the witcher thing was actually way funnier -- CDPR originally offered a cut deal, but the author asked for a lump sum instead because he thought the games would flop. then the games were super successful and suddenly the author wants a deal for a cut now

afaik they can't even legally do anything about hacks really (won't stop them from filing DMCAs that people don't have the resources to contest though) since romhacks don't actually redistribute the games themselves. it's fangames they go after

on SOTN??? FUCKING SOTN??? someone went all the way out of their way to find a way to do this on a ps1 emulator???

so the discourse came off less stupid than it usually does, because for once the game they're talking about wasn't just "the same thing, but by an American".

but if you peel back the curtain UT does not care about being an rpg at all. this means that it can genuinely be appealing to people who don't like rpgs because it really isn't one. (it's also like a 5 hour game instead of a 30 hour game)

part of this is probably bc UT really only uses being an rpg as framing? it is the least rpg-y rpg I have ever played. it is doing its own thing entirely and making it look like an rpg for the purpose of storytelling and homage

really this is because AA died at some point and the term died with it

to be fair, mega man and bass exists

it's even better when they do it in Sekiro where Wolf's moveset outright has almost no options for fighting two guys at once and it forces you to either find a way to start the encounter with only one guy, play hit n run, or find a way to quick kill one of the guys and make it a 1v1

you could absolutely recreate it as a postprocessing effect, with enough control over the graphics pipeline

the exception being stuff like DMC3 and all its carefully composed fixed-camera shots of course

Ehhh, I don't think this is anywhere near as pronounced after the first gen of 3D consoles? Gamecube and PS2 games tend to look just fine with a higher internal res than native

thankfully metroidvanias with sprawling interconnected maps have been alive and well in indie games for a while now

retroarch is the actual worst

this is like. the least restrictive idea I could come up with really. but exiting The Game and entering The Store should be a conscious process that requires opening a web browser or external program manually