One can be aware that games are entirely "not real" and still be put off by what goes on in said game and refuse to participate. D&D is a good example: I can be (and am) fully aware it's all make-believe, and would still refuse to roleplay torturing an NPC for information because that personally puts me right off. I do enjoy Pokémon (though I was always more in love with the idea from the first games of being essentially a fantasy biologist finding new species), but it's not hard to see why people might not.

From one perspective the mainline Pokémon games* are a happy, fun coming-of-age story about making new monster friends and teamwork and overcoming obstacles for self-improvement and stuff like that; from another, they're about sending minors out into the world sans adult supervision where they are encouraged to forcibly abduct wild creatures from their homes and force them to battle while sustaining horrific injuries – electrocution, freezing, poisoning, burning, simple blunt trauma – until they pass out into blissful unconsciousness, only to be jolted back to their sense via drugs"Revives" or the free (and presumably government-subsidized) PokéCenters scattered liberally around the region, over and over again until they develop Stockholm Syndrome. All this not for some noble goal of self-defense or protecting innocents, but simply to advance – entirely voluntarily per the lore of the game** – in a man-made competition circuit solely for the gratification of the player character's ego by becoming the Pokémon champion, and "very best" in the region***. Of course Nintendo are going to lean more into the idealistic side than the other in the marketing. And that's not to say I think Nintendo have some nefarious pro-cockfighting agenda IRL or anything (I'm pretty sure they don't), just there are themes in Pokémon which can be unattractive if viewed from a certain angle.

*To separate them from some of the others like the Pokémon Ranger games that are more about teaming up temporarily with wild Pokémon to combat threats to the environment.

**Though enforced by its mechanics; you can't decide to opt out and become a Pokémon researcher instead.

***It doesn't give you money, so there's not even the justification of doing it for personal financial security.

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I don't think it's part of Next Fest as the demo came out last week, but I quite enjoyed the demo for Tactical Breach Wizards, the third game from Tom Francis, continuing his quest to make defenestration an integral part of every game he makes. It's a bit like a combination of Into The Breach and XCOM: Chimera Squad, with some great writing and interesting puzzle battles to solve. And watching wizards use Breaching Glyphs to breach 'n' clear is just hilarious.

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So is Age of Mythology: Extended Edition like the Age of Empires II: HD Edition (which released a year earlier in 2013) and AoM:Retold is essentially the AoE II:Definitive Edition remake? Because if so I might check it out, I was aware of AoM growing up but never had it and DE has been fantastic. (I see there are plans for two more pantheons/civilizations, which suggests they're going the DE route with it.)

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Finally, another odd-numbered Civ! Here's to being cautiously optimistic based on the pattern: I first played III and was deeply in love (it's what got me into modding), hated IV (where they made the utterly baffling decision to remove all ranged attacks until you unlock airplanes!), quite enjoyed V (where ranged units became first-class citizens and they went above and beyond on the leader voice work), and was so indifferent to VI (and its goofy leader art style) that I never played it. So simply based on the fact that this is an odd-numbered sequel I'm expecting to like it.

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QuoteLooks like a blending of some ideas from FTL: Faster Than Light, RimWorld and The Wandering Village

OK! OK! Enough already! I'll buy it! Sheesh! You can't just keep rattling off the names of games I love at me like that Liam, my wallet can't take it!

But seriously, that trailer looks fantastic. It's now firmly on the wishlist to remind me when it releases.

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Sounds like a pretty fun idea! Best of luck to the open source warriors. Unfortunately at 0700 Friday morning I'll have to pass.

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Quoting: BlackBloodRumWhy does everyone write this?
X (formerly Twitter)

I mean.. who doesn't know this at this point?

Why, anyone in today's 10,000, of course.

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Quoting: CatKiller

Quote“We have made considerable efforts to raise the bar with our debut handheld, tailor-made with competitive features for all gamers.”

They have managed trackpads by the look of it, which is a significant upgrade over a lot of their competitors.

And symmetrical thumbstick placement! Someone's finally learning the lessons from the Deck's design.

Quoting: MayeulCI am not sure the trackpads will be comfortable to use in this location.

…though that is a consideration.

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Quoting: whizseA duck detective? That's just silly...

Frog? Sure! Alligator? Of course! Giraffe? Most definitely!

But a duck? Sheer nonsense!

There's an alligator who'd really like to be your sidekick…

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I just watched RTGame's playthrough of this last night, the voice acting is really quite good. And other than De-Duck-tion, there's actually hardly any puns.

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