Japanese aesthetics have been an interest of mine. I decided to see how Google Gemini would handle generating historical Japanese scenes.
The Gemini Prompt:
Generate image of a Japanese princess in her room with her brother at the same time in the 1810s.
Marathon, Bungie’s new Extraction shooter was released today and one thing that I found really interesting was the artistic style of the game.
The original game, which was released in the 1990s was made in a style about the internet before the internet ossified into websites. Cyberspace was seen as a place not as infrastructure. That shows up in how the game appears. The neon lights and high contrast colors are divisive but to be honest, I rather this game have this style than having the earthy style that almost every high budget game seems to have in this age.
Marathon has been struggling with some players, who just see as more content than a creative vision being brought to life in our stale age. People have a right to be cynical here. However, I think that this game is better than all those independent games which are just copying those 16-bit games.
I think that games with a unique visual style is what we need more of in this age.
Growing up with Web 1.0, I think that that era gets unwisely maligned by people now. There was a lot more experimentation in that age and some styles would work and others would not. I think we need to be more charitable. The internet was seen as a place not entirely yet as a place dominated by money. We need to remember that mentality and I think we should try to recapture some of it here.
Marathon is a niche game, and I think Bungie was right to put the price at $39.99. This is the right price for a game which will be getting more content in more seasons. In comparison to Battlefield 6, they need to make sure that the player’s choices actually have an impact on the game and they respect the player base.
Too many games have been issues recently and it would nice to see AAA game have some success here.
Amazon currently has Rufus integrated into its interface. This chatbot has been very useful for me when using the website to shop clothes and jewelry in particular.
However, when it comes to Steam, there is still no Chatbot guiding prospective purchasers. I think there is an important reason why there should a Steam Chatbot. There are simply too many games on the platform now and we need a better way to find games on there, so the best games get more attention by gamers across the globe.
Amazon is a jungle and so is Steam. However, one has a navigator while the other is simply an unknown wilderness where you trust your gut that you are actually going to get an interesting game.
Ever since that Steam allowed for so many developers to use Steam as a place to self-publish their games, the place is full of hobby games. While these games may have merit, there is sometimes a need to have a budget which can full realize a game.
The current means of searching through games is not sufficient here.
We need a better way to get games on Steam and that means a Chatbot would be a great way to get through the many games that are now uploaded onto the platform now.
Imagine if you were able to type in your favorite genres and be able to get that information in a more concise way instead of going through Steam’s clunky interface here. The scrolling gets tiresome and we need a change here
An important aspect of this Chatbot would be an ability to compare games easily here. Instead of having to go through multiple tabs, you will be able to compare games within the chatbot window, allowing for players to focus on getting the games they want to purchase.
I think that Steam has been a great place for many independent makers of games. However, we need have a better way to search for such titles.
My Game Reviews 