BadlyDrawnRhino

Top 3 is hard. I’ll start with the first three that came to mind, in no particular order:

• Witcher 3

• Star Control 2

• Monkey Island 2

But there are so many that I could have listed instead.

The Commander Keen games are amongst the first I remember playing, I loved those and played through them so many times.

Baldurs Gate 3 was such a masterpiece, it probably could bump W3 off that list.

Although, Ultima 7 was the first RPG I played where I became properly immersed in the story. The world, the characters, the way the mystery of the main story unfolds. And it is actually a really good jump-in point for the series as it’s set a couple centuries after number 6.

Fallout 1 also could easily make the list. I loved the way such a small and intimate quest for your vault unfolds into something bigger.

That’s fair. I was thinking more about the overall aesthetic, as it’s a bit more stylised rather than leaning towards realism like in 1 and 3.

They are remaking the first game, but I don’t know if there are enough details about it yet to know how extensive the overhaul will be. The second game doesn’t need one.

There’s also the fact that hardware costs keep going up, but there’s not really a big technological leap between generations anymore. There’s little reason to buy into the next generation when the selling point boils down to “Play the same games, but slightly smoother*!”

*If there’s enough development time to implement the option to do so

Part of my enjoyment is not necessarily knowing what is coming next so that I can experience it for myself. Spoilers won’t completely ruin something for me, but it is taking something away from the experience.

Also, to everyone out there, just tag the spoilers so people can make up their own mind what they read. It takes a bare minimum of effort to do so. It’s akin to holding the door open for someone behind you, it’s not going to be the end of the world if you don’t, but it can make someone’s day a fraction better if you do.

We’ve known about the dangers of climate change since the 70s. Is it really any wonder that after five decades of inaction, the “rhetoric” has changed from “Hey, maybe we should work to reduce emissions” to “A lot of people are going to die if we don’t take action right now!”

Wonder if they’ll be recommending content from all sides of the political spectrum, or just the right-wing content…

Girls or woodlice?

The thing about the corporation paying less taxes is a myth. The extra contribution you make counts as revenue in their books, and that revenue is then offset as a donation, making no overall difference to their tax benefits.

That said, it does help them in other ways, mostly around marketing. They can then say they’ve made a massive amount of charitable contributions, when really it was their customers that did so.

As others have said, by making that donation at the checkout, you haven’t really made an informed decision about whether the charity is one you would donate to otherwise, so if that’s important to you you should stop doing so.

The way I look at it, if you are going to make a conscious decision to donate to charities you support, there’s no real reason to round up at the checkout. But if you aren’t really going to be donating otherwise and you’re not struggling financially, you may as well make that small contribution at the checkout.

To be fair, half of the AAA gaming industry is all about trying to clone the latest successful game with a new coat of paint. Maybe using AI to make these clones will mean that the talented people behind the scenes are free to explore other ideas instead.

Of course in reality, it just means that the largest publishers will lay off a whole lot of people and keep churning out these uninspired games in the name of corporate profits, but it’s nice to dream sometimes.

Editor: The article is great! All we need now is a quote from social media and we can publish.

Journalist: We haven’t been able to find anything suitable, everyone thinks this story is satire.

Editor: Then just post one yourself and then quote that! But don’t reference your name, that’ll be a dead giveaway.