Indeed. There's already far too many amazing experiences out there for me to ever play, so I'm far less upset about this than I would've been a couple of years ago.

I mostly feel bad for the veteran devs of the franchise who likely were forced to use this nonsense without wanting to :(

So yeah, turns out genAI was also used for #Anno117 (event) artwork.

Been a fan of this franchise for thirty goddamn years, only for it to end up like this. Go fuck yourself, #Ubisoft.

Time to buy a few more indie games instead this month I guess. Reentry looks pretty dope.

Oh, that's just lovely.

*sigh*

30 years of being a fan of this franchise, only to have it end up like this. Yay capitalism.

Guess that means more budget for indie games this month then.

So, I contacted Ubisoft support, and basically they at the very least admitted to using GenAI to create rough drafts for NPC dialogue which was then touched up by writers.
Now, Anno isn't exactly a story-centric franchise, but goddamnit this doesn't feel good.

Meanwhile, everywhere I look people just go "It's no big deal bruh, everyone's doing it now. Get with the times, old man" and I just can't anymore.

I'm so goddamn tired man. Fuck this shit.

Guess I'll just put another thousand hours into Factorio.

What parts exactly was GenAI involved in? Was it just used to procedurally generate terrain which was then touched up? Or did they generate entire art assets?

Who the fuck knows, because they sure as hell aren't going to say.

Man, it's clear not all hexes are made equal. You can either be invulnerable for a few seconds once a minute... or just do 10.000 damage every dozen seconds or so.

Though to be fair, it helps when your opponent takes up half the screen and doesn't move.

#HadesII

I'd still say the game is well worth it if you enjoyed the original Hollow Knight, but if this is your first foray into Metroidvanias, might I suggest you take a look at #EnderLilies or #EnderMagnolia first? You'll have a much better time with them.

That said, if we get DLC (and considering the success of the game/franchise, I'm sure we will, eventually), I'm not sure I'll touch it.
I had a blast 80% of the time, which made the stumbles hit all the harder. Those 20% bad times made me feel emotions I haven't felt since I first played Dark Souls.

Don't get me wrong, the game is a pure work of art from the visuals to the sound design and music. Hornet is also a joy to control and some of the bossfights are among the all-time greats (as I've mentioned before). Pharloom was also real fun to explore.

Unskippable cutscenes before a boss, gauntlets of mooks before a boss, *far* too many flying enemies that are a genuine pain to even get close to, let alone hit...

And then to top it all off with a true final boss that literally teleports on top of you for 2 points of contact damage..

A few dozen hours later, and yeah... not touching #HollowKnight for a good while. I'm tired, boss.

#Silksong is a fantastic game that is seriously dragged down by a handful of genuinely baffling choices.

Mostly it's just little things here and there, but they all add up.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWFo...

Currently considering going back to Hollow Knight after Silksong since I never did the 100+% stuff way back when. Suffice to say I think between now and then I got slightly better at these games, thanks to the likes of Nine Sols and the Ender series.

Again, it's wild just how inconsistent #Silksong is. Bilewater is genuinely awful in pretty much every imaginable way, but then you get the First Sinner which is on par with #NineSols' Eigong and other top-tier bossfights.

For real, that fight was *chef's kiss*

You know you've found a fun boss when the game drops you right back at the entrance to the arena without even taking your rosaries.

#Silksong

Truly having a great time with the game, but I do think I would have preferred a more consistent experience.

Like, at its best the game is seriously fantastic, but when it stumbles, it *really* drags everything else down with it.

Then some of the enemies are truly infuriating like those souped up Flintstone flyers - fuck the double team in the Deep Docks gauntlet in particular - but the Clockwork Dancer boss is just absolute peak.