Hogwarts Legacy has officially cleared Zelda as 2023's best-selling game worldwide

Exactly. You don't know what the gameplay is until after you buy the game, unless you are savvy and watch reviews or something, which hardly any consumers do.

Are you saying that marketing works?!

I'm both a gamer and HP fan.

I thought the game was great, and I didn't really realize the depths of people's distaste for it, I guess.

Was it crazy revolutionary? No, but it was fun.

the last video game my mom played before hogwarts legacy was like...pac man in the arcades. it was amazing to share our progress together and bond

What do you mean? I played on pc and went to Azkaban, what very little there was to see anyway

Azkaban is not based on platform but house, join Hufflepuff to see it.

I found the combat to be serviceable, and at some points I had fun with it. But it kind of got repetitive really quick. Like once you learn the core mechanics, they didn't really introduce a lot after that to keep you on your toes. But the main problem I had with the game came from the quests, they just felt so monotonous. I love exploring the castle, but finding every little collectible just felt tedious and didn't really seem to have any payoff.

All things I hope can be improved with an eventual sequel, I'm definitely glad I picked up the game. But it's not something I've ever considered revisiting once I beat it.

IDK. Most of the early games were actually pretty entertaining. I fairly recently played sorcerer's stone on the gbc, and it was still pretty fantastic.

Witcher 3 I'd rate 9/10.

Not the person you asked, but for me personally to rate some open world games:

• Hogwarts: 4-5/10. It's pretty damn bad IMO, beyond the fan pandering.
• Avatar Frontiers of Pandora: 5-7/10, it's a slightly worse Far Cry (which is already damn tepid) but looks insanely pretty which makes it a good braindead time waster.
• Cyberpunk 2077: Originally 2/10, laughably underdesigned and so buggy it felt like industry-criticizing sarcasm. Nowadays 7/10 if including the expansion, still quite buggy but not in a bad way, and the redesigned combat and character systems feel artificial but pretty fun. City still too dead and underdesigned, sadly.
• Skyrim: 6-7/10, damn impressive at the time, but only briefly as the game was shallow as all hell, even in its best moments. Still impressive but it's all on the mods and hence the players, not the game designers.
• Witcher 3: 8-9/10, essentially same design flaws as modern CP2077, but given its fantasy world suffers much less from it, of course the empty countryside is, well, empty.
• Subnautica: 10/10, amazing horror vibes, good progression, not too open and not too confined, focus on exploration.
• Outer Wilds: 10/10, completely open and pure exploration, reductive game design done perfectly right.

Subnautica gets a 9/10. Fallout 2 and 3, if we're specifically going RPGs. NieR: Automata for action RPGs. Look at Persona for school influenced RPGs. I'd have geeked out so hard if we got even Persona-style class experiences in Hogwarts Legacy. Instead, all we get is completely contextless montage cutscenes.

Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2 are both up there for me.

It's like the sub made for taking the piss out of gaming criticism and critique did what it was supposed to do.

I used to love that sub, but these days they are only focused on the outrage culture. Nothing inherently wrong with that, I like to laugh at people who take their video game waifu too seriously. I initially joined that sub because it seemed like the best place to have level-headed conversations about overhyped games, like the Witcher 3. Everywhere else seems to love that game as if it’s the second coming of Jesus, but if you find some places that didn’t like the game, they swing a bit too hard on the opposite site, so you can’t have a conversation with them either. I found plenty of people in that sub who loved that game, but knew where the shortcomings were.

Technically it’s possible, but you’d have to reply on the cooperation of empress and that’s… not gonna happen.

I loved the mod that turned all those animated paintings into anime vtubers, so goofy

Yeah this feels like a Look What They Have to Do (release on every system) to Mimic a Fraction of Our Power (be Zelda) meme.

I think you just nailed it, this is exactly why.

Yep it's an unfair comparison. If Zelda was available on all platforms then it might have been a different story.

if you seriously think this game was special, I have a far cry themed bridge to sell you

Yeah, and the fact that people basically can't talk about this game without mentioning it got boycotted because one of the people who makes money from it is a massive piece of transphobic shit is a small step forward all on its own

Doesn't seem to have had a big impact I'd say

Echo.. Echo.. echo..

Or just don't care that much

Oh pipe down, I read the entire thing when it was recent and in no way does she want what you claim. She has an open letter on her own website outlining her views.

Over the course of the years since this happened it has grown, morphed and people are now probably also saying she would be the one herding the trans people into the gas Chambers.

The masses are largely disengaged with LGBT rights in general, but the declining rights of transgender people in the UK (and the US) shows this is not just a "terminally-online" kind of issue. She is not the only one responsible, of course, but her outspoken antagonism towards transgender people is influencing people.

It concerns me when people can't differentiate "this issue does not affect me" from "this issue does not exist". Even calling matters "terminally-online" in general is a bit questionable when whole ass presidents get elected by meme campaigns these days.

Just because a minority is depicted in a work of art does not mean that depiction was made in good faith. Americans are familiar with that concept because of our dark history of minstrel shows and blackface performances.

When the trans woman character's name is Sirona Ryan, it calls into question whether she is meant to be a character or a caricature.

When the series creator is vocally advocating to marginalize transgender people and financially supporting other members of the hate movement, it takes more than a token NPC to make up for it.

Most likely that character is an insincere PR move from Warner Bros, but some trans people also pointed out that naming her Miss Ryan was probably done in bad faith. If anything, sounds exactly like the kind of tasteless thoughtless naming that JKR is infamous for.

Thank god tokenism is here to save the day again.

That's not what "TERF" means.

That's it, I never played Nintendo games because I never had their hardware. For me personally it's just not worth getting into their closed ecosystem. Basically same reason I never had anything apple.

The same can be said for many games over the years then, but I don't like thinking that way.

If there's a game I want to play, I'll get the hardware needed to play it

It's available on PC.

PC gamers even got it before nintendo ones.

I get it, but it doesn't have to be just pure stats. Could have been mild ability improvements or something or maybe changed some of the effects or visual things that occurred around you. Hell, even walking speed improvement or something like a tone to help you locate hidden items.

There's a lot they could have done considering we're dealing with magical items! Still had a pretty good time with it overall though.

I think the biggest issue for me was how large the map was. They did the castle and hogsmede very well, but then threw in a bunch of filler content in the other towns. If they had stuck to the more core areas only, the game wouldn't have gotten so stale later on.

I'm kinda curious in what way Zelda (assuming TOTK) has more depth. Combat wise HP has stealth, an attack typing system, comboing, special moves, and more if I recall correctly. TOTK does have a variety of weapons and you can craft weapons, but it generally boils down to just whacking away at things. You could also mention the ability to make vehicles/automaton, but the time to build things (until you find ultra hand?) mixed with limited resources made that more of a pain/chore than fun.

I could go into other mechanics, but ultimately I think TOTK would be rated worse if it wasn't for the Zelda branding carrying it.

The story of HL is also one of its weaknesses. It's a generic chosen one story with unmemorable characters.

I mean clearly that’s not the only reason, right? If it were, every previous Harry Potter video game would’ve sold just as well.

Bit unfair, because when compared to Terry Pratchett, just about everything else gets tossed to read more Pratchett. 😅

(not that I disagree, Pratchett is best)

Can I just read Pratchett without fucking anyone? I'm ace and it's just really smelly and uncomfortable.

I really liked the side quests though. It felt like every single one involved going to a cave, finding out the NPC’s friend/relative was dead, and then report back. It definitely didn’t get old after the first dozen or so.

Sounds exactly like Skyrim tbh...

Supporting transphobes is wrong. Millions of people supported a transphobe. For me, that's not being smug, it's being terrified

No smugness here, just disappointment.

Edit 2 is what I needed to hear to know that this is definitely not for me.

Yes. Some game "reviews" were such absurd, performative straw man attacks at JK Rowling that they bordered on parody. I'm thinking of the Wired one in particular but others were equally bad. The irony is these diatribes clearly helped the game, or rather, this really good game sold well in spite of that crap. Ultimately these websites just undermined their own reputations.

Considering one of the main hubs for outrage was /r/GamingCirclejerk who themselves use the defense of "lmao this list of streamers playing wizard game totally isn't an invite to harass them. This is a joke subreddit why are you taking it seriously?!".

I can hardly blame people for thinking the outrage was fake. Some of it was so over the top it was insane

That said, fuck J.K Rowling, and fuck her opinions

She didn't sell the game, she only lend the IP.

Avalanche Software nor Warner Bro's are anti-trans. As shown in the game where you can make a full fledged trans protagonist including your pronouns.

Boo hoo.

Right, but COD is good. Good in the sense that it's been refined over the years to give gamers the ultimate fast paced arcade FPS experience. The controls are tight and responsive, and the game is easy to understand. It's essentially one of the hallmarks of the genre. But yes, the political controversy surrounding the game was above and beyond the controversy surrounding yearly COD releases. The sales numbers speak for themselves.

What's hilarious to me is that, while the downvotes mean nothing in the long run, I'm hardly sharing a unique opinion, even on this thread.

Because they are wrong? You don't actually think everyone that bought it is a trumptard do you? Please touch grass, twitter drama isn't relevant to the real world.

What a ridiculous take. First of, outside of certain parts of the internet most people aren't even aware of the issues surrounding Rowling, secondly you can very much acknowledge that she's a terrible excuse for a human being while still enjoying a game she had nothing to do with (yes, she gets royalties, but she has the kind of fuck you money that multiplies by merely existing anyway).

Tons of people worked on the game who aren't bigots. Artists, programmers, designers etc. Buying the game supports them, too.

Also, someone decided to make the owner of the Three Broomsticks trans.

If you stand by what you preach you should basically stop buying anything. No matter what, a billionaire is getting your money, and they are all pieces of shit I promise.

It's genuinely amazing to me how some people are obsessed with the idea that buying a videogame based on the works of an author that wasn't even involved in making the project makes you transphobic.

Would it shock you that 99% of corporate officials are bad people? I guess we should stop buying anything ever because some percentage of money can go to people I don't like.

Never, it is just free advertising

I was talking about the harassment and doxing of people who played/streamed Hogwarts Legacy during the boycott.

The boycotters or the people who played the game?

The downvote button doesn't answer my question, I actually have no idea what you meant...