8 (DX but really my favorite parts of it were already on Wii U). 8’s tracks are incredible (not the booster packs one, those are a mixed bag and none really reach base game/Wii U dlc level).

Wii comes very close though. It’s the first to have good item balance IMO, it gets rid of the left-right bullshit to drift, and circuits are quite fun too. And some bikes are a blast, though to the point of being overpowered.

I just think of 8 as “we took everything good in Wii and made it a bit better”.

Guy didn’t get the memo and only signed for Valhalla expecting booze and hot Valkyries.

I had to suffer through someone’s wedding that had an impressive but out of tune pipe organ. Shame because the musician seemed talented, and at least while it lasted I didn’t have to hear about how great the guy in the sky is.

I don’t know, that little guy looks like it has guts. Maybe it earned its place in Elysium.

You may be familiar with the old management game Theme Hospital. Two Point Hospital was a modern take on that, and they extended the concept to university campus and now museum.

They present Muse as a “generative AI model of a videogame” that you’d train to “learn about older games”. Which seems a very bold claim to begin with.

If this is anything like that, this is not a way to preserve the original game, it’s an attempt at reproducing (parts of?) it. And since generative AI is involved, there is no reason to believe it will be a faithful recreation.

Of course this could all be marketing bullshit, and for all we know their AI is just another coding assistant AI that they might use to create remakes. And then they’ll only be as faithful as the team making it can or will do it, as has always been the case with remakes.

Anyway, remaking is not preserving.

Edit : was a bit slow trying to make my point, seeing now your edit. Yep, that’s exactly what I got from this too.

You’ve convinced me brother. Buying 3 Lady Macbeth NFTs for my metaverse Web 3.0 gatcha play-to-earn game right now.

Guys, it’s okay. Sure, it sounds bad that we somehow let the complete works of William Shakespeare disappear from the planet. But we have a new data center with a billion monkeys on typewriters. Give them some time, and they’re bound to stumble upon that old stuff eventually.

Edit : love that one guy who found a couple people critical of one of the most ridiculous claim about generative AI yet and decided to downvote everyone without a word.

In French, problematic gambling, as in “having a gambling problem”, is literally called “jeux d’argent”. Money games.

It’s not even unique to card games.

I had a board game that was about a race between merchant caravans through the desert. The way it worked was every player started with the same limited amount of small tokens representing water canteens, and every turn they all chose any amount of them, they revealed it at the same time, and the one who used the most could advance 5 squares, the second 4, etc.

The whole game was about trying to guess how many canteens other players were going to use on a specific turn, and use the right amount to land where you want and keep enough for the rest of the game. And of course, you’ve got all the reasons to bluff.

That’s basically a pure gambling game. It doesn’t feature any random element, and its only currency is a bunch of colourful plastic toys shared evenly between the players.

If I was PEGI, I’d do a CTRL-F in the rulebook, see words like bluff, gamble and bet, and slap an 18+ rating on it.

PEGI was right to change its rating for Balatro, unfortunately they still don’t seem to understand why. This kind of absurdity is bound to happen again if they keep sorting games with what looks like a basic word filter instead of looking for how the game would present a problem depending on the audience.

Their new rating has been lowered because Balatro has “fantasy elements”. Does it now? Flashy effects on cards, sure, but everything in Balatro is a simple set of mathematical rules. You could make a completely physical version of Balatro (if you don’t mind spending a lot of time tracking scores and joker rules).

The real reason Balatro does not need 18+ is the same reason you don’t worry about kids playing classic Solitaire. In fact, you should worry more about Solitaire nowadays, what’s with making Solitaire Collection an adware with subscription.

Balatro is not predatory at all, it’s a buy-once game with completely abstract scores and nothing to win or lose in real life. It only borrows poker card combinations. You don’t even place bets in this game!

If “fantasy elements” is now enough to make your game kid-friendly according to PEGI, watch EA rebranding its disgusting lootbox nonsense as magic sportsball cards crafted by elven wizards or something.

Yeah. Once I went to a natural cave with prehistoric paintings that has an installation so you can visit it without damaging it. You go through it on an mine cart-like train of sort, in small groups. There’s a guide explaining stuff about the cave and its history.

First thing when we board the train, he tells us not to touch anything because the cave is made of soft clay and we need to preserve it as it is. Obviously some complete idiot immediately extends his arm toward the cave wall and poke through it with his finger.

Got firmly scolded by the guide and just smiled through it like he’s done the funniest shit ever.

Can’t wait for the Banjo-Kazooie and Minecraft skins.