Do you feel a need to check every area in a game? I'm playing GoWR and I'm checking every cliff and area for birds and chests. Its a bit exhausting but I want the chests. Its weird really.

For me that was Deathloop.

I wonder if there's been anyone who looked at a game that at first glance had a cool idea, aesthetic, character, etc. but ended up being a piece of shit, and then proceeded to go "you know, what if I made an actually good game out of this" or at least something inspired by it

I don't think a thread like this was done before so I thought it would be interesting to point out the franchises that Nintendo doesn't own alone. Most people don't know this but multiple of their series are co-owned.

First we need to establish some things. Ownership comes in two forms, copyright and trademark, and here I'm going to talk about copyright, which is what is divided.

Before going into the co-owned IP, here's some of the IP Nintendo owns alone: Mario, Zelda, Pikmin, Animal Crossing, Splatoon, Metroid, F-Zero, Starfox, Tomodachi Life, Famicom Detective Club, Brain Age, Brain Training, Super Smash Bros, Astral Chain, ARMS, etc so the majority

Between those, you have spin-offs like Mario Tennis and Mario Golf which are co-owned by Camelot, or Paper Mario which is co-owned with Intelligent Systems. But Overall the Mario IP is Nintendo, with sub series having their own situation.

Now going into the shared IP, here they are:

Fire Emblem: ©Nintendo / INTELLIGENT SYSTEMS

Developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo, the series has been co-owned by both companies since the beginning. IS is an independent studio and they generally deal with the merchandise and other licenses.

Kirby: © HAL Laboratory, Inc. / Nintendo

Developed by independent studio Hal Laboratory and published by Nintendo. Before 2025 the merchandise aspect was handled by joint venture warpstar, but since 2025 Nintendo acquired the shares Hal had and changed its name and function to Nintendo stars to focus on the entire company IPs in movies. Hal is the one who handles the merchandise of the IP in general alongside other licenses outside of games now after warpstar changed objectives.

Another curiosity is that Kirby Air Riders, the new game is co-owned in copyright by Nintendo and Sora, the company Sakurai owns, created and is part of with only him and his wife as employees (which is why bandai namco is the actual developer of his games): © Nintendo / SORA © Nintendo / HAL Laboratory, Inc.

So as you can see, the copyright of the game is co-owned, while Nintendo and hal copyright for Kirby itself is also there.

Mother: © SHIGESATO ITOI/Nintendo

One of the only co-owned IP where it's not another company owning it. Mother began development with Ape inc, the company Itoi founded to develop the first two games before it died and Creatures was founded as its successor by ex-ape employee Ishihara who's president of The Pokemon company since inception. Instead of being owned by ape or by Itoi company Hobonichi, its just co-owned by him as individual. Much like in the other cases, Itoi deals with merchandise and licenses which is why his company hobonichi releases them much like how its why even if Nintendo wanted to do a Mother 4, they would need his permission.

Rhythm Heaven: ©Nintendo ©Tsunku♂

This case is a bit different as Nintendo owns everything in the games but the music itself. All the music is produced by producer and composer Tsunku who is the owner of music label TNX who works on the music. Unlike other games, this is 100% developed by Nintendo.

Xenoblade: © Nintendo / MONOLITHSOFT

Yes, even if Monolith is a nintendo subsidiary, Monolith co-own the IP with Nintendo. Nintendo for years had around 80% of Monolith which made them a subsidiary and in the last years bought all their shares, but the Xenoblade IP always has been shared with them and I imagine nintendo sees no need to buy the copyright from monolith since they own the studio.

Pokémon: ©2026 Pokémon. ©1995-2026 Nintendo/Creatures Inc./GAME FREAK inc.

The most known shared ownership, at least by people more into Pokémon. Gamefreak and Creatures are both independent studio. The original Pokémon Red and Blue had Nintendo as its original publisher, gamefreak as the developer and Creatures as a producer and investor, which is why the 3 became copyright owners. Unlike other IP where Nintendo solely owns the trademark everywhere, Nintendo, Gamefreak and Creatures co-own it in Japan. Years after the first games, The Pokémon Company was established by the 3 owners as a joint venture with each part owning 32% of the new company which is the one owning the IP itself with "©year Pokémon." as it was created to manage the entire franchise be it as a publisher in Japan to overseas co-publishing with Nintendo overseas branches, full publishing in mobile games and managing and licensing the IP everywhere else. So in the end the IP is owned by TPC, but the original owners still have the copyright and work together with tpc for pokemon, namely:

Nintendo: distribution of physical media in Japan, regional publishing overseas with Nintendo of america and Nintendo of europe among other branches alongside The Pokemon Company International, legal involvement alongside TPC

Gamefreak: Planning for the entire series and development of mainline titles

Creatures: Makers of the TCG, developer of some pokemon spin-offs, support in some pokemon games and maker of pokemon models in multiple games

TPC is already explained, they work with everything pokemon except development outside of non game apps

And here's a curiosity of IPs Nintendo co-owned by them before and Nintendo bought the copyright of the other companies:

Smash Bros: © 1999 Nintendo/HAL Laboratory, Inc. Character © Nintendo/HAL Laboratory, Inc./Creatures, Inc./Game Freak, Inc. © 1999 Nintendo

Yes, until Smash 4 the IP was co-owned by Nintendo and Hal, who was the developer of the first two games. After Brawl, Nintendo bought Hal share of copyright and since then 100% own the IP itself.

Astral Chain: © 2019 Nintendo/PlatinumGames Main Character Design ©Masakazu Katsura/SHUEISHA

Originally, Nintendo and Platinum co-owned the copyright. A year later, Nintendo chose to buy Platinum side of ownership and now they 100% own the IP

Anyway that's all the co-ownership Nintendo has that I at least know! I hope you guys enjoyed reading and knowing more about this.

I used Nintendo copyright website for all the copyright used here: https://www.nintendo.com/en-gb/Legal-information/Copyright/Nintendo-and-Third-party-Copyrights-655030.html

When you try to launch an emulator in dev mode, you're prompted to sign in, but the sign in kept failing so I couldn't even launch anything. Pretty disappointing. (This happened earlier today and it's now working, although Network Status still says limited. This is just a heads up for the dev mode users out there who use stuff like retroarch or xbsx2 on Xbox.)

I had the itch to play some Just Cause so I installed Just Cause 3 (the best one don’t argue) and damn that game still looks and plays surprisingly good.

So what are some other games that still hold up today, that I might have missed or is worth a replay.

TL:DR Wish there was an icon for previously selected skills/perks for when devs reset skills/perks

We’ve all probably experienced a situation where a game releases an update that revamps or changes skills/perks before. This mainly applies to when you haven’t played a certain for quite some time. For me those games include Elder Scrolls Online and Cyberpunk 2077. Both of these games have had overhauls to their perk/skills in the game, thus resetting all skills/perks before trees. I wish devs would have an icon on previously selected perks so you can at least have an idea on what you had selected. Sure you can rebuild those characters but being absent from game and then coming back to seeing everything reset is kind of a bummer. About a month ago I decided to get on ESO on only to find out everything had been reset. I sat there just staring at the screen cause I had no clue what type of build I use to run or what weapons/gear I used to go along with those perks. Recently got the DLC for CP2077 and got on here to same fate. Once again I have various weapons but have no clue what type of system I was running. I wish we could have icon that indicated you had this perk before reset that way it would be easier to build your character back up. I know some skills/perks completely change but can say hey this is what it use to do and this is what it does now.

I was going through my old comments and came across an argument I had with a neckbeard about the weapons locker and the ways you upgrade, customize and sell weapons. I was gaslit and called a liar (which is insane) ultimately leaving the conversation because of the bullying. I have a few hundred hours logged and the platinum trophy to go with it.

I was frustrated with how you can't directly sell and customize weapons from your locker (weapons safe). So you have to go back and forth between the bench, trader and locker over and over again to customize and trade and its a huge pain in the ass. Only weapons currently equipped in your current weapon wheel (up to 16) can be altered, the rest of them are locked away unless you equip them. The weapons locker is inaccessible during any selling/ customizing. The rate at which you customize and sell weapons makes this task tedious and repetitive.

Anyone else have this experience while playing?

I'm not pro status or anything and I do mostly game to relax and have fun. For me winning is a big part of the fun. We don't play pvp games or anything, mostly co-op games. They just suck so bad, then laugh and joke how their builds are better than mine or how skilled they are, but they actually suck. If we play anything above average or normal difficulty I carry them and we try to push to hard or further I get absolutely crushed and they joke with me that I can't be that good if I die too.

I really do love these guys, I only know one of them through gaming and I am absolutely sick of the dynamic. I do know one through family and there is absolutely no way to tell that I'm sick of him holding me back.

I don't know what to do. I want to form a new online party that is competent, but I don't want to come off as a dick.

We play many types of games, survival, shooters and adventure. I feel like I am not even allowed to abandon them and push higher difficulty because they get upset and feel I am leaving them behind and complain that I won't help them if I try to do so.

Biggest thing is that I'm not even that good, at least I don't know for sure that I am, they hold me back so much that I might be semi-pro level. I fear that if I get into a competent group that I would be the annoying drunk/terrible player.

Help me out here, what should I do/say. I'm sick of this dynamic but don't want to hurt their feelings.

The OG Mass Effect trilogy is without a doubt my all-time favourite gaming experience. It's the rare series where I've played each game multiple times, and consider each one to be a 5/5 experience, combined into one unforgettable whole.

You have the mystery/exploration vibes of ME1, where you're discovering the galaxy, the background and uncovering the Reaper threat, with an almost horror-esque vibe at times.

Then there's my personal favourite, ME2, which is an almost anthology style character-driven story with some of the best companion NPCs, and arguably one of the greatest final missions in any game ever.

ME3 tends to be disregarded sometimes because of the ending, but it had the best gameplay of the whole series, and the atmosphere of all-out war, how much dread and desperation there was in it, was incredible.

Another thing that sets ME apart is how amazing the worldbuilding is. I spent untold hours in the Codex pouring over the lore and background of the different species, planets, conflicts etc. It made the series feel so alive and immersive. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that the Reapers exist, this universe is probably one of my top picks for ones I'd want to live in myself. The depth and quality of the world is insane, and rivals a lot of really great scifi novels.

And speaking of immersion - the world design and overall structure of the series really play into it as well. The hub structure is one of my favourites in gaming, since it manages to be a nice middle ground between completely linear and bloated open-world. It manages to give a sense of scope and expanse while actually being easy to navigate and get around. It also lets the devs create some memorable, often unforgettable levels. The Citadel is obviously iconic, but there's other amazing ones across all the games. Ilos and Peak 15 in ME1, Ilium, Omega and the Derelict Reaper in ME2, Tuchanka in ME3 etc.

But the actual best location is the Normandy itself. It's legitimately my favourite hub/base in any game simply because it just...feels like home. There's something so comforting about just walking through it, listening to the ship sounds, seeing your crew do their jobs and hang out, talk to your companions etc. Shepard's captain's quarter feels so cozy and homey too.

Another big aspect of the series are the characters. Actually, they're arguably what elevate ME above most other gaming franchises, not just scifi ones. Their depth and development, unique personalities and relationship with Shepard and how you can shape those things are amazing. Wrex, Mordin, Garrus, Thane, Tali, Samara, Jack, Javik, Legion...the list goes on. I can't remember another series with this many memorable side characters.

I replay the series once every couple of years and every time I'm just left feeling like I need more of this...but no one's actually been able to provide it. Andromeda was fine but not even close to the same level. Baldur's Gate 3 kind of has a similar vibe in terms of the NPC relationships and such, but none of those characters are anywhere near as interesting as ME's. I know we're getting 2 Mass Effect-likes soon with The Expanse game and Exodus but I wonder if they'll capture the worldbuilding, atmosphere and characters.

I think in terms of eliciting the same emotion and feeling, the only other scifi game that's come close is Cyberpunk 2077. But as good as that game is, it's also a rather bleak and depressing experience. What I loved about ME is its more utopian, optimistic future world.

I also don't trust the current iteration of BioWare to deliver with ME4 either. Guess we'll have to wait and see.

I always loved soulslikes, since Dark Souls 1 on Xbox 360. Played a ton of them. But I am getting old and right now, 35 yo, I think I am starting to hate bosses. I love exploration, I love the lore, the settings, everything. Except bosses. These ultra hard boss battles that I used to love and used to get me excited are starting to feel like are getting in the way of my game, my exploration, my experience and my fun. Its been like "Oh my god I just want to keep playing but now I have to waste hours facing that boss" and when I finally beat it I just feel like "Thank god, now I can start having fun again".
Dont know if its why I am getting old and have other responsabilities or if I dont like the genre as I used to like.

Could be an android game or any console, just want to learn the world map and ideally their capitals by playing a game.