream Course? is pretty much always on my mind when my SNES is on.

There's a good mix of wackiness in here already! I can see Stunt Race FX being a curiosity: I remember playing it a kid's barber shop and marveling at it so many years ago. EDF is an equally oddball selection, as is Joe & Mac 2 (which will go down in history as a "go-to" Nick Arcade game).

Man the SNES has history! By the time?? I leave this Earth it might still be a top five all-time console.

The post Which Switch Online?? SNES game are you playing first? appeared first on Destructoid.

If so, how do you spend time together?

There's a cer?tain delicate nature to introducing people to something, whether it's a spouse or your child. If you come on too strong they might be turned off (sometimes for life). But if pick something just right, it can resonate with them in a way you've never imagined.

I think about the first game my kid is eventually going to play a lot. The choices are swirling around in my head, and since I'm a collector, I have pretty much every mainstream system and handheld that's been released at my disposal. If she wants to play Pokemon Red on a Game Boy Pocket, I can handle that.

My first game was City Connection, but the first thing I really connected with was Super Mario Bros., followed by Dragon Warrior. It was that duo on the NES that really drew me into the wide world of gaming: a journey that hasn't ended, and probably never w?ill. What are your "first games" you've introduced your kids to? Or perhaps play on a regular basis as a family?

One perfect suggestion (that I might steal, if I don't try to re-introduce her to Super Mario Bros.) is from our own Jonathan Holmes: two player VVVVVV. In co-op, a youngster only needs to really push one button and wander around, and the primary pla?yer/parent can c?arry the load by moving from screen to screen. Genius!

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Maybe you've dabbled in a few now that the game has been out a bit

The dust has settled a bit on Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

The game arrived on Switch on July 26, which is eons in the gaming industry, when everyone inevitably moves on to ta?lking about the next big thing. But given that I've always been one to dwell, especially for big-budget SRPG releases in 2019, I'm back with another discussion point for thi?s lovely game. Odds are you have a favorite house at this point. Whether it's due to multiple playthroughs or just a partial run, you've had the chance to interact with every other student and house leader on campus, and probably have strong feelings on the matter.

Me? I was with Edelgard on day one. I made my choice in a vacuum with an advanced co?py and didn't think twice: it was always Edelgard and her Black Eagles. That said, I actually like both of the other houses: the Blue Lions and the Golden Deer. Dimitri's pretty boy demeanor is always funny and I love his rapport with Edelgard, and the idea that "everyone just adores" Claude is hilarious...and believable, after seeing him in action!

Sound off with your choice below, but note that although there a??re no spoilers discussed in this article, the comments might go there! Stick to the poll!

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Sony started off this generation with a bang, but Microsoft has made strides of its own

I will never forget Sony's opening sa?lvo that one fateful E3: "this is how you share games on PS4." Amid Microsoft's Draconian DRM-fuele??d original Xbox One hellscape vision, Sony was the one came out of the gate like Michael the Archangel, giving the people what they want.

But Microsoft, in part due to desperation, changed. That DRM system (despite the fact that the industry is slowly moving to digital at this point) was eliminated. They added support for things like external hard drives and expanded their Xbox Live services to account for concepts like bigger party chat sizes years before Sony did. They added backward compatibility for not only the previou??s Xbox 360 generation, but two generations behind with support for the original Xbox, while Sony relied on a selection of games through PS Now cloud streaming. They greatly expanded their PC support with cross-buy for pretty much every modern Xbox Studios title. While it's tough to defend their first party game situation, Microsoft undoubtedly fought back: competition is good.

Sony, while resting on their laurels for years, is finally making some strides to ensure that they aren't the Microsoft of next generation. After espousing the marketing nonsense that "PlayStation was the best place to play" as an excuse for not supporting full cross-play, they relented with Fortnite, then Dauntless, then Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. They also clapped back at Microsoft's big backward compatibility strategy, and confirmed the feature for the PS5. The d?am is about to be busted wide open, just in ??time for the next generation to happen.

We have a full-on marathon on the way, ladies and gentlemen: no longer will the near-100 million selling PS4 completely destroy its Xbox One and Wii U enemies on an island. The successful Switch is in the mix, and Microsoft wants to make a huge splash with Pr??oject Scarlett with all of the good will they've garnered in the past five years or so.

So what next-generation system are you looking at picking up? While I expect the PS5 to win the below poll, I'm curious to see how many folks are grabbing both (like me: even if  I didn't have this job I'd get them anyway), or neither.

You can make your decision emotionally with haste, or check out the rundown on the PS5 and Scarlett below. Both are expected to arrive with a holiday 2020 window. Microsoft outright confirmed it and Sony hinted at it, noting it could come anytime after April 2020.

Here's everything we know about the PS5:

• It sports a CPU based on the third generation of AMD’s Ryzen line and contains eight cores of the company’s new 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture, with a GPU that's a custom variant of Radeon’s Navi family that will support ray tracing.

• Will support 8K visuals.

• Has an SSD that will severely cut load times (a test showed 15 seconds is down to 0.8 seconds).

• It will be backward compatible (including PSVR) and will contain a disc drive.

• It will boast a cloud streaming aspect of some kind.

And everything we know about Project Scarlett:

• The processor is based on AMD's Zen 2 technology and contains GDDR6 memory, support for ray tracing.

• Will support 8K visuals with variable 120FPS.

• Has an SSD that will severely cut load times.

• Backward compatibility is described vaguely: "four generations of content like you’ve never seen them before." It will contain a disc drive.

• It will boast a cloud streaming aspect of some kind.

• Halo Infinite is a launch title.

The post Everything we kno??w abo??ut the PS5 and Xbox Scarlett: do you want them? appeared first on Destructoid.

I'm a monthly man

Playing Zelda: Breath of the Wild in a vacuum was fantastic.

I had nearly two weeks to mess around in this vast open world and shut myself off from any potential peer conversations until I was finished with it. Waiting to hear how people would react to the durability system and specific shrine puzzles was tough, but once all of those conversations started flowing, they never really stopped for over two years. Breath of the Wild was released in March of 2017, and it simultaneously f??eels like it's always been here, and it just came out. It has dominated the open world conversation in various communities and the industry at large, as myriad developers have expre?ssed their admiration for it, among droves of fans.

Even if you can't stand it, it's easy to see why it's so enigmatic. Intrepid explorers are still finding new strategies, potential Easter eggs, and puzzle solutions, and the modding community is absolutely thriving. That got me thinking: do you all still play Breath of the Wild? Or do you live vicariously through videos?

I'm still pick??ing it up at least once a month. The portability is a huge factor (I can just slide the Switch off the dock and play for a bit), as is the nature of covering all of those oddities online. Every time I see something unique I get the urge to jump back in and try it myself. That's not a normal experience though, so tell us how you feel.

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Is the promise of 'open world antics' enough

Rage is kind of a blur for me. I'm not even 100% su?re ??it exists.

When it came out I casually picked it up, blazed through it in roughly 10 hours, then forgot about it until it showed up on Breaking Bad. This was pre-Doom 2016 revelation id Software, searching for their identity after the mixed reception to Doom 3 as their first big comeback since their acquisition by Bethesda in 2009. It was also released in a Mad Max: Fury Road-less world, before the post-??apocalyptic motif reached Beyoncé level satura??tion.

All I remember are the vague Peter Jackson-ass goblin enemies (mutants) and a lot of brown. I'm not sure a lot of people at Bethesda recalled much of it either, as id Software found Doom again (now their main focus) and the series was dormant for eight years until they handed the keys to Avalanche Software for Rage 2: which looks to be a complete rebuild.

Which leads me to my big question: what are your expectations for Rage 2? It's okay to say "none," because that's basically where I'm at. This is a new developer, a time-lapsed story where anything can be changed or retconned, and a completely different angle. So far it has billed itself as a wacky open world adventure, but is that enough? Are you waiting on reviews or is your heart already set on Rage 2?

Inquiring minds want to know while I formulate all of that in my head, and continue to mull on it for an eventual Rage 2 review. As far as I'm concerned though Rage 2 is almost part of a??n entirely new series, with the "2" being used for marketing purposes.

The post What do you want to see out of Rage 2, and how ?did you feel about the first game? appeared first on Destructoid.

RE3 for sure

The other day I was discussing the prospect of the next Resident Evil remake with a reader after the smash hit success of the Resident Evil 2 remake. While a ton of people were jazzed at the prospect of re-imagining Resident Evil 3, they actually veered toward the idea of skipping a remake entirely and going for Resident Evil 8. My response: why not both?

While Resident Evil 7 was an undeniably fresh direction for the series I still have a soft spot for that campy third person perspective angle. I went back through Resident Evil 3 recently and found that? not only does it hold up by modern sta??ndards, it's doing a lot of things that action adventure games still aren't braving, but with a degree of restraint that doesn't feel forced.

Resident Evil 3 is also the true birthplace of the incredible "Mercenaries" minigame (itself a spinoff of the Hunk and Tofu side stories), which ended up being one of my favorite things about the series by the time the fifth game rolled around. The promise of new Mr. X style Nemesis stalking mechanics with the framework of the game itself will make for one hell of a remake with RE3.

Remakes, while a safe bet, also help fund more new projects, so I say bring it on. Capcom seems to be on a roll lately so as long as they don't over do it I'm good. What do you want though? Maybe skip RE3 altogether and go straight to 4? Or as I saw with one reader, redo the first game in the RE2 remake style?

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