jeremyf

This whole fiasco is a conspiracy by Jim Ryan to provoke a negative response to any game older than The Last of Us.

I wanted to play Ridge Racer Type 4 a few weeks ago and I rembered hearing it was ported. But then I saw you have to be a subscriber. Forget that noise. I was willing to buy the game again - instead, I ended up plugging my PS2 into a tiny handmedown CRT and sitting on the floor which unexpectedly went a long way to reviving nostalgia.

Pikmin 5, of course. That's one series where the art direction has actually gone for naturalism; not the alien creatures or monsters, of course, but the environments. They let the contrast between styles and the shrunk-the-kids scale do the work and it usually has great results. With how nice Pikmin 4 looks I want to see how far they can push it.

dog

I had just extended my sub with some prepaid cards because I was expecting this to happen soon. I love to feel smug about spending slightly less money.

The Wii U! A really poor console when it comes to menus, number of games, and sales figures. But people treat it like a complete punchline, ignoring how the Switch is a direct successor to the concept and that a lot of the best Switch games were on Wii U first.

Thanks for the shout! I gotta say that not-E3 snuck up on me because I'm not exactly deprived of things to play right now. Hope there will be a few cool announcements at least and looking forward to GB@Nite.

@ben_h: Thanks for the added context. Major spoilers cont.

I'm also planning to play Ocarina and Skyward in the near future. I don't know if I'll get whiplash or still be able to appreciate them as their own thing. I don't begrudge the Zelda team for wanting to pursue this type of game further, but another part of me has to imagine how they could apply the lessons learned here to a more traditional Zelda structure.

Patrick did an interview on MinnMax that sheds some light on the situation and the degradation of the media landscape. Among the tidbits is that Vice was apparently in talks to buy Giant Bomb a few years back, but obviously that never went through. Though with all the topsy-turvy things that's happened with this site and its various owners, I couldn't help but see similarities with what Patrick describes here.

It was me. I'm Jim Ryan and it took me hours to picky the right thread from you stupid - er, passionate and sophisticated gamers.

@bisonhero: I agree, I think Miyamoto is the one pushing for Pikmin to stay around. It's the only game series he's still fronting while his focus is on theme parks and movies. I think Nintendo as a whole does like Pikmin - they were part of the console UI when it still had personality - but while the characters are marketable, the games are a little too complicated to hit Mario/Animal Crossing levels of mainstream. The Switch does tend to boost sales, though, so hopefully it won't be another decade until the next entry.