I don’t think so. I struggle to think of any devs other than id, valve, respawn or DICE/Embark that can make FPSs as solid and complete as CoD.

and even when it’s bad, it’s still better than 95% of what the rest of the market can put out

i do think the franchise is on borrowed time though

single player games? yeah, especially if I’ve already beaten the game

other times I’m just skipping tedious grinding

definitely never in mp games

I don’t mind size so long as there’s meaningful activity.

For example, Just Cause 2 is huge with a massive variety of biomes but I enjoy hijacking military jets and blowing shit up on repeat and general traversal.

Infamous 2 and Second Son have very neat and small maps that are action packed and fun to traverse.

But then other open world games just bore me.

In Uncharted 4 there’s an achievement called “Ludonarrative Dissonance” which is awarded after killing a number of enemies lol.

Ocarina of Time Master Quest on PSVita Death Stranding 1 on PC Valorant BF6 beta but admittedly I don’t like the game anymore sadly :(

Oh man, you’re in for a treat! it’s one of my favourites for sure

Not the same but is certainly valid as a way to enjoy the game.

I watch loads of Mario Maker 2 stuff but have never touched the game since I don’t have a Switch

Yeah, honestly, what was wrong with games releasing Demos?

I think a lot of games would do well if they also bundled limited demos of other games with them too like back in the old days.

Until it gets a robust single player I’m not bothering with it, which is unfortunate

Haha that’s the kind of thing I love!! the developers that stopped water being a limitation and turned it into some kind of feature

For example, in the infamous games, you’re an electric man so waist high water kills you, and shallower water conducts your electricity. If an enemy also stands in that water, it’s an instant kill on them

Made up instantly for the fact you couldn’t swim lol.

Watched a guy playing it on a Steam Deck on the train: caught my interest. Would play if I had a Steam Deck. Might see if I can play it on an RP5 running Linux

Devil May Cry is all about the player expression. I would argue that the series has the best controls for doing so of all the character action games and has provided solid control schemes for different playstyles.

Even Royal Guard is fantastic: high risk reward that more than just another parry; it is a conscious choice between high risk, high potential gameplay.

I also think unless you aim to play DMC without engaging Son of Sparda and Dante Must Die, you’re really short-changing yourself in terms of what these games can really be

Are they perfect? No but they’re damn solid games that really do reward players that take the time to reach those higher skill levels while being perfectly beatable for the average pleb.

Something that can play PS2/GameCube games effortlessly

Maybe even a bit of PS3!

I know but I don’t want to use my phone as a gaming device. The retroid pocket 5 could be the one for me

Yeah, I’m taking a look at the RP5 it looks quite good. I wish its GameCube Performance was better but this might be the one for me :D

If it can also play Steam games/x86 games, that would also be cracked

Curious! Might pick one up, see what I can make for it :D

EDIT: On review, I already have a PS Vita that does all of these fairly effortlessly and in a smaller frame with more games.

Really looking forward to the day we can do PS2/GameCube in a PS Vita form factor

If anything, it makes me wonder why we don’t have more small dedicated handheld gaming devices that aren’t phones or pseudocomputers and don’t cost a bomb.

Like a £220 PSP/GBA/DS-like device with decent first-party support would be really nice for me imo

Chrono Trigger had me looking up guides as several points just to find a way to progress.

As someone who used the learning edition of endorphin to make wrestling videos, I would’ve loved to use Euphoria. Alas, I was merely 13 when they shut down Endorphin